I am still pleasantly surprised every time I see the amount of people looking at this story. Keep the reviews, both positive and constructive, coming! Thanks for taking the time to read and I hope you enjoy the story!

This was the first time Lena had come to see this client at their home base. She'd met a representative of the company once, but the man had come to meet them in New York. She was familiar with the building layout and the security system because she had studied the blueprints and system design for a periodic review. Although Lena had never been to see this client in person, Jeffry came to Chicago frequently. This had been a client that Jeffry was keeping to himself. Originally she'd thought he was just fond of this client, something made this client untouchable or unique and therefore they got special treatment. But now that she was here, she'd come to the conclusion that it wasn't the client that made this contract unique, it was the place. He had been trying to keep Lena safely away from Chicago.

They had been called to manage a leak in the security system. It was clear to both Jeffry and Lena that the client was being pursued by a very sophisticated hacker. Lena was more than a little impressed. Jeffry's system was state of the art and highly monitored which meant that whoever was doing this damage was a gifted professional. Jeffry was not impressed; he was on a crusade to find the source.

For the first time in the trip Jeffry was leaving her alone. He'd had a watchful eye on her every move since they'd gotten off the plane. He had asked her how she was doing so many times that she'd felt an intense need to toss him from a moving vehicle. She'd told him she was fine over and over but the truth was, she'd been in the city for less than six hours and already she was anxious.

With Jeffry consumed in his work she was free of his constant gaze. She opened her laptop and began searching anything that came to mind. Being physically in the only city she could prove she had visited as a child, made what had been frequent daydreams intensify into an obsession. She knew she should leave it alone but she couldn't. She started with the only thing she knew, she'd been to the Shedd Aquarium. Searching the Shedd Aquarium hadn't helped her in her quest for evidence. There were hundreds of thousands of visitors every year and the pictures online didn't look familiar. She clicked through page after page of Chicago landmarks, schools, churches, and stores. This parade of webpages had led her to the city of Evanston. She didn't know anything about Evanston but something about that word just sounded right.

She paged through pictures of buildings in Evanston. Although nothing grabbed her attention specifically, the buildings didn't seem foreign to her. After about fifteen minutes of scanning through websites she decided, Evanston simply had to be a part of her past.

A list of notable residents sparked her interest and she found herself scrolling through the names in one of the cemeteries in town hoping a name would look familiar. Lena didn't remember a name so she found herself paging through the 3,000 names listed online hoping to find some solid clue to her past.

One name caused her entire body to lock. She couldn't have torn her eyes away from the screen if she tried. She felt her stomach lurch, like it did on a flight with unexpected turbulence, and her breath caught deep in her chest.

"Samuelle, Claire Marie, March 10, 1987- February 15, 1997

"Oh, God."

To Lena the world stopped. The tech crew continued to shuffle around her chair but she couldn't hear them. Her eyes traced the letters on the screen over and over. She had forgotten. How could you possibly forget your own name? She forced her eyes to glance down the page, the next three entries sounded familiar. Her father, mother, and brother were all listed below her name alphabetically. Her stomach lurched violently and her head began to swim. Her chest heaved as she gasped for the breath she couldn't find. She slammed the laptop shut and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees and grasping her face in her hands.

She had assumed they were gone, the memories of her family. She had assumed that she was just too young to clearly remember them; but seeing her name felt so real; she simply knew that was her family. She also knew, without a shadow of a doubt that there were memories of her family buried deep in her mind.

As if she'd cued up a movie, a scene played out before her eyes. The memory was silent but she could see it clearly. Her father was driving through a snow storm; her mother was in the passenger seat. She couldn't see their faces from the back seat of the minivan, just the backs of their heads. Her father had short brown hair poking out from under a winter hat. Her mother also had brown hair which sat in perfect curls that fell to her shoulders. Lena was seated in the backseat of the car. Without warning the van veered to the right skidding on some ice or snow, she saw her mother's hand go out to grasp the dashboard and her father fight the steering wheel desperately attempting to correct the car. Everything went black and she heard the distinct sound of metal crashing against metal.

