He smears the blood away from his eyes and leans against the wall to try and catch his breath. The once bleach cleaned hallway is now reminiscent of a warzone, a war that Frank fought in, a war that is far from over.

The guard’s radio goes off.

‘Approaching corridor six, target last seen in the vicinity. Squad B-miner on point’ says the voice on the crackly radio

Frank looks up at the security door and sees a security camera pointed right at him. He quickly shoots up as he reads the sign below the camera.

“CORRIDOR SIX EXIT” Reads the sign.

‘Shit!’ Says Frank

Frank swats his fist at the security camera, knocking it off the wall with a crash. He darts his eyes down the corridor and sees shadows approaching fast, accompanied with the sounds of footsteps, multiple men, at least six according to Frank’s math. He bends down and grabs the deceased guard’s 9mm. He aims the weapon down the corridor and see’s silhouettes approaching. He waits. Three seconds. He cocks the gun. Two seconds. He breaths in deep. One second. He fires.

Forty Eight

Jason wakes up to a vibration in his pocket. It’s his cell phone. He flips the phone open and reads the message. He types something on the device and hits send. Jason puts the cell phone back in his pocket. Crystal’s head rests on his shoulder as she sleeps. He looks over at Jenifer who is stirring from a deep sleep. He quickly nudges Crystal awake; she opens her eyes and smiles at him. He shakes his head and points at Jenifer; Crystal reads his eyes and what he is trying to say. She sits up and brushes herself down, trying to make herself more presentable. He smiles at her and gives her a playful wink. Jenifer catches him in the act. She coughs out loud, as if she is trying to get their attention. He looks over at her, his face stern but friendly.

‘What’s going on?’ Asks Jenifer

Jason stretches out in his seat

‘Nothing, I just woke up, that’s all’

‘Is that so, huh?’

Jenifer gets up from her cabin chair facing Jason and Crystal.

‘How come you’re sitting there next to her?’ asks Jenifer while pointing at Crystal

Jason gets up from his seat and walks over the short distance to Jenifer, trying to calm her down, he gently grabs her hand. She snaps it away and steps back a few steps from him.

‘Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but last time I checked you came on this train ride with me, and now you’re with that frigid slut?’

‘I’m not with any one Jenifer! I’m just here for the ride to Boston’

Jenifer slaps Jason across the face. Her palm leaves a red mark on his cheek. He looks at her intensely as he grabs at his burning skin. She pushes him back into his seat and walks out of the cabin, leaving him and Crystal in silence for a good while.

Forty Nine

Chief Shaw rushes into DA Eddie Smiths office. He looks around the messy room, surveying the carnage of empty bottles from the mini bar and case files strewn all over the rinky-dink office. He shakes his head in amazement as he walks over to the DA’s desk. Eddie smith is fast asleep on the assortment of files on his desk, as his head rests on the big oak table; Chief Shaw rattles a bottle next to him. He grabs it and takes a long swig of the clear alcoholic liquid. He purposely forces the bottle back down onto the desk with a thud, awakening the sleeping District Attorney. Eddie looks up at the towering six foot figure of Shaw and gives him a clear look of distain.

‘What the hell do you want?’ Asks Eddie

Shaw looks unimpressed as he takes a drag on his oversized cigar.

‘I want you to get your ass up and follow me to the incident room.’

‘Don’t talk to me like that; I’m the goddamn District Attorney.’

‘That may be so Mr DA, but your drunker then my dad on Saint Patricks day, and that’s saying something considering he’s Irish!’ Laughs Shaw

Eddie sits up, smiling at the light hearted joke. He appreciated Chief Shaw’s humour and has always responded well to him. It’s safe to say Eddie Smith liked Shaw.

‘Okay I’m getting up, what seems to be the problem besides me losing all hope and drinking the department’s liquor budget for the whole year.’

‘That’s nothing Eddie; you should see Frank’s office at the Christmas party; that man can drink!’

