"You going home?" asked Oscar.
We were back in the hallway. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go home, I knew I didn't want to be alone but looking at Oscar and Michael's intertwined hands, I knew I wasn't going to get my best friend's company tonight.
"Later. I'm going to find Jason and gather any information he can share about our new assignment. I'll share it with you guys later. Go home. Have fun", I say before he could protest. I knew he could see that something was bothering me now that he was paying attention. But I wasn't going to let him spend the night Michael was home with me.
Seeing the determination in my eyes not to give in, he sighs. "Okay. Call me when you get home".
"I will, bye Michael. Break his back, will you?" I say catching the blush now spreading on Oscar's cheeks. I let out a laugh as I catch a small smile on Michael's lips. I leave them and head towards the training centre.
The moment I turn the corner of the hallway, my smile drops. Exhaustion covers my face and my shoulders drop. I rest on the wall close to me and sigh.
"I'm worried about her", I hear Oscar tell Michael. "I know she hasn't been getting sleep, the dark circles under her eyes couldn't be more pronounced."
"Anything the Chief should be worried about?" Michael ask
"No, she'll never let whatever is bothering her affect the job. She knows there are lives at stake."
"Then I'm sure she'll come around when she is ready to talk about it. Come on, it's getting late." Michael says and I hear the tiny sigh Oscar lets out as their footsteps get fainter as they move in the opposite direction, towards the underground garage.
I knew he was worried but there was nothing I could do about it because I had no idea what was wrong either. Well, I did but I wasn't going to accept it. I couldn't be like this because of him.
I push of the wall and continue on my way to the training centre where I know Jason's office is located. On my way, I pass by some trainees and co-workers, some greet me with a nod and others avoid my eyes. It was okay. I didn't care for anyone's attention aside from the Chief and Oscar's. I had a reputation here, I was Scorpio; the trainee found in the middle of the road, the one who was trained by the Chief, himself and rose to the very top after one year under his arm.
I have been called the Chief's favorite so many times, I've lost count. To many, I got to the top not because of my skill, but because the Chief felt he needed to protect me, being the one who found me. Otherwise, why would the Chief of the deadliest organisation of hunters and assassins, who had more than enough masters in the craft to teach others, want to teach me?
I had asked myself that same question many times too. And it wasn't until during one of our training sessions that I gained the courage to ask him. I had been at the organisation for two months by then and had just finish a hand-to-hand combat class with him when I asked why he had chosen to teach me of all people.
"I chose to teach you because you asked" was all he had said before leaving the room.
I had remembered asking him to be my teacher after he had given me a tour of the organisation and he had said 'yes'. I had not thought that was enough to sway him but it had been.
According to him, although people admired him and his skills, they never had the guts of asking him to teach them, believing he would say no. I had had the guts but that was only because I had no idea how big he was. So now, I was one of the few people who could say they had been taught by the Chief, himself.
As I get closer to Jason's office, I see bodies gathered around something on his desk. As I get closer, I am able to identify four of the five bodies. We had Jason himself and three of his trainees that I knew to be Dean, Sam and Lena, and the fifth person was someone I hadn't seen before. They were all looking at a map.
Jason's voice gets clearer the closer I get. "...if you take this path, you would not only get there faster but without hassle. There are no low trees to block you view and the road is not lined with large rocks that could make you trip. However, If our runaway is smart, they would take this path." he point to something else on the map.
"But that path would be harder to cross though. Unlike the first path, the trees will obstruct the view and it would be harder moving without hitting anything. Not to mention, the is a lake in the middle of it, not only would you be running, but swimming too. It's going to take you longer taking this path than the first one", the unfamiliar guy points out.
"What do you think, Scorpio?", Jason askes me. Of course the bastard knows I'm here. He wouldn't be known as the best tracker the organisation had to offer, if he wasn't able to pay attention to his surroundings.
I cross my hands over my chest and continue to lean against the door frame, as four pair of eyes turn to me.
"Taking the second path is the only option for survival, which I'm sure is what your target wants to do, survive. The first path is too open, it would be easy for not only your attacker to see you, but to shoot you too. Nothing is protecting you from the bullet. But by taking the second path, you are not only covered and protected by nature, you are making it extremely difficult to catch you. Unless they are paying your attacker good money, they'll give up the search eventually to look for others ways to get you, and those few minutes can get you your life back. You have to remember, all human beings want an easy job". I say the last part with a small smile.
"There you have it folks. Tracking is not an easy profession, so don't try to make It one." Jason says with a smile directed my way. He uses that second to take me in, he eyes my work attire consisting of a long hooded black jacket, black pants, a black short-sleeved shirt and black leather boots stopping on my calves.
I had dropped my bag of equipment containing deadly toys in my trunk and had on just my two twin daggers the Chief had given me as a Christmas present the first year I was here, tucked in my boots. And two pistols in the harness strapped around my waist.
I try to ignore the appreciative glint I saw in his eyes before he addressed his students. "Okay guys, pack up and I'll see you guys on Field 6 tomorrow. We'll be practicing reading signs given to us by a target. Don't bring any of your tools with you, we will just be using what our mothers gave us to track."
"Yes, sir", they all say in unison.
As they pack up, I move into the room and take on the desk they were on just moments before. I turn to look at the map and notice he was using one of his past assignments. It was on of his successful adventures, were he had to track down a kid's body. The boy was running away from his abusive father and had decided to hid in the forest close to his father's farm. His father had gotten to him and had killed him. Everyone knew the father had committed the murder but they police needed to find the boy's body to convict him.