"Lena?" Somehow Jeffry's voice pierced through her panic. She hadn't noticed him come over. He was crouched squarely in front of her chair. His voice was calm and even as he repeated her name. "Lena, take a couple deep breaths. Look at me. Follow my lead." He drew in a series long breaths which she half heartedly attempted to match with her own short bursts of air. "It was too soon, I shouldn't have brought you here. I'm sorry." She opened her mouth to speak but she didn't have any air. She gasped and tried again

"Too soon?" she wheezed

"Let me finish this job and we'll l talk this through alright?"

"You'll tell the truth?" She asked

Jeffry paused. His eyes scanned her face, she saw him swallow once before answering "Yes." He answered. She nodded once and he stood up, squeezed her shoulder slightly and returned to his computer station.

She sat up straight in her chair. She needed to think about every breath to keep them as even as possible. She glanced around the room. She wasn't needed here, especially not like this, and she didn't want an audience to her panic attack or any subsequent panic attacks.

"Bathroom." She whispered to the four technicians who stood around her staring as if it had been them who just witnessed a car crash. She stood shakily and grabbed her bag off the floor and left the room. When she found the bathroom she locked the door from the inside and collapsed against it.

Claire? She repeated over and over to herself. It was unfamiliar and yet somehow it seemed to fit. How could she forget a prior life so completely? She wracked her brain willing some other memory to come forward but every time she shut her eyes the short scene of the car crash replayed in her mind. She allowed her mind to perseverate on the vision, each time the scene repeated her panic subsided. Playing it repeatedly diminshed the power of the scene. She took in the details of the scene, it was so vivid. Her mother was wearing a red wool coat and scarf, her dad had a simple black ski coat. She was wearing a blue jacket and had a pink hardcover book and CD player were laying on her lap. She was wearing blue boots that matched her jacket almost perfectly. The van was clean and well kept, the floor was clear except for a rolled up posterboard probably left over from a school project. She tried to remember her mother's voice, or her father's but all she heard was the sound of metal striking metal. She rested on the floor of the bathroom, her legs felt like she had just finished a marathon and her heart was still beating so loudly she was sure it was audible in the room.

After what must have been nearly an hour she dragged herself off the bathroom floor and gazed up into the mirror. She shook her head in disgust at the face that she saw. This morning her long brown hair had been perfectly styled into flowing curls but now it looked more like she had just finished working out. She slipped it up into a simple pony tail. The only clues that she had put on make-up this morning were the tracks of mascara running down her face. She pulled her makeup bag from her purse, got a paper towel from the dispenser and rubbed all the make-up off to start over from scratch.

As she snapped the eye shadow container closed she heard her cell phone buzz. She dug through the entire contents of her purse before she found it.

"Lena?" Jeffry's voice was serious and business like. "I have four unidentified armed individuals in the building."

"Shit." She snapped as her previous thoughts were whipped from her dug into her purse for her gun, holster, and blue tooth.

"What are you getting on your scanner?"

"Nothing, I didn't have it on." She heard him click his tongue impatiently, "I'm working on it chill. Where are they?"

"North and West stairwell, I've got at least four confirmed. They have tech support and they're looping the feed faster than I can correct it."

"Alright I'm on my way."

"No, I locked down this room. Stay where you are."

She found her Bluetooth and slipped it over her ear. Lena's favorite and most envied piece of technical equipment was her adapted Bluetooth device. She designed it with two transmissions specialists from the Alliance, it wasn't foolproof and it shocked her ear frequently but when it was at its best it could pick up communications from other radio transmission devices, even those that were encrypted. She dismissed the various radio frequencies listened for a second to the maintenance department, her father's security channel and finally stopped on an unknown frequency.

"I can't get a lock!" she told her father who was still on the phone. As soon as she got the words out she heard the transmission she was looking for.

"Target is in his office on the twenty-seventh floor, confirm locations." She listened as two teams radioed in their locations each in a separate stairwell.

"What's on the twenty seventh-floor?" Lena asked her father.

"Board of directors offices."

"One of them is the target. Who's in today?" She slipped her arms through her shoulder holster and tossed her blazer over. She pulled a knife from her bag and secured it inside her boot.

"Richard Lewis is the only one in today."

