A/N: I am so sorry that it took me this long to get this chapter written and posted. I got really distracted as of late and I am hoping that my readers are still out there. Anyways, this chapter really doesn't focus on any of WITCH. I know, I know, get to the good parts, but I need filler information and back story put in place before I can do any of that P. Again, This story has nearly reached the 4k word mark as I wrote. There is a lot to get through and I bid thee luck. I attach my standard W.I.T.C.H.: Dead Memories disclaimer to this story. Read and review Por favor!
W.I.T.C.H.: Dead Memories
"Espionage and Diaries"
The echo of automatic gun fire echoed around the large room. At one end of the room there was 20 targets lined up; riddled with bullet holes, most of them through the head or heart. At the other end of the long room was a row of 20 kids holding everything from AK-47's to M-14's. They all were dressed in grey with safety goggles on and orange ear muffs to protect there ears. Behind the children a man paced up and down the line giving instructions to adjust the shots the children were taking.
One by one each clip was emptied and guns were set down with safeties on. The children came to a parade rest position and awaited their scores as a different man inspected the targets and marked them for score.
"Susie Bigham, Step forward!" A commanding voice rang out. A girl of about 8 years of age stepped forward coming to the position of attention with her hands at her sides curved into a slight fist, thumbs along the seams of her pants. Her heels touched with her toes pointing away from each other at a 45 Degree angle. Her eyes faced forward unmoving. The man with the commanding voice stepped in front of her and got in her face.
"Susie Bigham, How come your shots always stray off to the left, While all your classmates shots are on target?"
"No excuse sir," Was all she could reply, her lip trembling a bit. A strand of short blond hair fell in front of her crystal green eyes.
"Good, because the next time we are on the range, I better see perfect score head shots, do ya here?" The man yelled into her face. Susie was notorious among her class as one of the worst shots in the group. She was always off by 5 or 6 inches. Most of the trainers realized that Susie was only 8 years old (One of the youngest in the program) and trying to fire the guns was hard. But, they still pressed it into her to get better. Quite possibly she would eventually be the best shot in her class.
"Yes sir!" Was her quick loud reply, her self control of keeping her body from shaking nearly lost.
"Good, Return to your position. Jonathan Seymour, front and center!" The man with the commanding voice yelled.
A boy with short mousy straw colored hair and freckles stepped forward and came to attention. He was about 15 years of age and stood with confidence.
"Jonathan, You are the only one in your class to rival the skill of Will Vandom. For that you will be awarded an extra 15 minutes of rest while your class mates run the mile, again." The commanding voice said, admiration coloring his voice.
Even coming close to the skill of Will Vandom, one of Project Innocent Assassins best students was amazing. Will had shown a remarkable aptitude to the training she was given. She was top of her class, and was put into the field earlier than the other students.
To bad, The trainer thought, that Will Vandom must be eliminated. The trainer also knew that Jonathan Seymour in all actuality didn't compare to Will Vandom at all. He was the closet, but was far off from her skills. All the trainers also knew that a little positive reinforcement was needed to keep the children in their prime.
"Dismissed!" Was his last command as he watched the children all file out to the track yard where they would run the mile. He watched as even Jonathan followed them. He knows he is not even close to Will Vandom's skill and that we are bull shitting him. The trainer thought as another man came over and whispered in his ear.
"Sir, we have intercepted a communiqué between Detective Ethan Riley and Dr. Lipinski. You should here it sir, it is bad news." The man said before turning around and heading through another door into a long hallway.
Quite possibly Susan Vandom had survived the attack on her by the hired assassin and was going to make a complete recovery. He would then have to send in some kid to finish the job, and possibly find out where Will Vandom was. He quietly followed the man who had just left down the corridor. Before him lay a labyrinth of corridors indistinguishable from each other with the same dull grays of the cement and the grayish blue painted onto the doors. Not only was this to confuse invaders of the Hold out bunker, but it was the one of the first lessons that the children learned while here, how to navigate by memory and logic.
He made several right and left turns ending up at a steel gray door. Opening it he was greeted by a dark room that glowed with computer monitors and flashing lights of various pieces of electronic equipment. Sitting before one of the glowing monitors was one of the best men in the wire taping and espionage business, Ray Gallegos. He was of Latino heritage and had black hair with a reedy mustache
Ray had served with the CIA on several operations as well as work on some black budget government projects. He was rated as one of the best in his field because he was the best. He was the one who discovered communications between two terrorist cells that had tried to detonate a nuclear bomb in Washington D.C.
