The Breach

1. Cardboard Houses

The wind was far too strong for this time of the year and it was hard for Anna to make her way through the streets. It wasn't just the wind though; rain kept falling down heavily, making it almost impossible to see further than one's extended arm would reach. Not perfect for travel, but perfect for a secret meeting in the rather dangerous streets of New York.

Anna secured the scarf around her neck to make sure there was no space for any stray drops of water and continued moving against the building, very cautious about her surroundings. What she was planning to do was extremely dangerous and some would probably even call it reckless, but she was tired of sitting still and eating everything up like some agents did. She needed answers and she would stop at nothing to get them. Hence this late night excursion and this very secret meeting. It wasn't easy to make sure that she wasn't being followed and that nobody noticed her leave Haven, but the message was clear. She needed to come alone. After the data she was presented with there was no way she would pass up on such an opportunity. So she had to make up an entirely false excursion for some necessary materials and assign ghost agents to the cause. She was hoping it would really be worth all this trouble.

It wasn't easy to get to the point of all this, to decrypt all the messages and force ISAC into a loop long enough for her to be able to extract what she needed and what he told her to see for herself, but it was definitely worth it. She became suspicious after what happened to her friends, agents of the infamous First Wave, but this was an entirely different story. This was something that could bring SHD down and something that she didn't know what to do with. So when he found her and reached out to her, she didn't shut him off even though she probably should have. She set up a secure channel encrypted with a multitude of different keys that would leave no trail behind them and that would allow for safe transfer of information. It was a challenge to decode everything he sent her way but the more she read into it the more certain she became. She needed to know more, she needed answers. So they decided to meet. There was a device he wanted to show her that could only be delivered in person. Of course she said yes. It wasn't going to be easy but it felt like something she really needed to do. She owed it to her dead friends, she owed it to the country and most importantly she owed it to herself.

She finally approached the Coenties Slip Park (or what was left of it), almost at the destination they set up for their meeting. Before she made the final push through the park and up the building though she sent the seeker mines to scout the area. It was Rikers territory after all and there was technically still a possibility that she was being followed. He told her that he would help her as much as possible on his end. Apparently he was a master of deception. At least in his own words.

The mines returned to her undisturbed and she decided to slip between the buildings to climb the staircase marked with a digital key that could only be read by ISAC. They have been setting this meeting up for about a week to make sure it was as safe as possible. Of course something could always go wrong but it was a risk they were willing to take. Especially since apparently there was something he couldn't figure out by himself and needed her help with. If what he said was anything to go by, it might just be the proof she was looking for.

When Anna finally climbed the rooftop she could immediately see the graffiti that was supposed to be her clue. She turned a little to find a closed storage door marked with the same digital key. As soon as ISAC was able to unlock it she stepped inside and was immediately welcomed with a gun pressed against her chest.

„Password," a quiet and determined voice came somewhere from the darkness.

„Cardboard houses," she breathed out immediately, her breath hitching with surprise. „Jesus, was that really necessary?"