Jason was supposed to be doing extra basketball practice. Instead he was stalking his mom's manager.

Jason waited in his car in the parking lot behind his mom's office buildings. It was one of the glass skyscrapers that surrounded him on the northside of town. The rain drizzling down gently on the window panes made for a soft melody as he craned his neck to look up at the massive building. There were words in white at the top of the building that were incomprehensible through the rain.

A pudgy man in a white lab coat walked across the nearly empty parking lot. The manager moved to the side of the building and slipped into a small alley that was hidden by a garbage dumpster. Jason knew the way through the secret side door. He had discovered it when he was younger during one of the many bring-your-children-to-work-days. The side door only required a simple badge swipe which is why the managers preferred it over the metal detectors and security protocols in the front and back doors. Few people had access to the side door and, luckily, his mom was one of them. Even better was the fact that Jason had his mom's badge. But the only problem was that every time the card is swiped at the side door it sends a notification to the immediately higher ranking employee which would be her manager: the Head of the Scientific Department. If he knew that her badge had been swiped he would definitely have some questions. No doubt he had been told that she called in a sick day. Even if she didn't, he would be curious as to why his mom was out the entire day. He would come and check her office. Jason couldn't have that.

See everyone at the office knew Jason, whether they were night janitors or the CEO of the company. He was at the office way too much. They would recognize him instantly and let him in without a second thought. Now of course most people wouldn't even dream of letting a seventeen-year-old high school senior with three parking tickets, two behavioral right ups, and a near in-class suspension into such an important building unsupervised. Was he a trouble maker? Yes. But did they know that? No. So, he was treated like any other employee when it came to building access. However, whenever Jason visited word spread like wildfire about his visit. Jason used to love this because that meant people would bring him cookies and chocolate while he was there. He was, afterall, the office's only "cute little kid". But now, he didn't want that. He needed to figure out what happened to his mom and if any of these people had anything to do with it, he didn't need to tip them off.

Last night, something happened to Jason's mom. He didn't know whether she had died or had a promotion that didn't let her come home and for some reason his emotionless father was sad about. Jason was pretty sure it wasn't the last one but he couldn't help but hope it was. The fact that his mother could be gone unnerved him to the bone. But what else would make his father so sad and unresponsive? What else would make his reserved father nearly break out in tears in front of Jason? What else could make his mother, who enjoyed coming home from the office and seeing Jason more than anything, not come home? No he didn't want to think about it. Now he had a job to do and he was going to finish it, whether he liked the result or not.

Jason took a deep breath and looked at the time. The clock on the dashboard read 9:02 pm. Jason put on his black hoodie and stuffed his car keys and phone into his pocket before stepping out of the car. He could feel the rain's water droplets fall on his shoulders, soaking through his hoodie. Jason locked his car and walked across the parking lot as casually as possible. The plan was for him to get in through the side door a little after nine. All the heads and department chairs had a physical meeting at that time to go over the day's work and other sciencey-buisness things that Jason didn't understand from the one time that he crashed one of those. What he did understand was that it was high priority and no one would dare check their phone or emails in front of the CEO. This means that Jason would be able to get into the building without the manager knowing anything about it right away. This left Jason around 25 minutes to ride the elevator up to the second to top floor, search his mom's office and anything else useful, ride back down and get out. And all of this was to be done without anyone seeing him. It wasn't nearly enough time, but it was all he had.

Jason stepped into the alleyway. He took out his mom's badge which he hid in his phone case and swiped the door handle. A green light flashed and the door displayed the name "Lillian Collins". The door clicked. Jason gave it a slight push and it swung open, revealing a dark hallway that smelled a lot like lemon wash. Jason stepped in and shut the door behind him. As he made his way to the end of the hall, Jason remembered the first time he had discovered this place. Young Jason had thought that he discovered a secret basement in this area and he was trying to find it again. He never did find it, but he did come across the side entrance instead.

The end of the dark hallway was another door, this one made of steel. Jason quietly pushed it open. The other side revealed the large and spacious lobby. Glass lined the walls letting a grayish glow from the dark side emanate inside the lobby. The scent of lemon cleaning equipment was overlapped by the myriad of smells coming from the food court. Jason rounded a corner and walked into the elevator, careful to not run into any custodians or attract the attention of the receptionist. No one else attempted to enter the elevator with him. He pressed a few buttons and made his way to the 17th floor. The door opened to a small lobby space with the same layout as the first floor: glass walls overlooking the city, white and green chairs in circles around tables, high chairs here and there, and two green colored couches. A small Starbuck's was in one corner, the other one had a glass door. Jason made his way through the glass door and into a narrow and dim hallway. There were offices lined on each side, most of the lights off or dimmed. At the end of the hallway were glowing white doors. Behind the doors, Jason knew, were the labs.

Jason made his way down the hallway before stopping at a door. It was shut tightly and the window next to it showed that there was absolutely no light from inside the office. The label read "Lillian Collins". He scanned the key card and slipped in.

