The rain poured down on the dimly illuminated streets. The roads were mostly empty except for the rare occasional car. A lockdown was in place, the threat of alien abductions lingered and the night discouraged all excursions. It was the perfect setup for a covert operation.
An unsuspecting black car roamed the empty streets as the droplets of rain glanced off of it. The windows were tinted grey so it was almost impossible to see inside. It was almost as hard to see out since the wet glass distorted the view of the outside. The street lights could not help uncover the men who lurked after the moon was at its peak.
"Inspector, why are we doing this at night?" Agent Kavan Gunn asked.
"No particular reason. Somehow the dark just feels natural for us," Inspector Taryn Dawson replied at the wheel.
"Yeah, but it makes us look very suspicious," Agent Kamron Snider commented.
"I guess we should take off our masks before entering the house or the four of us will look like burglars," Agent Julian Wilkinson proposed.
Everyone agreed silently.
"So, this is the first time we participate in a mission together," Wilkinson remarked. "Under the guise of Reclamation. Why aren't we operating under XCOM, though? We're not Reclamation."
Kamron Snider exhaled loudly and sunk deep into his seat.
"Politics," Snider answered. "The United-States rejects XCOM's findings. There was a supposed assassination attempt on a UN representative named Peter Van Doorn. XCOM forces safely extracted him out. High-tech nets were also found in the area. Not, only that but that are signs that Thin Men were inside of them after a deep analysis. We were there weeks ago, remember? Now, we've got some guy who's stirring shit with XCOM."
"Yeah. I'm guessing the U.S. won't be happy when they find out XCOM is actively, well . . . spying on them," Agent Gunn reacted. "Using XCOM's name will only send alerts everywhere whereas adding Reclamation to the title will give us more flexibility. America can't argue against international conventions, at least not when it's not the one with all the power."
Inspector Dawson perked up as he looked around for any signs leading to the suburban area. A "welcome" sign confirmed the path that the GPS displayed.
"Okay! We're here to question a certain Elizabeth Mitchel, wife of former Navy Seals Frank Fischer. Main guys have interrogated him using some mind-probing. Turns out the guy didn't know much about his own circumstances, neither did the goons. And, that's why we'll have to dig and fill in the blanks," Inspector Dawson debriefed.
The car slowed down as it reached the suburbs. After a few turns and narrow roads, the car came to a stop. Inspector Dawson parked the car in front of the marker on the GPS. Since every house had a garage, the roads were mostly empty and open for any drivers wanting to park.
"So this is it?" Wilkinson asked, getting an affirmative nod from his superior.
"The car is bulletproof so make sure to run back in case anything happens," Dawson said, fiddling with the shifting gear. "Director, this is Phoenix-1. We've arrived at the residence."
"Affirmative. Proceed," Director said through the earpiece.
"Shall we bring our weapons and gear?" Gunn asked.
Inspector Dawson loaded his pistol, suggesting that everyone do the same.
"I doubt we'll be shot in a place like this. Then again, we live in a very interesting time," Snider remarked.
Four men in black trench coats popped out of the car. They scanned their surroundings before approaching the pavement that led to the house. They took every step with caution in case there was an ambush. The squad realised that they looked suspicious with the pace they were walking at, like burglars careful not to trip an alarm. The agents sped up as they became self-aware of their appearance and took the risk. The walk to the door ended up uneventful.
Before ringing the doorbell, Dawson made another scan of his surroundings. Everyone was hidden inside spaced houses. The only indication that the place was populated was by the interior lights glowing out of each house. Faint flashes could be seen from the curtained windows; people were watching television.
"Director, requesting a lifeform scan," Dawson said through his wrist communication device disguised as a watch.
"I'll send the request to XCOM HQ," Director replied, almost tripping on his words.
Inspector Dawson remembered that the "Director" was not actually a Director from a country's XCOM Reclamation branch. An Officer from XCOM took on the codename of Director to fool anyone who could have hacked into the covert operators' communications. It was necessary to conceal XCOM's direct involvement in the operation.
Everyone took off their face masks as Dawson proceeded to ring the doorbell. A few seconds passed. A silhouette could be seen approaching from the foggy window. With a few clicks, the door opened barely a quarter of the way, revealing a woman. She took cover behind the door, only sticking her head out.
"Good afternoon, ma'am. Are you Elizabeth Mitchel?" the Inspector asked.
"Yes . . . and who are you?" she replied cautiously.
"I'm an Inspector from the XCOM Reclamation Bureau."
Elizabeth lowered her gaze upon hearing XCOM. Despite what it reminded her of, she opened the door fully and stopped hiding behind it.
"Please, come in," she said with unease in her voice.
She stepped to the side to let the four Reclamation agents in. Everyone took off their shoes and waited for further instructions.
