Chapter 208

208 Through the FBI Headquarters

Captain Briggs began to lead us through the hall that was filled with pictures that displayed in every corner, and each of them was a picture of him standing beside some dignitary, whether it was a U.S. President, a World Leader, or a head of state. I thought I might have seen some of them before. Some were familiar. Some weren’t.

I noticed that the other men in his team were all wearing dark suits with a white shirt underneath and ties. They were clean cut and looked professional, but I didn’t know how I felt about this man, Captain Briggs, and his team. I didn’t know what they were planning and I was still very worried about how the situation was going to go down.

“How big is your team?” I asked questionably, hoping to hear an answer that would make me feel better about this group.

“Oh we’re a large team,” he said, “We have a total of seven agents with us, including me. I’m also the leader of my team, and I take that very seriously.”

“That’s good news, somewhat,” Nikki said as she looked around curiously, “I’ve been thinking about this and I was wondering what was going to happen once you got there. There’s no way we’re going to be able to fight them off ourselves, are we?”

“Depends on how we plan,” he said, slightly turning his head back, “I mean, we have a plan.”

“I’d love to hear it,” she said, her tone suggesting that she didn’t really think it would help her at all, “but right now I don’t know what we can do against that many people.”

“Oh we have a plan, trust me,” Captain Briggs said.

“It’s just that the plan is to break in there,” I said, “and if the plan is to break in there, then I don’t know why we have to ask the question of what we’re going to do once we get there.”

.....

“Well,” Captain Briggs said, “it’s not a complete plan.” He took us into a room filled with chairs and had us sit down. “Have a seat, please.” We all did as he said. “The first thing we have to do is gather more information on the building we want to break into.”

“What does that mean?” Nikki asked, sitting next to me. She seemed a little nervous about being in this man’s office and with so many people around us.

“I mean we have to find out all the information about the building we want to break into,” he said, “the one where the virus is being kept. We have to know the layout and the security of the building so we can plan our attack properly. We can’t go in there blindly. That’s the first thing.”

“Good point, good point,” I nodded with him, “and what are the other things you need to know?”

“Well,” he said with a smile, “the second thing is that it’s very important that we gather more information about the virus itself. We need to know all about it, especially its weaknesses. Then we need to gather more information on the people who created the virus. The more information we have, the better chance we have of beating them.”

“Well we know that it’s Dr. Mord, and we have a list of the scientists that worked with him,” I said to Captain Briggs, “so that’s a start.”

“Yeah, and we know that it’s a virus that can infect animals and people, which is pretty interesting,” Nikki said, “but how does it work?”

“Well,” Captain Briggs said, “the first thing is that it’s a very simple virus, or a worm, as some might call it. It is very easy to create and spread. All it takes is to insert a single cell into another living cell and the cell with the virus will create new cells to do the same thing. So basically it spreads very quickly.”

“I didn’t expect to be learning Science today...” Malachi chuckled, scratching his head, “so how do you kill it?”

“It is killed with the use of a certain kind of radiation which breaks down the cells,” Captain Briggs told him.

“So how do you get that kind of radiation?” I asked. “Are you saying we might find a cure inside of Dr. Mord’s base.”

“I hope so,” Captain Briggs responded, laying back and sighing heavily, “but I’m not sure. What we need to do is figure out how to kill it once we get in there, and then get rid of it after we kill it. Then we have to find out all about it so we can keep ourselves safe from it. We can’t let it escape and get loose. The last thing we want is for it to start infecting people all over the world.”

“You’ve given us a lot to think about,” I said, “and I have to say that I don’t think there is anything we can do right now, or at least not anything I can think of.”

“You’re probably right,” he said, “but I’m going to send a few men out tonight to check out the building where the virus is being kept and see what they can find out about it. By tomorrow, I hope we can finally start moving in. Stay tuned until tonight, because that’s when we explain how we’re going to invade it,” he said, looking at us with a smile, “and how you might be able to help.”

“How could we help?” I asked him, wondering if he really believed that I was the person he needed. “You already told us what we need to do.”

