Chapter 12: Good News and Bad News

Chase slowly closed the door so as to not make a sound. Once he heard the soft click of the door shutting, he turned around and scanned the room. This seemed to be the target's office. Unfortunately no one was here, at least not yet. He began walking around the room, exploring the office. He walked over to the desk and noticed the vast amounts of scattered papers, however nothing of value. Chase began to investigate something else until a light buzzing sound grabbed his attention. He swung his head back over to the desk. There it was again, another buzz. Chase walked around to the other side of the desk and opened one of the drawers and found the source of the buzzing, a cell phone.

"What do we have here?" Chase mumbled to himself picking up the phone. The screen displayed multiple texts and notifications. "Could be useful later," he thought, picking up the phone and stuffing it into his pack. Before he could continue searching the room, two voices approached the office door.

"Don't talk about that shit in the open. From what I've heard those guys can be anywhere. Come into my office and we can talk"

Chase quickly scanned the room looking for anywhere to hide. He spotted a closet on the far end of the office, "That'll have to do" he thought, running over and jumping inside of it. He left it open just enough for him to see the room.

Two dogs walked in. One was a bulldog a bit larger and bulkier than Rubble, and the other was a rottweiler a bit bigger than Chase. That must be the target.

"I don't trust anyone in this building. For all I know any one of them could be an agent. Now, what did you have to tell me?" The Rottweiler asked, sitting down behind the desk.

"Well we-"

"Hold on a second '' said the Rottweiler standing up and smelling the air, "Do you smell that?" he said getting up and walking around.

"Smell what boss?" asked the bulldog tilting his head.

"Someone else is here" he said turning his head to the closet, "And I can smell them"

Chase's eyes went wide in fear. "Oh shit! No, please don't come this way!" he thought as he watched the rottweiler.

He began slowly walking over to the closet.

Chase started to sweat getting ready to jump out and strike first if need be.

Blackjack was a foot away from the closet, staring through the crack.

Chase was looking him straight in the eyes.

Blackjack lifted his paw up reaching for the knob until-

"Oh boss, you must be smelling the janitor. He came in here to clean your office earlier"

Blackjack shifted his gaze over to the bulldog and growled.

"How many times have I told you, no one is allowed in here without my supervision" he said walking back over to his desk. Chase let out a sigh of relief and continued watching the two.

"Anyway, I was going to tell you that I just got word from our team. They said they dealt with that little syndicate or whatever the hell they were called. They managed to take most of them out, more importantly their leader, and scatter the rest. Safe to say they won't be a problem anymore, especially with no one in charge"

"Good. Now that they're out of the picture, I got word from the higher ups. There's another group of'em in Adventure Bay that have been taking out some valuable assets. They want them gone. Get the same team and get it done"

"You got it boss. I'll get right on it. Oh before I leave however, the team reported that they had a hit list in their little hideout, you were on it"

"So what? They're done and from the looks of it, the ones in Adventure Bay now got a bigger problem on their hands"

"If you say so" said the bulldog leaving. The Rottweiler however still sat in the chair looking at some papers on the desk. This was Chase's chance. If there was a time to strike, it was now. Chase knocked on the closet door.

"What the hell was that?" Blackjack said as he walked over to the source of the noise.

Chase got even more anxious with every step the dog took until he was right outside the closet. He opened the door, but before he could react Chase stuck him with the blade and covered his mouth with his paw. After a few seconds Blackjack closed his eyes and fell to the floor limp. The target was dead. Chase immediately picked him up and put him in the closet shutting the door. He looked around and took a few more items of possible interest off the desk before getting to the door.

Everest sat outside, looking through the window, waiting for Chase. He had been in the office for a long time and two guys walked in. No alarms went off, no screaming or yelling, no commotion. Hopefully Chase did what he needed to do and would get out soon because every minute Everest was waiting, she was getting more anxious. One side of her mind thought "Maybe I should go in and get him" while the other side thought "No, he's fine. He'll be out soon". She noticed one of the dogs walk out. He didn't look concerned or anything, that was a good sign. She then saw him walk up to a group of three men who followed him out the door. When she saw that, her mind went to the worst place. Just when her anxiety peaked, she saw Chase stick his head out the door. She breathed a sigh of relief. He looked up to her, mentally asking for her help. She helped get him back without being noticed. Once he climbed through the window she walked over to him.