"Ray, what do you have for me?" The man with the commanding voice asked as he stepped forward into the room.
"I don't think you are going to like this George," Ray said not looking away from his monitor. "You know that last assignment for the red head? You know, to assassinate the senator?" he asked in perfect English. Ray knew over 5 languages and could speak 4 of them fluently with out a distinguishing accent.
"Yea? We even got a police report that he had died, Will completed the mission with a perfect score." George replied puzzled.
"Well, apparently it was a ruse. The senator is living George, and is recovering well it looks like. Take a listen…" Ray said holding a set of headphones up. George took the headphones and put them on. There were some voices speaking but were quickly cut off as Ray hit a few keys on his keyboard. Some new voices filled the head set, most notably a female voice.
Recorded Conversation # 7556-A, Detective Ethan Riley and Dr. Lipinski
The cool female voice faded to be replaced by a new voice.
"Hello, Dr, Lipinski? This is Detective Ethan Riley." A male voice said, apparently the detective's.
"Ah, yes, of course Detective. What can I do for?" another male voice replied. This one must be Dr. Lipinski. There was a short pause, then Detective Ethan replied.
"I am checking in on the status of Senator Jonathan Petersburg."
"Are you sure you wish to discuss this over this phone? It's not secure."
"Hmm, you're right Dr. Call me on your secure line." The Detective said hanging up.
End Recorded Conversation #7556-A, Detective Ethan Riley and Dr. Lipinski
Recorded Conversation #7556-B, Secure VOIP encryption type J9, Detective Ethan Riley and Dr. Lipinski
"Hello? Detective Ethan?" asked the Dr. as the line picked up.
"Yes, you are on a secure line?" The detective asked to be sure.
"Yes, what is it that you wanted to know about the Senator?"
"How is he doing? Is he going to make it?" Ethan asked.
"He is doing fine. He is on his way to a full recovery. Oh, I am to pass along a message to you from him, he wishes to see you as soon as you can."
"Alright, when will be a good time to come?"
"Perhaps your next visit to check up on Will and Susan Vandom?" The Dr. Suggested.
What? Will is in the hospital too? He thought confused.
"Okay, I can do that. How are both of them doing anyway?"
"I do not believe that Mrs. Vandom will recover from her injuries. The extent of the damage done to her brain was extensive. She may pull out of her comma only to be a vegetable, brain dead."
"I see, so no finding out any clues on whom her attacker was?"
"No, she will not remember anything from when she was attacked or from earlier that day if she does recover. The damage to her brain was to great."
Good, that is some good news at least. No worrying about the screw up. George thought.
"Hmm, A pity, what about her daughter? The red head?" The detective continued.
"Other than a massive stroke in which she shouldn't of survived, and the fact of realizing her mother was severely injured, she is alright. I need to keep her for awhile to make sure she doesn't have any other injuries."
"A stroke? She had a stroke?"
"Yes, a major one. It should of killed her, but she is still living and breathing."
Oh dear god, her kill switch went off, what could of triggered it? And how the hell did she live through that? George thought, his eyes widening at the news. The kill switch was a little device implanted in the brain to trigger a major stroke killing the victim slowly through hemorrhaging and lack of oxygen to the brain; activated in case of accidental discovery or a radio trigger. They had tested it many times on animal and man alike and all tests had proved conclusive, no matter the outcome, you died. But it seemed Will had lived. That was going to be there next option if they couldn't kill her through a less suspicious way, but now it seemed they would have to find some other way to put Will out of the way for good.
George switched his attention back to the conversation at hand and what the detective was saying.
"That girl and her friends are hiding something. What they are hiding, I don't know, Now you say you found a strange mark above where the stroke took place?"
"Yes, almost as if she had surgery there, but her medical records indicate no such thing."
We really need to perfect a way of hiding that incision. George thought as he listened along. The doctors who preformed the surgery to implant the device were good at leaving hardly a mark, but there still was a small mark that a good mortician could find.
"I'll look into it. Now, about the senator, how is he doing?"
