After half an hour of driving, they finally appeared at their destination. The Bronx. Since it was past rush hour, the journey from Queens was short. Daniel was grateful to Jessica for the first time. They say the Bronx is the most affordable borough in New York. And the apartment she chose for him was quite spacious as well. The brunette was surprised to find that an unpredictable woman like Jessica can be quite considerate.
"Home sweet home! Take your time but get down in five minutes. We're heading out again." Handing out the keys, she proceeded to leave.
"Wait, head out where? Receiving the keys, he asked.
" Where else? The HQ obviously."
"But I'm supposed to report in tomorrow."
She replied as she shrugged her shoulders, "It's no big deal. Sooner the better. The important thing is, we have a meeting tonight and I want you to participate in it."
Daniel put down his bag. They were now in the bedroom. "Meeting about what exactly?"
"Your new assignment, of course! "
Daniel was going to ask if it was appropriate for a low ranking detective like himself to be at a upper-level meeting. But since it was about his new case so he didn't continue. Daniel has decided to play dumb and follow her lead for a while. Because, just like Jessica, he also needs to test the water. He needs to know whether following that woman would be for the better or worse.
"So.... if we're going now, shouldn't we split up? Y'know, for your secret's sake?"
"Hmph, smart but not smart enough. If we split up now, how are you going to find your way there?" She winked while standing by the door with her leisurely stance. "Do you know where the HQ is located?"
"Umm, You'll tell me?"
"And what're you gonna say after the guards confront you? Who the hell are you and how did you find this place?"
"Ahh.... Google map?"
"SPD don't appear on google map." she deadpanned.
"Oh, I see then." saying, he scratched his head. Seeing his helpless feature, Jessica cocked her brow in surprise. "Why are you being so dumb all of a sudden?"
Caught off guard, the brunette almost stammered, "A-ah I think all this travelling took a toll on my brain."
"Hmm, don't let it grow on you." she half-smiled, "You don't need to worry over these small details. Someone's bound to bring you there. I just happened to be the available one right now."
Daniel was, by that time, done tucking away his stuff. Jessica said he had only five minutes to get settled but looking at her now, she doesn't look that hurried. Leaning on the doorframe, her composure the usual lazy one. The brunette made a mental note.
Jessica Hawklin is always prepared despite her attitude and approach.
Giving that line a point one, he tucked away that mental note at the back of his head for later use. The brunette quickly switched his brown jacket with a black one. He didn't wanted to be all sweaty and smelly among all those important people. And with these small talk and task, his five minutes were over.
"Okay, princess. It's time we hit the road."
"Could you stop using these wierd nicknames, please? And why do you even call me princess?"
"You demand way too much." She snickered. "Also, calling people names makes me feel superior."
Number two. She is overly self-important!
.
.
.
.
No wonder the SPD doesn't appear on google map. The whole establishment is underground; not to mention, unregistered. Jessica said it wasn't registered/licensed under any particular government or country until recently. But It's range is still worldwide. That means, the SPD belongs to every one regardless of the geographical or racial difference which Daniel finds kinda funny. Because there are plenty of international organisations who claims to do the same but ends up sucking upto the powerful people only.
"An establishment as big as this, why call it a department?" Daniel asked as he walked side by side the dark haired women. For some reason, her leisurely composure gone.
"That's something I dunno." a quick reply.
Number three. Pretty shameless about her own lack of common knowledge.
But Daniel wasn't surprised at this. Someone who doesn't even know the full name of their force, it's highly unlikely that they would know the history behind it. So he didn't push it any further. Instead, he started taking notes of his surrounding.
They had drove here to the Harlem for a good amount of 40 minutes. The HQ is under the Harlem river. The entrance was not hidden in any wierd place like in the Harry Potter movies. There's a police station of the patrol division near the river. The entrance is inside the sheriff's office and the guard is the sheriff himself. Jessica just waltzed in the office as if she owned the place and no one bat an eye to it.
The sheriff saw her coming in and gave her a quick salute which she didn't give much mind to. The man walked up to a wall and put his hand on the empty space of the wall.
"And the man?" The man gave Daniel a look.
"Rookie. Make sure to remember his Face well. He'll be frequenting from now on. Don't worry about his ID till I say so."
"Mn."
Finishing, he pushed into the wall. a palm-shaped space lit up and a slide door opened up right beside it. The whole process was like those of the movies and it amazed the brunette.
"You may proceed."
