1. A case to be solved

Hello dear reader! I hope you will enjoy the story. This is Chapter 1 and it might be a little confusing but I think you will catch on pretty quick, especially when "X" shows up ;)

Someone must be joking with me. An important investigation as this and they want me to talk to a screen? With a tampered microphone?!

"No way. I will find the criminal myself but I will not tolerate to be embarrassed and made fun of like this."

I told the FBI director as he told me I was supposed to take on a so called partner.

"I understand why you wouldn't want to work like this, I wouldn't either but these are the circumstances. You have to realize that people from this kind of high positions are very likely to work in odd ways. And if you don't agree on this they will take this case out of our hands. There are even more powerful units then the FBI."

"This is humiliating. I will not talk through a microphone and share information about the investigation with someone I don't personally know. In fact he could be the killer himself. Have you thought about that?"

The director looked at me for a long minute in silence and then the got up and closed the door in his office leaving us two alone.

"Listen, I obviously have no choice but to tell you everything I know so I can assure you its perfectly safe but you cannot tell anyone about this. Not even your father."

I thought about it. The director was definitely someone I could trust so I was sure what ever he was going to tell me was going to be very important and truthful. The main issue was, should I lie to my father? Well, I was merely hiding information from him. But he was part of the case too. And as an FBI agent he knew that sometimes secrets had to be kept in order to protect a life or an important matter. I though about what he would have done if he wore in my place. It was risky to try and hide this from him but if it helped the investigation he wouldn't have done it any differently.

"Alright, this stays here." I agreed to his terms.

He leaned on his desk and rubbed his forehead with his hand right hand.

"This organization...Works even higher then the government. I don't know anything fully but I know that they deal with crimes all over the world. Crimes that affect more countries."

"Just like this case?"

"No, even more complicated. I was surprised they even had an interest about this case. They work with extreme world wide criminals. It is said only the greatest investigators are called to work there."

My ambitions went much higher in that exact moment but I didn't jump to conclusions.

"And why do you think they showed interest in the first place?"

"I don't know, you tell me."

It only took me a second to start with my conspiracy theories.

"It is most likely they need the criminal for something. Maybe he is linked to a higher chain of criminals they are after. Or there is more to this case then we know."

The director looked at me confused for a moment and then kept going.

"This person they want you to work with, he must keep his identity safe so he can lead a normal life and investigate undercover in the same time. I've heard from a friend in the CIA that he is one of the most intelligent detectives in the organization."

"Why do you refer to this person with a he? It might as well be a she."

"Well it's he for certain. That much I am sure. It's the only thing anyone knows about him and they prefer to call him X."

"Wow how unobvious." I murmured. "What do they know about me?"

"Well we kept your identity hidden as much as possible until now so no one knows your interferences in our cases but, it seemed like this organization knows that someone else, someone very new a.k.a you, is helping us with the solving of important cases." He sighed. "However even though they issued they wanted to work with you, and only you they never asked for your identity. For your safety too they insisted you only communicated through a laptop and a voice changing microphone. That way they can't determent anything by your voice. They only wished to know your gender."

I was intrigued why the gender.

"I'm sensing there is something else."

"Only you will have the access to that laptop which will provide you to speak to him."

"X?" I asked.

"You say it so boldly." The director cleared his throat. "Yes X."

I stood up and walked over to the window. The director made no moves or said anything knowing I was clearing my head every time I was supposed to make a decision.

It was very simple. This so called private investigating organization sounded like the perfect place for me. A place where I could easily fit in. A new environment to challenge my wits. And If I could prove myself on this case and make contact with someone working in that organization I could very easily be applying for a job position there. It was a new open gate for me. But...Did I want to go further then the FBI? My father expects this and I always thought that was the only place where I could stand out..Yet this opens new doors for me. Yes, this was a golden opportunity. I should take it. I should definitely take it. Or at least get familiar with some aspects. My cravings for knowledge of secretive things had to be satisfied from time to time.

"Fine. I will take on this case and I will work as they want to."

"Great."

"Thank you so much Jacquelyn." The director spoke.

"I told you hundreds of times. It's Jackie."

He nodded his head and then opened the door.

"Follow me." We walked to the elevator and he pressed at the top floor of them all. I have never been to the top floor so I was excited to what I was to expect. As the doors open I was surprised to find a busy atmosphere as it was ten floors down. I walked in the long hallway until I reached a big office with huge glass widows with the view of the town. The room completely isolated any sound from the hall. There was a single desk and a computer on it with a microphone.

"Am I getting an office?" I asked hopefully.

"No. This is a room used for secret communications. Use the laptop. You know how to get back."

With that the director was gone and I was left in the large office by myself starring at the beautiful view. Thoughts started swirling in my head.

I got to work on an extremely high profile case that included the FBI. We were supposed to catch a serial killer whose IQ was high and no one could catch. He used to brake into rich mansions, kill the owners with weapons such as guns, knives, a hammer, beaten to death and even poison. Then he would rob them of everything valuable without leaving a single piece of evidence that could provide us his identity.

