Ryan arrived at the NIA the next morning, eager to check the profile against the database. The moment he walked in, however, his enthusiasm evaporated. The Agency was a hive of nervous activity, security had been tightened at the doors, armed guards roamed the halls, and every office door was closed up tight. Something very serious had happened, and before he could do anything today, he needed to find out what it was. With that goal in mind, he made his way to the break room on the 3rd floor. He figured that gossip was always a faster way to get at information then trying to inquire in any official capacity. And he was right. Though people were keeping their voices down, the news was all anyone was talking about. It wasn’t good. He needed to call Hawkins right away, without anyone overhearing, so he headed back out to the parking lot. A security guard at the door stopped him, suspicious that he was leaving so soon after arriving. He made some excuse about forgetting something in his car and hastily exited the building. Locked in his car again, Ryan pulled out his cell.
“Hawkins, we’ve got a problem,” he wasted no time on small talk.
“Something with the profile?” she asked.
“No,” Ryan replied. “I haven’t been able to run it yet. This is much worse.”
“What is it?”
“He’s picked a new victim,” Ryan felt her flinch as the news hit home.
“What? So soon? Are you sure?” he could hear a mixture of horror and disbelief in her words.
“Unfortunately, I am,” Ryan murmured.
“What happened?”
“I didn’t get all the details; they are keeping it tightly under wraps, only those directly involved in the case are getting much information. But from what I did hear there was a bank heist 3 days ago.”
“I haven’t heard anything about this in the news.”
“Well, apparently, the perpetrators cleared out the safe deposit boxes of some very influential people and they have been putting pressure on the agency to get it solved quickly and quietly. It’s been kept out of the media, for now, but I doubt that will last.”
“Why, what happened?”
“It looks like the agent in charge managed to track the two robbers involved back to an apartment, where they were believed to be hiding. He was on his way to apprehend the guys, but the two agents who arrived first, to set up a perimeter, radioed in that they heard screams, and they made entry, without waiting for the rest of the team. By the time the rest arrived, everyone was already dead. It looked like the two bank robbers had, somehow, been expecting the agents; they lured them in and ambushed them. The screams were found on a movie in the DVD player, the TV was turned up loudly enough to be heard from the street. But the really strange part is that both of the robbers were found dead at the scene, also. Both shot, execution-style in the back of the head. Neither agent could have done it, and the gun that fired those two shots was not found at the scene.”
Ryan paused to take a breath.
“What about the letter?” Hawkins sounded tired.
“The agent in charge found it this morning. He was leaving the office around 5am, after finishing up his paperwork. He found it taped to his car and headed straight back into the building to report it. The whole place is in an uproar. It’s all anyone is talking about: Parabellum is back, and he’s called out another agent.”
“Do you know what the letter said?”
“Not exactly. It’s only been a few hours, so they are clamming up right now, trying to decide on their next move. It will probably come out eventually, but I doubt I’ll be able to get any more details anytime soon. All I know is that it claimed responsibility and dared the agent to stop him before he killed again. Standard stuff, probably not helpful. I am sure that the letter said nothing about you; that would have gotten out. As it stands, I don’t think we’ve been compromised. I also don’t think that we should concentrate on this case too much. It will bring too much heat, and you can bet the rest of the agency will be investigating it thoroughly. But if anything useful develops, I’ll let you know.”
“There’s one detail you’re leaving out though, isn’t there?” Hawkins accused.
“What do you mean?”
“Who’s the agent?” she prompted.
Ryan cringed; he had been dreading giving her this particular piece of news. He knew that she would blame herself.
“Who is it, Stone?” she pushed him. “Who’s the target?”
“I’m sorry Hawkins,” he replied reluctantly. “It’s Ethan Cross.”
He heard her exhale slowly; for a long moment there was only silence.
“Of course, it is,” she said at last. “He’s a damn good agent. Just Parabellum’s type. Hell, it probably would have been him the last time, if he hadn’t been in Dubai when the first case came in.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Ryan thought back to his conversation with Collins on that first day; she was right, Collins himself had suggested that Hawkins was not his first choice for the kidnapping.
“This is my fault, Stone,” Hawkins continued. “If I had just come forward in the beginning, Ethan wouldn’t…”
“Don’t,” Ryan broke in. “Don’t do that. We took this risk for a good reason, and now we need to see it through. There is no point second guessing it now.”
“You are right. I know that but still…”
“What are you saying? Do you want to end this now, come forward?” Ryan asked.
“No, we keep going,” Hawkins sighed heavily. “What choice do we have? We find this guy and we stop him, hopefully before he kills Ethan or any more of his team. We just have to speed it up, that’s all. You think you can still get that profile run today?”
“I think I can, though it’ll be tough with the increased security. But shouldn’t we say something? I mean, there’s an investigation now, they should know what we know.”
“Nothing has changed, we still need to stay under the radar, Stone. We can do more good this way. If the DNA sample comes back as a solid suspect, we’ll come out and turn everything we’ve found over. If it doesn’t, we need to keep investigating, ok?”
“Shouldn’t we at least tell them that it is an inside job? They need that information. It could help keep people alive.”
