Connecting

Chapter 7

Looking at the beautiful view with a cup of coffee in hand, Chris enjoys the first hours of his day on the porch of the house, feeling the cool air of Washington. He sips his coffee and think about life.

Melissa came, sat down on a bench. She's holding a cup of milk on her right hand and a book on the left.

"Do you drink coffee?" Chris suddenly asks.

"Before," replied Melissa. "If I'll drink too much, I'll start relying on coffee too much again because I am so convinced that not sleeping will make my nightmares be gone. Instead, I drank too much and ended up in a hospital."

"Too much of everything is really not great." Chris said, which Melissa agrees with.

After a few moments of silence, Melissa breaks it. "Anyway, we'll be starting today. I don't know where to start looking but let's just stay here for today."

Chris nodded and followed her inside the house. They prepared for the first day that they'll be starting their mission.

----

It's now 12 noon and they haven't found anything yet. Chris is starving and wants to go get some food but he feels bad for Melissa, she might skip another meal again.

"Hey," Chris said when he noticed Melissa starting to get stressed. "Why don't we eat lunch first? We have plenty of time."

Melissa groaned. "This is harder than I expected. I just want this mission to be over."

"Hey, me too. But we can't just rush things," Chris replied. "Come on, let's just grab some lunch outside. We didn't cook yet."

He knows Melissa doesn't want to go but she did. She quietly went with him to the car and just sat there.

"Do you wanna eat here or take the food home?" Chris asks. Melissa just shrugged; she's not in the mood to talk right now.

Chris decided to just eat in the restaurant, Melissa didn't argue so he guess it was fine for her. He placed the food in front of him and gave her the food she ordered and started eating. Melissa stared at her food for a while before starting to slowly eat.

After eating, they quickly went back home and started working again. Few hours later, Melissa found something.

"What is it?" Chris asked, peaking to see Melissa's computer.

"It's a location," Melissa started. "I checked some of the victims' location using the police reports and tracked from where the hack came from, which I didn't know I can do with this computer. Then I saw a pattern, and it leads to this place. A scary place."

Chris thought for a second. "What should we do? Should we go?"

Melissa sighed. "I don't know. We're just two, what if they're a whole huge group that we're against?"

"I don't know too," Chris sat down. "Should we call director?"

Melissa thought for a moment. She grabbed her phone and dialed the second person saved.

She inhaled then exhaled, trying to keep her breathing steady. "Sir," she started when the phone was answered. "We need some advice."

She turned the speaker on.

"What is it?" Asked the director on the other line.

Chris looked at Melissa when she didn't reply. She's looking at the phone, but she's not saying anything at all so Chris decided to speak. "Melissa found a location and we are not sure if we're going to go there because we might encounter the culprit, the culprit may be a group and we're just two people."

The other line was silent at first. "What is this place? A building? Warehouse?"

Melissa spoke. "Unknown. It's not registered, sir."

"Check it out," replied the director. "When you're there you'll be able to figure out if it's better to stay away from it and investigate it from a far for the mean time while you're not sure and when you're sure, request for back-up. If you think it's better to enter whatever this place is, enter it and investigate there."

They bid their goodbyes and went to work. Melissa decided to bring some simple and small weapon for the two of them for their protection.

They drove silently, praying that whatever is in there is the reason behind all this and that they won't hurt them. When they arrived, they saw a building. A building that isn't registered.

"Building," Melissa realized. "A building but it's not registered in our system. That's fishy. We should know about everything here."

"Should we go? Doesn't seem scary." Chris said.

"One problem," Melissa said, eyeing the guard at the front entrance. "Seems like this is some form of an office of some sort. We can't bring our gun."

"Hope you're great at punching in case something happens, Agent Benoist." Chris said jokingly before going out of the car.

When they reached the entrance, the guard nodded at them. There are some people inside the building but there's one thing that caught Melissa's eyes. A huge sign that says, "BOSS OFFICE - 3RD FLOOR". Chris noticed this as well. He went to the reception-like area and asked, "May I ask what this place is?"

The receptionist smiled. "Oh, it's whatever you think it is. Want a room? This can be a hotel too. A room for a honeymoon, I guess?"

"Uh, no, no," Melissa said slightly chuckling. "We're here to... to um... yeah, look for a room. But we're not married. Yet. He's my boyfriend."

"Well, then! Let's book you a room," the receptionist punched some keys on her keyboard. "It seems like the only room available is at the 3rd floor. It's a VIP, are you okay with that? Also, just a heads up, that's where the boss is and his trusted person's room will be beside yours so you better keep quiet!"

Both Melissa and Chris chuckled slightly before grabbing the keys. Chris whispered, "What did we do."

Melissa groaned before going inside the elevator. "Ugh. How are we supposed to work now, or atleast talk about a plan."