by Chaz Hamilton
The moon hung in the sky as a hazy soft glow behind gray, menacing clouds, peaking out for a rare, few minutes at a time. A plastic poncho, camouflaged to blend into the foliage rustled in the gust of wind of the late-night storm that blew in off the coast. Chaz wiped his forehead, pushing at a clump of wet hair sticking to his skin before he held up his camera and used it to survey the compound ahead of him. He was cold from the most recent downpour of rain, but ignored his discomfort. All that mattered was finding the person his source pointed him to.
(((( 1 Month earlier ))))
"What do you mean there isn't anything on the World Corps and Judge Alpha prior to a year ago," Chaz said as he stood before the UN representative's desk. "There has to be a record of something. Where did she go to school? Who funds the organization? Who are the answerable to?"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Hamilton, but you don't have clearance for any of their personal dossiers," the thin man behind the desk said with a infuriating shrug of his shoulders. The badly fitting suit and vacant-eyed stare added to the pencil-pushers anti-charm. "If you would like to request anything else, within the scope of your level of access, please come back. Better yet, send me an e-mail and I'll personally see you are responded to in a timely manner."
"Don't worry about it," Chaz smirked. "You get back to your Wordle or Suduko or whatever you're doing. I just thought as a representative of the UN, you might like to actually help do some good for the world today. You have heard of the term transparency, haven't you?"
"Good day to you, Mr. Hamilton." The man opened up a copy of the Sentinel, turned to the page with the daily crossword puzzle, and scribbled into some of the blank spaces. He looked up after filling out a few answers as Chaz continued to stand there with his arms crossed. Crumpling up the pages of the newspaper, the man screwed his face in disgust and threw the paper into a trash bin. "Oops. Thought I picked up the Neo Utopia News this morning. There stuff is challenging while your papers are rather juvenile. Like their reporting staff."
Grabbing the copy of the Sentinel out of the trash, Chaz straightened out the worst of the crinkles and tucked the paper under his arm. "For a person working for the UN, you would think you would do your part to save the world a bit more diligently. Learn to recycle."
"Like you do with your news stories?"
Chaz restrained himself from responding, choosing to walk out the door instead. He headed to the elevators. Other UN employees gave him glances as he made his way out of the building. Anyone who supported BADGE and the heroes of the world found it hard to have friends after the events in South Africa. Ignoring the sneers and whispered comments from the buildings employees, Chaz departed the UN building and headed to his car without speaking to anyone.
Driving several blocks towards the Sentinel offices in New Amsterdam, Chaz pulled into a StarBux and ordered an iced white chocolate mocha and waited in the drive thru for his order to be completed. He shuffled through the pages of the paper until he found the comic strip page, which also contained the daily puzzles. Scrawled into the boxes of the crossword puzzle, he found several words which were not correct answers to the questions.
FILES REDACTED
SEE JD 7PM
SCOOBY'S
"I knew I could count on you, Evan," Chaz said with a smile. Part of being a reporter was making contacts with people in difficult positions. Evan worked in the UN and didn't have to share anything with Chaz, but he did what he could. It was the least he could do to protect his asset's image in the workplace.
((( 1 Week Ago)))
JD led to a meeting with a former mercenary incarcerated in Purgatory Penn. Most people only thought of the prison as holding Morphon enhanced heroes, but the buildings also housed dozens of non-powered criminals. Tapping a few favors, Chaz managed to get in the room with the imprisoned gun-for-hire. After being patted down and all but his voice recorder being taken from him, Chaz waited in one of the cubicles for Gunner Blade to be lead in.
Behind the bulletproof glass, a medium height man swaggered in. He had tattoos across whatever skin was visible, and that wasn't much, as the incarcerated merc wore a long-sleeved shirt, sweatpants, and restraints. Gunner brought a leg over the back of his chair and plopped down forcibly into the seat. Chaz's groin ached in sympathy for the pain he imagined Mr. Blade's testicles just endured, but he understood the message that was being sent by the merc. Nothing would phase him. Pain or discomfort wouldn't bother him.
"Thanks for agreeing to meet with me," Chaz began. "I--"
"Don't waste my time," Gunner interuptted. "Dey said it'd look good for my parole hearing if I talked to ya, but that don't mean I'm telling you nothing."
