May 30, 1999

Forster slammed me and May to the nearest car. He then cuffed my right hand to May's left hand.

Harlan: Handcuffs. I was starting to think this was never gonna happen.

May: Oh piss off.

Berman: Bring them to my car. I'll bring them to HQ personally.

Forster started pushing us to Berman's car.

Harlan: Sir, please believe me.

May: It wasn't us. There was a blond woman. She let them in!

Harlan: We had nothing to do with-

Forster: SHUT IT YOU TWO!

He slammed both of us on Berman's car.

Forster: Harlan, is SHE still here?

I chuckled.

Harlan: Of course.

Forster: Listen, the Director won't believe anything you say even if I back you up. You're own your own.

May: What are you-

Forster: Take this to her, Brandle, do what you need to do.

Forster handed something to me.

Harlan: I'll try not to break anything sir.

Forster: Ready?

Harlan: Brace yourself boss.

Forster: Good luck.

I turned around and headbutt Forster. Forster fell, nose bleeding and I grabbed his gun and shot two bullets up in the air.

Harlan: EVERYONE WEAPONS DOWN! Weapons down or she gets it.

I aimed the gun at May.

May: Harlan, what the fu-

Harlan: Run on my signal.

May: What?

Harlan: RUN!

I shot one last time at the sky, everyone ducked and May and I ran away.

_.-

May: Where are we going?

Harlan: HERE! C'MON!

I ran to turn left but May ran to turn right and the handcuff pulled me to her.

Harlan: May, no!

Gunshots at May. May cursed as she dodged the bullets and ran to the direction I was running towards.

Harlan: C'MON!

May and I ran. Suddenly...

BANG!

A gunshot.

I suddenly felt pain in my leg and fell.

May: HARLAN!

T.H.E.P.A. Agent: On the ground NOW!

May looked at the agents surrounding us as I held my bleeding leg.

Harlan: Damn it.

T.H.E.P.A. Agent: ON THE FLOOR! NOW! HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD!

May complied, slowly.

May: Damn it, I really loved this watch.

Harlan: We're screwed. No way out.

May: Don't say that, wrong Timing.

I turned to May, and I saw her tinkering her watch.

Harlan: Clever girl. Will it work?

May: Maybe.

Harlan: Chances of failure?

May: Higher than chances of success.

Harlan: Because of my leg?

May: Bingo.

May turned to me.

May: Trust me?

I smiled at her.

Harlan: When have I never?

T.H.E.P.A. Agent: HANDS UP!

I slowly put my hands up. Big mistake.

May smiled, then pressed the crown of her watch and suddenly, a flash of light. The light blinded the agents long enough for May to turn the watch into a smoke grenade, and we ran away.

_.-

May and I stopped at an alley. I checked to made sure we weren't followed. We lost them.

We slid down the wall and sat down on the floor to catch our breath. May ripped out a part of her skirt and used it to put pressure on my wound.

Harlan: That was close.

May: Yeah, that was.

I took a deep breath.

May: You're losing a lot of blood. We need to go somewhere.

Harlan: Someone inside T.H.E.P.A. really wants us out that they framed us.

May: INSIDE?

Harlan: Your father said the tape was deleted. The tape of the woman we saw last night.

May: Yeah I heard.

Harlan: Meaning only someone inside deleted it. We need to find a way to get into the system, the data bank of T.H.E.P.A. Hopefully, there is a backup.

May: How do you plan on doing that?

I got from my pocket a hard drive, the one Forster handed to me.

May: Is that-?

Harlan: Every data in T.H.E.P.A. gets immediately uploaded to a digital cloud. In case everything gets deleted, we still have a backup. This gives us direct access to the cloud.

May: So you're saying, maybe there is a back up of the security feed in there?

Harlan: I hope so. Even so, it is highly protected with security features.

May: Yeah, sorry I can't help you there.

Harlan: It's fine, I know someone who can.

_.-

May helped me as I limped to where we were going. Eventually, we reached a house. I walked up the doorstep and before knocking turned to May.

Harlan: Look um... whatever you do, just act normal.

I could see May didn't understand why, but then we were short on time. I knocked on the door. After a few seconds and multiple locks, a twelve year old girl opened the door.

Charisse: Harlan.

Harlan: Charisse.

Charisse: I told you not to call me that.

Harlan: I got the impression we were on a first name basis now.

Charisse rolled her eyes, then looked at May.

Charisse: Who's the girl?

Harlan: May Berman, meet Charisse Lushton. Charisse Lushton, meet May Berman.

May: Hi.

Charisse: What do you need, Brandle?

I reached in my pocket and brought out Director Berman's hard drive.

Harlan: We need someone to crack this open. And I think you can.

Charisse looked at me, then nodded at us to enter. May and I followed her. As we went in, I noticed a small needle and got it and started picking the handcuff.

Charisse: So what exactly is inside it?

Charisse led us to her room which was full of computers. I suddenly fell to the ground. Charisse looked back and saw my leg.

Charisse: JESUS, WHAT HAPPENED?!

My cuff opened, freeing me from May.

Harlan: May, First-Aid Kit. Charisse, shut up and work.

Charisse (to May): Kitchen, bottom drawer.

May left to get the First-Aid Kit. Charisse plugged in the hard-drive in her computer.

Charisse: So what's in this?

Harlan: Basically everything T.H.E.P.A. has.

Charisse: Interesting. So why the handcuffs?

Harlan: Someone inside T.H.E.P.A. set us up.

May came in and started tending to my wound.

May: Can you walk?

Harlan: Yeah, I'm fine.

May looked at me.

Harlan: What?

May: Who is she?

Harlan: Oh, she's someone who hacked the Pentagon a few years ago and now owes me and Forster a favor.

May laughed.

May: Are you shitting me right now? You're telling me that a ten-

Charisse: ELEVEN!

May: That a kid can hack into T.H.E.P.A.?!

Charisse chuckled.

May: Yeah, I'm gonna need to sit down.

I looked at May, then at Charisse, who groaned.

Charisse: You know where?

Harlan: I got it. C'mon.

I stood up and walked to May. I led May upstairs to a spare room.

May: What? You tired?

Harlan: No. But maybe you are.

I looked at May.

Harlan: Get some rest. We'll be done when you wake up.

May looked at me, and she walked in the spare room. I slowly closed the door behind her and slowly limped my way back to Lushton.