Lies - a night changes everything

Chapter 9

Lucas

Friday night Lucas sat in front of an computer at the headquarters of the ARIA.
There were several other agents occupying the computers, which stood in two rows that faced each other, working on their own missions. People entered and left through the double glass door or one of the other entries.

Lucas had finished his mission about the underground group, and was now focusing on the one with the skyscraper.

He had been at the quarters for a few hours, going over the information they already had on the job. It wasn't much and it wasn't really helping to find a point to start with.

Jackson had needed some time to find Sandy Gonzales, the man that had been seen entering the building shortly before it collapsed. Unfortunately, Jackson wasn't able to find anything useful after following him for over a week.

On top of that, he was gone now and they had no trace of where he went to.
The only thing they knew was that he had taken all the money from his account and didn't come back home for days.

He had no family they could reach out to, so there went their only trace.
Well, not exactly. They still had the video, but the others hadn't been able to find out who the other three men were.

Lucas fell back in his chair and crossed his arms in front of his chest. His eyes stayed fixed on the computer as he tried to find something in the video. But no matter how often he watched it, he couldn't find something new.

"Lucas." Jackson headed towards his desk. Lucas eyed him expecting and maybe a little tired. It was once again a long day. "I have new information. Come on," Jackson informed him. Lucas followed him into the conference room, where Charlie and Nicholas were already waiting.
They were the other two working on this case.

Lucas took a seat in front of them on the other side of the table and watched Jackson as he walked over to the smartboard and switched it on.

"There was another accident in Italy. A skyscraper in Milan caught fire out of nothing. The fire came from inside. They were able to evacuate the people, but many got hurt and a few died. The same four men had entered the building half an hour before it happened," Jackson said.

"Well, that means they have to be it. We just have to find them," Charlie said confident.
He was too quick, it couldn't be that easy. Not with this case. Lucas felt that something big was going on.

"The building has exactly three hidden cameras of which only a few people know about. They are not marked in any plans and work with a different electricity connection. In case the electricity shuts down, they work on batteries that are activated in less than a second."

"Why do I feel like I'm going to spend hours watching a tape?" Lucas spoke and threw his head back. Jackson smirked.
"You will. More than us probably," Jackson replied.

"Only because I work harder than you," he fired back jokingly.
"Watch it, kid." Lucas held up his hands in defense.

"But Lucas is right, we're going to watch videos again. One of the cameras caught what happened. A child created the fire, he-"
"Wait, so it was an accident?" Nicholas was quick to ask.

"No. The boy was with a man and after he told him something, he created fire in his hands and set the building on fire. They disappeared. The four that entered the building never came out." Jackson turned around and started the video.

They saw a black-haired man holding the hand of a little boy, whose brown hair fell over his eyes. He stood close to the man, didn't seem afraid.
The man bend down to the boy's height and whispered something into his ear. The video was soundless, so there was no chance they could hear what he said.