"Well detective, for lack of better words he is alive and kicking. He is recovering rapidly. The bullet meant to kill him must have been slightly deflected by something because it missed his heart by about a centimeter. There was a second round recovered from him that bounced off of his skull causing blunt force trauma but no serious harm. Some one up above was looking out for him."
"Indeed, and he has a message for me?" The detective asked puzzled.
"Yes, he wishes to see you as soon as possible. Your visit tomorrow should suffice." The doctor said.
"Well thank you Dr. Lipinski, I need to go check on CSI and what they have found. I will be at the hospital tomorrow at 9 am."
"Very well, I will inform the nurses to let me know when you get here."
"Alright, good bye."
"Mmm, k. Good bye." The doctor said as the phone clicked closing the connection.
End Recorded Conversation #7556-B, Secure VOIP encryption: type J9, Detective Ethan Riley and Dr. Lipinski
George took off the head phones handing them back to Ray who took them and set them down. Rubbing his eyes he looked around the darkened room shaking his head.
"Bad news eh?" Ray asked.
"Yes, good and bad, some of it worse than the other parts. The higher ups aren't going to like this one bit." George said heading over to the door.
"I would think not, but then again you never know. I will let you know if I get any more." Ray said as he turned from his glowing monitor to watch George leave. "The higher ups will get this in 20 minutes after I make sure I have all of it. Good luck man."
"Thanks Ray. Also keep an eye out on the police band about our guy that screwed up the job." George said stepping out.
"Already on it…" Ray's voice said trailing him out the door before it snapped shut. Turning to his left he began to head away from the wire tapping room to his quarters to get ready for the meeting that was sure to follow.
George stopped by the track field first to watch the kids run their last lap before turning them over to another trainer. He shook his head as he thought, This is going to get real ugly, real fast…
ΩΩ
Detective Ethan Riley closed his cell phone putting it in his coat pocket. He was in his usual attire as he looked down at his fancy Starbucks cup with a straight black cup of coffee. He grimaced as he swallowed the last dregs of the coffee before turning to the car where his partner awaited him. Walking to the car he began to turn thoughts over in his head about many things, one of them namely the senator who should have been dead.
The senator was a very lucky man. The sniper who tried to kill him must have forgotten how glass could deflect a bullet, or maybe their hand on the rifle wasn't steady enough. He had the bullet examined to only discover that it was from a Scout sniper rifle. The rifle must have been specially built to be compacted and broken down into pieces to be carried away because they couldn't find any discards. The only evidence of where the sniper had been was several empty shell casings that had been at the base of the telephone pole.
Detective Ethan brought his thoughts to a temporary halt as he slid into the drivers seat of the sedan greeting Detective Talia.
"So, what did the doctor say?" Talia asked as Ethan started up the car and started to drive towards the apartment complex where the attempted murder took place.
"Good news, bad news, and interesting news." Detective Ethan said looking over at his partner who arched her eyebrows at him. "What do you want to here first?"
"Well, lets here the bad news first." Said Talia as the came to a stop at a red light.
"Okay, the bad news is that the little girls, Mom probably won't make a recovery, and if she does, she won't be able to remember anything that happened to her that day." Detective Ethan said watching his partner bow her head at the news.
"The poor girl. Such a young age to loose her mother." Her voice said with a strange quality, as if remembering back to a time in her life.
"Indeed, well there is the good news." Ethan said starting to drive the car again as the light turned green.
"And what would that be?" Talia asked raising her eyes to the road.
"The senator lived through the attempted assassination attempt and will make a full recovery. He also wants to speak with me when I go to visit Will and her mom." Ethan said turning into the parking lot of the apartment complex.
"That is good news. At least we can now try to piece together the story and why someone wanted him out of the picture." Talia said shaking her head. Not many people were shot by a sniper and lived to tell the tale. Ethan continued to drive until Talia prompted him about the "interesting" news.
"Oh, right. Well, when I was talking to the doctor, he said that the stroke she had should have killed her. Specifically, she should have been clinically dead when the ambulance came to pick her up. Yet, she lived. Either this is a miracle, or there is something else going on." Detective Ethan said filling her in on the interesting news. "I am going to talk to her to see what might have happened to cause her stroke."
"Here, let me come with you tomorrow and I can talk to Will, and you can go talk to the senator. I am sure we will have much to do and me helping you to interview them tomorrow will speed things up a bit." Talia said as the car came to a stop and Ethan turned the engine off.
