A New War: World War III

Chapter 8: Journal of Jesse McDeed

September 9 (2:10 A.M.)

Why me? Why did one of the most powerful and influential man in the world choose me to investigate the world's most dangerous and secretive organization. But that's not really important right now.

This is my first time journaling ever since the President assigned me this mission. Well, it has been four days since President James Hope invited me and the other two men to the White House to discuss about this mission. We haven't found any clues regarding the IDO in Washington, D.C., which is really a good thing. It was announced yesterday that anyone who is not a resident in Washington, D.C. or is not part of any government must leave the city. With that announcement, we went to New York.

Currently, this city is the largest and the most populous city in the world, with Tokyo now being the second largest and populous. During a period of fifty years, the population in New York drastically increased. The city is leading in new scientific study, new technology, and many more.

When we arrived at New York this morning, we were somewhat lost. I feel very embarrassed not knowing our way in New York because I lived and worked there for two years! But anyway, we managed to find our way to our hotel. Once we rested for an hour in our hotel, we headed out to find any clues regarding the IDO. We went around half of New York without finding any clues about this organization. John Teller was being very impatient because we haven't found any clues.

"We're not going to find anything, Jesse", he said to me when we were crossing the street.
"No, John, we will," said Tom (Thomas Grace), who is somewhat annoyed with John's complaining.
"Look here, Tom," said John,"We searched half of New York and we haven't found any clues about this organization."
"We still have half the city to investigate," said Tom,"Just wait, we'll find something."

After that small argument, we went to the other part of the city. For another two hours, we haven't found any clues. By that time, John was not talking at all. I could tell that he was trying not to yell at us. The last place that we had to investigate was Time Square. Of course, this part of the city was crowded by so many people. None of the stores or the restaurants were suspicious in having any clues about the IDO, except one- the "Part of New York" souvenir shop.

This souvenir shop was massive! I think it is the largest souvenir shop in New York. All sorts of souvenirs were there. From snow globes, T-shirts, and even Statue of Liberty costumes - this shop had everything!

When we entered the shop, a man with a grey suit approached and welcomed us.

"Hi," he said,"Welcome to the 'Part of New York' gift shop. How can I help you?"
"Oh, we're just going to look around," said Tom.
"Okay," he responded back,"If you guys need any help, just ask me and the other staff."

We thanked him and we went around the store. There were so many shoppers in the store. We had to say "excuse me" so many times while we were passing them.

We didn't find any clues for about ten minutes, and, once again, John was being impatient. But, while we were about to leave the store, I saw a couple of snow-globes that didn't look like the rest. Each of these snow-globes had the skyline of New York, as other snow-globes, but there was a black dragon with its whole body wrapping around the city. When I saw them I knew that these were from the IDO. I grabbed one of them and showed it to John and Tom. When they saw it, they were astonished.

"Well, we found a clue," whispered Tom,"Before we put it back, try to see if there are more clues inside the globe."

I looked at it closely, and I saw some numbers inscribed on the dragon's tail. The digits were "10-10-45". Why did the IDO put numbers on the dragon's tail? I know that it is some sort of code, but for what? I took out my cell phone from my pocket, and I noted the numbers into my note app.

When I was about to put the snow-globe back to its shelf, the guy with the suit approached me.

"Isn't this snow-globe awesome?" he said.
"It is," I replied.
"Well for seven dollars, you can buy it for yourself," he said,"This dragon is to represent New York's power and influence."
"Why is the dragon black?" I asked.
"Well, um. . . (his cellphone rings) oh. . . I need to take this call," he said,"Excuse me for a moment."

There was a man two shelves across from me talking to someone through his cellphone. The place where he was standing had no shoppers looking around. He was trying to talk to the person on the phone quietly, but I still overheard him.

"The man isn't leaving the shelf. Don't go back to him and answer his question," he said,"Stay in your office. I'll call you back when he's gone. I repeat, don't go back until I say so."

I knew he was talking to the guy in the suit. I had to leave the store immediately. This store is run by the IDO. This is one of the IDO's main hubs. I took a quick glance at him- he was walking towards me! Pretending not to have noticed him coming to me, I was walking to meet up John and Tom.

When I have approached them, I said,"Let's go now."

Turning around, I saw the man still trying to get his way to me. But, he was not alone. There were two more men trying to do the same.

"Come on, we have to go now," I told them frantically.

When they turned around, they saw the men and suddenly knew what was going on. We passed by the crowd of shoppers and left the store. In a faster pace, we headed towards the 42nd Street-Times Square Subway Station. We turned around again, and we saw them still chasing us! We started to walk faster. Luckily, we already had our Metro-cards ready in our hands. We scanned our cards in the card reader and passed the entrance gate. The three men were trying to see if they had their Metro-cards, but they realized they didn't have them. They glanced at us for a moment, turned around, and went back out to Times Square.

We sighed in relief. The subway train had stopped and we entered it. We left the subway train when it stopped at the World Trade Center Transportation Hub to go to our hotel. Once I arrived to my room, I immediately went to my bed and slept.

At two o'clock in the morning, my cellphone rang. I picked it up and was surprised who the caller was.

"Hello," I said.
"Mr. McDeed," said the man,"this is the President. I am very sorry if I have woken you up, but I was eager to know if you have found any clues regarding the IDO. Did you find anything?"
"I did, Sir," I replied,"I don't know what it means, but we need to quickly decipher it. There were some unusual snow-globes at a gift shop called 'Part of New York'. On the snow-globes, there were three numbers: 10-10-45. I still need to try to figure out what they mean."

The President didn't say anything for a couple of seconds. He was trying to decipher the numbers.

"Well, these numbers are interesting," he said,"Tomorrow night, when the store is closed, you and the other two men must investigate more. I'll send some agents to come with you. We need to find more information."
"Yes, Sir," I said.
"The White House and the Capitol are praying for you," he said in a calming voice,"Be safe. Goodnight."

He hanged up, and I went to the desk to write what I am writing to you now. I'm going to tell the guys what we're doing tonight during breakfast. It's 2:55 A.M. and I need to go back to bed.

We finally have a clue, a major one, regarding the IDO. We're going to get more info tonight. Let's see what happens this time.

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Thank you for reading this chapter. Sorry for not publishing it sooner. If you liked it, vote/comment/share. If you like the previous chapters, vote for them too. I changed the cover of this book. If you like the new cover, let me know in the comments! If you want me to keep the original cover, please let me know in the comments.