First Priority

“You ready?” Daniel asked as we walked up to the front doors of the power plant. “Oh yeah.” I grinned and pulled the door open. We hurried to our office cubicles and began our usual work, waiting for the signal in our coms from the FBI. Agent Brandon and Mr. Truth had decided that Daniel and I needed to continue working as usual at the plant so that if we needed to go undercover at another MAX operation, we wouldn’t be recognized as undercover agents. Time ticked by slowly as I filled out paperwork, waiting for the signal that Truth Squad was going into action. The intercom clicked on, and Mr. Greyson’s voice boomed, “Jason Leanord and Tim Jonson to my office please.” Hearing our aliases, Daniel and I both got up and hurried to the elevator. “I wonder what this meeting’s about,” Daniel muttered as we stepped into the elevator. “Hopefully this doesn’t mess up Mr. Truth’s plans. We were supposed to be in our cubicles the whole time,” I whispered. The doors opened and we hurried down the hall, showed our badges to the security guard, and made our way to Mr. Greyson’s office. Mr. Greyson met us with a grim look on his face. “I have a change of plans for your work today,” he said as we took our seats. “What’s the problem?” I asked. Has he gotten wind of Truth Squad’s plans? “I received word from my boss that we need to pack up some of our files and move them to another location,” he said shaking his head. “Sounds like we may have an unexpected investigation today, and we don’t want any loose ends to be found.” So, his boss may know about our operation? I wondered, glancing at Daniel. He raised his eyebrows, and I figured he was thinking the same thing. “I’ve already got some other employees working on this, but we need to move faster. I need you two down this hall in the second room on the right packing up boxes. Work as fast as you can and make sure everything is out of that room in the next hour. There are boxes in the hallway you can use. I will pay you extra for this,” Mr. Greyson said. He pulled a key out of a drawer and slid it across his desk. “You got it,” I said, grabbing the key. The fact that he was bribing us made me nervous. What exactly are we packing up? I wondered as we left his office and went to the designated room. I unlocked the door and pushed it open. The room was lined with file cabinets, and there were stacks of paper scattered on the floor. In the center of the room was a rectangular metal box with a computer on the left side, a bunch of switches numbered one through seventy in the middle, and a big lever on the right. There were blinking lights all over the face of the box. “What is this?” Daniel asked, walking up to the box. “I have no clue,” I said, walking around it. “It looks like it’s bolted to the floor, though, so I’m not sure we’ll be moving it from the room.” On the back side of the table, I found a little door. I tried to open it, but it was locked. “Maybe there are keys in some of these file cabinets,” Daniel suggested. “Either way, we’d better start packing up the cabinets before Mr. Greyson gets suspicious.” I nodded. “Let’s hope Mr. Truth starts the operation before all the evidence is moved out of the building.” We worked quickly, transferring stack after stack of paper from the floor and the cabinets to the cardboard boxes Mr. Greyson left outside the door. The papers seemed to call my name, telling me to look through them and find out why Mr. Greyson wanted them packed up so quickly, but I restrained myself. Once Truth Squad gets in here, we’ll be able to look through these papers. For now, just don’t act suspicious and keep doing what you’re told, I told myself. At the end of the hour, we had all the papers in boxes and began carrying them out to a moving truck. Why hasn’t Truth Squad made their move yet? I wondered as I set another box onto the truck. Daniel and I exchanged glances as we walked back inside. Once we were in the elevator, I whispered, “What time did Mr. Truth say they were going to come?” “Over an hour ago.” He shook his head. “Something doesn’t seem right. They haven’t even signaled us to let us know that plans changed.” I glanced down at my watch. “Actually, I’ve noticed ever since we entered this half of the building that my watch isn’t working. There’s no signal.” The elevator doors opened, and we quit talking. We grabbed a new load of boxes and headed back to the elevator. Daniel nudged me and nodded toward the corner above the elevator. I looked up and saw a black box, one that looked similar to other transmission blockers I’d worked with. We stepped into the elevator and put our boxes down. I hit the first-floor button and the doors closed. The elevator started descending, when suddenly there was a loud bang. The elevator shook and the lights flickered off.