Previously
Adam Black, a former federal agent framed into a terrorist, has been broken out of prison by an agent of the Anti Terrorist Coalition, Adam's former employer, for reasons unknown to Adam. The ATC seems to have knowledge of the operation, but the intentions are unclear even to employees of the agency, other than its Director Richard Williams, who himself seems unhappy with this development.
Chapter 2
November 1st, 2023. 7:43am - Fremont, Colorado
Gwen stops the car briefly and tells Adam to drop Peterson off.
"We're far enough, get him out of the car and take his cell phone."
Adam steps out of the car, opens the backseat door and throws Peterson to the ground. He does not intentionally harm him, but isn't particularly careful, either. Adam steps back into the passenger's seat and Gwen steps on the gas. Now that Peterson is gone, Adam thinks it's time to utter his first words in a year and a half.
"Okay, you got me out of prison. Now you're going to tell me what's going on, what do you want from me? Who are you working for?"
"ATC."
"ATC would never approve of this, I'm a federal fugitive, so start talking. What's really going on?"
"Eight years ago, you went undercover to work with drug dealer Nicolás Diaz. ATC received intel of a weaponized level 4 virus, called the Azrael virus, being transported to US soil today, most likely as part of a business deal. It's probable that this virus will be used against American citizens."
Adam is overwhelmed by all of this, but not yet convinced.
"So, what's got to do with Diaz? Or me?"
"ATC needs you to reestablish your cover and get in contact with Diaz. We need Diaz's sources to locate the virus."
Things start to make some sense to Adam.
"So, that's why you broke me out. You need me to be a fugitive to convince Diaz I'm a criminal."
"Technically you are."
Adam picks on up on Gwen specifically saying "technically". As if she knows he's innocent. But he decides not to dig into just now.
"Why doesn't ATC just break Diaz themselves?"
"We can't get in contact with him, and we don't have time. We need you to find him and get us to the virus."
"Assuming what you're saying is true, what makes you think I'd work for ATC - or the government?"
"Richard will brief you once we get to ATC."
Adam is shocked Richard still works for ATC.
"Richard... Sure haven't seen him in a while. He really came up with this? He must have been desperate, we don't exactly like each other."
"No. This was my idea."
ATC Los Angeles
A meeting has been called at the conference room at ATC headquarters. All the employees have gathered to hear Richard Williams brief them on what is currently happening.
"The intel on the Azrael virus turned out to be credible. We have reason to believe that the virus will be used to attack American citizens, possibly as early as today, if the virus can't be found in time. The Azrael virus, upon infection, has approximately a 98% mortality rate, meaning that if this virus can't be stopped in time, we could be looking at fatalities in potentially the hundreds of thousands. I doubt I'm required to press the urgency of the situation at this point. Our current play is to get a former ATC agent reestablish his former cover with drug criminal Nicolás Diaz, who he have reason to believe has contacts that could lead us to the virus."
Paul and Maria sit in the front row, and wait to see whether Richard will bring up who the former agent in question is, but Richard decides not to enclose it at this time.
"That is all. I need everybody to work at full capacity. The situation is critical, and the consequences potentially disastrous. But this is what we do. This is our job. Let us not forget that. Alright, get to work."
As people get up to leave, Paul and Maria stay to have a brief discussion. Paul is not in favor of bringing Adam in. He masks his outrage as fear over the operation, but in reality it's his jealousy speaking.
"What do you make of all this, Maria?"
"Look, I know how you feel, but I'm sure this is the best play. Adam was undercover with Diaz for over a year, and his cover should still be intact."
"Yes, but..."
"But nothing. But nothing, Paul. You heard Richard. Hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake here, don't let your petty feelings get in the way of us doing our job. Adam risked his life saving me in Washington, try to get over your jealousy, please."
Maria leaves Paul hanging and walks out of the room.
White House, Washington, DC
The President's Chief Adviser Palmer Collins is alone in a room, speaking on his phone.
Palmer is as slimy as ever, pulling every string he can to benefit himself. 18 months ago he was involved in the ploy to frame Adam for the Washington terrorist threat, taking orders from a man named Simon Silverman, who himself works for an organization called The Order. Not much else is known about him, or the organization, other than they work from the shadows and have a lot of power over American politics, among other things.
"I just don't think it was a wise move allowing Adam Black to be broken out of prison, sir. We went through a lot of trouble to find him and lock him up. Now he's out, and you know how dangerous he can be if he gets too close to the truth."
Simon Silverman is sitting in a highly luxurious private plane on the other end of the phone call.
"Adam is to kept on a short leash, I have taken precautions to ensure that. He got close to the us in Washington, but he only scratched the surface, and never managed to do anything with what he learned. I expect you to handle your end, I'm on my way to Paris right now."
"With all due respect, sir, but Kevin Reese was supposed to be kept on a short leash, too, and he played you."
"Kevin Reese is dead. It was a minor miscalculation."
"I just hope you're not underestimating Adam Black."
"I can assure you, I would never underestimate him. He's every bit as good as his father. I hope I can trust your cooperation, as usual, Mr. Collins?"
"Yes, sir. You can."
"Good. We'll deal with Adam once the current crisis has been averted. Until then, he can be useful."
Fremont, Colorado
Gwen starts to slow down the car as they approach a remote building with a helicopter parked on a helipad. It's clear it's no ordinary helicopter, it's built to go fast and stand combat. Adam recognizes it as a model that's been used by ATC, which backs up Gwen's story of her working with them. Gwen stops the car and gets out, as Adam follows and they start to make their way to the building.
"We're taking the chopper. We should be in LA in... Shit!"
Gwen and Adam simultaneously realize they were indeed followed as a small parade of police vehicles approach them. The cars stop and armed police officers open fire.
Adam instinctively pushes Gwen down behind the car.
"Gwen, get down!"
Adam takes cover behind the car and starts shooting at the cops, but Gwen is not one to stay down and instead does her part, as well. Neither of them attempts to actually hit the police officers, but rather defend themselves to buy time. Adam can tell that what happened in the prison was no fluke; Gwen really is very good at what she does. If they weren't in a life threatening situation, Adam might find it attractive, even.
"Gwen, I'll cover for you, you go to the chopper and start it! If we don't hold them back, we don't have enough time to get off the ground, I'll hold them, go!"
Gwen nods and rushes to the building to make her way to the roof, as Adam holds back the cops.
Gwen makes her way up the stairs to the roof in almost no time, she's very fit and well conditioned. She's almost like a female version of Adam; it's rare for someone in this line of work to be as good as she is.
Adam runs out of ammo on his gun, but can hear Gwen just starting the engine of the chopper, so they still need more time.
Gwen notices Adam isn't firing his gun, so she quickly figures he must be out of ammo, and comes up with an idea to throw him smoke flares from the chopper.
They don't need to communicate, Adam immediately gets what she's going for, and starts throwing out the smoke flares to distort the view of the cops.
Red, thick smoke starts to spread, and the cops can't get a visual on Adam.
The engine is slowly starting, and Adam makes a break for it, but instead of the stairs he climbs up the ladder to the roof. He jumps into the chopper with Gwen.
"Can you get this thing off the ground?"
"Yes, I just still a little more time."
"We don't have time!"
"Just a little more..."
The chopper slowly starts to ascend from the ground.
"Come on, baby, come on..."
The cops finally make their way to the roof, just as the chopper gets in the air just in time.
