Hearing Madison's name took Nathaniel by surprise and his mind immediately wandered to the past. It reminds him of the first time they met when she was with her two best friends on the campus where she invited him to a party in her sorority house. The first time they kiss in his room in New York. The first time they had sex in her room. All the time they have together where they had fun, always something to laugh about. And then there was the end where she did the only thing that she had promised him to never do and him leaving her without turning back, erasing her of his life.
"You think I'm not going to take the case because of my history with Madison." Nathaniel said coldly.
"This is my fear, yes." Linda nodded.
"I don't agree with my wife on this one. I know you have a moral code that you follow, you will always do what needs to be done. This is in your DNA." William object.
Nathaniel just kept silent, trying to sort through his contratory feelings. In fact, he made the decision to disregard his feelings entirely. He needed to make an informed decision based on his experience and analytic mind, like he always does.
"If you ask me if I'm ever going to pardon her, the answer will be no. If you ask me if I will allow her into my life again after this, the answers will be no. If you ask me if she deserves to die because she made a mistake, my answer will also be no. We are taking the case." Nathaniel decided.
"Great." William was finally able to relax.
"I will need every piece of information they have on the kidnapping, starting with the group who revendique the kidnapping of the girls."
"Well, I don't have that information, there was simply not enough time to learn more about it. I told the Senator and his wife to send every piece of information they have at the address you gave me. Knowing him, everything should be already there. I also told them to stay tonight in DC, if you want to question them yourself tomorrow."
"Well, not myself for obvious reasons but I will certainly send someone else to do it."
"I didn't think about that but you are right. Tobias arranged a transport for your team, a chopper is waiting for them at JFK with a flight plan to DC validated."
"Thanks, I appreciate that, I will call my team right now." Nathaniel said before taking his phone out.
"Wait!" William stopped him before adding. "Before you call them, I would like to have your take on something."
"Alright, I'm intrigued, I'm all ears William, go ahead." Nathaniel answers, putting his phone back in his pocket.
******
Inside her hotel room, Brunhilde was cleaning her sword with patience. Her gorgeous gown was all but discarded to the back of a chair nearby. Once she got back from the party, she immediately took a shower and put on some more comfortable clothes. Even if she was wearing a tight jean and a silk shirt, all of it looked elegant on her. Taking her sharpening stone from her bag, she starts passing it to her blade to fix the nicks that Nathaniel made with his knives while they were fighting.
Once she was satisfied with her work, she cleaned it again before disengaging the magnetic lock, the blade becoming a belt once again. After putting on her belt with the dress, she got out of her room to meet with her two bodyguards outside, who were still working on their assignment. Calling them simply bodyguard was not accurate. In fact, Brunhilde knew these two mens all of her life. They were her protector since she was born, assigned personally by her father because they were the best. The five protector training was not a joke and could be considered one of the harshest training regiments in the world, if the world knew about it of course.
"Do you have what I ask you?" She asked.
"Yes Duchess." The both of them said at the same time before looking at each other. Without needing to talk, they decided who was going to start first.
"I looked into his life and yes, he's name is real. Nathaniel Abraham Lyndon, born in NY December the first, 1995. He's quite famous too, he's a talented singer, musician and even actor. His first album sold two hundred thousand copies and that's only in the US. He's currently studying at Columbia Law School between movies and promo tours. He also reputed to have a genius legal mind and was dubbed one of the most promising lawyers of his generation. I believe he's just a genius in general. He's quite active on Twitter and donate a lot of money to charity. That's all he accomplished in just a year and a half time."
"Impressive." Brunhilde said before asking. "What was he doing before that?"
"He has been in an Hospital bed since he was twelve. He was hit by a car after pushing a woman and her baby out of the way and passed the next four years in a deep coma state."
"So he managed to do all that while being effectively only thirteen years old. That's quite a feat."
Looking at each other, her two protectors were surprised. They had never heard their mistress compliment anyone, not even mentioning two times in a row. Keeping their faces neutral, they wait for the next question.
"Do our genealogists call back?"
"Yes, they just did Duchess. They could not find any link between that boy and the Five. They are going to send files with his complete family history later but they are formal. He's not one of you."