Jessica, of course, went in first and the brunette followed suit. The path looked like a long dark tunnel. But it lit up upto five meters when they stepped in and continued to do so. The whole place echoed with each step and continued forward.
"The path keeps going downwards."
"Can tell?"
"Hmm."
The atmosphere between them grew quiet. There were no sounds except their footfalls and echoes. It was unlikely of Jessica to not initiate any random conversation. the whole time she drove here, her mouth just won't stop. But now, all of a sudden, she is quiet. Which leads to one conclusion. They are currently under watch. Daniel gave his surrounding a careful look and after a lot of effort, he was able to see tini cameras attached to the far ends of the walls.The brunette also spotted some motion sensors at the ankle level of the wall. Noting their position, he continued walking towards the never-ending darkness.
After what felt like hours, they finally reached the entrance gate. There were no guards, only a metal gate which required their ID, hand print and retina scanning to open. Completing the process, the mechanical voice rang out and opened itself.
"WELCOME BACK, COMMANDER HAWKLIN!"
"Didn't you say you gave up your position?"
"I gave up my position as the second-in-command of the entire force."
Number four. She was nominated as the deputy chief but refused the position. current rank: Commander.
Inside was not much different from the FBI headquarters. It was big, the lobby was spacious and crawling with people wearing office attire. Jessica took him to the reception where he completed the necessary procedure and then received his gear from the storage unit. The gear was also not that different from the regular police gear except for the badge. This badge had the word SPD engraved on it's back with its emblem.
"Huh? It says my division is FBI? What kind of mistake is this?" The brunette asked the older guy who was in charge of his gear.
"It's not a mistake. When the Spd recruits people from other law enforcements, they fall into a totally different category. To keep things from being too complicated, they are to be addressed as their former workplace." he replied monotonously.
Daniel checked again. Division is FBI. Rank is lieutenant. So he did got promoted to his previous rank. The brunette wanted to feel happy but for some unknown reason, could not.
"Are you done yet?"
"Woah! What are doing whispering into my ear like this, Ms. Hawklin?"
Again, she appeared out of nowhere. The brunette just cannot seem to ease up whenever she is around.
"Why are you acting all surprised for? Ah, never mind that. Did you get everything needed?"
"Mn. Yeah"
"Please address your senior officers by their proper entitlements, Mr. rookie."
Oops! He totally forgot about the other guy. That's right. They are in the HQ right now. And she is the commander here. Daniel then realised, the whole journey from Bronx to Harlem to here, He has been on edge the whole time. "Umm, I'm sorry, sir!"
"Yo Peter! I see you're still alive and kicking!"
"Same old, same old!"
Faking a smile, she pulled on the brunette's sleeves, gesturing him to get his legs moving. They got out of the room and while turning the corner, the said commander whispered to the rookie beside her, "Sometimes, I wonder if his parents put a stick up in his ass or was he born with it, lol!"
Number five. She always badmouths others a.k.a. annoying!
"C'mon sweetheart, pick up the pace. The meeting is in the conference room D."
They got onto an elevator and Jessica pressed the button to 6. Daniel was amazed to find that there were 12 buttons in this elevator which implies that this is a 12 storied establishment underground.
"Are we going upwards or downwards?" Daniel asked
"The tunnel is connected to the first floor. So obviously we're going upwards. But there are also three storied basement for file room and other confidential stuff. a different staircase is used for that."
With a ding sound, the door to the elevator opened. They were just about to get off but was intervened.
"Look who decided to show up after an entire month!"
"Ah damn!"
A young blonde woman, her frame small and curvey, shoulder long golden hair. She was wearing a formal office outfit of a white button up shirt with black mini skirt and jacket. Overall, Daniel's first impression of her was stunning. Even though she had her brows twisted into an angry expression, her small round face still was the epitome of gorgeous white beauty.
"Where have you been all this time, young miss? I hope you have a fabulous excuse this time."
"Huh.... yes chief."
Huh? Chief? Holy cow! But she looks so tiny! They were already out of the elevator now and were face to face with the golden blonde woman who is also the chief. Daniel was surprised to find that the chief was a small, breathtakingly gorgeous white woman. But what's more surprising was the commander's reaction to it. The brunette was expecting her to retort in her usual way. But instead, she's being timid. So there's someone in this world who can actually put Jessica Hawklin in her place! What a beautiful world!
As if noticing the brunette just now, the blonde woman perked up. "Oh, you must be the new agent we recruited."
