Bang and Burn ~ Dreamnotfound + Skephalo

Chapter 1

"He was so close!" Nick tells his coworker, Darryl. "My fingertips brushed his shoulder, but he still got away." Nick buries his face in his hands and he props himself up on his desk with his elbows. "They're taking me off of the case."

"There's no way they'll take you off, Nick!" Darryl reassures his friend. "You're one of the best hunters we've got."

Nick lowers his hands from his face. "That's the thing, though! Hunter after hunter has been sent out after him and nothing has worked. We need someone to lead him to us. Someone that can wrap him around their finger and get all of the information we need without tipping him off."

"Have you said that to our boss?" Darryl asks.

"Yeah, but I don't think any of us are dumb enough to pursue him like that. If he finds out that he's being tricked, the guy will kill whoever is doing the job. Plus, he knows what we all look like now that he figured me out." Nick checks his watch. "Oh, shit! I gotta get home. I can't have George asking questions."

"When are you going to tell him that you're an agent?" Darryl questions. "You've been best friends for years and now that you're roommates, he's probably going to figure it out eventually."

"He's never going to know, Darryl. It'd be too dangerous if he knew." Nick packs up his desk and starts heading for the elevator. "I'll see you tomorrow Darryl!"

The whole drive home, Nick watches as minutes pass. He told George he'd be off of work at 6, but here he was at 8, speeding down the street to make up time as if being an hour and 59 minutes late is better than being two hours late. As an agent, Nick was always prepared to lie on the spot. He was amazing at it. But George somehow saw through almost all of his lies. When George tried questioning Nick's career, he always got some answer he knew wasn't the truth. Eventually, he stopped asking what Nick did for a living.

Nick pulls up to their apartment and parks his car, rushing inside. George was laying on the couch, clicking through tv channels with a remote. When Nick opened the door, he didn't even look up from the TV.

"You're late," George says, annoyed.

Nick tenses, preparing to lie. "Yeah, sorry. I got held up doing paperwork."

George rolls his eyes. "Whatever."

"What's with the attitude?" Nick asks.

"I got laid-off," George responds.

Nick looks at George, expecting him to laugh. But when he doesn't, he realizes that George was serious. "Wait, why?"

George shrugs. "I don't know much. All I know is that they didn't have the money to support another worker and after a game of 'eenie meenie minie moe', I was the lucky one that got fired."

"I can cover your rent for the time being. You focus on getting another job," Nick says. His phone chimes as he gets a message from Darryl, saying to call him ASAP.

George turns off the TV and puts the remote down. "Unfortunately, not many people are hiring coders right now. I'll keep checking every day, but it may be a bit before I even get an interview."

"Sorry George, I got to call my coworker real quick. I'll be back in a few." Nick heads off to his bedroom, locking the door behind him just as he gets a call from Darryl. "Calm down, I was just about to call you, Darrie."

"Hello, Nick," he hears his boss's voice say. Nick checks his phone and sees that he was added into a group call with Darryl and his boss. "Darryl came by my office and reminded me about your idea to use other means to capture Dream. After some talking, we have decided to start a new program where we hire someone to seduce the criminal and we want you to be a part of that."