"That can't be right. He's just too young to be that good, even if he's a genius. It's simply impossible to become that proficient in any of these domains for someone who lived for thirteen years." Brunhilde said categorically.
"About that, you asked us to find any link between the boy and the Five. We found something but it's thin." Her protector said, not feeling confident at all.
"Oh? Let me see." Brunhilde said curiously.
The man just took a picture that he had on the table near him face down and gave it to her. Looking at the picture, Brunhilde recognizes Nathaniel on it who seems to be in a discussion with a beautiful woman near him, one that she knew very well.
"Isn't it interesting?" She smiles wolfishly.
*****
"What do you think Scott? From where should we enter the property?" Lucie asked.
The whole team with the exception of Nathaniel was gathered in the conference room, looking attentively at a blueprint display on the huge screen. Lucie had brought the case herself to the team. It concerned a pharmaceutical lab who she suspected was reconditioning passed to date medication in order to increase their profit. So far she had only indirect proof and rumors mostly and that's why she wanted to sneak in with the team's help in order to get real evidence. After that, she will bring the case to Nathaniel.
"I believe the loading dock on the East side is the best way in." Scott answered after giving it some thought.
"You will appear on the camera surveillance." Na-Yung said, using the laser on the table to pinpoint them on the screen.
"Can you do something about this Hans, Lina?" Lucie asked the two tech nerds.
"Their entire network is on close circuit to prevent corporate espionage. I can't just hack in, I would need inside help to be plugged in." Lina said, chewing her lips.
"I can design a drive to get you a way in but someone would have to get inside in person and plug it in the server room. Which means appearing on at least ten different cameras and bypassing at least five security officers." Hans added.
"If I can get you a way in, can you erase the video tape?" Lucie asked Lina.
"I don't think so. They take their security very seriously and they will have back up of the back up in case of their server being hacked to get someone like me."
A long silence follows, the team trying to find a way to circumvent the problem. Jon was the more lost as it concerned two of the things he knew the least about, intrusion and hacking.
"Why not use a bomb?" Camilla offers, stunning everyone around her.
"Camilla, you know what furtive infiltration means right?" Lucie laughed, a few of the team showing smiles.
"Of course, I'm not a moron." Camilla rolled her eyes before using the controller to zoom on a certain part of the complex. "look here, this is the entry to the sewer system. It's only protected by a steel door, if we were to pose a small charge on the lock, we could get inside the building without appearing on any camera. I know that the tunnel is very narrow from the door to the building but you or Na-Yung could pass through it if you have minimum equipment."
Getting to his feet, Scott approaches the screen to have a better look.
"It could work."
"What about the noise?" Lucie asked, interested.
"If you can give me the exact composition of the door and the mechanism, I could build you a charge tailored exactly to blow it up without overkill. Minimum damage, minimal vibration and noise." Camilla explained.
"I can help with that!" Hans shouted. "I could use a drone inside the sewer system and take a sample of the door using a laser to get it's exact composition."
"I like it, good job you two." Lucie compliment.
Hearing her phone starting to ring, Lina quickly jumped out of her chair to answer it.
"Miracle of life, speak if you dare to hear the truth." Lina answers the phone, a smile appearing on their face at her antics. "Yes, sir, we're all already here." Lina said on the phone before snapping her fingers to get their attention.
"Team, we have a case!" Lina shouted. "We have thirty minutes to get our gears before we need to go to JFK where a chopper is waiting for us to bring us to DC!"
Hearing that, everyone jumps from their chair and starts running to get their things. Luckily, they all had go bags to anticipate this exact situation and their gears were always ready to go even if they needed to check it one more time before leaving. Lucie seeing everyone running start cleaning the table of the files that she had brought for this meeting. Only after it was done, she started running to get her things.
"Got it, everything concerning the case is on the dropout, I will make sure that we all have a copy after doing a check to make sure there is nothing wrong with these files… Oh you want information on who? Brunhilde Herzog Von what? Can you spell it please?" Lina asked, taking a pen nearby.
She didn't see that Lucie upon passing near her to get her things had completely frozen in shock hearing that name.