Reborn Heart of Steel

There can be no denying that my heart was racing in my chest when I looked at the lifeless form of Agent Harris with the USB drive in his hand. The sound of screeching tires was increasing; the police were on their way to the park. This was not an easy feat, taking into consideration that time stood still even as I struggled with which part of the equation I should throw away. My hands shook, and I took the USB drive and put it in my pocket. Whatever was in it, had clearly meant enough to Harris to die with the information on his lips. I could not let that go to waste. When I stood, I heard the sound of a branch breaking behind me, which caused me to spin around hoping to see the silhouette of the man behind the shot. But before I could reach him, for fear of his advances, I made drastic eye-contact with a jogging gentleman who was happenstance passing that area. Her eyes opened in shock as she looked at the body and then at me. ‘I. . . I didn’t. . . ‘ I began, only to be interrupted by her reaching for her phone and walking backwards at the same time. That decided it. I couldn’t stay. Taking one last look at Agent Harris, I bolted and began sprinting away from the spot, my shoes hitting the ground with haste on the wet grass. I breathed heavily and continued running in the backstreets and the by lanes, to ensure that anyone following me was well confused. When I dared myself to put on the brakes, it was in what I realized was the middle city, my clothes sticky with sweat, morning mist and dew. My phone vibrated nonstop in my pocket, My phone was ringing in my pocket. It was Chase, surely wondering why I had not come back, or given a sign of life. As I took my hands to take it out, they were shaking. I opened it to realize that there were countless missed calls and messages.

“Where are you? Are you okay?” “Bri, please respond I am concerned. ” He said, “Hey, there is a shooting in the park on the news, I hope you are alright. ” The tension was unbearable, So I inhaled deeply before calling him back. The moment he answered, I immediately began to speak rapidly as I recounted all the events that led to the situation. “Oh my God,” Chase said at last when I did not continue the reading. “Bri, come back right now, it is dangerous out here. ” I jerked my head, which he could not observe, “No, I can’t. Any police force will be on the lookout for me. And so, I have no other option but to go into hiding for some time. ” ‘But where will you go?’ I stood there for a few seconds, contemplating the few choices that we had. “Zoe,” I said finally. “I will go to Zoe’s house. I do not think that the police will go there to search for us. Yes, maybe she will know what is on this USB drive. ” Saying reluctantly, Chase agreed, and we scheduled a get-together at Zoe’s home in the evening. And so I hung up the phone. I had the feeling that we were heading for a situation where we would not be able to reverse our decisions. The problem of reaching Zoe’s house inconspicuously posed a lot of challenges. There were police officers in patrol cars around everywhere as people had heard about the shooting. I followed the directions and walked through the backstreets and the alleys, a sound of the police car siren making my heart pound in my ears. By the time I got to Zoe’s I was completely done in; I was even close to crying! She got up and opened the door with a rude shock that turned to worry on her face. “Bri? What is it? Any did you look so upset?” I stepped into her apartment and reluctantly laid down on her couch as the reality of the morning’s events met me head on; I told her everything from the shooting, the USB drive I took and ran away from the scene. Zoe listened with growing horror; her face had gone as white as milk. “Oh, Bri,” she only said, when I was done. From now on I thought, “What have you gotten yourself into?” ‘I don’t know!’ I responded, feeling my eyes tearing up. “But I believe what this has on it may help us solve it

But do you have a computer I can download this on?” Zoe was understanding, hence I followed her to her bedroom, which had a laptop on the desk. I took the USB drive in my shaky hands and put it in accordingly. One folder appeared, which included a number of files in cipher. “Great,” I muttered. “Now what?” But as I scrolled along the files, one of the folder names piqued my curiosity. It was not the same as it and was a plain text file headed ‘READ THIS’ or something of that nature.Content is property of NôvelDrama.Org.

