128 (Operation Armageddon: Book 1)

Chapter Twenty: The Plan | Part 2

The fourteen-year-old boy stepped into the apartment, which had a very unwelcoming atmosphere to him. After the detectives' encounter with the assassin that Yael had sent, much of the furniture was in a mess, and the food was all over the place. The boy quickly noticed the assassin lying in a corner, who he assumed to be dead at first. However, Matthew gave a reassuring look that meant the man wasn't dead.

The boy looked at each of the detectives' faces, trying to recall who was who. He then turned back at Matthew, who he recognised almost immediately after a second glance. "You're... Sergeant Davis from the NYPD, aren't you?" he asked to confirm. "I heard that you were working on the case about the disappearance of my sister and me."

Matthew stood in front of the boy, both in mirth and shock. He never thought that one of the people he was looking for would show up in front of him so abruptly two months later. However, he quickly realised that the boy was awaiting his response, and so he snapped out of his spell of thought. "Oh yes," he promptly replied.

"George?" Megan asked as she looked at the boy. "How... how did you get here?" she asked, equally surprised. None of the three thought that he would ever reappear again, but there he was, standing right in front of the three of them.

"The SRA sent me here," George explained. "The Salvation Rebellion Alliance. I'm sure that they had contacted you too."

Matthew nodded. "Yes, that's right. They were the ones that sent us to this apartment, too," he added.

"But where were you all this time?" Daniel questioned, curious to know where George had been hiding for the past two months. And, more importantly: why?

"There's not really much time to explain," George told them frankly. "It's a long story—and a tall one."

Matthew paced himself around the room, still contemplating the choices they would have to make. They needed to know how to get to the chairwoman, and having George appear out of nowhere, sent by the SRA, wasn't exactly helpful. It would have helped in his career if he had solved the case, if not for the epidemic, that is.

Meanwhile, Megan decided to check the news for any news on the pandemic and also for reports on the situation back in New York. She reached for the remote to turn on the television before switching to the news channel.

On the other hand, Daniel couldn't stand seeing the apartment door kept wide open. After the appearances of two people that they hadn't expected, he felt that there wasn't a need for a third one. As such, he walked over to the door and shut it, although it couldn't be locked as both the latch bolt and door chain were damaged. It still offered some peace of mind, however.

Megan focused on the news for a bit more, although she eventually turned it off. There was nothing more than reports on several bombing procedures in New York being carried out by the military in an attempt to decimate the creatures. Then again, they had to make the most of their time in Philadelphia, so she turned her attention away from the news and joined back the discussion.

Just then, Matthew received a message notification from his phone. He picked it up from the bedside table before entering the messages application. The message was from Eliot himself, so he assumed it contained important information. He clicked on it, reading the details out to himself first.

"Hey, check this out," he informed the group after reading the entire message. "I got a tipoff from Eliot. The SRA managed to track down the chairwoman's location. She's somehow preparing to sneak out of New York by some private jet to arrive here tomorrow, and she's planning to head for Yael Tower."

The two detectives gathered by the phone to see the message for themselves. They later received identical messages as well, which were probably sent in case one of them didn't check their phones. George, however, remained out of the conversation as he didn't feel like interrupting their discussion.