“You’re right, they should know at least that. I’ll take care of it,” Hawkins replied. “But I need you to do one more thing for me.”
“What do you need?”
“If you get a hit to our sample, I need you to get that person’s file, and everything else you can find about them, and bring it back here as soon as you can get away.”
“Consider it done. See you in a few hours.” Ryan hung up the phone and got out of the car.
He took a deep breath and tried to calm his nerves. If this DNA sample didn’t pan out… he shook his head. It was pointless to dwell on that. Still, whatever happened now, things had just gotten much more complicated.
Ryan was leaning against the wall outside of the Hawkins’s apartment, waiting. He had important information to give her, and he had no idea where she had disappeared to. Calling her cell, he could hear it ringing from inside the apartment, but she didn’t answer it, or the door. He was just starting to seriously consider breaking in when he finally saw Hawkins exit the stairwell, carrying a backpack in one hand.
“Hey Stone,” she waved casually.
“Hey Stone? Hey Stone?” he snapped. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Went for a walk,” she shrugged, unlocking her door.
“Went for a walk!?” Stone fumed. “You know you aren’t supposed to leave the apartment. Couldn’t you at least bring your phone?”
Hawkins grabbed his arm and dragged him into the apartment, slamming the door.
“Look, I went to send an anonymous tip to Cross, ok?” she hissed. “But it isn’t so anonymous if you broadcast it to everyone, so can you keep your voice down?”
Ryan dropped his gaze to the floor.
“Sorry, I didn’t know. I was just, you know, worried.”
“It’s alright,” Hawkins calmed down. “Don’t worry, I was careful. I left the phone so I couldn’t be tracked, and I made sure I wasn’t followed. No one will link it to me. Frankly, it was nice to get out of the apartment for a while. But forget about that. The real question is did you get it?” she asked eagerly.
They entered the apartment and Hawkins locked the door.
“Oh, I got it,” Ryan replied glumly. “But you aren’t going to like it.”
Hawkins knitted her brows,
“Why?”
Ryan reached under his coat and pulled out a package of papers. Hawkins opened it up and pulled out the first page.
“We got a hit?” she was surprised. “I thought you said I wouldn’t like it?”
“You won’t. Take a look” Ryan groaned. “The DNA came back to an NIA agent named Craig Ferrier. He was an agent back during the 2nd Parabellum incident.” Ryan hesitated; he didn’t want to deliver the bad news.
“So far so good,” Hawkins prompted him to continue with a wave of her hand.
“Well, the problem is that he’s dead.”
“What!? Recently?”
“No, not at all. He died almost 20 years ago, right before Shawn Walker went missing.”
“Was he a victim in the case, then?”
“No, unfortunately. He wasn’t even working the case,” Ryan sighed heavily. “I have his personnel file in there, as well as his case file, so that you can read it for yourself, but I’ll give you the summary now. The day before Shawn Walker disappeared, a couple of kids found Craig Ferrier in the alley behind a bar that he was known to frequent. He had been stabbed twice in the chest and his wallet and watch were missing. The agents investigating it at the time concluded it was a mugging that went bad, but there were no real leads. With the Parabellum case taking up all the department resources at the time, the mugging got less attention than it should have. It went cold fast, and the killer was never found. I am sorry Hawkins; it looks like all of this is completely unrelated.”
“Is it? I wonder…” Hawkins chewed on her lip thoughtfully, gazing at the crime scene photos.
“What are you thinking?” Ryan had been sure it was a dead end, but the look on her face told him she felt otherwise. He felt a little surge of hope.
“Look at this,” Hawkins pointed to a photo of the body. “See there? His gun is still in its holster. He hasn’t even unclasped it.”
“So?” Ryan asked.
“So how does a man get close enough to stab a trained agent without them even reaching for their gun?”
“There could be a million reasons for that, Hawkins. I mean, maybe they took him by surprise, maybe he panicked, maybe he thought that if he just handed over his wallet everything would be fine. Hell, he was coming from a bar, maybe he was just drunk.”
“Maybe. But the timing is also very suspicious. Killed just one day before the Parabellum case essentially ended? And we found his DNA on the evidence from that same case? It has to mean something,” Hawkins headed for her office.
Ryan followed along behind her. He watched as she logged into the NIA’s cold case database. She opened the search option and entered the dates spanning each Parabellum incident. When the search bounced back its results, Ryan’s jaw almost hit the floor.
“Now that,” Hawkins gestured at the screen. “That cannot be a coincidence.”
The names of 3 agents blinked on the screen, each one had been murdered, each murder was listed as a probable mugging, which had never been solved, and each one happened during one of the Parabellum incidents. Craig Ferrier was the first. The second was Gary Harmon, he was shot in the chest and his wallet was stolen just before Grace Hawkins disappeared. The final name was Darrel Trainer, he had died of gunshot wound to the head and his watch and wallet were taken; he died the very same day that Adrian Peirce went missing. It was a perfect, matched set of 6 dead agents.
“Holy shit,” Ryan whispered. “What the hell does this mean, Hawkins?”
“Honestly, Stone? I don’t know. But I sure as hell am going to find out.”
The way that she said it, Ryan believed her.