"His office is armored, lock it down and I'll take care of the intruders." Lena instructed, Lewis was the man who had hired her father to build the security system. He wanted an independent contractor and had requested one of the most complicated systems Jeffry had ever put together. Not only did he request a sophisticated technological system but he also required some hardware that was unique to a business office in downtown Chicago. Upon entering his office you would pass through a solid wood door containing two separate deadbolt locks. This door led only to the assistant's office. A solid steel door stood, disguised behind a thin wood outer layer, stood between the assistant and the board member's offices. This door was controlled by a network computer located on the secretary's office phone. She could open and close the door at will. If an intruder was capable of accessing these controls they could open the door and gain access to the director. This turned out to be one of the "weak points" Lena had identified in Jeffry's system. To remediate the threat she had added a separate video surveillance system that provided an eye to the assistant's office and a kill switch both located inside of the board member's office which severed all connection to the network and locked the door until it was released from the inside.

"No, I tried that, my end is compromised, you'll need to do it manually. "

Lena unlocked the bathroom door and sprinted toward the south stairwell. If she hurried she could make it there before the agents. She was on the twenty-second floor, but the other men were only on the eighth floor when they radioed in, she would have a little time. She would enter the office, have the assistant open the door, get herself and the assistant into the secured office and manually sever the connection turning the room into a safehouse. She listened to her Bluetooth as she ran up the stairs. The man on the radio was asking for locations again but this time on a different channel.

"Roan, what's your twenty?"

"Waiting for the elevator."

"Confirmed." She heard her headset click to another channel as it followed the transmission.

" Michael? Location?"

An irritated growling voice answered the first man. "Still in position Birkhoff, same as two minutes ago." Her shins slammed into the stairs as she caught her boot on one of the steps. She tried to catch herself with her hands but scraped both her wrists in the process. She pulled herself off the stairs as quick as she could and limped up the final flight. She always amazed herself with as much training as she had, her clumsy nature still had a habit of shining through.

"Did you just fall on the stairs?"She heard in her ear. A smile could be heard in his voice. The camera in the corner of this stairwell was clearly not on a loop. "That's a fantastic way to shoot yourself." Jeffry teased.

"Shut up." She hissed as she slid her ID badge through the card reader and yanked the door open to floor. "And shut down the elevators there are more men downstairs."

"Done," he answered "You're going to lose communications inside the office. Just get yourselves into the secured room and wait there. I'll take care of the teams on my end."

She carefully walked down the hallway of the office building, she moved slowly with a hand over her gun knowing there was one more intruder that was unaccounted for. She hated to go slow because she knew the teams were close behind her but she couldn't risk being ambushed by an agent already on the floor. Cautiously peering around each corner she made her way to Mr. Lewis's office.

"I need to see Mr. Lewis. Now!" Lena snapped at the assistant. Lena's eyes swept the room from right to left. The desk was lavish for an assistant desk, a bright cherry finish accented all the furniture in the room. Her desk was clear except for a phone, computer monitor, coffee cup and one small picture frame. The solid wood floor was perfectly polished and covered with an expensive area rug.

"Do you have an appointment?" She asked.

"I'm from LRS Security , we've had a breach. This isn't a drill" She held out her security badge for the woman with one hand and kept her other on the gun. She poked her head out into the hallway to look for the intruders as the assistant studied her badge.

"We've reached the Twenty Seventh Floor" one of the teams announced in Lena's ear bud.

"Roger. Confirm when target is down." The voice on the other end of the radio answered.

Lena spun around and shut the door to the assistant's office behind her. "You need to open that office door." She hissed to the assistant who was now standing frozen behind her desk. "Now!" Lena commanded, the woman startled out of her trance and reached for the office phone. "Not the phone, the phones are down. Override it." Lena tried to keep her words calmer than she felt. The woman moved cautiously toward the file drawers next to the door and began to type on a keyboard hidden in one of the drawers.

Listening next to the door Lena heard the faint but distinct sound of the door to the stairwell opening. She positioned herself along the wall to the left of the door. "Get that door open." She hissed again.