Coming back to earth, Daniel also collected himself. "Lieutenant Daniel Davis, FBI, Reporting in Ma'am!"
"Oh, Lieutenant Davis! Heard so much about you." she moved forward to shake hands, "Let me introduce myself. Rebecca Hawklin, the chief of The Special Personnel Department."
Hawklin? Daniel immediately looked at the other Hawklin beside him who was standing straight for the first time.
"At ease. I thought you were reporting in tomorrow, but since you're here," she gave the dark haired woman a side glare, "why don't you head over to the conference room D? The meeting of your new team will start in a few minutes."
Daniel could not ignore the chief's order. So he nodded in acknowledgement and went away. But he immediately stopped in his track after turning the corner. He doesn't know where this conference room D is. Hence, he made a quick U turn but stopped again anyway. The Hawklins were arguing.
"And where do you think you're going, miss?"
"Umm...the conference room?"
"Huh... Jessica, do you realise what position you're in right now?
" I know."
"NO, YOU DON'T!"
There were no one at the hallway but them. The chief's raised voice echoed the entire floor alerting other staff members. One or two people came to check out of curiosity but then went away quickly. Looks like it wasn't the first time. The brunette wanted to sneek a peek but didn't risk it in the end. So he just stood there glued to the wall. A single question in mind. What's going on?
"Jess, How did you handle your last case?"
"Umm, quite accurately?"
"Wrong! You are a commander! You were supposed to work with your team. YOU WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO ABANDON YOUR TEAM AND WORK ALONE!"
"......."
"......"
"Atleast I got the job done."
"Ah my god!"
The brunette in hiding couldn't help but sneek a peak at this rate. Carefully, he stretched out his neck only a tiny bit to watch the Hawklins. The blond woman was shorter by an inch from the dark-haired one. And she had a distressed look on her beautiful face while the other just stood there quietly, shifting her weight from one leg to other, clearly restless. The chief started to rub her temples.
"If you can't follow the chain of command, atleast get the job done correctly. How come it ended up in the front pages of almost every newspaper?" Her voice was now quieter than before.
"My assignment didn't require such secrecy."
"Everything about the SPD requires secrecy. Yet you got the army involved. The entire shipment got captured by them."
"Isn't that a good thing then? It's not like the SPD wanted that cargo in here."
"......."
"And I believe that assignment was about capturing those lowlifes and stop the cargo from crossing the border." The commander's voice was calm. "That group of lowlifes were shipping LSD drugs."
"You failed your mission."
"No, I successfully helped the army officers who were on duty to get the situation in their bag. I basically did their work for them. The government should reward me."
"For the love of God, Jess, you're such a handful...."
At first, the brunette thought the chief was interrogating about the MOB case. But turns out it was something way bigger than that. And Daniel remembers this piece of news. A few weeks ago, the US army caught a syndicate who were trying to cross the border and with them, a whole ass shipment of drugs were captured as well. The media made a lot of fuss over it because with further investigation, They were able to discover a new point organisation of drug dealers and human traffickers. Turns out it was the SPD who did the investigation or more accurately, Jessica Hawklin. How the hell did she manage to do that?
"The higher-ups are not happy with this, Jess"
"I'm not their wife. It's not my duty to keep them happy. And since when did the SPD start taking care of these stuff? It's the job of the nation's law enforcement and defence system's job to look after these matters."
The blonde woman didn't answer her. Instead she continued to rub her temples. Sighing, she looked at the other one in a pained expression.
"Jess, you and I both know why the higher-ups are doing what they're doing. You...you also need to stop provoking them." The chief, Rebecca Hawklin, put a hand on the other's cheek, gently caressing it. " Even though I'm the chief now, I can't always protect you."
"Then don't." The taller one tore her hand away from her face, her voice cold as ice, "It's not your job to protect me. Also, don't forget, you're the chief now. You report to no one."
Jessica turned away and started walking towards the corner where the brunette was eavesdropping. Seeing her coming, Daniel immediately leaped backwards and quietly left the place. In his hurriedness, he was unable to eavesdrop on their last part of the conversation. The dark haired woman had stopped in her tracks in the last second before turning the corner, and said to the other Hawklin present.
"The public needs to know what's going on in their country. The SPD can't do whatever the fuck they want in the name of secrecy all the fucking time. So, you do what you can. And I'll do what I'm best at. Because the worst those geezers can do..... is kill me."