The room had flower wallpaper stickers along the walls. A small chair and table sat in the corner. Jason smiled as he remembered how he used to color and play with toys when he was in the chair while his mother worked. He definitely couldn't fit in it now. Jason made his way to the desk. On it sat a computer, a couple files and papers, and a picture frame. There were seventeen tiny pictures of Jason's family in the past seventeen years. Each was taken at Jason's birthday party. His mother changed the pictures every year to add new ones into the frame.

Jason sat behind her desk and typed in her password. He knew it was his father and Jason's birthday combined since he was twelve. As the computer loaded, he shifted through the cabinets of his mother's desk. There were endless files filled with gibberish he didn't understand. He pocketed the flash drives that were in the back of the first cabinet before continuing to shuffle through everything. Jason didn't know what he was looking for. Just anything that seemed out of place.

Finally, the computer loaded and Jason shifted through the files, checking for anything peculiar. Nothing popped out at him. He checked her search history which was filled with recipes for lemon cake and constant searches of his father, Jonathan Kane, and his company, Kane Laboratories. Jason didn't find it strange as his mother was constantly searching the web for the latest news on them. However, Jason did find that everything from about a month ago was erased. As far as Jason knew, she never cared about her search history. So why was she erasing it?

Jason was about to dig deeper into the computer when he heard the hall door slam open followed by voices. Jason cursed to himself as he checked the time. He went over the planned amount by about twenty minutes. He only had enough time to lock the monitor and dive under the desk before the talking figures passed by the office window.

Jason couldn't stay under the desk, it was too obvious and open. He needed to find another hiding spot. He could hear two voices arguing outside the door about trying to get into the office. As Jason started to crawl out from under the desk, his shoulder scraped something hard and rough against the smooth desk. He turned to see a rough patch of wood sticking out from the rest of the desk. He could still hear the voices but his curiosity got the better of him as he pressed his fingers against the wood. It was moving back and forth as he pushed it, like it was loose. There must've been something hiding inside the desk. His fingers grabbed the edges and pulled lightly, the wood giving away easily at his touch. Inside was a small compartment. It was rough around the edges like someone carved it out of the desk. In the DIY secret compartment was one tiny silver flash drive. It was completely blank, the company's logo was absent. His mother must've bought it on her own. He quickly pocketed it and tried his best to place the piece of wood back in it's spot. The voices were still arguing outside.

"What's the point of being a security guard if you can't even get into a person's office?"

"I'm the front door guard not the office-wide guard."

"Then why are you trying to help me?"

"Because you asked me about Mrs. Collins and then demanded to get into here immediately."

"Can you blame me? She said she was on vacation for a month. I didn't expect her to walk in. And you didn't even see her. What if it's some random person? She had some of our best research! We can't let them take it!"

"Too late," Jason thought to himself as he crawled out of the desk and across the floor as quickly as he can.

"You know what! Move. I bet I have access as her boss."

There was a quick shuffling before the beeping sound of the card system rang and the door clicked. The door flew open just as Jason flattened himself on the wall behind it. Two men walked in and crossed the office, not paying attention to the teenage boy behind the door. As they made their way to the desk Jason quickly snuck out the door and into the hallway, flattening himself to the wall as he tried to stay in the shadows. He wanted to hear what the men had to say but he didn't want to get caught.

He ran down the hall and pushed through the doors, quietly closing it behind him. It wasn't until he was stepping back out of the secret door and into the rain that he breathed again. Jason jumped got into his car and looked back up at the office looming in front of him. He took the silver flash drive back out of his pocket and looked at it. Whatever answers he was searching for could be in there. Why else would his mom try so hard to hide it from everyone, including Jason and his father?

Jason hid the flash drive under the passenger seat before driving out of the parking lot. On his phone were multiple messages on a group chat with his basketball team. It mainly consisted of his best friend, Josh, and another teammate, Alex, arguing.

Josh: Dude, Jason, are you coming to Liam's party or not?

Alex: Chill out, man. He'll come when he wants to.

Josh: But he's been practicing for three hours after we left. He needs to stop and take a break. He's already Captain. There's nothing else he's gonna achieve.

Alex: Exactly why coach will have his head if he misses a three-pointer.

Josh: Like he would ever miss a three-pointer.

Alex: Someone's salty.

Josh: I'm not salty.

Alex: No?

Josh: No. I'm just concerned for my man.

Alex: And I'm a pink unicorn that eats rainbow colored pancakes and poops gold while running over New England Patriots fans.

Josh: You don't like pancakes.

Alex: I love pancakes!

Josh: You never eat them.

Brandon: Have you never seen him wolfing down his breakfast?
Josh: No. I just assumed he never ate breakfast.

Alex: What kind of human being doesn't eat breakfast?

Josh: Look, is Jason coming or not?

Jason internally sighed. He needed to see what was on the flash drive but now was not the time. If he wanted to make everything look normal, he was going to need to go to the party. The flash drive will have to wait.

Jason quickly texted a "Yes" before driving onto a highway ramp and picking up speed. He had a party to get to.