I opened it, and a chill ran down my spine as I read the contents. I opened it, and a chill ran down my spine as I read the contents: To whom it may concern contents: If you are reading these, then I am most likely dead. The scales have fallen from my eyes and the corruption runs deeper than anyone can imagine. Do not trust anyone. Do not let your guard down. The key to stopping The Raven lies in the rest of these files. The password to unlock it is the date in which we first met little detective Good luck you are going to need it , Harris Zoe stood by me and was reading what I-types had written over my shoulder, her eyes popping out. She asked, Bri, what is the meaning of this?’ was Agent Harris with you all the time?’ I slowly nodded my head, understanding as things started to make sense in my mind. ‘Yeah, probably he wanted to save us, to shield us from danger as he went undercover to do the investigation. And now . .’ “Now it’s up to us,” Zoe said, the last part with convexity indicating a firm determined spirit. The rest of the evening we invested to break the lock from the rest of the files, and apparently, the password we used was the date of first meeting Chase & I with Harris. Gradually, a picture was pieced together one that was even more terrible than we had initially envisaged. The Raven wasn’t just planning one bombing at a time. He was planning a war in the city which was divided into sequences of attacks that were going to happen during the night of the lunar eclipse. The observatory was a part of a much bigger plan. “This is crazy,” sighed Zoe as we scanned through the papers. Its a global problem, so she asked, ‘How are we supposed to stop something like this?’ I was yet to reply to him when there was a loud knock on the front door of the house. We stared at each other in shock and our face reflected the intense fear that we felt at that time. ‘Hey Zoe…Are you home’ said a man in an unusually deep voice probably a stranger to this new environment. There’s five minutes of silence before I hear a voice answer, “Hello? Yes, this is Detective Reeves from the police department. We’d like to ask you a few questions” I say this foolishly as my heart was in my throat. But how had they located me in such a short space of time? I saw Zoe make a signal to me to lie down and then she went to open the door. I was hiding in her closet placing my hands on the floor to support myself, she made me jump when I heard whispers on the living room. ‘They want my classmate, Brianna,’ I heard the second detective Reeves, I think, say. “They suspect she is involved in a shooting incident this morning They are asking anyone who has seen her to report to the police. ” “N-no,” Zoe stammered. “Where is Bri, I have not seen her for days Is everything okay with her?” I could sense the detective being sceptical and the best indication for this was the momentary silence that followed. “If she contacts you, we’d like to speak with her also, please call us as soon. ” I heard the front door shut and quickly racing bare feet back to the bedroom was Zoe. “They are gone,” she murmured as I came out of the closet. But Bri, what are we going to do? They’re looking every where for you” I’d just stood there with a stunned look on my face, but now I just looked nervously around and ran a hand through my head of hair. “I don’t know but we can’t afford to stop here we have to prevent people from falling for The Raven’s plan. ” Just then, my phone buzzed with a text from Chase: “It will take me 10 minutes to get there”: The phrase was perfect for me to use when responding to people that needed my presence at their workplaces or at any other place that they found convenient to call or text me to. The relief washed over me like a tidal wave, which meant that with Chase here and maybe with his help there was something we could do. However, with time and time again, as the minutes went by Chase was still a no-show. It took ten minutes, and then it was twenty, and then thirty. When I called, nobody picked up all my calls and went to voicemail. A sense of uneasiness started creeping into my belly, a feeling that was new to me. Something was wrong. Very wrong. And, as if it was in response to a signal, my phone bleeped, as did the phone in Zoe’s hand, which I presumed belonged to Zoe. It was from an unknown number, but I knew instantly who it was from. It was from an unknown number, but I knew instantly who it was from: “Tick Tock, little birds. Your time is ticking away as is his. Do you wish to make a trade now?” The photo that was attached was chilling; Chase was tied to a strip and gagged, and you could even see the fear in his eyes. Going back, I had a mere glimpse of the top of the old dome of the observatory to the left of the theatre. The Raven had Chase. And now, with the lunar eclipse only a few days away we have had to establish strict deadlines not only to save him, but maybe the whole city. As Zoe and I stared at each other in horror, the weight of our situation crashing down upon us, one thing became crystal clear: Whether we act now or tomorrow, we could be putting ourselves in a position where Chase and loads of other innocent people could lose their lives.