by Krister Persson
(Brookhaven Facilities, Day 2, Mid-morning)
"What kind of experiments are CrossTech Pharmaceuticals involved in?" Martin asked Jessica. He studied her reaction carefully.
Jessica took an involuntary step backwards. Martin noticed a brief flicker of insecurity, before she replied. "They are not conducting any research here at the moment."
"Funny, all four of their reserved parking spaces were taken." At that remark, Jessica turned from insecure to outright annoyed.
"Someone else must be using them then," she said, her eyes shooting flames. It was quite apparent that she was hiding something. Martin didn't buy her story. He had seen several available parking spaces in that particular lot, most of them much closer to the building complex. He decided to drop the matter for now.
Jessica gathered herself and continued the tour. Her comments were much shorter and snappier than before. All she wanted was for the tour to end. Twenty minutes later, it did. Jessica walked the agents to the car and went back inside.
Her assistant came running down the corridor. "Mr. Addams wants you in his office a.s.a.p," he said. "I have no idea what he wants, but it sounded important."
"Thank you, Tony," Jessica replied. This was quickly becoming the worst day in her life. First she had to lie to federal agents and now Mr. Addams wanted to talk to her. Aaron Addams only called people to his office when they'd done something wrong.
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"Sir, you wanted to see me," Jessica said with a thin voice. The man behind the desk looked up from his papers. He gave her a stern look and went back to his papers. Jessica had never felt so small. What was she supposed to do? In the end, she just stood there, feeling the cold sweat trickle down her back.
Aaron's intimidation technique had worked. The woman in front of him looked positively terrified. "What did they want?" he asked, referring to the FBI agent that just left.
"They didn't say," Jessica said, "the just wanted to have a look around."
"I see. Did they ask anything about Building 7?"
"Yes, but I fed them the line about storage and power supply, as per your orders."
"Good. Anything else?"
"One of the agents seemed very interested in CrossTech Pharmaceuticals. I lied and told them that CrossTech weren't involved in any research at the moment."
"Excellent, but I think we'll send out the bird anyway, just to make sure."
"Yes Sir, I will contact the pilot."
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(Houston St., NYC, around noon)
"You're pretty sure she lied then?" Jordan asked Martin.
"She was lying through her teeth the whole time," Martin replied. "It would be very interesting to see what's behing door number 7 at Brookhaven. Perhaps I should call in a favor and get a search warrant for the place..."
"I don't think so," Jordan said. "we will play this by the book for now."
"Ok, Chief."
Jordan was just about to say something, when the cab in front of them was suddenly engulfed in flames. Vanessa steered frantically to avoid hitting it.
"What the hell," Jordan said.
"Behind us, twelve o'clock," Martin shouted. Hoverring silently behind them, was a black unmarked helicopter. It had just armed it's second air-to-ground missile.
Vanessa broke hard left and avoided being hit by less than 5 yards. The car rocked when the missile hit a phone booth. Small pieces of shrapnel bounced off the roof of the car.
A few seconds later, the chopper opened fire with it's machine guns. The first burst hit the car's left fender, causing the tyre to explode. Vanessa had to struggle to keep the car from turning over.
"Turn right at the next intersection," Jordan called to her. He knew the city well enough to know that there was a parking garage up ahead. Once inside, they would be safe.
The helicopter continued to spit fire. Cars were slamming into each other all around the agent's car. Some were hit and caught fire. Vanessa saw the parking garage and slammed on the gas pedal. Ten seconds later they were safe.
The chopper pilot cursed. The agents weren't supposed to return unharmed, but at least he had given them a good scare.
When the three agents re-emerged a minute later, a gruesome sight met them. The street looked like something from the set of Godzilla. Jordan scratched his head. How was he going to explain this to UD Garrison?
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[NRPG] According to our tour guide, when Mia and I visited NYC, Houston St. is actually pronounced [how-stonn].