The Fall

Chapter One

5 years later...

"...ha ha!"

"Grab me a drink, willya?"

"...and then, he said, my wife..."

Peter only caught snippets of conversation as he walked through the busy party room. It was located om the bottom floor of the Executive Deluxe Grand Resort (Grand Canyon location). The cool, dark interior contrasted greatly with the hot, arid atmosphere that was typical of northern Arizona.

Peter hadn't been working for Mr. Johan for long. He graduated college and tried to get a job with several organizations, but everything had failed. Travis Johan had noticed, however, and took Peter under his wing. Now Peter was part of Travis's elite team of freelance secret agents.

Today, they were working for some organization called the PSA. Peter didn't know what it stood for or who they were allied with. All he knew was that he had to retrieve some sort of data from a hidden computer.

Somewhere in this room, there was a secret passageway into the vaults. Why was there a vault in an expensive hotel? Peter didn't know. Peter had been milling around, waiting for instructions to come in through his earpiece. But all he heard was silence.

"Travis and Rita should have called me by now," Peter thought worriedly. "Did something go wrong?" Deciding to find a way to calm down, he headed to the bar.

"What would you like, Sir?" the barmaid asked. Peter answered "water."

The employee nodded and looked over at her coworker. "Hey! Newbie! Get this guy some water!" She mumbled something under her breath about how he didn't order a 'real' drink, then left to the back area.

The other barmaid slid the water down to Peter, who smiled. "Thanks, ma'am, " he said, happy that she returned his smile. She was tall, with short, dark hair and grey eyes sheilded by glasses. She had a pretty smile.

"What's your name?"

The woman smiled cryptically and shrugged, going back to cleaning glasses.

"Uh, okay then." Peter shrugged as well and drank his water. "What about your number?"

She chuckled to herself, shaking her head. Her dark-rimmed glasses caught the light of one of the dim lamps. Mesmerizing. Peter had to laugh as well. "Sorry, that was pushy."

"It's fine. I'm used to it," she answered, revealing her voice for the first time. Peter noticed something around her neck. It was a necklace with a circular pendant. Carved into the metal was what seemed to be the silhouette of a dragon. "That's a nice necklace. What is it? It looks chinese." It certainly looked familiar, like Peter had seen it somewhere before...

"It's my family's. Excuse me," the girl turned and quickly left the bar, leaving Peter alone.

Sighing, the undercover agent reached up and touched the small piece of plastic in his ear. Something wasn't right...

Oh. It was off.

Going red, Peter tapped it twice to activate it. An angry female voice with a slight southern accent immediately started to nag him.

"Peter! It's been twenty minutes since you were supposed to turn this thing on. What were you doing?"

"Uh..." he glanced at the bar and was surprised to see a slip of paper there, with a number written down on it. He smiled and pocketted it.

"Sorry Rita. I was just milling around. Where is the secret entrance to the vault?"

Rita sighed. "There's one in each of the bathrooms. Go into the handicapped stall-the big one."