Chapter 2: Hear the Screams from Everywhere

“Her trail stops here.” Eddie said pointing to the spot he was standing. Our team leader, Mark, walked up next to Eddie and looked down to the alley below us and let out a frustrated grunt.

 

“She must of gone down and walked from here.” He said looking to all of us.

 

“There’s no means of tracking her further?”  Jewlez, our English Intel Specialist, spoke through our earpieces.

 

“No, the stench of the garbage in the alley consumes the scent.” I answered her. Eddie leaned on the ledge of the building with his arms folded.

 

“Now what?” He asked looking to Mark.

 

“We go back to base. There’s nothing more we can do.” Kathaleen answered instead. Mark nodded in agreement and we started back in the direction we came.

 

“Kristine isn’t gunna like us coming back empty handed.” Eddie said as we continued to travel by roof. No one dared to say otherwise or tried to make the situation seem better. We all knew it was true.

 

“Shall I inform Kristine so she won’t be surprised when you come back?” Jewlez suggested. Mark let out a sigh.

 

“Yeah let her know. We’ll face the consequences when we get back.”

 

“I can’t say the same for Artie. He was the one who was outsmarted by her.” Eddie commented. Again we dared not to argue. If Kristine was going to bite our heads off over us losing Ria’s scent, then imagine what she’ll do to poor Artie. I didn’t even want to think about it.

 

As we were passing over another alley way, I heard a muffled scream. I stopped and looked back down the alley. There was something feeding on a young woman. It looked be some kind of hyena faced monster. I wanted to do something but I knew that I wasn’t trained for that kind of combat. Every Ninja has a different job that they must abide to, normally dealing with the Ninja’s ability and strengths. There are 3 over all jobs a Ninja could have: Hunter, Protector and Intel Specialist. Within these jobs there were many different sub-jobs. For instance, there are two kinds of Hunters, kinless and meta. I’m a Kinless Hunter meaning I hunt for fellow Ninjas that aren’t following the rules, almost like a bounty hunter just with fixed pay. The Meta Hunters track down and fight supernatural beings that haven’t followed the rules their kind abides by. Sometimes I wished I was something like a Meta Hunter or even a Protector for the humans but that wasn’t my job. I protected no one. I never experienced the feel of a hero nor did I ever think I would. I felt a hand on my shoulder bring me back.

 

“Aaron let’s go, that’s not our job.” Mark said motioning me to come. I nodded and kept going with my team. When we reached the base, Jewlez was already at the dock entrance.

 

“Kristine wants to see all of us in her office now.” She said as we began walking back to the east wing of the Detention Center. We were all nervous of what to expect from Kristine. Normally the warm summer breeze would calm me down but the nerves didn’t let that happen. Once we entered the east wing building, our weapons were taken care of and our earpieces were removed. We continued on to Kristine’s office keeping a poker face. It had been awhile since we entered that office. We normally didn’t work for her but she was in a higher rank and hired us to do a job that she couldn’t do on her own. Despite the fact that she needed us, that didn’t take away from her being one of the scariest women alive. If you didn’t do what Kristine asked, you were burned out…literally.

Entering the office was like entering the Gates of Hell. The office wasn’t huge but not small either. It was a size good enough to have a meeting with about eight people at once. Kristine stood behind her chair looking out the window to the lights of Manhattan. Her chocolate-red hair was down per usual reaching to her lower back. Once we all filed in the door was closed behind us. Kristine turned her head slightly towards us.

 

“Sit.”"She ordered. We nodded taking one of the seats in front of her desk. Kristine then turned around and held a pen in her hand. She looked at each one of us with an unreadable expression."“You all are smart…you know why you’re here…”

We all nodded confirming her statement. Kristine then walked around to the front of her desk and leaned against it.

 

“Now why don’t you tell me how you weren’t smart enough to track Ria down.” She said menacingly. Mark being the team leader spoke up.

 

“We tracked her to the Upper East side ma’am then the scent was lost…consumed by an alley stench. We were lucky enough to find her scent after she dove in the river.”

Kristine kept her stare on Mark and then looked away to grab her coffee from her desk.