"Oh, you can hang your coats over there. If you need a seat feel free to use the living room."
Elizabeth got more nervous by the second. The agents took off their coats, revealing their bulletproof vests and weapon holsters. Every agent was armed with a baton, taser and pistol. She ignored the presence of weapons and proceeded to sit on a single couch. Inspector Dawson sat in front of her and put on his smart glasses.
"Do you know why we're here?" he asked.
"It's about my husband, isn't it?" she replied in a quiet tone.
"Yes. We're gonna have to ask you some questions and do a thorough search of your property."
"Do what you have to do, Inspector. I'm quite shocked myself. I don't know why he would become an international criminal," Elizabeth replied while looking at the other agents searching the living room.
"First of all, how many people are in this house?"
"Two. Me and my son."
"And how old is he?"
"Seventeen."
"I see. Is there anyone who usually comes to your house except for you, your son and your late husband? Any plumbers, technicians, maybe neighbours? Your son could have a friend over or a lover, maybe secretly. Or, maybe someone who has access to your house, that you gave the keys to?"
"No, it's just us. I don't think my son would pull off such a stunt, though. He doesn't have anyone over. I checked on him about ten minutes ago," Elizabeth answered, confused at the line of questioning.
Dawson stared down at the floor before asking the next question.
"Have you noticed anything strange about your husband before he left the house? Has anything happened, like a phone call or a meeting with some person?"
"I don't remember anything suspicious. I mean he received a phone call from his superiors saying he was to be deployed. He didn't know much about the details. Before he left, there was this man we never saw before who wanted to meet Frank. Frank said that he was from the Army, but after talking to him, he looked kind of troubled. My husband was out of service so it was weird that they would call him to come back."
"Do you have any records of this person he talked to?"
"The one who came to our house? I don't know who he is. We have a home security camera. Maybe, you could see him by rewinding it."
"So, Frank Fischer said he was being deployed. He didn't say anything about leading an armed group of smugglers?"
"No. He said he was just . . . asked to come back. He was Navy Seals," she replied.
"We know. Can you show us the camera footage you mentioned? My team is currently searching for Fischer's phone. We have tracked it to this house."
"So, he left his phone behind," Elizabeth murmured.
She fetched her laptop to access the security camera footage while the agents were searching every room, using a signal detector. They moved furniture to let the scanner detect any hidden devices. It detected the occasional household items; radios, laptop, routers, but no signs of Fischer's phone. They put back the furniture and proceeded to the next room. Nothing was found in the kitchen.
After half an hour, the first floor was devoid of Fischer's phone. Dawson stayed in the living room to review the camera footage. The team went up the carpet-covered stairs to the second floor. Snider, Gunn and Wilkinson searched the guestroom, but nothing popped up except for the alarm clock. They looked through the bedrooms. The drawers were clear, the bed had nothing hidden inside and the closets were only filled with hangers.
"Nothing so far," Snider reported. "But hey, this house is really well decorated. It's very homey."
"Well then, I guess we're gonna have to enter the young man's room," Wilkinson said.
The three went to the hall and gathered around the unopened door with a masculine voice talking behind it. The teenage son was playing video games inside of his room. No one else was in the room so he was probably talking online. Snider put his smart glasses on to analyse the interior of the bedroom. Nobody else inside since there was only one orange marker. He took a breath before knocking loudly on the door. The young adult was startled by how loud it was. He knew that his mother would not knock that loud. He muttered curiously to himself, remembering the commotion he dismissed from the outside.
"Yes, mom?" he said while opening the door. He had a very surprised and nervous look on his face when he noticed the agents.
"XCOM Reclamation Bureau. We're leading an investigation on Frank Fischer. You must be the son," Snider said.
"Uh . . . yes," he nervously replied.
"Take a seat. We would like to ask some questions. We also need you to unplug and turn off all of your devices."
Jayden Fischer spent the next minutes digging through many cables to unplug all of his electronics. He sat back down on his computer chair to answer Snider's questions while the other two agents scanned the room using their detectors.
"Have you noticed anything suspicious before your father left?" Snider asked.
"No, sir."
"Has he received some suspicious phone call or talked to some odd person."
"I don't know, sir."
"Did your father say anything about what he was going to do before he left?"
"No, he didn't, but . . . when he was away, he called me. He told me to destroy his phone."
Snider gave a puzzled look at the revelation.
"Did you do it?"
"No, sir. I still have it. I just kept in a box. Do you want it?"
"Yes. It's what we're after."
Gunn and Wilkinson took a break since the boy was doing their job for them. He opened up one of his drawers and took out a wooden box. Inside of it was a bunch of valued personal items and a phone tucked amongst them. Snider reached his hand out to take the phone. The young adult took it out and handed it over. Snider put it inside of a sealed plastic bag and signalled his comrades that the search was concluded. They put back all the furniture they moved and plugged the cables back where they were. Snider rushed downstairs followed by the others and the boy.
