Nathaniel and his mother did not have to wait long before they were given visitor badges and one agent escorted them to the 25th floor of the building. As the elevator was making its way up Nathaniel could feel a lot of people inside the building and once the elevator stopped on the 25th floor he could hear at least two times more people working on this floor than in any other floor. It was ample proof of the importance of the shootout that occured Friday night. The case had been made a priority by the FBI.
Nathaniel had heard on the news that one of the cops injured that night had died from his injuries. It was crystal clear that the public opinion wanted answers and the FBI had not given any so far. The politicians in charge were putting pressure on them to have answers while the opposition party was yelling at the first camera they could find that the fact that they had not provided any evidence so far was a sign of incompetency, saying anything to gain a few points for the poll. Political agendas were pushing along with the prejudice on the one responsible for the case.
Nathaniel shook himself off these depressive thoughts and got out of the elevator, following closely behind the agent who was escorting them ,with his mother beside him. They were directed to one of the biggest offices on the floor, the name of Tom Sarland written on the door. The fact that they were led here and not into an interrogation room was ample proof of the goodwill they were showing to them and Nathaniel nodded in an approving gesture.
The agent knocked once on the door and the voice of Tom Sarland told them to enter. At that point the agent who was escorting them just left, his assignment complete. Stepping into the office Nathaniel could see that Tom Sarland was not alone and there was a female agent in a chair here. Based on his memories the name of that agent was Aldrin.
The office of Tom Sarland was sternly furnished, as it was a federal building it was to be expected. There were a few personal items on his desk, one of which being a picture where he could see him with a cute looking woman and a boy beside them.
"Prosecutor Lyndon, glad to see you again. I believe you know agent Aldrin." He said, getting up from his desk and shaking her hand. This time Karine accepted the handshake.
Once the greetings and pleasantries were over, agent Sarland encouraged them to sit.
"So, what can we do for you prosecutor?" Sarland asked, looking at her.
"It is not me who wanted to come here but my son." Karine pointed out.
"Yes, this is true. I wanted to come here first to tell you that I'm sorry. I could have been more cooperative with you but after everything that I saw that night, I just wanted to go home." Nathaniel said.
Tom Sarland was taken aback by his apology. He had thought of many reasons as to why the prosecutor wanted to meet with him, one of whom was to press charges against him for what he did but never in a million years would he have pictured this. Seeing that the character of the young man was pretty good, he quickly responded.
"That's understandable, the emotions were high on that night and I was out of line too. My sincere apology."
"Firstly?" Agent Aldrin picked up. "There is something else?"
"Yes, there is. I don't know if you read my deposition but I heard someone talk chinese in the suite before the person excited."
"I read it. In fact I wanted to summon you here to talk about it with you tomorrow." Agent Aldrin said.
"Oh, good then. The sentence that I heard kind of stuck in my head all week end and it was driving me nuts until I found a translator who could make sense of it. The truth was it was not chinese but korean, I wrote down the translation for you." Nathaniel finished, taking a piece of paper and giving it to agent Aldrin.
"'I will kill you all Black Hand', what does that mean?" She asked.
"I don't know but I thought it could be of help to you."
"Well we thank you for your help prosecutor and you too kid. We will look into it."
"Glad to be of assistance to the FBI. We will go home now, thanks for receiving us." Karine said, getting up, quickly followed by the other persons in the room. Until Nathaniel stopped in the doorway and turned around to Sarland.
"I know that you can't tell me anything on the whereabouts of the Kim family but are they safe?" He asked.
Looking at each other, Sarland and Aldrin seem to ponder something until agent Aldrin chooses to speak.
"They are in one of our safehouses well protected by our agent. Do not worry, your friend is okay. She will get to talk to you once we are sure the threat on their life is over."
"Thank you." Nathaniel said wholeheartedly.
After that they were escorted back to the lobby and out of the building where they had to give back the badges. It was only until they were back home that the mother and son pair finally talked.
"Are you sure about this sweetie?" Karine asked anxiously.
"Yes mom, we talked about this. This was the only way to help them without hacking into their system to plant the information as you made me promise not to."
"I know, I'm a bad mother, not letting you hack into a little federal law enforcement agency." She said sarcastically.
"At least with my way, my name would not appear anywhere."
"Unless someone bust you and you finish your life in Leavenworth and guess what, we prefer our son to NOT live his life in prison for the rest of his life. Remember our arrangement, you get to help the FBI on this case just once and now that you did, it's over." Karine said sternly.
"I know mom. I know. I'm done with the case, now it's up to them to see it through it's completion. I have other things to do now."
"Are you talking about your girlfriend?" She smirked.
"No mom, I'm talking about my studies, my album and my future movie, the promotion is going to start soon and I will be plenty busy at the time. Moreover, Madison is not my girlfriend, we are just having fun I guess." He explained.
"And you are okay with that sweetie?" She asked concern.
"Mom, I'm still sixteen, I don't want to settle into a relationship so soon. Then there is my work, my studies and all of what I can do and I need to hide it from her. I don't really have the luxury to tell her everything about me when I have a whole part of my life I need to hide." He said with a bitter smile.
"I'm sorry that you do not get to have a normal life sweety." She said sadly, passing her hand through his hair.
"Come on mom, even before the accident, my life was not normal by any means. Now, this is only magnified. Don't worry, I made my peace with it, meditation helps a lot with that."
"I should perhaps give it a go." She said with an interested expression on her face.
"I'll teach you mom." He responded smiling.