by Lee Sau Woon
After rearranging the whole stretch of Houston Street, the agents slowly made their way back to the motel.
"Anyone hungry after so much excitement?" Martin asked.
"Hungry? No. " Jordan's stomach just do not feel like taking in anything when his mind was preoccupied with all the forms he had to fill in again.
"I am though," Vanessa told Martin. "I feel like eating something - different. How about one whole turkey?"
"Vanessa, looking at your size, no one would ever suspect that you eat that much," Martin was amused.
"I'm still growing."
After driving for a while, the agents saw a Japanese eatery that was almost empty.
"Great, Japanese, and no queue." Vanessa's eyes brightened.
"Does it ever occur to you that no queue might indicate that the food is not up to standard?" Jordan asked her as he stopped the car in front of the eatery.
"Never, Jordan. Everything taste nice with enough gravy." She replied as she quickly made her way out of the car. Martin followed.
"Martin, just get something for me, willya? I'm staying just in case they try to bomb the car again."
The latter stopped and turned back.
"Something? Like what?"
"Whatever that you think will not kill me."
Martin grinned, and he followed Vanessa's route into the shop.
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The trio had just settled down back into their hotel room when Jordan's cellphone rang.
"Stern."
Vanessa and Martin looked at their chief, and looked, as his eyes widened, then narrowed, then widened again.
"He's still alive?"
The duo's eyes widened in horror, until Jordan saw them and mouth not-them.
"Can he talk?"
Another pause.
"OK. Get back to the hotel, I've got a plan for us tonight. I think you and Jim might like it."
Then he hung up.
"What's up." Martin asked.
"Someone from the tunnels was attacked, and he is not dead."
"Can he talk?"
"They don't know. The guy was sent to the hospital, but we might not be allowed to interview him."
"They have to let us see him sooner or later. We are the FBI afterall."
"I won't be surprised if we are denied access, Vanessa. This will not be the first time we met oppostion."
"That is true. By the way, will the Zenya and the rest be coming back now?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"I bought their share." Her smile was wide.
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Zenya, Jim and Leo entered the room 15 minutes later, and saw the three of them seated around Jordan's room eating what was definitely unrecognisable.
"What's that?" Leo asked, surprised.
"Jap food. Come on, they are nice." Vanessa beckoned to him. "I got your share too."
"She's not kidding, they actually tasted like food." Martin informed them with with a grin on his face.
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Brookhaven 2200 hours
As usual, Vanessa drove, and she parked the car a few miles away from Brookhaven, hidden among the bush, and she, Jim and Leo silently made their way to Brookhaven. Jim and Leo had, between them, enough equipment and weapon to attack any oil-rich Middle East countries, and Vanessa had shook her head at their choice of weapon earlier at the FBI office in NYC. She could not even named some of them.
Jessica had mentioned that Building 7 was located in the opposite direction from the rest of the buildings, and using that information, the three of them found themselves outside the fence of the most remote part surrounding the place.
Getting over the fence was busy. Either the security had overlooked this area, or even the security was not allowed to petrol this area. Either way, it made things easier for them.
The moment the three of them landed on the compound itself, they saw Building 7.
The building was four storeys tall, with no windows. There was no lights. It took the agents five minutes before they found a small door at one corner. There was a slot for security card, a number pad, a handle and a key hole.
"Anyone knows how to pick lock here?" Leo asked.
Jim smiled as he took out a wire from one of his pockets and inserted it into the keyhole.
As Vanessa watched for any security guards approaching. Leo took out a plain card with a magnetic strip, and slided it into the security card slot, stopping when the card was right in the middle.
"At the count of three - one, two, three."
At the mention of 'three', Leo slided the card out of the slot, and Jim turned the wire slightly to produce a soft click sound. The door opened inward and the agents stepped in.
"How did you know that's the way?" Vanessa was amazed.
"Small trick. Any intruder will try the handle, and that will trigger the alarm. There is three steps to opening this door. First you have to 'unlock' through the keyhole and then leave the key there. Then, you have to slide your security card through, and key in your code before removing the key from the keyhole. I don't have the correct security card, so I had to do things abit different."
"How did you know the method?"
"I came up with the general idea in high school. a classmate stole the idea and improvised. That was his company name embossed on the number pad."
The agents walked through the corridor. There was a power generator at one corner, while another corner stocked several empty cages. It seemed that the place was really used as a storeroom. There was nothing out of ordinary.
The agents were proceeding slowly, making their way towards the staircase at the end of the corridor, when suddenly they heard a hair-raising whine from above them. This was not a storeroom afterall.
"Upstairs," Jim said, as the three agents quickly ran towards the stairs to the upper floors.
NRPG : okie, I am supposed to be working... shhhhhhhh.,...