T H R E E

I nod towards the doorman tiredly and wait in line for the security check. I fight back a yawn as I glance at the watch. It's only 6:30 AM but I'm supposed to meet my director around 7 AM. Then, I scan myself into the building before heading for the cafe. I try to hold back another fat yawn as I wait in another line for coffee. I have learned a lot about patience while working for the NSA.

The reception lady greets me and hands me a slip of paper. I glance at the floor the meeting will be on. It must be an important meeting since it's on the top floor of the building. There's more security before I enter the meeting room. I realize the meeting is a lot larger than expected. I sit next to the only other familiar face in the corner.

Luke Brohstorm smiles at me as I approach. He is four years older and an MIT graduate. Luke is a dorky but sincere guy whose personality reminds me of the character Brian Johnston from "The Breakfast Club." Other than him, we are the youngest employees in the room. Luke works in the domestic collections under one of the Special Source Operations, while I'm an analyst under the hacking collections. I met Luke through my training program a while ago. We clicked right away despite the age difference.

I whisper to him, "Surprise, surprise. What do you think this is going to be about?"

"We haven't started yet, but I only know as much as you...so nothing." Luke shrugs as he takes out a notepad. "How have you been? I did not expect to see you here."

"Good. I'm surprised I got invited. I only work here part-time..." I admit to him. "Where have you been located?" I have not kept in touch with him since the training program.

"I was flown in from Colorado this morning. Wait, they do that? Wait, how old are you again?" Luke drops his pen and looks at me incredulously.

"Yeah, I'm from this Los Angeles office. I'm twenty-one now. They gave me a conditional agreement. It's very long and boring stuff." I shake my head and shrug because I don't want to get into details about it. There was a lot of controversy with my hiring due to how I first caught their attention in the first place. Then, there was also the controversy over my upbringing since my father and his side of the family are heavily connected with the government.

"I want to hear about it one day." Luke raises his eyebrows curiously before we direct our attention to the room occupants. I shrug because he probably won't ever hear about it.

A lot of the other employees are in their late twenties to thirties. Most of the higher-ranking officials sit at the long table. Everyone else sits alongside the wall. I recognize Driscoll, my boss, but almost everyone else is unrecognizable. He nods towards me in recognition. I gulp because he's the reason why I'm here but he never told me why.

Dean Driscoll is a gruff man of few words. He has served in the army for a long time before somehow becoming our current department head. There are rumors about his background but nobody has dared to approach him about it. None of us have anything against him for he runs our floor efficiently, though nobody can quite tell if he is ever pleased with our work. The man has the face of stone and reads you like an open book.

We fall in silent as a middle-aged man dressed cleanly in a black suit walks to the front. "To those who don't know me, I am acting Director Jeret Clancy of this new joint committee. We have multiple intelligence organizations collaboratively working on this new case. Every single one of you has been personally selected by our officials at the table here." I look around carefully since I feel very out of place. I can feel some stares linger on me as they wonder about my youthfulness. My mixed caucasian and Asian blood makes my ethnicity and age questionable.

"A group of twenty or more notable scientists have disappeared over the past five years. Each one of them is understandably the brightest in their fields." He begins to show the faces of the scientists. I recognize two of the scientists, who were recently nominated for some big prize.

"Their closest relatives and friends have not reported them missing. Some of them have disappeared. They have all vanished without a trace as if someone is covering their tracks stealthily. Someone has been taking professionals from under our noses. Based on the recent cases, we believe that the missing scientists and the outbreak of murders are connected. There have been assassination attempts on multiple international-ranking officials and prominent figures. The sporadic assassinations seem to be covered up by acts of terrorism and personal vendettas. The CIA has been investigating this matter for a while now." He proceeds to show graphic photos of crime scenes of unknown officials.

One of the victims matches up with something similar I've been working on recently. There was a cryptic code that was recently intercepted from one of the criminal organizations we have flagged. The code is incredibly complex, similar to unraveling a huge ball of yarn. Once one part was untangled, the string led to another tangled mess. It was never-ending.

"We probably would not have connected the dots between these scientists and the cases until one of the coders here figured it out." And that's when Driscoll and Clancy both glance over me for the shortest millisecond.

He catches me unaware just as I take a sip of my water. I almost spit it out. Instead, I snort it in and cough a bit.

I want to die from embarrassment.

Recently, I discovered there was something weird between the smaller cases I was working on compared with the big cases my coworkers were working on. Director Driscoll had me fixing firewalls and improving the defense of many of our programs all year long. I guess he figured if I can find loopholes to break into a wall, then I can easily fix the holes too.

There was an instant when I found a harmless bug sitting in the code for the longest time. Most people would have just overlooked it and debugged it. However, I couldn't quite place my finger on it but I couldn't just debug it like usual. Instead, I dug deeper before I realized that it was intentionally placed within our system. It was actively gathering intelligence. It took me several weeks before I managed to link it to the disappearance case of a famous programmer and data scientist, Dr. Ana Nakamoto, who basically changed the way our financial transactions are conducted. I have studied all the notable programmers and Nakamoto's code was somehow found in my case. And that's when Director Driscoll stopped me and told me to come to this meeting.

"The recovery of these scientists is our priority. There will be teams working together in one of the centralized locations..." I start focusing on the individuals around the table rather than Clancy. I am unfamiliar with the faces but I try to commit them to memory.

Soon, we are all dismissed. I walk out with Luke as we begin to catch up.

"That was quite some intense stuff," I comment on the meeting.

"I've to only a couple of these high clearance meetings in the time I've been working here. These meetings are all ridiculously tense." Luke agrees.

"I'll catch up with you later. My boss is calling me over. You have my info if you need to reach me." He smiles sadly before walking away.

I stand awkwardly in the hallway. My reflection in the glass framing the hallways shows a lost, confused young lady. I frown and try to figure out how to approach my next step.

Luckily, the next step doesn't take too long for Driscoll walks gruffly over to me.

"Director Driscoll," I greet him.

"Intern Lambert, follow me." He nods curtly as he walks briskly towards another room. I follow him, not sure where we are headed. We enter a work office similar to our floor. Multiple cubicles have been removed to leave open desks spread throughout the floor. Some of the members of the meeting unpack their belongings and start to settle in. 

"This will be your new floor for the time being. You are to report to Clancy for any new leads. If you have questions, then you will be reporting to him. If you cannot reach him due to some unforeseen circumstance, then you will report me. And that is only if you cannot reach him." He stares at me sternly until he is satisfied I understand him.

"Good work," he nods before leaving me. I feel like I've been thrown into the deep end all of a sudden.

__

A/N

All names are fictional and have no direct correlation to any nonfictional names/characters. Information on NSA will not be accurate as I have made some random adjustments/flairs.