 

“Alright…I believe you…but you do understand that Ria must by recaptured right? And what will happen if you don’t?” "She said sipping her coffee. The team nodded knowing full well the type of power Kristine held. She could either make you or break you, and our team couldn’t afford to lose the status that we worked hard for. We were one of the best."“Good…so then it is also understood that some form of system needs to be established in order to make this happen. Therefore I will be adding one other member to your team in order to make sure everything is going as planed and stays that way.”

Kristine then pressed the button on her desk intercom.

 

“Tell Mai to come in.”"She said then turning her attention to the doors of her office. We all turned around to see a woman come in. She had dark brown hair with scattered blonde highlights reaching to her mid-back. Her eyes were an abnormal dark red with a dragon on her arm to match. I’m not going to lie, she was smoking hot, but there was this sense of false attraction to her that you couldn’t help but have. The woman, presumably Mai, walked to the front of the desk and stood next to Kristine."“This everyone is Mai. She will be the temporary member of your team and your representative for this mission. I’m sure you guys will work fine together. Now go and I want a plan of action by this time tomorrow. Is that understood?”

 

“Yes Ma’am” We all spoke getting up from our seats. Kristine nodded dismissing us all.

            Mark led the team to our station. We all went to our respective desks leaving Mai standing in the middle alone.

 

“Mai you can take the extra desk over next to Aaron.” Mark said pointing to it. Mai nodded and took her seat behind her desk. I looked over at Eddie who looked pretty bummed that Mai was taking the poker desk, but there was some other emotion in his grey eyes. Jealousy maybe? It would make sense, Mai seemed to be Eddie’s type, if he had any. Eddie was more of the type to be a legit manwhore. I swear he got laid every time he left this office by himself. I was broken out of my thoughts when Mark said my name.

 

“Huh?” I asked trying to figure out what was just going on. Everyone was looking at me now.

 

“I was introducing you to Mai.”"Mark said annoyed. I had a tendency to zone out a lot. It always got on everyone’s nerves. I just nodded a hello to Mai and then focused on the discussion at hand."“Alright now before we go any further, Mai I need to know your experience and abilities.”

Mai nodded leaning back in her chair and putting her feet up on the desk.

 

“Well…Obviously you know my name is Mai, I’m a Field Intel Specialist originally from the Bronx but I have numerous connections all over the city. I’ve been Kristine’s best friend for years and actually knew Ria when she was younger.”

 

“That’s good to know…now what ability do you have?” Mark asked referring to Mai’s Ninja ability. In addition to regular Ninja traits such as speed, stealth, heighten senses, strength and stamina, we have a special ability that makes us all unique and pretty much determines what our job will be. All abilities are classified into five categories: sight, mind, touch, sound and specials. Each name refers to what part of the Ninja’s body must be used to “activate” their ability except for the specials category. Those under the specials category, like me, usually have a type of ability that either uses more than one part of the body or none at all. The abilities recorded under this category are too miscellaneous to put under one of the others. My ability for example, is having a non-existent scent as well as selective people within a five yard radius of me and because I don’t have a specific part of the body that triggers my ability, I’m considered under the specials category. The others on the other hand aren’t. Mark for instance is under mind because he can physically see through solid objects with his mind. Jewlez and Kathaleen are under touch, Kathaleen can cause solid objects to disintegrate under her touch, which is why she always has special protective gloves on all the time. Jewlez on the other hand can physically sweep through computerized information by simply touching the device. Eddie, being under sight, can simply look at you and show how he intends to kill you at that moment. All of our abilities have helped us perform our job.

 

“I’m under sight, I cause an unexplainable attraction to myself, depending on who I look at, determines who feels it the most. However, my presence in general tends to create it.” Mai said with a smirk. She casually slipped her eyes towards Eddie. She didn’t do much except keep hold his gaze. Eddie however, was fidgeting a lot and had a hungry look in his eye. He tried to stay strong by biting his fist but that didn’t seem to help too much. I was trying not to laugh but couldn’t take it anymore. Eddie’s face was priceless. His black shaggy hair was sticking to his skin from sweating under Mai’s gaze.

