Connecting

Chapter 13

After a few weeks, they weren't still able to track their suspect but they found another lead although it seems harder to go in to. On the bright side, Melissa feels a lot better and her asthma doesn't seem like a severe one; it's just the normal asthma, which gave a relief to Melissa even though it will still be hard for her to work especially she'll get sickly. Chris, on the other hand, is looking through all the possible suspicious activity and formal gathering around the area because Melissa found something when they went back to the "hotel" they slept in before. She saw an invitation in the cafeteria, which they also consider as a restaurant, and it just states the time of the gathering and the name of the person invited and "near the area" which Melissa finds fishy. Plus, the invited person is "John Williams".

"I really thought that having the lastname of what the director told us of the agent that went missing after finding a lead is just a coincidence," Melissa said while walking around the secret room, she's staring at their notes about the leads and the possible suspects that they have been tracking. "But why is his name inside that cafeteria or restaurant in that hotel where our suspects are?"

Chris sighed. He stood up and leaned on the wall, looking at the notes that mostly Melissa wrote. "Maybe it's not really a coincidence. What if it's him and he's helping them?"

Melissa's eyes widened when she realized something. "Or what if he's working inside but AGAINST them? What if he's actually helping us?"

Chris looked at her, curious. "Hmm. How would we know? I mean, we're not sure that he's actually doing that. What if they manipulated him and he's working WITH them? We might put ourselves and the whole government in danger."

"Hey, no, look. If he's actually working with them, then why didn't he told them about the secret department, about us? Why did he kept it a secret and why don't he attack us? Maybe he's still working with us but indirectly. Maybe that's why he's looking around houses, looking for us, to warn us or have connection with us."

"I get it that you're always looking for the good things in people, you're the best at that. But this is different, Mel. If we blow ourselves and tell him that we're working in the secret department of the government and that we're investigating on the case that he left then he turns out to be one of the enemies, we're doomed."

"You're right," she sighed. "I am sorry. It's just that... I don't know. He must be preparing for something, there's a huge possibility that he told whoever he's working with about us and they're just preparing for something big like what they did before. We should take extra precautions especially we've encountered him already."

Chris nodded. He looked at the invitation once again. "You're good at decoding right? Wait, why is that even a question, of course you are. But in all seriousness, do you think there's something in here that requires to be decoded or something?"

"Possibly." Melissa replied, now looking at the invitation. "The paper they used is just a normal invitation card. If there's anything in here... shoot." Melissa saw a tiny code, 4 numbers at the bottom of the card.

"What is it?" Chris asked.

"There are numbers at the bottom. They are very small and hard to see but we need to." Melissa said, concentrating on getting the numbers. She grabbed a magnifying glass to get a better look. "The first number looks like... 1 then 2. If I'm not mistaken, that's also 1 and 2. The combination is 1212. Is it a date? December is the 12th month, so 12 December? That's literally 2 days from now."

"Does that mean the party will be in 12th of December?" Chris asked again. "How are we supposed to go there? They have security for sure."

Melissa thought for a while then she smiled, she has a plan. "We can go in. They have security, they won't let us in without an invitation. But they will, if we are the security."

Chris smirked. "What's your plan, madam?"

"I don't want to hurt anyone during this mission," Melissa started to explain her plan. "But we need to go in wherever the security people stays, there surely are some uniforms. In order to do that, we should create a distraction for them to go out and leave their post. Well, maybe the one who's checking the people entering will stay in his or her post but we should distract the others away from the gathering so that we won't be suspicious. We'll enter and be the guards inside. Pretty sure you know how to act like a good guard, agent."

Chris nodded. "One problem though. Where is this 'near the area'?"

Melissa smiled, gathering her bag and her phone, also her laptop. "That's what we're going to find out today."

They both left and went to where the 'hotel' is, they left a safe distance to not be suspicious. "It should be anywhere here..." Melissa whispered, looking around the area.

Chris spotted another building from where they are, it looks like an ordinary building from a far but even the hotel looks that way. He pointed at it to Melissa for her to check using her laptop if it's registered.

Melissa checked it and weirdly look at Chris. "It is," she finally said. "But it looks like the hotel. Like those markings and the logo are similar to the hotel's. Maybe they did register it, but why? Let's go in and ask what's in there."

Chris drove towards the building. It is a 5-floor building that kinda looks like the other building, the hotel. Although, this one looks more modern and there are more employees going in and out of it. Melissa approached the guard in the front entrance.

"Good day, sir," Chris started talking. "May we ask what this building is?"

The guard nodded. "This is the 'Charters', sir. It's a corporation that is like for advertising and charts stuff for business."

Melissa joined in. "If it's okay to ask, who owns this building?"

"Oh the CEO? It's Mr. Robert Williams."

Chris and Melissa looked at each other. Both of their minds are thinking, what's with the lastname Williams, why is it always here?