"Stand back." She heard a man say from the other side of the door, no doubt speaking to his partner, and Lena braced herself for a fight. A second later the men behind the door forced it open breaking the door jam. A gun appeared through the doorway first, and Lena immediately kicked the gun loose from the man's hands and threw a well placed punch breaking the man's nose. Her knee connected with the man's stomach causing him to crumble over as she bashed him over the head with her own gun knocking him to the floor. The agent's partner wasted no time in releasing three rounds of his own, narrowly missing the assistant. The bullets soared across the office thudding into the wall and sending glass flying as a stray bullet hit the assistant's coffee cup. Lena pulled her own gun and released two rounds into the man's shoulder causing him to drop his gun. As he crouched near the floor she turned and roundhouse kicked him, knocking him out cold. She picked up the spare gun and pistol whipped the first fighter knocking him out next to his partner.

She skimmed the now unconscious fighters for extra weapons. She tossed another gun to the assistant now frozen in a crouch behind her desk. "We still need that door open." Lena reminded the woman. She crossed the office and pulled her out from under the desk. She stood unsteadily and Lena wasn't certain the assistant's legs would support her. Her nails dug into Lena's shoulder as she dragged her back to the file drawer. "There are more coming, please, get it open."

Lena left the woman at the file cabinet and focused on the four remaining agents located throughout the building. They were still exposed and vulnerable. She found zip ties in one of the men's pockets and quickly bound their hands and feet in case they woke up. She heard another stairwell door open, this time closer, she knew the other team had arrived on scene. The metallic snap signaled the lock release from the secured door behind her, but it was too late. The second team burst through the door with their guns drawn.

Lena met the man and woman team with the same quick perfectly placed hits that she had learned in her years of training. The second team was younger and their lack of training was evident. They were the back-up team, they weren't the ones who were slated to carry out the hit. It was only a matter of seconds before she had both agents on the ground. She slammed the man's head into the file cabinet and shot the woman before knocking them each out. She bound last two fighters with the zip ties and paused for a half second to catch her breath.

"Come on!" She heard the assistant yell as she opened the door wide so Lena could run through. Lena saw the terrified face of the board member standing frozen at his desk. She caught her breath and dragged herself up off the floor to go into the office. The assistant disappeared behind the door.

That's over. She thought for a split second before she heard the sound of a gun with a silencer discharge and a bullet hiss past her ear. She saw the man at the desk in front of her crumble. From the sound of the gun she knew the shooter was directly behind her, only a few feet. Without looking she spun around with a strong kick and knocked the man's gun from his hand before he fired another shot. She heard the security door click shut behind her as she began to fight the new intruder.

This man was skilled, he was a much stronger fighter than the other four and Lena immediately felt she was on the defense. She landed one good punch that split his lip open, but his hits were fast, perfect, and deadly. She blocked a barrage of deadly hits before he landed a solid jab knocking her against the security door. The split second she took to catch herself against the door was too long, the next fist hit her below the eye knocking her head violently against the solid steel door. The impact left her disoriented for just a second or two but that was all the time he needed. He caught her before she hit the ground and fastened his strong muscular forearm tightly against her neck. She elbowed him in the gut, dug her nails into his arm, and stomped on the arch of his foot but hard as she fought his hold only seemed to grow stronger. Her vision blotched over like a blizzard.

She didn't feel him release her and she didn't feel her body hit the hard wood floor. She didn't see his gaze linger for just a moment on her motionless form before turning to cut the bonds on the other, still unconscious, fighters.

"Target's down." His gravely voice spoke clearly into the communicator. He wiped away the trickle of blood from his lower lip."Birkhoff do you read me? Birkhoff?" He paced across the room before attempting to contact again. "Roan are you reading me?" Again he did not get an answer. He glanced at the reinforced door that Lena was laying against and guessed there was interference from the reinforced room next to him. He stepped out of the room and walked a few feet down the hall to radio.

"Birkhoff do you read me?"

"Loud and clear Michael. What's your status?" Birkhoff answered

"Target's down. Send the video on to Percy and Amanda, I have a complication."

Thanks for reading! Please leave me a review or message to let me know what you thought. I really appreciate every comment.

I'm not sure when the next update will be up. In the next two weeks I'm moving and starting a new internship, so free time to write will be minimal but I'll get something posted as soon as I can.