The Sentinel's Shield

Chapter 3

The meeting location was odd. It had the perfect setting for a drug deal. No other car except Travis'. No other person than Travis. The sound of the waves hitting the rocks on the beach was the only thing that occupied the vacuum of nothingness.

The only other thing present were lots of shipping cargo containers.

As Travis rested on the hood of his Dodger and stared into the ocean, a sound slowly stirred up the air. A sleek, black Lincoln in between two armored Hummers were approaching. Travis stared intently through his Ray-Ban. As the convoy reached a safe distance from Travis, they stopped. Four men from each of the Hummers poured out with sub machine guns hanging across their shoulders.

A short and stout man in a dark blue Harris-tweed suit stepped out.

Travis glanced his watch, 10:05 AM. His visitor was late by five minutes.

One of the men who came out of the leading Hummer ran up to Travis.

"Good Morning Sir, please state you full name and designation." said the man loudly so that everyone could hear him.

"Travis Theodore Ray, Special Agent, FBI" Travis shouted back with equal vigor whilst still leaning on the hood. He then took out his badge and showed it. The man took his badge, examined it for a few seconds then turned back and gave the man in the suit a nod.

The man then walked up to Travis and then put forward his hand with a small smile "Benjamin Hampton". Travis took it "Travis Ray".

"Oh yes, I know. Sorry for being late, apparently there was a small emergency at NSA. We thought it was a attempted hack into NASA. But turns out, it was teenage kid trying to download porn for free using NASA's unrestricted network." said Hampton. "Fucking horny runts" he swore under his breath.

"General, why did you want to meet me?" asked Travis.

"Well, aren't you in hurry Mr.Ray. We'll get to that soon".

"Tell me Mr.Ray, how many cases have you handled till now?" said Hampton taking out a pair of glasses form his breast pocket.

"twenty-four"

"And how many have you solved?"

"twenty-three".

"What happened to that one case?"

"We were in Baghdad. We received news from intelligence of the location of a wanted terrorist, responsible for bombing the elementary school in Chicago three year back . My team and I had been searching for him for quite a while. We were sent to extract him" said Travis

"And?" asked Hampton.

" Our orders were clear, don't engage, extract and retreat. He on the other hand, was one step ahead of us.. He had rigged the place. Quarter of my team got killed by snipers. Another quarter got killed by grenade launchers. By the time we reached the location and put down all his men, I lost my whole team". A drop of tear rolled out Travis' cheek. "I came face to face with him, to me it was no longer an extraction mission,it was personal. But that son of a bitch wasn't done, he had a trigger with him and a finger a pressed on it. He said a school nearby was rigged with RDX. The moment he removed his finger, the whole school would blow up. He said I had one hour to save the children in the school and let him go or watch thousands of children die and get him. I couldn't take the risk, I had to let him go." finished Travis looking down tears still rolling from his eyes yet his shades covering his eyes.

"I'm sorry" said Hampton. "Loosing your men and friends in the face of battle is tough".

"Follow me, let me brief you" said Hampton as he started walking towards the abandon shipment cargo containers. Travis followed him.