Samuel Black

Chapter 13

I was drinking my latte when the long awaited breaking news came. Unidentified Body Found Buried In Garden Of Unoccupied Home. I swore loudly and stood up. My coffee fell to the floor, spilling it's contents all over my bare feet. I put on some jeans and a shirt and rushed to the scene. My heart was pounding aggressively inside me. What did they mean by unoccupied house. There was a swarm of police officers gathered around the house with their cars blocking both ends of the street. I had to see for myself. How was it possible that the house was unoccupied. I used the back entrance into the house. There was furniture and food and clothes in the closets, so why the hell were they calling it unoccupied. I was looking through one of the rooms when i heard something fall over. I crept down the stairs to see. There was a policeman helping the man I had fought with to the back door, carrying a duffel bag. I turned on the video on my phone and placed it in my breast pocket. I Called out to both of them to stop. The man started to run, but the policeman came towards me.

There was a sneer on his face and it angered me even more. I lashed out aiming for a kick to his ribs, but his had met my throat way before. I choked on my own blood and saliva before crumpling to the floor, gasping for air. He placed the inner curve of his boot under my chin and slowly raised my head up. He left it and came round with a hellacious kick to my skull. Everything went black before I could register it in my brain. When I woke up, my hands were bound and I was gagged. I was still in the house but everything from the furniture to the wallpaper had been removed, leaving a bare, empty, or better described unoccupied house. I watched everything in silence as the last of the things were carried out of the house through the back door by men in identical blue jumpsuits. Someone kicked me in the small of my back. I screamed, but only an awkward muffled sound came out through the well tied gag. The policeman came and stood in front of me. I noticed that his knees were locked and his legs were stiff. I stomped my foot into his knee forcing him to stumble backwards and fall. Just then, two of the workers were passing by, staggering under the weight of a sofa. I kicked the one nearest to me in the back of his knee, propelling him forwards. His colleague threw himself out of harms way, leaving the policeman alone in the ring of fire. The couch slammed into his torso with tremendous force, probably crushing his rib cages. He let out a sigh of defeat and his head dropped, allowing the blood in his mouth to flow freely. The two workers were gone, but I had left evidence.

Amidst all the commotion, no one saw the seventeen year old boy limping away from the house or the huge truck leaving in the other direction. Everyone was now focused on the dead body that had been found. Something no one could cover up. Hashtag where is the killer started to trend overnight, and there he was. Fast asleep underneath the blankets in another world. A world where his mother and brother were also asleep in the same house. A world of dreams. A world that was out of his reach.

My phone rang loudly, waking me up. If it wasn't my boss, I wouldn't have answered. To my dismay, he wanted me to be at H.Q as soon as I could. In low spirits, I rolled off my bed onto the floor and stood up, using the bed as support. My body was still sore all over and I could see some bruises and welts in various places. I took a long shower, allowing the water to soothe the pain for a while. I got dressed in a loose t-shirt and some sweatpants with sneakers. I passed by Starbucks for a coffee and a muffin before I continued to H.Q, where my boss was already waiting for me. We skipped the pleasantries ( it was a mutual understanding between us). He turned on the large flat screen television mounted on the wall behind his desk and indicated for me to watch. It was the news report from the past two days. The uncovered, buried dead body and the man I had accidentally killed in the house the following day. He raised an eyebrow waiting for an explanation. I decided to mess with him a little and play dumb. I frowned, trying to look upset about it. He rolled his eyes and changed the image on the screen to security footage from that same house.

I saw myself talking to the woman, and later in the evening engaged in battle with the man. I was about to defend myself, but something on the screen caught my eye. A blonde haired woman had appeared, not long after I had left to set the man free of the cuffs I used to chain him to the fence. It could be the same woman who had helped David escape. This was the second time she had messed with me and I wasn't planning on a third. I felt my heart race increase. "Who is she?". My boss locked eyes with me. "We don't know". I let out a frustrated sigh and bit my lip. The C.I.A was supposed to be one of the best, if not the best Intelligence agencies in the world and yet they couldn't identify that one woman. It was clear that something was going on in the agency that I wasn't aware of, but my main focus was on finding my mother and my brother. My boss stood up and leaned over his desk. I could see he was angry. "Since you are not planning on giving me any explanation, I guess I'll have to ask you. Why the hell were you at that house and why did you have to kill someone?".

I knew that underneath all the anger, he was worried about me. His son had once been a promising young agent. He had never killed someone before, but one day, he was forced to kill his fellow agent on a mission and was later captured by the agency. He broke out soon after and had a mental breakdown which started a fire of blood lust in him. He went on to kill his own mother and 9 year old brother and sister, who were found dead by their father. From what I had heard, he was a contract killer, one of the best and working for some very bad people. I had worked with the poor boy once. Diesel was a good kid with a strong sense of humor. He kept me alive with his jokes when I had been shot in the back and was bleeding out quickly. I was very surprised to hear the news. Looking at the man, I could understand very well why he had been very hard on me and why he was worried. He had been through it once and was definitely not ready to go through it again. He had watched me grow up and wanted to watch me mature in the business.

I could see tears welling up in his eyes. The first time I had seen him show any emotion apart from anger. I was surprised. He slammed something onto the table. A micro tracker. He added a folder and dismissed me. I was supposed to find a way to get the tracker into the man's body. He was a Judge working some big case that was important to the government for some reason and it didn't look like they trusted him.

An hour later, I found myself dressed in a waiters uniform. It felt weird. I served a whole lot of arrogant men before the judge finally entered the restaurant. I was at his side the moment he sat down, ready to take his order. Luckily, he ordered a glass of wine with his steak. I slipped it into his drink and watched him down it all from the sidelines. I gave him a refill just to make sure it went down. I changed back into my clothes and left the restaurant. Just then, I got a message from an unknown number. I already knew who it was from. The message was two words. Follow him. I turned and began my journey down the sidewalk, keeping a safe distance from him. The sunlight reflected of something into my eye. I turned to the direction of the light instinctively. I stopped in my tracks. I didn't believe it. He was here. In Washington. Diesel had come to town.He was lying flat on his stomach behind the scope of a sniper rifle. I turned and began a slow retreat in the other direction.

I couldn't do anything as the bullet penetrated his skull, spraying his brains on the woman and child beside him. I turned my attention to Diesel. I waited patiently. He exited the building with a simple backpack slung across his shoulder. Out of his range of sight, I was able to take a few clear pictures. I had to take them in. If there was any possibility of us being able to help him, I had to make the best of it. I was walking down the sidewalk and looking at the pictures when a figure in dark clothing stepped in front of me and pressed the edge of a short blade to the base of my throat. He spoke briefly and was gone. " Come after me and I will end you." I didn't realize that I was holding my breath. I breathed out heavily, releasing my lungs from their burden. I heard what he had said loud and clear, but among all the things I knew, backing down from a fight was not included. If anything, I was more driven to know more.

I hurried to my car and back to H.Q, continuously casting worried looks over my shoulder wondering if Diesel was following me, but a part of me knew that he was a smart guy and was probably long gone. When I got there, I headed straight to my bosses office to debrief him and show him the pictures. He sat behind his desk with my phone looking at each of the pictures over and over again. His face was set in a deep intense frown, his eyebrows nearly touching each other. He was breathing heavily, fogging up his glasses. I had never seen him so lost for words. He finally looked up from the phone and looked at me. He nodded his head. I knew what was happening. I had a new mission.