Learning Romance

Chapter 3

After they rescued the hostages, James checked to see if the formula was still intact and to see what exactly the formula was. Everyone came to a standstill when they saw an empty vault... Even Souter's men froze, they had been caught over an empty vault, the leader who was shot on the shoulder struggled with rage swearing to kill who gave them the info, he only relaxed when the negotiator told him he'd be considered for a shorter jail term if he co-operated with them to end the war before it even began.

"That's not possible, we just finished analyzing it, I personally put it in" Ms. Lith cried

"Ma'am please think back, think hard, how many of you analyzed the formula?"

"I'd say if I could, it's classified, may I know who you are?"

"I'm James, leader of a rank 8 DVl team, she's my partner Chelsea" James answered showing her his badge.

"You graduated with the rank, I remember" she paused and looked around, then motioned for the two to follow her.

Ms. Lith led them into her office and locked the doors behind them.

"I'm not sure I should be telling you this, before the break of this war, we came up with a formula for the military, it was called Lavender, it's an operating security system... a hack, or a virus, we were working on building a robot to bear this system, the plans for the robot was also in the stolen drive"

"I'm sorry but what does the robot formula do again?" Chelsea asked confused at what Ms. Lith called an explanation.

"I'm sorry but I've already said too much"

"Ummm, you said nothing" James answered the woman sternly

The twins decided not to ask more from her since she could get in trouble for saying anything.

They left her in the room to think over their loss.

James knew Codesus had the formula since they were there but no one saw them, they only reported their presence, always the cold ones, sometimes he wondered if they were agents or outlaws.

"Eagle, get back here there's something you have to see"

As they got into the car, Chelsea let out the laugh she was holding...

"Dad is a criminal"

"Nah, now we get to know what that formula is," James said happily as he drove away from the commotion.

******************

They got back to the base to meet a confused Albert, he kept cursing and shouting orders at everyone.

"Set up a perimeter around the Lab, we need to find that formula, Stacy begin the trace procedure, I want eyes on the lab from now and contact the local police, this will be handled by the DVl from now, keep that damn facility on lock-down"

The twins looked across the room to see everyone running all around, if they thought it was busy when they first came, then there are no words to describe the scene.

Albert turned his attention to the twins, "You should have been here about 20 minutes ago"

"The stolen formula helped the traffic, cars now travel faster while answering questions at checkpoints" Chelsea commented sarcastically rolling her eyes.

"Hi I'm Stacy, I'll be your eyes from the sky... I'm the Senior system operator of the base, but since the assignment of your team, I've been tasked with assisting your missions"

"So...where's the forensic scientist?" Chelsea asked again, ignoring Albert who was trying to get their attention.

"We don't have one, so that'll be me, I'm your living computer, and an expert crime scene analyst much like the stolen robot" the girl who identified herself as Stacy replied grinning at the twins and bragging about her talents.

"Alright, I've found my buddy, let's go back to the crime scene while they talk?" Chelsea suggested much to Albert's surprise.

"I called you here Miss"

"Part of me is staying back, aren't you James?" With that, she left pulling Stacy by the hand behind her.

James didn't move a muscle as he watched the enraged man.

"She doesn't know who rules these walls," Albert said taking a deep breath

"Or maybe she wants a change" James replied bluntly.

Albert shot him an impossible look as he threw a pen right at his face, James calmly caught the pen and slipped it into his pockets.

"Give that back you imp!!"

"I don't think you called me back to throw pens and give orders"

He stared into space for a minute before turning back to the teen.

"James, how are you connected to Codesus?" Albert asked with a serious look on his face.

*********************

"So basically these men didn't want the formula?" Stacy asked as she and Chelsea analyzed the vault.

"No, and I think they got what they wanted, we counted six men in the building, but there were more"

Stacy got back to scanning the footprints and indeed there were more than six prints with a striking resemblance aside from the different sizes.

"Eight, eight men got in here, and they, the supposed hostages were no hostages at all, Souter sure is smart"

"What do you mean?" Chelsea asked

"Ok so your theory is that if one man held the hostages and there were five of them searching the facility for whatever it was they got then someone had to be reinforcing the firewall making it seem like the systems were active, did I miss anything?" she paused asking Chelsea

"You mean Ms. Lith was in on this"

Stacy nodded and looked back to where the hostages were held behind the counter.

"And the hostages?" Chelsea asked now curious

"Well their weapons identified military. Hold on, I got a face from backup surveillance."

Chelsea looked into Stacy's tablet at the faces of the hostages, they were highly classified stealth military personnel.

"I know what they were after, and yes they got it. come we need to hurry, things just got a lot worse" Stacy hurried out.

*************

"Hi Miss Codesus" Albert greeted with a smirk as soon as he saw Chelsea come in, he was proud to have caught her off guard.

Chelsea looked from him to James as she processed what just happened, apparently, James told Albert about their connection with Codesus. Her confusion however didn't last as she cast a deadly glare at Albert. She walked closer to the man and whispered in his ears.

"Call me that again and you'll be the one to tell us if Codesus runs by Atratia Agency Codes"

The man didn't move unsure whether Chelsea was going to come at him if he did. Stacy came to his aid by clearing her throat and Albert was very thankful since Chelsea left him and walked into the cortex.

"James where's your badge?" she asked as soon as the others entered the room.