by Newbiel
"Are you accusing me of something?" He asked menacingly.
"No of course not Tobias. The only people who had the opportunity to plant those bugs are the defense company that I hired to install everything, the same one you recommend to me. Now, I'm split between two explanations. One, they did it themselves to keep track of a new secret gouvernementale facility and in this case this is treason. I don't take too well on treason, it means I'm going to involve myself and track them, taking them, interrogating them and then killing them once I have everything I need to track the next one and repeat until I have all the answers I need." He said in a chilling voice, his eyes icy cold.
"You can't do that!" He shouted.
"I can and I will. It's the story of a man who is only gifted at wielding an axe, he transforms every problem he has in wood to cut." He paused a second to make sure his point got across. "Or the second option, they were ordered to plant them by someone high up in the government, someone who had a vested interest in keeping tabs on us."
"That could be everyone, especially after you stole an agent from the CIA, a lot of people are inquiring about your hidden unit." He answers lamely.
"Yes, that's what I thought. It's when I noticed that these chips all have serial numbers on them and it made me think. Since these bugs are so high ends, they must be monitored closely. That's when I got an idea, obviously I do not have the required clearance to know who took it away but then I realized that I don't need it. If I were to plant these bad boys not that well mind you, on the computer of a few senators who are opposed to the White House and maybe one or two Supreme Court Judges, It could make enough noise that I would have to simply sit and watch until I find what I need and to hell with the consequences." He shrugged seemingly unconcerned.
Hearing that Tobias could not control himself this time and paled visibly until he exploded.
"Okay you fu**ing SOB! It was me alright? I did this, just stop whatever your sick mind is coming up with!" He yelled.
"Oh good, we're finally getting somewhere." He said happily.
"What do you want?" He asked in defeat.
"I'm still waiting for the delivery of the weapons I asked for and I still do not have the access I need on the NSA and DOD database. I want those two before christmas or we are going to have an issue."
"It's in two days! That's simply not possible!" He shouted.
"I don't fu**ing care Tobias, you should have thought about it before you try to spy on me. I don't care how you do it but you have two days to get me what I ask. Last word of advice, stay away from my business or I will kill you you insufferable bastard." Nathaniel said coldly before cutting the call.
Picking up the chip on the table, Nathaniel exits the room and walks in Hans' direction.
"So, how did it go?" Hans asked, curiously.
"Like I expected it to be. It was indeed Tobias who wanted to keep tabs on us. Do you know if we have more of them?"
"I don't think so but there are still places I need to check before I can be certain. Just give me two more days, I will be sure then."
"I'm afraid this is not possible Hans. Your flight is leaving in three hours for Germany." Nathaniel said.
"But sir! I still have a lot of work to do here!" Hans shouted.
"The work will still be there when you are going to come back. Just pass the holidays with your family and come back after that." Nathaniel said before adding something when Hans looked like he was going to object. "It's an order Hans!"
"Yes sir." He sighed.
Chapter 177: :
New York, Lyndon Tower. 05/01/2013. 08:50.
Passing the front door of the building, Jon took a moment to look at the lobby. There was already a fair amount of traffic, mostly employees at this time of the day. His eyes focus almost instinctively on the security personnel guarding the lobby. There were five people at key points around the lobby keeping a close eye on every person entering the building. He noticed two of them looking at him with interest as he was standing in the entrance of the lobby and not moving.
Not wanting to be questioned, he starts walking again in the direction of the front desk manned by two extremely attractive young women.
"Welcome to the Lyndon Tower, sir. Do you have an appointment?" She asked in a warm voice looking at him appraisingly.
"I do. My name is Jonathan Smith, I'm scheduled to meet Nathaniel Lyndon?" He answers with a questioning tone at the end.
He was still having trouble understanding what was going on here. He was personally convinced that the two men that came to recruit him were from an intelligence agency based on the information they had on him and their overall demeanor but so far he got no concrete information to prove it.
The car that they had to meet him was a rental and so did not prove useful to Jon about what was going on. The only other thing that he got was a name, Nathaniel Lyndon. He had looked it up on the internet and was not ready at all when he found out that the kid was a successful pop star and actor. More, it did appear that the kid had in fact some talent in singing and acting, which puzzled him even more.
And then there was that building and the Lyndon record as a whole. Everyone knew it in America and it was an extremely legit company. If that was a front for an intelligence agency, it was for sure the most impressive he had ever seen in his life.
"Of course Mister Smith, you were expected. Can you sit with that young lady over here?" She said, pointing to a row of seats on the side where a pretty latina was already waiting. "Someone is going to come to fetch you in a few moments."
"Sure. Thank you." He nodded before going to sit near the woman already there.
Seeing someone coming near her, the woman looked at him with an intensity that made him feel a little unsetle. It was as if she was pondering about if she could beat him in a straight fight. Drawing a conclusion that did not appear to be a good one for his ego, she faintly nodded at him as a greeting before looking back to her phone.
