A Leader

"Okay, now let's begin" Shiro says and a robot moves towards Gideon. Gavin on the other hand seems to be enjoying himself than the others who are just watching with smiles as the creepy grin on his face gets wider and wider. The robot gets to Gideon and before he could take a swing, he is sent flying to one end of the arena.

"Argh!" he lets out a cry as he crushes down "That's enough for now, get me out of this suit" he pleads. Gavin let's out a roar of laughter and the others follow in his stead. Zarx runs to him and helps him up and the suit transforms back into a backpack revealing his sweaty face

"Not doing that ever again". He says handing the suit back to Zarx and goes back to his seat as Gavin continues to laugh uncontrollably.

"Boss, I think I got something" he calls after a while and enlarges an image on the screen. Gavin's laughter subsides as he and the others come closer.

"What is it".

"See this tunnel?" he asks.

"Yeah what about it" Zarx enquires

"It takes cars approximately 0.80 to 1.5 minutes to come out of this tunnel, that is when it moves at speeds between 62 – 75 miles an hour, which is the required speed for this particular tunnel. But it takes these vans 2.5 minutes to come out of the tunnel"

"So what about it? If something fishy is going on in there, it would surely be noticed. There are surveillance cameras in that tunnel" Gavin says.

"Now that's where it gets interesting, so I hacked the traffic control room to monitor these vans and it turns out the cameras do not record them entering or exiting the tunnels at all"

"That's definitely fishy". Ace says.

"Right? So I tried an IR and X-Ray scan but the walls of the tunnel were too thick I couldn't find anything. Perhaps there is a large amount of lead in those walls which is preventing X Rays from penetrating" he concludes.

"Something fishy is definitely going on in there. It's like a safe route sort of thing. No witnesses what's so ever. Think there's a secret passage in there or something?" Melanie voices out.

"Definitely. What about you guys, you didn't say anything about your trip" Gideon mentions.

"Right" Melanie answers then continue "That's because there isn't much to say. As planned, we bugged potential sniping spots and planted drones for surveillance outside but couldn't bug the tower"

"Why not?"

"Well we managed to send about five drones inside when a guard opened the door, but as soon as the door shut we lost all connections with the drones. We suspected there was some kind of signal jammer in the building. So as of now, we have no idea what lays in store for us behind those doors" she concludes.

"So how are you going to shut them down if you don't even know what to expect in that building?" Gideon asks.

"By doing what we do best" Shiro says.

"And what is that?"

"Preparing for the worst and improvising"

"Okay. Remember Mr Kemper said the building is governmental?"

"Yeah" Zarx says.

"Do you think we can connect that to the tunnel? Because from what I know, this tunnel was renovated like six years ago, so don't you think the same guys may have worked on the tunnel and probably have a secret passage there and that's why the cameras do not record their entry or exit? And also had lead put in the walls so that those passages can't be found by any form of scanning?"

"We definitely can, but we would have to confirm first by going into that tunnel. And we can only do that after the Lynch Tower mission. So we will just be monitoring, for now, then after the mission, we would go check it out" Zarx says.

"That's a cool plan boss"

"Anyway, why do you even keep calling me boss?" he asks.

"I work for you do I not?"

"What do you mean you work for me?"

"Aren't you the leader of the team? The members of a team, work for the leader and that's what makes the leader the boss"

"What kind of ideology is that? And since when did I become a leader anyway? I just kinda did what I felt was right as and when necessary. That doesn't make me leader."

"But they don't see it that way do they?"

"Who doesn't see it what way?" he says looking at the others who look rather calm than confused.

[Did they have a meeting about this or something? Why do I feel like they are about to dump all this on me?]

"All I'm saying is everyone here considers you the leader, maybe you haven't realized that yet"

"The fact that I formed this team doesn't mean I'm obliged to lead it…"

"It isn't because you formed this team that we consider you the leader of this team" Shiro cuts in.

"It's because you have those qualities. Leaders make tough decisions when they are faced with tough problems. And you demonstrated that when you made the tough call and saved Gavin's life and almost lost everything because of that. I don't know what I would have done in that situation. I agree we were a little hard on you that day but looking back, we realized you made the right call. If you didn't know you were a leader before, now you do. You were always a leader to us since the beginning. And we work for you…" he pauses then says with a broad smile "Boss...".

"I… …don't know... what to say" he stammers.

"You don't need to say anything. Just go on with whatever you are doing. You are already doing a good job so just keep at it".

He smiles and looks toward the screen in front of him but his smile slowly fades and is replaced by a serious expression as a giant exclamation mark appears on the screen and the whole room goes red with a blaring noise.