I started out helping dad at home first and in a very short time we discovered I had a knick for deductive thinking. Even more so then people older than me. And now after a year of helping out I can finally see myself becoming the person I want to be.

I sat behind the desk and raised one leg on the chair as usual. I opened the lap top and in the same instant an application opened up. The only button to press was call. I took a deep breath, took the Mobile Headset and pressed the call button. After one long beep the line opened. My heart skipped a little which was very unusual for me.

"Investigator X on the line. It took you a while to call."

It was a male voice but with the voice changer there was no way of telling how mature was this person by listening to his voice.

"It's a hard decision to make especially when I don't know who I am dealing with." I could hear my own voice being changed by the voice changer.

"Well I suppose you decided to ignore that fact when you are here talking to me."

"Yes. I am aware of the risk. However I was assured I am to trust this X person with the investigation. I want nothing more then to close another case."

"Yes you can trust me. I have never lost a case in my life."

"Neither have I." I bit my lip already in frustration. Was it just me or this person was trying deliberately to annoy me.

"How should I call you?"

I stopped for a moment and thought of a quick answer. I didn't want to give out an initial of my name neither of my last name. It was supposed to be something unrelated to my personal identity and then as I adjusted the mobile headset I noticed my bracelet.

"You can call me L."

"Hmm...Alright L. Where should we start?"

We started discussing the case. I stated all the information I gathered and to my surprise he came up with the same conclusions I did. But I pressed for more information in a very subtle way.

"The investigation can not go further and I can not help you if I don't know what you know X."

"What ever you mean L?"

I sensed a bit of tease in his sentence. It would have been very unusual to someone older to find time to tease. And he somehow mocked my initial putting it in every sentence when he tried to make a point. My conclusion was this person was playing naïve which only leads to the assumption he is probably no older then thirty five. I could narrow it down to thirty.

"I take this very seriously and to be honest I don't like when others are not fully focused on the investigation as I am. It's a waste of time to hide information. Are you wasting my time X?"

I deliberately tried to provoke him and see his reaction. It was probably not very smart to make the person that could offer me a job, angry. But I felt strongly confident about it.

There was a very short silence and then I heard him speak again.

"It's the first time anyone has accused me of being unserious about an on going investigation. But I find it more interesting that the way you said that it was more in a way to provoke me then to actually make me feel like I was being unserious about the investigation. And no I wasn't planning on withholding information on a case with such importance as this one."

"What makes this case so important?"

"Well he is a serial killer."

"I am aware of that. And I am also aware he is robbing rich people in order to always keep his identity a secret by not leaving a single trace of evidence behind him. I also know that he is now an extremely rich sociopath on the loose who is probably planning his next victim."

"You left out the fact he works on different continents."

"And you also left out to tell me why this as a regular job wasn't left to the FBI, but it became an interest of your organization."

"Very smart observation." He murmured. "Not sure if you are making an argument here, or just bragging."

"There are few theories here I suppose. One, he is only a puppet in a major investigation you are leading. Two, he is involved in something way bigger, probably it has nothing to do with the robbing which makes me believe, you are with holding information and third..."

I left the silence prepare him for my third theory. "He is a threat somehow to your organization."

After a one minute silence.

"I suppose my very accurate conclusions have left you speechless."

"Hmm. You really are as smart as they say L."

I smirked satisfied. This will look great on my résumé.

"But you have come to the wrong conclusion after all."

"What?" I asked acting surprised.

"Well you are right about him doing the robbing valuable stuff as a cover. He has been in contact with politicians which we believe paying him to do these jobs, and the robbing is just a cover for what he is really taking from their homes and that is "classified information". But you are missing the main point here and that is that just like any organization we are only interested in catching bad people no matter if they are part of something bigger or a threat to our investigation."

I stayed silent for a moment.

"Ate you speechless L, to learn you were wrong?"

The mocking was there and he was no more then very happy to put me back into my place seeing I played arrogant and overly confident. However he felt the need to defend his title as more intelligent than me in such a childish way which led me to the conclusion he was younger. Probably no more than 25. No experienced person would have missed the opportunity to see this as a trap for me to find out more information.

"Thank you X for the slip of information you just shared. I'm sure you would have told me eventually but learning it like this from the beginning gives me an insight of what exactly I am dealing with. Classified information you say? And politicians bribing hit men? Hmm nothing new I suppose but definitely gave me a new perspective of things and evidence."

Since I wasn't interrupted I was pretty sure the other person was still in shock. I did feel little sorry for him.

"I do apologize for making you give out information like this but I tend to take drastic measures when I am impatient. It's a bad habit I suppose." I sighed. "Well seeing I have told you all I know and you have given me very important scenarios to think about I must be on my way. I believe you take care of the time and place for out next conversation. Goodbye."

I took of the mobile headset and pressed end call.