Smiling bitterly at being dismissed like that by a member of the fairer sex, he choose to focus once again on the security personnel around the lobby. Contrary to the old and fat one that was commonly seen inside of banks and museums, these guys mean business. They were competent, focused on their task with extreme attention and seemed to be highly skilled. In fact one of them kept giving them a look over from time to time as if he knew they were a possible threat. It was impressive, really.
Looking at the front desk again, he could see an extremely attractive young asian girl on the desk talking to the same girl that he talked to a few minutes ago. He was surprised on the other hand when the girl made her way to them and sat near the latina who again made a show to look at her like she did with him but with a more challenging look. The girl, to her credit, did not even flinch and react to that challenging stare by just giving a faint, slightly confident smile as an answer.
It was at this moment that another gorgeous girl came their way sitting on a seat on his left. She was around twenty five years old with mid shoulder length blond hair. Jon could see that she was stylishly dressed and every item that she wore was coming from an expensive brand. The girl did not even bother to look in their direction and sit directly, avoiding the whole staring contest with the latina who seemed unhappy about it.
Being surrounded by womens that could easily be models, Jon was starting to have some thought about his presence here. Were the girls invited for the same purpose as him or were they waiting here for another purpose entirely?. It was not long before someone gave him an answer.
"Oh good, you all came. Follow me, please." Scott said, once he stopped in front of them.
Getting to their feets, the four of them all follow him in the direction of the elevator. As they were already a couple of people waiting in the elevator, Scott spoke again.
"Excuse me, Lyndon security. I'm going to ask you to use the other elevator for security reasons. I'm sorry for the inconvenience." Scott said in an authoritative tone, showing his badge.
Reading the floor on top of the door, they all exchanged surprised stares when they passed the sub-level three and the elevator kept descending for a moment before the doors finally opened, showing a huge reinforced steel door. Going to the panel on the right side of the door, Scott lowered himself for his eye to be checked by the scanner before sliding his badge. What followed made the four of them raise an eyebrow.
"E.T phone home." He intoned in a leveled voice.
With a sound that looks a lot like The Imperial March from Star Wars, the door starts opening itself.
"Seriously?" Jon asked in a puzzled voice. Camilla on the side was shaking her head and Na-Yung et Lucie were wearing an amused smile on their faces.
"Don't tell me about it. This is the risk when you trust a girl obsessed with movies and anime to handle security." Scott answered with a shake of his head.
Passing the bunker doors that were at least twenty centimeters thick of reinforced steel, Jon could see two people waiting for them. The first was a cute looking brunette a little over twenty years old and beside her an even younger brown haired kid who both had smiles on their faces.
"Hello everyone, I'm Lina Campbell and beside me is Hans Fuchs, we welcome you to what we are calling affectuously, 'The Bunker'. Not the most imaginative name as we are obviously in a bunker but we liked it so we decided to keep it. Please, follow me to the conference room." She said with a barely noticeable hint of shyness in her voice.
Following the two young people, Jon looks at the main room they were passing by. It was a big place, filled with around ten desks with top of the line computers on them and two screens on each. There were only three desks that seemed to be used at the moment. One of them was filled with various pieces that were difficult to identify for him. The second had two more screens on it with a second computer on the other side of the desk. The third, lastly, had more paper on it and was definitely more organized and clean compared to the two others. It was easy for him to find out to whom the last desk belonged but he did not know which desk belonged to which youngster between the first two.
Entering the conference room that was already open, Jon looked at it for a moment. It was a rectangular room with a long table in the middle that could host at least ten people and was currently unoccupied.
"Just sit wherever you want except on the two sit at the head of the table." Lina advised before taking a seat herself, quickly followed by everyone.
"I would like to welcome you all to The Bunker." Nathaniel's voice echoed upon entering the conference room.
Chapter 178: :
Walking inside, Nathaniel starts making eye contact with everyone, lingering for a second more on Na-Yung face before nodding to himself, satisfied to have the attention of everyone.
"First, I wanted to say thank you for making the trip here. I know some of you live quite far from New York, not even mentioning the one that came from outside of the country." He said, nodding in Lucie and Hans' direction who had just come back for passing the holidays with his family in Germany.
"Next, if you are here, it means you are interested or curious enough to know more about what we do and what we are going to do in the future. But first, I would like for all who did not already do so to sign this non disclosure agreement." Nathaniel said, putting a file in front of Jon, Lucie, Camilla and Na-Yung.
Not really surprised by the demand, they all took a moment to read it attentively with the notable exception of Na-Yung who signed it before giving back the contract to Nathaniel with a smirk. Giving a stupefied stare to the asian girl, Jon just read it until the end before signing it, followed quickly by the latina.
"What if I refused to sign it before my lawyer took a look at it?" Lucie asked with caution.
