May: Hey, dummy! Get up!
I opened my eyes and she saw me wake up. I sat up and fixed myself.
Harlan: What are you doing here?
May: Thought we were going out for dinner, then you didn't show up. Had to eat by myself, thanks.
I stretched my arms.
May: Then at midnight, you still weren't home, which meant only two things. Either you got mugged or kidnapped, or-
Harlan: Or I was here, good job.
I sarcastically gave May a thumbs up, but she looked at me seriously, and concerned.
May: Is everything alright, Harlan?
I looked at May. She didn't know whatever happened between me and Clair. I wanted to tell her what I told Clair. I wanted to tell her something that has been haunting me for twenty-four years. But part of me told myself not to, and so I smiled and lied.
Harlan: Yeah yeah, everything's fine. Just a bit exhausted on the case. By the way do tell me, who's the newbie?
May: The newbie?
Harlan: Yeah, light blond hair. Never seen her before.
May: Harlan, we don't have a new-
Harlan: Also, what's it with you? Giving me incomplete data?
May looked at me, confused.
May: I'm sorry?
I got out the files.
Harlan: I asked you. Get files on her family. Paul, Taylor and Chase Delvey, you only gave me files on Paul and Taylor.
May: Yeah because-
Harlan: I then checked and nothing! Are you playing with-
May: Harlan, that's everything we have. There are no files on a Chase Delvey.
May was the type who liked to prank and joke around. I could tell in her eyes if she was joking or not, but right now she wasn't. She was serious.
Before I could respond, the alarms went off. May and I looked at each other.
Harlan: What time is it?
May: Thirty minutes till three in the morning. Why?
I gave her a look, and she understood. We weren't alone.
I grabbed my coat and me and May ran out, leaving the files. We ran to the CCTV room to see what happened. May sat down and started going through the cameras.
May: Somebody broke in the main entrance.
She rewinded the tape. The newbie and two agents in T.H.E.P.A. military gear walked to the door.
Harlan: There! That's the newbie I'm talking about!
May stopped the tape and ran facial recognition.
Harlan: What are you doing?
May: Harlan, we don't have a newbie, and I've never seen her before.
May limited the facial recognition to only T.H.E.P.A. personal, and no results came out. She wasn't T.H.E.P.A.
May: I'll find them, put the base on lockdown!
I sat beside her and used another computer to put the base on lockdown. May tried to use the CCTVs to find them, but the trail ended when they went in an elevator.
May: Damn it! Feed got cut as they entered the lift. We on lockdown?
Harlan: It is. Got your gun?
May showed me her gun.
May: Lift stopped one floor below.
Me and May got up and left.
We didn't take the elevators, we took the stairs. As we reached the level, we saw the two men, both holding a bag. The newbie wasn't there.
Harlan: Where's the girl?
May: I don't know.
May unscrewed the crown of her watch, then slid it to the floor. One of them stepped on it, and it attached to his shoe. As they walked away, May's watch suddenly had an arrow pointing at where the crown was like a compass. Or a tracker.
May: C'mon!
May and I ran through the hallways till the tracker led us to the room they went into. May opened it slightly to peek in and see.
May: Oh shit.
I looked through the opening and saw what was going on. One of them took out something from his bag, a bomb. A T.H.E.P.A. bomb. I tiptoed and saw he already placed bombs in the pool.
Harlan: He's loading the pool with bombs.
May: No shit Sherlock.
Harlan: What's under the swimming pool?
May: Server room.
Harlan: Which server room?
May: You know which one, the one where all digital files are-
May stopped.
Harlan: Oh... oh fuck.
I was going to watch more, when I heard a footstep.
Harlan: There were two of them right?
May: Yeah.
Harlan: I only see one.
As if on cue, somebody grabbed me by my collar and pulled me back to the wall. May turned but the other man kicked her into the pool room. I got up to help.
The man setting the bombs saw us enter. He got a detonator and started the five minute countdown before running away.
The man who kicked May in was approaching her. He reached for his gun but I tackled him and knocked over a box of swimming goggles.
Harlan: DISABLE THE BOMBS!
May looked at the bombs there, five of them in the pool. I elbowed the man and threw a pair of goggles at her. She caught them, removed her coat, tied her hair back and jumped in the pool.
May is a swimmer by the way, in case I haven't mentioned. Back in the academy, whenever we had swimming or underwater drills, she always passed with flying colors. If she hadn't decided to become a T.H.E.P.A. agent, she might as well join the olympics or something.
May swam to the bombs but they were all at the bottom of the seven-feet pool. As May disabled the bombs, I had to take care of the man. I knew I wouldn't beat him in a fair fight.
Underwater though, I had a higher chance. I tackled the man and we both crashed into the pool.
The thing about fighting underwater is that size and weight is a big thing. A small and skinny person wouldn't do much.
A big and strong dude however, that shit means danger.
The man was not that big and not that heavy, but he had weight. I tried to do normal fighting but the water affected the impact of our punched, plus you couldn't really see underwater, everything is just fuzzy.
The man grabbed my collar then swam to the side. He pinned me to the wall and punched me. I kicked his groin, and used him to kick myself up to get some air.
I went up for air and looked at May, who also went up at that moment for air. I looked at the timer, three minutes left.
May: THREE LEFT!
Harlan: HURRY! WE DON'T HAVE-
Suddenly, the man got up and grabbed me.
May: HARLAN!
The man necklocked me. I looked at May.
Harlan: HURRY!
I took a deep breath, gathered as much air in my mouth, before jumping back-first into the water, bringing him with me.
As we sank, I elbowed him and the guts, then at the face. He let go and I tried to swim up. I took in a little oxygen, and I felt a hand grab my leg and pull me down. He punched my face and I let out my oxygen supply. He choked me underwater and pinned me down to the bottom. I tried screaming for help but I was underwater, not even May could hear me.
I started swallowing water, and I felt this burning sensation before my vision started fading, and I slowly closed my eyes.
_.-
May: Harlan. HARLAN!
I spat out water. May was pushing the area chest above my lungs. My mouth spat out some more water before coughing.
May: Harlan! Oh thank god.
I looked around as I sat up and May pulled me in for a big hug. We weren't in the pool anymore, we were back in the hallway. May's face was wet, but her eyes were red from crying.
Harlan: What happened?
May: I was disabling the last bomb, then I saw the man, he was drowning you. I only had one minute left and I- I had to save you. I thought I lost you.
Harlan: The bombs! What happened?
I just got up and ran to the pool room, expecting to see an empty pool with a hole at the ground, but it was still there, the water was still there along with a dead man.
I turned to May.
May: Honestly, I've never felt more insulted my entire life.
May brought out the last bomb, 0.07 seconds left. I looked at May, and we both smiled before sharing a laugh.