‘On the subject of Frank any news on his whereabouts?’ asks Eddie

Shaw reluctantly shakes his head

‘I’m afraid not sir. The man is MIA. It’s not unusual for him to go missing for days on end. I wouldn’t worry about him; he’s probably in a gutter somewhere drinking himself stupid’

‘Well at least we have that in common’

‘Well I need you down the incident room, Chase is about to go live again, according to his YOUTUBE channel’

‘Why haven’t we shut that thing down?’ asks the DA

‘We can’t sir, its beyond our derestriction, FBI would have to Subpoena Google’

‘Who said anything about them?’

‘They own YOUTUBE sir.’

‘Okay, whatever. Let’s get going then and hear what Connor has to say this time.’

Eddie smith gets up from his chair and walks with Chief Shaw over to the incident room. The place is a buzz with commotion as officers run around gathering files and intelligence. Eddie Smith looks on in confusion at the goings on; he turns to Shaw who is smiling at him.

‘What?’ Asks Eddie

‘It just looks as if you are surprised at something’

‘Yeah as a matter of fact I am, what’s with all the rushing around, don’t your people ever rest?’

‘It’s called an incident room for a reason sir; they are investigating leads on various cases including this current one’

‘Various cases, surely everyone should be focusing their attentions on Connor Chase’ Says Eddie forcefully

‘Unfortunately the people of Boston have taken to the streets and started mass looting. Some people seem to have kinship with Chase and his beliefs. A lot of people support his message.’

Eddie shakes his head infallibly

‘Only in Boston I swear! How can anyone support this man?’ asks Eddie

‘The idea of peoples information being sold on is forcing people to question their worth in society, that being said, people may not agree with terrorism, but Connors message has seemed to reach a high amount of people and could spark a city wide demonstration, which could result in mass violence.’

‘So Chase killing countless people is seen as a good thing, are these people mad?’

‘No, but they are eating up Chase’s speeches and blaming us for the killings. They want a 28 amendment.’

At that moment an officer walks over to Shaw and the DA.

‘It’s about to start Chief’ Says the Officer gingerly

The three men walk over to the big screen TV as it flashes to a live picture of Connor Chase in the usual place that people have come accustomed to seeing him stand when giving speeches. He looks as serious as ever as he stares deeply into the camera. His once white tux is now a little worse for wear as he paces back and forth, apparently not realizing he was live on TV as an off camera voice tells him of the fact. He snaps out of his haze and puts on a stern face.

‘Hello ladies and gentleman. I’m here again to discuss the progress on my purposed 28 amendment, or lack of progress shall I say. I’m severely disappointed in the lack of interest and seriousness that the so called Boston and Washington establishments are showing me. I am yet to be contacted by the government that swears to protect and serve, even when their oath of protection is being challenged by me; they are still letting people die. That is unacceptable. Even for a so called terrorist, I am deeply shocked at the care free attitude that they are taking on this situation. It offends me that they would rather have people die at my hands than protect them from dyeing for their mistakes. Believe me when I say this, they are making a huge mistake in not taking me seriously. Maybe it’s my fault, maybe I should be more assertive in letting them know that I mean business. Surely the pure fact that the streets of Boston are revolting to their regime is enough to wise them up a little. But no, they play the death and blind saints that cannot see nor do no evil. I guess they have no reason to want to fully address my 28 amendment, because after all why would they want to give up possessing people’s information? Why would they want to give up currency on the black market? Why would they want to give up their only way of knowing who we really are? They can tell a lot about each and every one of us through credit card statements, web browsing behaviours, credit reports, family history, social networking profiles and internet logs. They have us under a virtual wire, a wire of oppression so they can save money on good old fashioned hard working men whose professions were to search for people, find information out, but now all they have to do is go to a yellow pages style programme and pick out the lucky candidates. Screw this government’s way of using our personal information to entrap its poor and free its rich. Screw the cock suckers who trade our information for more Tax money’