"It's easy, you will be escorted back to the lobby where you will have the occasion to do so but being a law student, I can tell you that they will advise you to not sign it. Ultimately, it will be your decision but I'm afraid we will be away at that time you will be ready to give it. Moreover, it's just a NDA to force you to not say anything about any of the things I'm about to say, you will still be free to refuse my offer once you learn what we are doing here." Nathaniel shrugged, taking the two signed contracts from Jon and Camilla's hands.
Understanding what he was saying, Lucie finally signed albeit a little unwillingly before giving the contract back to him. Satisfied, Nathaniel took it with a nod before taking a seat at the head of the table.
"Now that you all signed it, I'm free to tell you what we are all about. We are a private company that will work outside of the federal agency at the discretion of the President of the United States. Our mandate will be varied, investigation, threat against the President or the White House, danger assessment and kidnapping, all that is too sensible for a federal agency to deal with. We will be free to refuse a case even if it's ordered by the President itself and we will be free to take our own cases if the situation demands it without asking for permission." Nathaniel explained succinctly.
Processing what they had just heard in silence, it was not long before someone exploded in raucous laughter.
"You really expect us to believe that load of crap?" Camilla shouted. Nathaniel could see that she was not the only one who did not believe him among the four new people around the table.
"Well it's the truth but I knew that some of you would never believe it because of my age and/or my background. This is why I made a plan for that exact situation. Lina." Nathaniel nodded in her direction.
Understanding the signal, Lina starts tapping on her tablet. A second later the big screen on the other side of the room flickers before letting appear a man sitting behind his desk and a woman beside him standing up and looking at the screen with attention. Seeing these two persons on the screen, the reaction was immediate. Scott, Jon and Camilla all jump to their feet making a salute. In fact, Camilla got up so quickly that her chair fell on the ground behind her. Even if the other did not get to their feet, they had an expression of surprise and awe on their face. The non american people in the room recognized the President easily as he was a well known figure worldwide.
"As you were." The President nodded in their direction with a faint smile on his face, he always liked the military type.
"Mister President, First Lady." Nathaniel greeted them respectfully with a twinkle in his eyes.
"Hellp Nathaniel. I see that the whole team is finally here but it seems we have a surprising addition." The President looked at Na-Yung with interest.
"Yes, surprising but not unworthy." He answers.
"I look forward to seeing that. Well, I'm busy so I will not stay here much longer. Just wanted to tell you that your help will be needed very soon so work hard everyone."
"Nathaniel, when are you going to come back? Alexander asked to see you." The First Lady asked.
"When I will have the time to do so, I promised Linda. Just make sure that your husband is not killing himself with work in the meantime, alright?" Nathaniel said, giving her a smile.
"Don't worry about it, I know how to deal with him by now. Bye Nathaniel." Linda said, her husband giving a bitter smile before cutting the call.
Seeing the stunt silence around the table, Nathaniel chose to speak to not let it linger.
"At least now you can be sure that it's not a scam." He said with a hint of humor in his voice before continuing. "I choose each of you because I believe you are the best in your respective field and you have still untapped potential inside of you. But first, let me introduce you to the others." Nathaniel adds, looking at them until his eyes stop on Scott and he starts to smile.
"Oh crap." Scott mutters to himself.
"Let's start with Scott." He said,
taking the tablet from Lina hands and showing his service records on the screen. "Ex colonel from Delta Force, he's specialised in search and rescue and incursion tactics. As you can see, he's also the holder of an Air Force Cross which is the second highest medal you can get in the Air Force and two Airman's medals. The rest you can read it yourself." Nathaniel said, hiding a satisfied smile seeing the others starting to give respectful glances to Scott.
"Let's do the ones coming from the military first, shall we? Next, is Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Smith." He said, showing Jon service records on screen. "Combat medic in the US Army for ten years, he chose after members of his unit got infected with a rare disease to be affected in the USAMRIID where he quickly became one of the best in infectious disease. He's also the holder of the Soldier Medal for saving five soldiers from his unit with little to no medical material on site while fighting back against a unit of rebel soldiers."
"Next, Corporal Camilla Flores. Specialist in demolition and explosive, she distinguished herself in Iraq and Afghanistan in their quest against IED and bombing of government buildings. She's also a skilled fighter with a good mastery over a few martial arts. Promoted for her bravery and for her skill to Sergeant Major, she was later demoted for bad mouthing her superiors repeatedly. It lasted until she was forced to leave after breaking her CO jaw for making a pass at her. After that, she integrated SWAT where she was fired two years later when she almost killed two of her fellow SWAT officers when they tried to assault her." At that point there were more than a couple of laughs around the table, Camilla having a smirk on her face, curiously proud with herself.
"Next, Lina Campbell. Labelled as a genius in High School, she succeeded in getting accepted to the Massachusett Institute of Technology or MIT. In MIT, she was respected and admired by her professor for her computer skills until she was unable to pay her tuition fees because of her mother's disease. After that, she concentrated herself on her hacking skills and is now one of the best at it. Separately, she's also a skilled shooter, having won several tournaments at the regional and even national level."