“Many ways, Connor...many ways,” he said, wiggling his pencil around, “but most of all, you need to be able to help with the plan to take over the building. It’s all very simple really, but I want you to understand what needs to be done.” He then stood up, and so did everyone else, and took a few steps towards the door.

“Make sure to be back here by 6 pm, sharp,” Captain Briggs added before he closed the door.

We all walked outside the room together and I looked at the others. I was feeling a little confused and didn’t know what to do next.

“So what do we do now?” I asked. Fulton remarked nothing until he turned his head towards me, and sighed. “I don’t know,” he finally responded, looking at each of us in turn, “we can’t stay cooped up in here forever. What are we supposed to do?”

“I don’t know,” Malachi repeated.

Nikki and I looked at each other. “Explore,” Nikki said with a wide smile, which it was starting to look more creepy than normal, “maybe we should go see the sights.”

I nodded in agreement, but was suddenly confused by Nikki’s choice of words. Why would we have to explore? I thought. I was hoping that we’d just have to find our way out of the building. But since she’d said that, I thought that maybe I should try and be brave about it too. So I stood up straight and nodded in agreement, even though I felt a little sick inside. “Okay, I’ll go first,” I said, feeling slightly dizzy from the motion.

Malachi walked beside me while Fulton followed behind. We went down the stairs and past the two agents standing guard, who were also confused as to what to do.

“Hopefully they have some snacks here,” Malachi muttered, causing Nikki to shoot him a look, but she didn’t say anything.

As we made our way through the hallways, we heard voices from down the hall. A group of people were laughing and talking loudly, probably getting ready to go out somewhere. As we got closer, I heard one voice speaking in particular.

“Do you know who else is going with us?”

“Who?”

“That skull ring guy.”

I knew right away what he meant and felt an icy shiver run down my spine. But I didn’t say anything, I didn’t want to say anything, I didn’t want to be right, I just wanted to keep walking.

We soon reached the end of the hall and could hear their voices clearly. It sounded like a small party of five or six agents that were talking before they headed out. “Well, what’s going on with them?” Nikki asked, her eyes focused on those agents. I shrugged, unsure of what to say, but I couldn’t help but feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as we passed them by.

“We’re all going to head out later,” one of the agents said, “maybe catch a show or something.”

“Yeah, although I’m scared about Dr. Mord,” I heard another one continue before their voices faded into silence, “I don’t know what his plans are anymore.”

They were right though, because I was feeling the same way, but I didn’t dare say anything as we walked down another hallway. We stopped as we heard a loud voice from a nearby room. The door was open slightly and I could see an agent talking into a telephone receiver.

“You’re sure? That’s great.” The voice continued, “Okay then.” The agent then hung up and closed the door behind him. He walked out into the hallway with a smile on his face, waving to us as he went by.

Had no idea what he was doing, all I know is that the FBI Headquarters differed greatly from I expected, and was definitely more crowded than I ever would have guessed. It was just like that big office in the center of the building we were staying in except instead of being a fancy room with lots of fancy furniture, this place had been filled with people. There were people everywhere! In every hallway we walked down there was someone, or a whole group of people walking by. They all had stern faces, as if they were hiding something.

Or maybe that’s how everyone is these days...I don’t know, but it made me feel uneasy just looking at them.

“What’s going on?” Malachi asked, turning his head towards me.

“I have no idea,” I replied, shrugging my shoulders, “I guess they just like to have a lot of people around them.”

“Why do you think that is?” he asked.

I shrugged again. “I have no idea. Maybe it’s just their way of dealing with things?”

We came upon a doorway with several men standing around talking amongst themselves, so I stopped walking and looked inside. One of the men was talking on the phone while another man stood there listening to him speak. But then he turned and looked at me, with his nametag saying: “Kellerman.”

I continued to look at him, but he didn’t utter a word, only stared back at me blankly. His expression wasn’t threatening or anything; it was just a blank stare, like I wasn’t allowed to talk to him or something. I turned back ahead, a bit creeped out from the startling look, and I saw Malachi doing the same thing.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head.

“Maybe he’s just curious about what we’re doing,” Malachi said.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“Come on,” he said, “let’s keep walking.”