Espionage [H.S]

Chapter 6

Stella's P.O.V.

When Ian died, I felt a sense of inescapable guilt. He died because of me. I made a promise to him and to myself, that I would find the bastard who killed an innocent boy. Thinking about his painful death forced me to pick up my pace as I walked the hall. I turned the corner and came to the forensic lab.

"Hello, Grayson."

"Black, what a pleasure. What brings you here?" The man leaned back in his chair.

"You know what I'm here for. Bring me everything. Every fingerprint, every blood test, every scrap of DNA found at my parents' house. Even if it seems irrelevant. Bring it all." Grayson pushed away from the desk, putting his hands in the air like I just pointed a gun at his head. Not that it would be anything new in our line of work. He laughed before replying, "Okay, give me a second. Bit tense today aren't you?"

"Nope. Just get the evidence," I waited until he came back with a white office box.

"This is everything, anything else I can do for you?"

"No. Thanks for this though," I said sternly, leaving with the box in my arms.

I spent hours searching through test results and files. Even the strands of hair and broken glass were there. None of it led back to anything important. The person who did this covered their tracks and they did it well. I pulled the card that was left behind out of the box. It mocked everything I stood for, killing Ian was just part of the joke that they wanted to play. Rage engulfed me, pushing the box off the desk. I stormed down the hall, pushing the door open. It swung open, slamming against the wall.

"Vanderbilt!"

"Present, Agent Black. Mind closing the door, lightly and sitting down? I prefer civil conversations," I shut the door, the sound just as loud as when it opened.

"I got the results back today, and you know what I got out of it? Nothing. Absolutely goddamned nothing. No proof of any type of suspect. Why the fuck is that? If you would be so kind to enlighten me on the subject of why no one in this fucking building can get me the slightest bit of information?" I shouted at him.

"Stella you knew that something like this could happen. I don't-"

"No! Do not call me Stella and do not try to apologize for the idiocy in your agency. We can track down the worlds leading terrorists, hack systems, and decode the worlds toughest encryptions but we can't fucking find any clue as to who killed my little brother?"

"Stella, I know he meant a lot to you, but-"

"Fucking hell, of course he meant a lot to me, you moron. This was obviously aimed at me! It has professional written all over it and you know it. Someone is trying to get at me by killing my brother. What happens if this happens again? I will not sit around waiting for them to jump on my family. You know what-"

"Black, stop. Enough. I am sorry that we couldn't do better to find solid proof. I am sorry that your brother died, but there's nothing left to do. Now, stand down and that's an order," I stood up, slamming the card on the desk.

"I need to find them. I made a promise to him, Vanderbilt, and I don't know about you but when I make a promise to my kid brother, I intend to see the deed through."

"When the time is right, you know you will," I turned to leave when he spoke again. "Black, you're lucky I like you, if any other agent spoke to me like that, they would've been long gone by now. Great to be on top, isn't it?"

"Go fuck yourself," I heard him laughing as my heels clicked on the floor when I walked out the door.

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