- Response to Latest Reviews -

Melanie-Anne: Curiouser and Curiouser...heehee. Thanks for all the reviews. You'll just have to read this next chapter to find out what happens. :)

Freitazal: Yay! Thanks for the compliment. What's up with Alora, you ask? You'll just have to read on and find out for yoursefl!

Chapter 7

Jamison walked back into his office after Alora left. She seemed to be back to her old demanding self again. He had been worried for a while that she was going to get soft again, but this recent conversation had pushed that doubt out of his mind.

Jamison tossed the pile of papers onto his desk and walked into the next room. "Derek, where's Allison?"

Derek looked up from what he was doing and motioned to the opposite end of the crowded room where Allison was sitting at a computer typing rapidly.

"What can I do for you, Jamison?" Allison swiveled to face him as he approached.

Jamison spoke seriously. "When's our next planned attack?"

Allison pulled something up on the computer and quickly skimmed through it. "Six O'clock this evening."

He nodded. "Good. And that's at-?"

"Just a large office building, Sir." Allison clicked the mouse a couple of times before returning her attention to Jamison. "I wish we could hit something more important, but security's too tight right now."

"Yeah, we'd better not risk something too big just yet." Jamison pulled on his coat, getting ready to go out for some lunch. "Who's handling this attack?" He crossed his fingers, hoping that it wasn't Derek - Alora would kill him if it was.

"I am, Sir." She looked at her watch. "I'll take the bomb in at 5:39p.m. and leave it in the bathroom. I'll set it to go off half an hour later, then clear out." She leaned back in her chair, proud of the research she had done. "It should work without flaw, the building doesn't have much security."

"Good." Jamison paused before adding one last statement. "And don't blow yourself up! We're too low on staff to start using suicide bombers."

Allison laughed softly at this statement as she turned back to her computer. Right now she was hacked into the office building's security cameras, trying to find the quickest and least traveled route to the place where she would leave the bomb.

Jamison walked out of the office area and headed toward the building's exit. He was glad that Allison was handling this attack. She was one of the best at getting into places unnoticed, besides himself and Alora, and when you were in the terrorist business, you could only afford the best.

Later that evening, Allison was walking casually into a fancy office building. Her large purse was clutched tightly to one side and a large, black briefcase to the other. The heels of her navy, blue shoes clicked on the linoleum flooring as she walked down the mostly empty hallway.

She brushed her red hair over her shoulder and straightened her blue blazer as she moved through a crowd of people. A professional look was plastered onto her face with the ease of someone that had been faking identities for a long time.

"Hey. Are you new around here? I don't remember seeing you before." Allison's heart skipped a beat as she turned to see where the voice had come from. There was a man with dark blonde hair smiling at her from the doorway of one of the many room that lined the hallway.

Allison nodded and smiled. "Yes, today's my first day here. I'm interviewing for a new position." She realized that her knuckles had turned white because of how hard she was gripping her breifcase, and apparently the man had noticed too because he was giving her a questioning glance. Allison held up her hands and laughed, "Nerves! Always when you don't want them." She returned her hand to her purse and turned away from the male as he nodded with a laugh as well.

She let out an irritated sigh and shook her head as she continued down the hall. The security cameras had been right…these next set of hallways were practically deserted. And there was the bathroom! Allison smirked as she swung the door open and to her benefit, found the restroom empty. She quickly picked the lock to the paper towel dispenser and dropped the bomb inside. Luckily it was just small enough to fit inside the mechanism, so she didn't have to worry about finding another place to put it. She supposed she could have put it in the garbage can simply enough, but she didn't want to risk it being found.

She flipped open the briefcase on the bathroom counter and slid her laptop out. She quickly pulled up the security camera that was viewing the outside hallway. Good. It was empty. She made sure that it was so that no one would see her exiting the bathroom and be able to tie the bombing to her. Jamison had been right in assigning her to this kind of work…she was good at it…and she knew it.

Now she had a half-hour to get herself out. This would be the easy part. She exited the building the way she had come, luckily not running into the talkative man. He won't be so talkative at 6:00 tonight. She nearly laughed aloud at the thought. Once she was inside her red car, she finally allowed a complete smile to form on her face. Jamison would be proud of her. Alora would too…she was sure of it.

-

It was nearly 6:03 when Frankie got the call. Colonel Atkins told her that there had been a bombing on the other side of town in an office building and he wanted her to go with the rest of the Threat Matrix team to check it out. The police were already on the scene, trying to get the survivors out of the building.

Frankie immediately obeyed and left the hospital in a rush. When she arrived on the scene, dust and smoke had caused the air to become hazy. She slid out of her car and realized that she was the last of the team to arrive. The others were already busying themselves with helping victims and taking to the police, trying to figure out what had happened.

Frankie approached Lark who was the nearest person to her. "What happened here?"

Lark shook her head with a frown. "We know there was a bomb, and that's about it. We don't yet know where in the building it went off or by whom it was set." She brushed some ash from her face and whipped it on her coat.

Frankie nodded, understanding Lark's frustration. She rushed up to a man who was clutching his arm tightly. When she reached him, she found a large burn all along his left arm. "Hold on, I'll be right back." She got into one of the police's first aid kits and pulled out a roll of gauze. She came back to the man with dark, blonde hair and cut off his sleeve before wrapping the white bandage around the burn. Just as she had finished she heard the wail of the ambulance sirens as four of the large vehicles pulled into the parking lot.

News crews and passersby were beginning to gather around the rubble so the police had to set up a fence of caution tape all around the perimeter of the building to hold them back.

Frankie's head was spinning as she watched everything take place…how could they let this happen? But then again, how could they have known?