What made the case interesting was that the boy had managed to hide from his father a whole two days before he was found. He had at first taken the second path and had managed to remain unseen because of his small stature. His father got lazy searching for him in the woods and decided to wait for him at the end of the trail after seeing on a map where the path led to.
The police were unable to track down exactly what had happened and had called the Organisation for help, and that's where Jason came in. He had tracked down where the boy had crossed before his final moments, to where the father had hid his body.
I look up from the map after feeling a tap on my shoulder, I see Jason standing beside me with the unknown guy.
"Scorpio, this is Mark, a new student of ours that joined while you were away. Mark, Scorpio", Jason says.
"Hello Ms. Scorpio. It is such a great honor to meet you. I am such a huge fan". I raise my eyebrow at this. A fan. I had a fan?
"Ah...It's nice to meet you too, Mark." I say.
Noticing I was slightly uncomfortable by the hopeful eyes staring at me, Jason turns to Mark. "Go on kid, I'll see you tomorrow."
It was almost comical hearing Jason call Mark 'kid' because he sure did not look like one. He was the same height as me, he was slim with a runner's body like Jason, and was sporting a five o'clock shadow. He looked like he was the same age as me as well, maybe a year younger. I knew Jason was five years older than I was but beside Mark, they could pass as being the same age.
Mark nods and whispers a small 'goodbye' as he leaves with his peers. Jason follows them to the door and closes it once they were all out.
"So, what's up?" ask Jason as turns to me. I knew from his tone, he meant outside of work.
"Nothing" I say.
He gives me a pointed glance. "What? There is nothing wrong", I lie.
"Really? 'Cause that whiskey bottle you are holding says otherwise", he point to the whiskey bottle I took from The Chief's bar.
I sigh and say with all seriousness, "Jason. No."
He moves away from the door with both his hands raised. "Okay, I won't pry. So, what do you need."
Getting straight to the point I say, "I need everything you have on Ella Darwin sent to Oscar and a play by play of what you saw at the vacation home."
"I see the Chief finally spoke to you guys. I'll send Oscar all the files I have tonight before I leave and I can tell you all I know now, if you have time." Me seating down on one of the two chairs on the other side of his desk was answer enough.
"Well, the first thing you should know is that Ms. Darwin is a very smart girl. It took us longer than usual to find her not just because her mother took more than enough precaution to make it so, but because Ella herself knew how to hide.
We found the place Mrs. Darwin had initially left her daughter, in a day but by the time we got there, Ella had already moved. She had designed a way of communicating to her mother after switching spots, that not only guaranteed their messages getting to each other but also getting them on time. It's actually something I think Oscar would find adorable." he says.
I take this in, knowing what Oscar found adorable in the tech world was something other people would rip their hair out, trying to solve.
"Every time her location got compromised, Ella would move before we could even blink. After her mother died, it took us two weeks to find the holiday home and I believe we were only able to do that much because she became sloppy after getting the news. By the time we got there, she was already gone. The house was trashed up, almost nothing survived."
"Couldn't it possible for it be one of her tricks to get you off her back?" I ask.
"I thought so too, but I knew she was taken when I found this." He pulls out his phone from his pocket and turns it to show me a picture. It was of a laptop. It was the size of the ones you saw gamers using. It looked like someone had put it through a meat press machine. It looked like nothing could be retrieved from it, but I knew Oscar could do anything.
"Did you guys bring it back with you?" I ask.
"Yeah. Some of the tech guys tried going at it. It took them a week to admit they couldn't crack shit." he chuckles, making the one dimple he had on his left cheek visible.
"I might have not known Ella personally but being a tracker meant taking note of what is important to your target. And that laptop is the most important thing to Ella, other than her mother. It told her when we were coming and how far we were. It was her eyes, and being blind makes her vulnerable. And we also found about five different DNA fragments left in the house."
"Were you able to identify anyone of them?"
Jason shakes his head, making a curly bit of hair he had tucked behind his ear flop to his forehead.
I sit back in my chair, at a loss. How is it possible for there to be computer, our tech guys couldn't access and bits of DNA our scientists couldn't identify? In this organisation?
Either our organization was getting sloppy about who could work here or we had finally reached a problem we couldn't solve.
My phone vibrating in my pocket pulls me out of my thoughts. My eyes focus in time to catch Jason's eyes on me before he pulls them away. I got the sense that he had been watching me while I was lost in my thoughts. Again, I ignore it and reach my pocket for my phone. It was a new text from Oscar.
Oscar: You still awake to talk?
"Shit" I curse, as I glance at the time. It was already 1:02am.
Scorpio: No. Go back to bed or wake Michael up for round three ;)
"I have to go", I say as I read the annoyed emoji Oscar sent me in response and stand up.
"Yeah, of course." Jason stands as well. "I'll send Oscar the files. Do you need a ride?" he ask. It wasn't the first time I had needed a ride before. I wasn't a fan of driving and usually ran to work most of the time. Jason was aware of this since he was one of the people, other than the Chief and Oscar, who had given me a ride, even though it was in the opposite direction from his place.
I wasn't stupid. I knew Jason had a crush on me but like the last time he had asked me out, I was not interested. I haven't been in five years. But that doesn't seem to dismay him.
He was the definition of boy-next-door. He was kind, sweet and handsome. He was tall with dark brown. He had dark green eyes the color of emerald, and though he was toned and had muscles in all the right places, he still managed to have full cheeks that were apparent when he smiled. And if I was anyone else, I could be with him, but I wasn't.
"No, I'm good. I brought my car in today. Knew I was going to be exhausted when I got back. I'll see you later." I say as I move towards the door. Again, I ignore the look of disappointment on his face.
'I can't be with you, Jason. I can't be with anyone', is the last thing I think before closing his office door behind me.