 

“Mai I think we get the picture.” Mark said suppressing his own laughter. Mai smiled and released Eddie. I leaned back on my chair laughing loudly now. The others still dared not to make their laughter known. Eddie had snapped out of his trance and wiped his face with the tissues on his desk. He glared at me.

 

“What’s so funny Hernandez?” Eddie said drying the back of his neck. I kept on laughing.

 

“You and you’re face.” I returned. Eddie intensified his glare on me.

 

“Don’t forget Hernandez, I can do stuff with my eyes too.”

 

“Like what? Show myself dying of an orgasm?” I laughed at my own joke along with everyone else. Eddie stood up revealing a bump in his pants causing us to laugh even harder. Realizing this Eddie automatically sat back down. Mark calmed everyone down so we could get back to work. He walked up to the whiteboard in the front of the station.

 

“Alright so we know that she went from the coast by the East River Drive to the Upper East Side of Manhattan…”"Mark said writing it down on the white board."“Jewelz, bring the map up on screen.”

Jewlez typed on her computer and up on the screen in the back, by Eddie and me, came a New York City map.

 

“Zoom in on the coordinates that her scent stopped.” Mark ordered. Jewelz typed away again zooming in on the area. Mark looked at the cross streets writing it on the whiteboard.

 

“She didn’t travel too far so that means she didn’t have any kind of help…the rest of the way was on foot.” Mai assessed standing up and looking at the map on screen.

 

“We found her shoes around here.” Kathaleen said walking up and pointing to an area on the screen. Jewelz typed on her computer and added a virtual pin on the spot.

 

“Mai do you know of any people Ria might try to contact now that she’s escaped?” Mark asked. Mai returned to the front of her desk thinking. She leaned on it and then looked back up to the map.

 

“The only people I can think of are her own family, but her father is dead and her birth mom died a long time ago. The only other living relative is her step-mom who lives in Florida now. All of Ria’s friends are probably off on their own and scattered about by now.” Mai answered.

 

“Basically, not a soul.” I simplified. Mai nodded and Mark wrote it down on the white board. We all looked toward the map again.

 

“So we have an escaped fugitive that has no exact connections whatsoever roaming around New York City, and we have no idea where to look or what she could possibly be doing.” Eddie said leaning back on his chair with his hands behind his head.

 

“That’s exactly what we have.” Mark said trying to study the map. I leaned back on my chair and looked up at the ceiling.    

 

“Then what was the point in escaping if you have nowhere to go?” I wondered aloud. That was when Jewelz spoke up.

 

“What if the point wasn’t to escape?”"Jewelz said from her desk. All attention turned to her theory."“Think about it, why was she sent to The Centre to begin with?”

 

“She was accused of murdering a fellow Ninja and all evidence pointed to her.” I answered trying to follow Jewelz’s logic.

 

“Yes but remember the trial she received? She continued to plead non-guilty and that she was framed…”"Jewelz got up and walked around to the side of her desk. Sitting one leg on the desk she continued."“What if she’s not trying to get away, but prove her innocence so she won’t have to go back.”

Mark’s face lit up as he wrote the possibility on the white board.

 

“I think that’s the most legit possibility we have, not to mention the only one, I say we roll with that.” I said.

 

“Aaron’s right, we might as well run with what we got.” Kathaleen agreed. Mark looked around for everyone else’s approval and decided to walk to the center of the station.

 

“Alright we’ll take off with Jewelz’s theory. In the mean time, Eddie and Aaron I want you to check out the site again and see if you can find anything in that alley. Mai I want you to tap into those connections of yours and see if you can find any people that might have seen Ria or know people that might have been in contact with her in the time you haven’t seen her. Kathaleen and I will look over her cell to see any trace of abnormalties. Jewelz, I want you to keep an eye on the system. If you’re right then we might have someone try to hack in and take old files. Also keep an eye on police reports. Ria’s got to survive somehow and with no money she’ll probably resort to stealing.”"We all nodded understanding our given duties."“Good job guys, let’s go home.”