"Are you okay, what took so long?" she asked concerned for his well being.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry I took so long, I took out the target and grabbed any evidence I could. Plus I got this" Chase responded with an unenthusiastic tone holding up a phone. This put a smile on the husky's face.

"That's great!" she exclaimed, "How come you didn't sound excited? you did a good job"

"It's… Nevermind. I'll tell you back at the base"

"Uh...okay. Anyway, come on. We gotta get outta here before they start looking for him" Everest said referring to the target. She then led Chase off of the roof and back through the forest. While they were walking they heard an alarm go off back at the warehouse. Chase turned to Everest.

"I guess it was just a matter of time before they found him. Glad we got away quick"

"You can say that again. That's why we left as soon as you got out. Any later and we could've been spotted, and if we're spotted, no ones coming to help. Keep that in mind"

"Yeah… I will" said Chase, realizing the dark truth.

The two eventually made their way back to the hideout. Once inside Chase turned his collar back on.

"What are you doing!? We can't have Ryder or the pups coming here" Everest exclaimed.

"Don't worry, you heard what I told Ryder when he called me. In his eyes, I'm at a crime scene right now"

Everest was silent for a moment.

"Okay fine. Just make sure they don't come here" she said as Sean and the twins approached the two.

"How did it go?" Sean said getting right to the point.

"Well. I stayed back and spectated mostly. Chase found a way in and a way out without alerting anyone. At least until we were gone; and I assume he got the target" she said looking over at Chase.

"That assumption would be correct. I took him out and grabbed some things from his office" Chase said walking over to a table and placing the contents of his pack on it, "Just some paperwork on shipments and locations of other lower level groups"

"That's gre-"

"I'm not done" Chase interrupted with a solemn expression, "While I was inside I overheard Blackjack talking with who I'm assuming was one of his associates. He said they dispatched a team to 'deal with' another group in Foggy Bottom. I'm assuming they meant another group like us…"

"And? What about them?" Sean asked with a serious tone. The twins shot each other worried looks before looking back at Chase.

"He said the team succeeded in dealing with them. Apparently they're all either dead or in hiding" Everyone gasped.

"Chase, why didn't you tell me that before?" Everest asked with a shocked expression.

"I figured it would be better if I told everyone when we were here" Chase then turned back to Sean, "they said they dispatched that same team to take us out and if they managed to destroy the others in Foggy Bottom, then we're in some serious shit. Luckily I managed to grab this on my way out" Chase said, pulling out the phone.

"Is that Blackjack's phone?" Tuck asked.

"Yeah, I grabbed it from his desk. I figured if we can get in that phone, then we have a chance of defending ourselves against that team"

"That was good thinking on your part Chase" Sean said.

"Thanks. So what do we do now?" Chase asked as everyone looked at Sean.

"First off, we don't know who or where this team is. We also don't know if they know who we are. So every time we have a mission or anytime you're not here, be vigilant. Second, we need to get out to the Foggy Bottom hideout and see if we can find any signs of survivors as well as who we lost. Third, we need a way to get into that phone so if anyone has someone in mind who can bypass the lock on that phone, now would be a good time to bring them forward"

Everest looked over at Chase.

"Chase I know you didn't want to get any of the others involved, but I think we may need to"

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that we need Rocky. We can't just go back to him and ask him to open some random phone, that'll look pretty suspicious"

"I don't know. Like I said before I don't want any of them getting involved"

"And like I said, we can keep him here and away from combat. He could be a huge asset to us"

Chase dwelled on it for a moment. She had a point, keeping him away from combat could allow him to be a big help. However with this team looking for them, it may not be the best idea.

"Okay fine, but absolutely no danger can come his way, especially with people out looking for us"

"Deal" Everest looked over towards Sean, "Sean, Chase and I have someone in mind for the phone"

"That's great, who?"

"Another member from the Paw Patrol. His name is Rocky, he's a wiz with electronics and can easily bypass security on that phone. He can be a huge help for us"

"Alright, I'll send Tuck and Ella to bring him here. Now you two" he said looking at Chase and Everest, "Since you guys did so well on this mission, I got another one for you. Us three are heading to Foggy Bottom to find out what happened"

What's up everyone. First off, I want to say I'm sorry for leaving for a while. My only excuse is that I lost motivation for a bit. However I can say I'm back, at least until the school year starts. Probably expect the next chapter at the end of this week. Hope to see you all in the next one. Peace.