Hmm, this X person was very interesting. Smart I must admit but his own belief that no one is smarter cost him a mistake today. It wasn't a big deal since he was sharing information with a "partner" in this investigation but it was surely very dangerous in other situations and not to mention humiliating for him. However I did not find the need to spread gossip about how he slipped. It could cost him his job, his reputation and maybe his life. Best case scenario I keep my mouth shut.


X's p.o.v.

It's been two days and I expected the news to travel a lot faster. By know everyone would have known I let information slip out. But surprisingly there was no one to mention anything about it.

At first I was extremely mad at myself for letting L get to me that way. It was a double card. A triple card to be exact used to manipulate me. And I was a little rash to make her feel less superior towards a mind like mine. But it was a beginner's mistake. One that could have cost me everything. I knew I had to be grateful to who ever L was but I was strongly disappointed in myself. It was very unusual for me to be wrong. I guess I got used to being the most deductive thinker in the room I thought there was no one to even measure close to me.

I rubbed my eyes nervously as I drank my coffee and got my bag exiting the building.

I should have been more careful. However I felt humiliated by L. Which made me cranky for the last two days and nights. Thinking she is all that. Yet...

By the conversation we had it was so obvious she was a female. Having to prove her point and having the last word. And of course there was the angry seriousness that did not quite match her way of playing me. No, if she was anyone mature she would have stuck to one of these identities. She would have either been very serious or deliberately tease full. However she was playing me and her mood changing personalities to starting off as a rude cut to the point investigator to a person who apologized for extracting information and hasn't spread the word for my incompetence. Mood changes and shaky decisions were made by young people. It has led me to believe she is someone young. Maybe not someone older than 25. There was a spark of innocence in her actions. Hmm.. I can not deny the fact that no matter I don't know her identity this woman is a mystery to me.

I got on my bike and rode to school as usual. Being a senor in high school and an investigator was hard as it is but I managed to do it. Even though I was lacking sleep right now.

I parked my bike and then went to my friend's locker.

"Hey Logan." I smiled as he nervously slammed the door of his locker and turned away walking.

"I was busy." I stated as I walked after him.

"You are always busy and you never explain yourself. What kind of a friend are you?"

"I always apologize don't I?"

"Look I know your life is a big mystery to me even though we've been friends since amm...I don't know...three year olds. But could you could at least say when you won't be coming to game night. So I at least know on time I am being ditched."

I went with my hands through my messy hair and smiled.

"What's it gonna take me to make it up?"

"Nothing."

We kept on walking towards class.

"You could at least think about revenge?" I suggested.

"I am out of ideas."

I sighed and pouted for a long time. He hates it so much he will have to give in.

"Fine. But don't expect me to be nice to you any time soon."

"You are never nice to me." I smirked.

"That's because you're a confident, secretive, smart asshole."

"May I remind you I am a useful confident secretive smart asshole! You always copy off me, you use me to get the teacher's attentions and you always play the victim so I have to do something to make it up to you."

"See the way you talk to me, an asshole."

I burst laughing and tapped him on the back.

"Alright Logan. Let's go to class."

"And that's why Aristotle is called one of the greatest philosophers of all time."

Everyone applauded. Even the teacher.

"Good job Ethan. I am very impressed once again. You may sit."

I sat down and instantly the bell rang. As I was walking out the classroom few girls followed me and Logan. Well to be honest. Followed me.

"You are so impressive Ethan. I swear you are so much more mature than anyone in school." One of them smiled.

"Are you free Friday night?" Another one asked.

"Maybe take me out on Saturday?" The third one spoke.

"I am..." I started to nervously loosen my tie. I hate uniforms. And I hate being cornered like this.

"I am free too." Logan waved his hands like a little boy.

"Amm well I can fix you up with a friend." The first one smiled at Logan.

"No thank you. I've been there done that. Your friends are usually ugly friends."

"Logan." I warned him. He was rude and obnoxious. But I was so grateful.

"Ugh. You need better taste in friends Ethan." One of them flapped her hair.

"Friend? Oh no." He went on. "I am his body guard protecting him from evil bloodsuckers like you."

"It's okay Logan." I put a hand on his shoulder and turned towards the girls "I know you are all nice and beautiful but I'm not interested." I spoke from the heart and hoped they will start bothering me.

"You are probably gay anyway." One of them said angry and then stomped off. The other ones followed her.

Logan took my hand of his shoulder and looked at me. "Are you sure you are not at the other side of the fence?"

"I'm not gay. I jus don't have time to date. I am not the type to date." I calmly said and kept on walking.

"Nerds are in right now. And you got the looks." Logan teased. "And your problem is you are way to smart. Little smart is good. Lot's of smart, scares people off, you know. Good thing you got few social skills and have me."

"I am so grateful." I smiled but inside I knew better. The only thing that made me confident was having a job. A job I loved and I could be who ever I want to be. In school you have to be what others want you to be.

I remembered I had a case to solve. Homework and dating will have to wait. With that I dialed few numbers to arrange the next meeting.

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