501 The Clock is Ticking

In the suburbs in another state, a black van was parked near a tree and several meters away from Senator Jones's house. Inside the van were Gus, Felix, Noah, and another man from the Alpha team who sat in the driver's seat. Felix and Noah were both wearing black suits while the other two wore tactical outfits. The sky was already dark and the night was a bit chilly.

"Golf Sierra Zero-One, this is Golf Zulu Seven, RADIO CHECK, OVER," Gus spoke through the comms in his ear as he contacted Styles.

"Golf Zulu Seven, this is Golf Sierra Zero-One, WEAK BUT READABLE," was Styles's response, which meant that Gus's signal was weak but he could understand.

After everyone did their radio check, Gus left the van and snuck into the senator's house stealthily. They couldn't park the car where it was visible from the house or they would get spotted quickly. There were a few guards around the perimeter, but he got past them and successfully got into the master bedroom. 

Not all members of the congress were provided security or full protection by the Capitol Police, but Senator Jones was a paranoid woman—what with her being involved in something so shady like Shadow and The Company, she was determined to stay protected especially when she experienced receiving threats in the past on various occasions. So she hired a few guards to stay close to her wherever she was. 

Generally, it was difficult to get through to her because there would be at least one or two guards outside, but not impossible. It was a blessing in disguise that Senator Jennifer Jones's husband wasn't at home that day—this made their job easier.

According to the file that was given to him, the senator follows the same routine daily: come home from work, have dinner, take a bath around half past eight in the evening, read a book, and go to bed at eleven. People who follow the same routine every single day were easy targets. 

Gus decided to wait for the senator to come to the bathroom. He was wearing a balaclava full face mask that covered his entire face except for his eyes—if it were any other time, he would look like a creep. He opted to ambush the senator in the bathroom since people tend to be more vulnerable when they're about to take a bath because they would think that they're alone and did not have to worry about anything else but to clean themselves and relax after a tiresome day.

Standing inside the bathtub, he kept the curtain closed and listened attentively to the sounds around him while he stared at the floor of the tub. It was quiet—eerily quiet except for the sound of the leaves rustling from the nearby tree.

A few minutes later, the door to the master bedroom opened. 

"Mom?"

His head snapped to the left where the voice came from. The senator's daughter suddenly came inside the bedroom looking for her mother. 

There were muffled voices outside the bathroom and it looked like the senator and the daughter were talking. A few seconds later, the door closed. Gus drew his gun out, held it with both hands, and pointed it downward. 

Not long after, the senator came inside the bathroom in her robe. Things like this made him think about how Parker is such a scary individual for being so accurate. He really did have eyes everywhere.

Once the door to the bathroom had closed, he extended the gun out of the curtain and pointed it at the senator's head. "Scream and I'll shoot you," he told her in a cold voice as he stepped out of the bathtub.

She froze on the spot and her eyes grew wide in horror when she saw Gus fully covered through the reflection in the mirror. Anyone who would see him would definitely be afraid. She could see his deathly stare and she instantly knew that the man would not think twice pulling the trigger, so she could only follow his instruction and keep her voice down. "W-Who are you? What do you want?"

"Don't speak unless I tell you to." Gus pressed the barrel of the gun onto the back of her head and she gasped, then her body started to tremble.

"Good. Now, do as I say and I won't hurt your daughter," he said. She nodded profusely, her eyes becoming misty at the thought of her daughter.

When he felt that she was going to be cooperative, he asked her to go to her bedroom. Tossing a pen and a blank paper onto the dresser, he told her to write a confession as per his dictation.

"Why am I doing this?" Her sobbing was followed by a gasp when Gus pressed the gun to her temple this time.

"Didn't I tell you not to say anything?" He unlocked the gun's safety pin and it clicked, making her all the more scared—the gun wasn't loaded, but she didn't know that, of course.

Senator Jones realized that what she wrote wasn't merely a made-up confession—it dawned on her that she was actually writing a made-up suicide letter. Her heart raced as she tried to think of who would do this to her but only one person came to her mind who was capable and had the guts to have her go down like this especially at this time. Just as she wrote her name at the bottom, she questioned, "Did Green send you?"

Gus could not respond. He was too surprised to know that the senator knew about Parker. Styles and Chris told him about their assumption of the senator being part of the group behind Shadow. Could he take her question as their proof?

When he did not answer, the senator glared at him, her eyes reddening and brimming with tears as she added, "He did, didn't he? I can tell by your demeanor that you're one of Shadow's agents." She scoffed. "Is he that afraid? After killing me, is he going to do the same to the rest of The Company?"

He furrowed his brows slightly but did not say anything. 'Which company is she talking about?'

"I feel bad for you soldiers... You do all of his biddings, yet you know nothing about what he's actually doing." She wiped her tears. "Is he that powerful now? He's so out of control that he's willing to kill the people who have been behind him all this time? Ha! Ungrateful son of a bîtch. He's going to turn this world upside down."

"You need to finish this. The clock is ticking," Styles spoke through the comms. "Help is on the way."

He was dying to ask her questions, but they needed this operation to be flawless. At least they got something from her, this would be enough to keep an eye on her for now. "I don't know what you're talking about," he muttered.

Unclipping the rope from his side, he was about to hand it over to her when there was a knock on the door. Their heads snapped towards it and in the next second, Gus hauled the senator in front of him and trapped her with his arm while he pointed the gun to her head.