"Alright, we can do that. I want to find the people committing these crimes as fast as possible, before anyone else gets hurt." He said before opening the door and stepping out into the bright sunshine of the day. Looking around both Ethan and Talia could see the police tape was still up. A CSI van was on the other side of the tape and they could see a man looking at the door on the second story.
"Shall we go find out what they have to say about this crime scene?" Talia asked as they both moved up the stairs to the team working on the apartment.
"Indeed we shall." Ethan said looking around at the white stucco walls that were stained a rusty color here and there. The technician saw them and waved them over.
"Detectives, good to see you. Let me show you what we have so far with the crime scene." The man said in a smooth voice. He was approximately 5'8 with olive colored skin. His eyes were emerald green and his jet black hair was combed back. He looked younger than he really was, and his explanations told the detectives that he was a seasoned investigator. His name was on a badge and read Mohammad Mekuria.
"Please do. We want to get this Investigation over with as soon as possible." Ethan said following Mohammad.
"Well, we first examined the door for forced entry. No luck there." The Mohammad said showing them the door. "So either the victim new the attacker, or the door was unlocked."
"Hmm, We will have to check the kids possessions to see if she had a set of keys on her. If she did then they might of known the attacker." Talia said writing that question down in her notepad she always carried with her.
"Next we investigated inside and we believe this is how the events went down. First, Ms. Vandom opens the door and either invites the attacker in, or the attacker pushes his way in. Next, the attacker smashes Ms Vandom with considerable force in to the wall here." Mohammad said showing a big dent in the drywall. "After which he dragged her into her bedroom and proceeded to beat her repeatedly with several different objects, including a lamp pole and the wall."
"Did you find any prints on anything?" Ethan asked hopeful.
"We did recover 2 sets of prints, but they are more than likely the mother and daughters prints. The guy probably was wearing gloves." Mohammad said watching the Detectives nod with a pessimistic look. "We also checked for foot prints in the blood and found none. Now we think we found where the perp exited the house."
They followed Mohammad to a back room filled with frogs and various other things. "This must be the kids room," Talia said looking around. She found several girl magazines and some pink shirts scattered about. But what was most apparent around the room was the broken glass glinting in the harsh light of the room. Looking at the window she could see its glass missing. Both Detectives stepped forward and looked out to a tree that came level with the window, and provided a perfect exit area from the house.
"Are we sure the attacker didn't enter through here?" Detective Ethan asked Mohammad.
"Yes, were pretty positive. The glass in here is minimal to compared to what we found outside. The perp defiantly broke out here, most likely when he heard the police outside." Mohammad said.
"Hmm, Thank you Mohammad. You'll let us know if you and your team find anything else?" Talia asked thanking him.
"Yes, I most defiantly will. Oh, yea, I almost forgot. I found this on the bedroom floor lying open as if someone had been going through it. The perp might be looking for the girl." Mohammad said holding up a journal. It had cute little stickers all over it and in neat cursive was titled, Will Vandom.
"Hmm, I'll take this and see if there are any pages missing. Thanks again Mohammad." Talia said as she and Ethan turned around and exited the apartment.
"The kids diary eh? We might have a stalker on our hands. I'll call in right now and have a guard posted at both her mom's door, and hers. I don't want anything else to happen to them." Ethan said as they got back in the sedan to head off for the office.
"I think I'll handle the girl's side of this story, and you can handle the Senators side of this. I can't shake the feeling that both of these cases are connected." Talia said knitting her brow in to a frown.
"Hmm, Indeed. Well since I don't see any concrete evidence that they are connected, we will have to treat them as two different investigations." Ethan said as they drove down the road. Talia's eyes searched about the street but kept coming to the diary. Perhaps the answers we seek are to be found in here? But who knows, maybe it is just nothing. Talia thought as the card drove on.
A/N: Whoa! A lot of reading huh? Well I'm glad you made it through all that. I will probably focus on the girls now in the next chapter as I continue to bounce around with the plot. Hopefully you don't get too bored as I do this. I will also be writing another story and be posting it soon, so I might alternate between writing between the two (First this one, then write a chapter for the next one). That's right! Time to review the story! Tell me how it went and if my chapters need to shorten up a bit. Hasta Luego!