CHAPTER 1

July 19th 2013. Location: *unknown*

A dark concrete hallway, far underground. Three men in security uniforms stood in front of a small, thin old man with glasses. The balding old man massaged his temple with two fingers, clearly distraught.

"What do you mean he escaped!?" the old man shrieked.

The middle security guard, the youngest of the three, was trembling slightly.

"I'm so sorry sir" the trembling guard replied.

The old man took his hand away from his temple. He liked being theatrical and his movement was a large part of that.

"And only the one escaped?" the old man turned away as he spoke.

"Yes, yes! Just the one" the guard nodded excitedly, hoping to quickly be forgiven.

"Good" came his superior's reply.

The old man smiled and turned back to face his security guards but that smile quickly disappeared and was replaced with a menacing grimace.

"Take him away."

The old man waved his hand and almost instantly, the other two security guards grabbed their younger colleague by his arms. The young guard looked desperately at both of his colleagues. He stamped his feet on the ground but couldn't stop them as they started to drag him down the gloomy hallway.

"No. Please. Wait" the guard screamed to his boss as he was dragged away.

"Put him in one of the cells" the old man said as he ignored the cries of his failed guard "I have the perfect idea of how I'll use him."

The old man turned again and began to walk down the corridor, in the opposite way from the guards.

"I just need a few parts" he called for the guards to hear, his eerie line echoing off the walls.

'The Hub', location: *classified*

Agent Victoria Hand, the head of the facility, stood in the operations control room. Victoria spent most of her time in this room, overseeing all ongoing missions. In adjacent rooms, groups of analysts ran technical support for each mission and all information was relayed into the control room so that Victoria could keep an eye on things. She checked the time on her watch and got up from her seat. Victoria entered one of the adjacent rooms where two agents sat at individual workstations. They chatted to each other, unaware of Victoria entering the room

"Okay, mission goes live in 3 minutes so I'll quickly recap the stats" Victoria began.

Both analysts straightened up and focused on Agent Hand as she made her way to the front of the room.

"Agent Garrett's team is going in to an office in San Diego which is apparently under attack from a griffin. The team have been sent to investigate and, if necessary, apprehend. So, if you will all get ready, we will begin shortly."

Just as she finished, Cameron Klein, the third analyst for the mission slipped into the room carrying the coffee that had made him late. He looked sheepishly at Agent Hand as he nervously ran his hand through his curly brown hair. Agent Hand glowered at him, she was clearly unimpressed. Cameron slid into his seat as he heard some quiet tutting from his colleague behind him, Agent Hand was not someone to be late for.

Location: San Diego suburbs

Garrett's team were gearing up in their 'Bloomin' Lovely' flower shop van, parked one block north of the office in question. They all sat in the back so that no-one outside would see as they prepared their array of weapons.

"The office is one block south of here. Let's start with the newbie - Triplett, you take the sniper and set up on the golf course to the south east of the building. Parish and Scott, will enter the office through the west entrance while Monroe and I head in from the north."

The team were just about ready to go, they just needed the go ahead from the Hub and the mission could begin. Parish was wiping down her handgun while Scott triple checked that her medical kit wasn't missing anything. Dan meditated quietly. They all had their own pre-mission rituals. Garrett looked on as he analysed his team, that was his ritual.

Then, Victoria's voice came through the comms.

"Okay Garrett, comms are live. Everyone here is ready to go"

Garrett pulled the van door open and the agents flooded out onto the street. The mission had begun.

Agent Antoine Triplett lined up his sniper rifle in one of the bushes on the golf course. He had been involved with plenty of missions with his former team but this was his first working under Garrett. He had replaced the infamous Agent Grant Ward who was Garrett's own protégé so there was a lot of pressure on Triplett to do well. Trip was put at ease by his partnering with Agent Dan Monroe, an old friend of Triplett's. They had risen through the academy side by side but were sent onto different teams, until the opportunity came along for Triplett to re-join Monroe on Garrett's team. They were so close that Triplett was even godfather to Dan's new baby girl. He was always gushing about her and deeply missed his wife and baby whenever he was away.

Triplett checked through the scope to confirm that he had a good view of the southern and eastern sides of the office. It was his job to take this thing out if things went wrong. The team were really counting on their new colleague.

"We just spoke with some of the employees outside the front door, apparently there are only two people unaccounted for" Scott advised.

"I'm in position Garrett" stated Triplett.

"Okay guys, breach on my count. Remember, there may be civilians inside" came Garrett's response.

The rest of the team had already got into position before Triplett.

"3, 2, 1" Garrett counted down.

On 1, Garrett and Monroe burst through the door on the northern side of the building. They emerged into a narrow corridor. The baby blue walls gave off a soothing feeling, you'd never think this dull office would fall under attack. They suddenly heard the shriek of a terrified civilian and the pair were quickly back to back with their guns pointed down both directions of the corridor.

"Sorry guys. That was on our end" Scott explained "Parish was pointing her gun at the receptionist."

"I didn't know it was the receptionist, I just heard movement behind the desk!" Parish snapped in her posh English accent.

"But it's the reception…" Scott retorted.

"Can we stop startling civilians and get back to the mission?" Garrett asked authoritatively.

Garrett and Monroe emerged from the long corridor, into the main office with guns drawn, the place was a maze of cubicles – this supposed attacker could be hiding anywhere. If there even was an attacker.

Garrett motioned to Monroe, "you take the left and I'll go down the right."

Triplett watched through his scope as Garrett slowly crept down the inner aisle and Monroe did the same down the other. He watched their backs as they advanced down the aisles, more so Monroe's than Garrett's since he was out of his view half of the time.

"Help" came a quiet cry near Garrett.

The analysts in the Hub watched as Garrett moved towards the older man waving at him down the aisle.

"Careful Garrett" Victoria warned, this could be a trap.

"Scott, we have an injured civilian in the inner aisle. His shirt is torn and bloodstained, approaching now."

Triplett spotted a sudden blur, like something bounding rapidly towards Garrett from behind.

"Garrett, behind you!" Triplett called out over the comms.

It was too late though as Garrett was knocked to the ground and out of Triplett's view.