"Jayden! These men are investigating your father," Elizabeth said, noticing her son coming down the stairs.
"Yeah, I know. They asked me some questions," Jayden replied.
"Inspector, we found it!" Wilkinson announced.
Snider handed the phone over to Dawson. He tucked it inside a compartment in his belt.
"Ma'am, there is one last thing we need to do. We need to search your basement," Dawson informed.
"Oh, ok. Let's go then," Elizabeth replied.
"No! My men and I will do it," Dawson firmly said.
The lifeform scan indicated that three people were in the house despite Elizabeth Mitchel saying there were only two. Someone was on the premises without her knowledge. That also meant that someone was either aware of XCOM's presence or both parties simply butted into each other out of pure luck.
Dawson drew his stun gun and went in front of the basement door as his men lined up behind him. Everyone primed their stun weapons and waited for the signal.
"What's happening?" a concerned Elizabeth asked.
"Someone's in your basement ever since we arrived here. We're arresting him."
"Oh, that's messed up!" Jayden commented.
Dawson pulled the door open and rushed down the steps. The sudden thud of his footsteps startled the intruder. With a swing of his body, he turned to face a surprised man. The man pulled out his hidden stun gun and shot at Dawson's chest, but his bulletproof vest insulated the shock. Dawson fired his taser to full effect. The man dropped to the floor after the direct hit. Wilkinson and Snider rushed to apprehend the target. They cuffed his hands and dragged him towards the stairs. He tried to wiggle his way out their grip, but they managed to get hold of him. They carried him upstairs to the main hallway.
Elizabeth and Jayden hid behind the staircase railing as the intruder was brought up for questioning. Snider pushed him to his knees and drew his stun gun in case he tried to flee. Dawson activated his fake watch's scanner to get a biometric scan of the individual. It was the same person that was captured by the household security camera.
"Director, send the scan to 'Cicada'. I want this man's identity!" Dawson ordered through his earpiece.
"All right. Patching you through," he replied.
A few minutes passed as Cicada, the analyst, tried identifying the man.
"All right, Pheonix-1. Our man here is Jay Pittman, a U.S. Army intelligence."
"Copy that, Director," Dawson replied.
"You won't get anything out of me!" Jay declared.
"Yeah? We'll see about that," Snider reacted.
Jay gave a mumbled laugh and slowly slanted to the side until he eventually fell to the ground.
"Um . . . Inspector?" Wilkinson said.
"Look for a pulse!" Dawson yelled.
Gunn crouched down to Jay and planted his fingers on the side of his neck. He searched around and tried listening to his lungs.
"Inspector, he's dead."
Gunn searched his body again until he rolled up the right sleeve of his shirt. Jay had a watch with a needle sticking deep into his wrist.
"Lethal injection," Gunn said.
"Dammit!" Dawson exclaimed.
"Inspector! Look what's in his pocket," Snider said pointing at a card sticking out of Jay's right pant pocket.
Gunn pulled the card out and handed it to Dawson. Dawson placed it on a nearby table and took out the phone stored in his belt compartment. He took it out of its plastic container and popped the phone case off. Another card fell from the phone.
"So, we found a link," Dawson said.
"I haven't thought of that," Snider reacted.
"The phone case is cracked. The interior was white yet the phone is black. Small details are sometimes important," Inspector Dawson explained.
He examined both of the cards next to each other. They were both white and had a golden symbol in them. It was a hexagon that had a "horizon" with half of an eye over it. The bottom part of the hexagon had a star in it. The word "EXALT" was written all in capital letters in golden yellow. There was nothing else on the card. It was not a business card nor an ID card.
"Ma'am, son, do you know what this is?" Dawson asked the bystanders.
"No," they both replied.
"Looks quite ominous to me," Wilkinson said. "What does 'EXALT' mean? Does not look like some regular old card."
"Is it an acronym? Something about holding in a high position?" Snider asked. "Either way, it's clear that we weren't supposed to discover this."
"You're right about that. Let's get all of these to Cicada," Dawson suggested. "He'll know what to do. We just have to clean up the body for these folks."
The agents put the body in a body bag from their car's trunk and brought all objects of interest with them. After thanking the family, Dawson went to the driver's seat and stepped on the pedal. The agents examined their surroundings while their leader slowly made a turn. No gunshots. There was no ambush
After driving back on familiar roads, the squad reached the highway. Everyone looked up whatever they could on "EXALT". Since it was a popular name, it was hard to isolate relevant information. There were many organisations with the same name but it did not show any ties to a shady organisation. The team had the rest of the night to head for their temporary base of operations and uncover the meaning behind the mysterious "EXALT".