Forster slammed me and May to the nearest car. He then cuffed my right hand to May's left hand.
Harlan: Handcuffs. I was starting to think this was never gonna happen.
May: Oh piss off.
Berman: Bring them to my car. I'll bring them to HQ personally.
Forster started pushing us to Berman's car.
Harlan: Sir, please believe me.
May: It wasn't us. There was a blond woman. She let them in!
Harlan: We had nothing to do with-
Forster: SHUT IT YOU TWO!
He slammed both of us on Berman's car.
Forster: Harlan, is SHE still here?
I chuckled.
Harlan: Of course.
Forster: Listen, the Director won't believe anything you say even if I back you up. You're own your own.
May: What are you-
Forster: Take this to her, Brandle, do what you need to do.
Forster handed something to me.
Harlan: I'll try not to break anything sir.
Forster: Ready?
Harlan: Brace yourself boss.
Forster: Good luck.
I turned around and headbutt Forster. Forster fell, nose bleeding and I grabbed his gun and shot two bullets up in the air.
Harlan: EVERYONE WEAPONS DOWN! Weapons down or she gets it.
I aimed the gun at May.
May: Harlan, what the fu-
Harlan: Run on my signal.
May: What?
Harlan: RUN!
I shot one last time at the sky, everyone ducked and May and I ran away.
_.-
May: Where are we going?
Harlan: HERE! C'MON!
I ran to turn left but May ran to turn right and the handcuff pulled me to her.
Harlan: May, no!
Gunshots at May. May cursed as she dodged the bullets and ran to the direction I was running towards.
Harlan: C'MON!
May and I ran. Suddenly...
BANG!
A gunshot.
I suddenly felt pain in my leg and fell.
May: HARLAN!
T.H.E.P.A. Agent: On the ground NOW!
May looked at the agents surrounding us as I held my bleeding leg.
Harlan: Damn it.
T.H.E.P.A. Agent: ON THE FLOOR! NOW! HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD!
May complied, slowly.
May: Damn it, I really loved this watch.
Harlan: We're screwed. No way out.
May: Don't say that, wrong Timing.
I turned to May, and I saw her tinkering her watch.
Harlan: Clever girl. Will it work?
May: Maybe.
Harlan: Chances of failure?
May: Higher than chances of success.
Harlan: Because of my leg?
May: Bingo.
May turned to me.
May: Trust me?
I smiled at her.
Harlan: When have I never?
T.H.E.P.A. Agent: HANDS UP!
I slowly put my hands up. Big mistake.
May smiled, then pressed the crown of her watch and suddenly, a flash of light. The light blinded the agents long enough for May to turn the watch into a smoke grenade, and we ran away.
_.-
May and I stopped at an alley. I checked to made sure we weren't followed. We lost them.
We slid down the wall and sat down on the floor to catch our breath. May ripped out a part of her skirt and used it to put pressure on my wound.
Harlan: That was close.
May: Yeah, that was.
I took a deep breath.
May: You're losing a lot of blood. We need to go somewhere.
Harlan: Someone inside T.H.E.P.A. really wants us out that they framed us.
May: INSIDE?
Harlan: Your father said the tape was deleted. The tape of the woman we saw last night.
May: Yeah I heard.
Harlan: Meaning only someone inside deleted it. We need to find a way to get into the system, the data bank of T.H.E.P.A. Hopefully, there is a backup.
May: How do you plan on doing that?
I got from my pocket a hard drive, the one Forster handed to me.
May: Is that-?
Harlan: Every data in T.H.E.P.A. gets immediately uploaded to a digital cloud. In case everything gets deleted, we still have a backup. This gives us direct access to the cloud.
May: So you're saying, maybe there is a back up of the security feed in there?
Harlan: I hope so. Even so, it is highly protected with security features.
May: Yeah, sorry I can't help you there.
Harlan: It's fine, I know someone who can.
_.-
May helped me as I limped to where we were going. Eventually, we reached a house. I walked up the doorstep and before knocking turned to May.
Harlan: Look um... whatever you do, just act normal.
I could see May didn't understand why, but then we were short on time. I knocked on the door. After a few seconds and multiple locks, a twelve year old girl opened the door.
Charisse: Harlan.
Harlan: Charisse.
Charisse: I told you not to call me that.
Harlan: I got the impression we were on a first name basis now.
Charisse rolled her eyes, then looked at May.
Charisse: Who's the girl?
Harlan: May Berman, meet Charisse Lushton. Charisse Lushton, meet May Berman.
May: Hi.
Charisse: What do you need, Brandle?
I reached in my pocket and brought out Director Berman's hard drive.
Harlan: We need someone to crack this open. And I think you can.
Charisse looked at me, then nodded at us to enter. May and I followed her. As we went in, I noticed a small needle and got it and started picking the handcuff.
Charisse: So what exactly is inside it?
Charisse led us to her room which was full of computers. I suddenly fell to the ground. Charisse looked back and saw my leg.
Charisse: JESUS, WHAT HAPPENED?!
My cuff opened, freeing me from May.
Harlan: May, First-Aid Kit. Charisse, shut up and work.
Charisse (to May): Kitchen, bottom drawer.
May left to get the First-Aid Kit. Charisse plugged in the hard-drive in her computer.
Charisse: So what's in this?
Harlan: Basically everything T.H.E.P.A. has.
Charisse: Interesting. So why the handcuffs?
Harlan: Someone inside T.H.E.P.A. set us up.
May came in and started tending to my wound.
May: Can you walk?
Harlan: Yeah, I'm fine.
May looked at me.
Harlan: What?
May: Who is she?
Harlan: Oh, she's someone who hacked the Pentagon a few years ago and now owes me and Forster a favor.
May laughed.
May: Are you shitting me right now? You're telling me that a ten-
Charisse: ELEVEN!
May: That a kid can hack into T.H.E.P.A.?!
Charisse chuckled.
May: Yeah, I'm gonna need to sit down.
I looked at May, then at Charisse, who groaned.
Charisse: You know where?
Harlan: I got it. C'mon.
I stood up and walked to May. I led May upstairs to a spare room.
May: What? You tired?
Harlan: No. But maybe you are.
I looked at May.
Harlan: Get some rest. We'll be done when you wake up.
May looked at me, and she walked in the spare room. I slowly closed the door behind her and slowly limped my way back to Lushton.