Chapter 1

The young man sat at the end of in the small conference room, staring out at the window. The should have set about an hour ago, but it had been dark out for a much longer time. Grey clouds had been hanging in the sky since morning, shrouding the city in a gloomy darkness. It had been raining on and off all day, but just now, it had really started to pour. So typical for Vancouver, The man thought to himself. It never stopped raining during the winter. He knew that by the time summer came around, he’d be begging for it to come back. But for now, he just wanted to see at least a glimpse of the sun.

“It’s weird that he’s still not here yet, don’t you think?” The sound of his co-worker’s voice made him jump. He looked up, and saw his co-worker doodling in his notebook. He had almost forgotten that he was still in the room.

“Yeah,” The young man responded, “He’s almost fifteen minutes late. It’s not really like him to not let us know where he is at least.”

“If something went wrong…”

“He’ll handle it,” The young man reassured his co-worker, “He always has a plan.”

“We don’t though,” The co-worker said, “What if something is seriously wrong? Would we be able to help him? You’re caught in this too, you know. If something has gone wrong, we would both have to help out.”

“I know, but…”

“But?”

“I don’t think he’s in trouble. Give him a bit more time.”

 His co-worker shrugged, and went back to doodling in his notebook. The truth was, he was a bit worried that his other friend had not shown up yet. He was usually precisely on time. Normally at this point, he would have told someone that he would be late. It was a worrisome, but the young man didn’t want to dwell on it for too long.

The door opened slowly, and both the man and his co-worker turned their heads towards the door. The young man let out a sigh of relief when his friend that they had been expecting walked in.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” The newcomer said, “Traffic was really bad today. I’m thinking that maybe we should have our meetings later in the day after rush hour, but that’s not what I wanted to discuss today.”

“Better be good,” The young man growled, “We were really worried about you.”

“It is good, I promise,” The young man’s friend said, with a faint grin playing across his dark face. He paused for a while, waiting for someone to ask what the news was. But when nobody said anything, he simply said, “I found another one.”

The young man felt like his jaw had dropped right to the ground. All of this looking had paid off. The meetings weren’t proving to be completely useless after all.

“Really?” The co-worker asked, “Where?”

The friend took a seat at the end of the table. “All the way in Rome,” He said, “But that’s not all. I was fine tuning the tracking system, and I think it might be right this time. I’ve located at least two others.”

“You’re sure it’s correct this time,” The man said, “Because you know, I’d hate to have to fly halfway around the world to some isolated Pacific island country only to find that--”

“Enough,” The friend said firmly, “We all make mistakes, and I’ve already apologized. You need to let it go, ok?”

“I thought it was a fun time,” The co-worker mumbled.

“It doesn’t matter anyways, because you won’t be travelling anywhere,” The friend said, ignoring the co-worker’s remark, “You’ll be staying right here in Vancouver.”

“What?” The man protested, “Why?”

“Because,” his friend said firmly, “I need you to stay here to find the one that I’ve located in BC. I’ve located them somewhere in Vancouver, but they could be anywhere in the Lower Mainland.”

“No way,” The man said.

“It won’t be an easy task,” The friend said, “So I do hope that you’re up to it.”

“I am. I promise.”

“Good,” The friend said, “And you,” He turned to the co-worker, who had gone back to doodling in his notebook. The co-worker looked up, and shut his book closed.

“Yes?”

“How does New York sound?”

“It sounds awesome,” The co-worker said.

“Good,” The friend said, “Just remember to be safe, stay alert, and keep a low profile. You guys are dismissed.”

Author's Note

This was meant to be the prologue, but then I wrote that other thing and I kinda liked it better.