Chaz relaxed back in his chair and shrugged. "Cool. My editor said the same. I'm just here because he ordered me too. I know you're not going to tell me ANYTHING, not nothing, because you don't know anything."
Gunner shot up and leaned in close to the glass. "Watch it, punk. I still got friend on the outside who will gut you if I ask."
The two guards behind him put their hands on their tasers. Chaz bent to one side and shook his head. "We're just talking here." Chaz motioned for the inmate to sit back down. "It's fine. Gunner. Relax. It isn't your fault. I've read your file. You're good at what you do. If they had listened to you, told you more, you wouldn't be in here right now, would you?"
"Got that right," Gunner said, but didn't sit. "Read my file, huh. Whoever wrote it don't know crap. I've done things they'll never know about. Nobody would know I had anything to do with some arrogant reporter... disappearing."
"I'm sure you could," Chaz said. "Did you really hold down an entire Russian convoy for a week with just three guys?"
Gunner smiled. "Me, another guy, and a WOMAN. I'm an equal opportunity employer."
"Liz Blanko, wasn't it?" Chaz asked. "My sources tell me that your team was one of the highest paid units out there after Russia. And you married her a year later in Budapest to boot. What do you think happened to them now that you're in here?"
Gunner finally sat back down, easing into the chair rather than posturing into it. "Keepin' busy, I'm sure. Marrying her didn't make her a Susie Housemaker, you know. "
"A woman like that? Yeah, right. I bet she only knows how to use a frying pan as a beat-stick," Chaz said with a chuckle.
"I can neither confirm nor deny that," Gunner said with a thin smile. "But if she were to offer you scrambled eggs, I wouldn't recommend eating them. The pan would be a kinder way to go."
"So why do you think Delta didn't hire her to go on the mission with you?" Chaz slipped the question in as he and Gunner laughed. "Too much woman for the dumb-ass to handle."
"Yah, don't you know it," Gunner said before his face hardened, his blue eyes turning to a steely-gray.
"Ohhh... Didn't mean to say that did you?" Chaz leaned in closer to the window. "Tell you what. How about you tell me everything you know about Delta and I won't mention in my story how you said he hired you for the attack last year?"
((6 Days ago))
Chaz prepared his suitcase, packing supplies for his trip. His BADGE communicator chirped as he pulled out a freshly laundered stack of boxer briefs from a drawer. Dropping them in with the rest of his clothes, he moved to the nightstand where his comms unit was. "Hey. What's going on?"
"Director Nova wanted you to know he is summoning the heroes to a league war competition and he wants you up there?" Agent Leslie said from the other end of the line.
"Tell him thanks for the invite, but I've got other plans this week," Chaz said as he put the communicator on speaker and continued packing. "I'm chasing a story."
"I don't think that's the answer the Director wants."
Chaz closed the lid and snapped the latches in place. "You know how the song goes. It's not about what he wants. It's about what the world needs. We've stood by and let Judge Alpha take the lead, making the heroes play defense. It's time we got ahead of her and found out what she's really up to."
"I can assign you some back-up. Some agents or even a hero or two."
"I've got people I can call in a pinch, but I've got the feeling that the World Corps is trying to keep close tabs on all known heroes. It will be easier if I go it alone," Chas said as he hoisted the suitcase from his bed and turned it on its side before dragging it over to the nightstand. "I've got a plane to catch. Wish me luck."
"Good luck, Chaz. I'll visit you in the hospital when its all over."
Chaz picked up his phone. "I don't plan on getting hurt. Just asking some questions like any good reporter would."
"Oh, I wasn't talking about when you break the story. I'm sure you can handle that. It's when Director Nova gets you in his office for the official debriefing. That's when you'll really be in the hot seat."
"Bye, Leslie," Chaz said before hanging up the phone. He did a brief mental check to make sure he had everything he needed before heading to the front door of his apartment. As he stepped out into the hallway, he glanced back into his small yet comfortable home, recalling the last time Romana had been over after a date. Hopefully, she'd understand his absence. And if he didn't come back, well, they never got that serious anyways. She'd be fine.
(The island of Borat-Ni'va, Right now)
A clap of thunder echoed in the distance. Chaz changed the magnification on his camera, zooming in on a window looking into one of the compounds buildings.
Loud crashing noises behind him alerted Chaz to someone approaching. He placed his camera beneath the branches of a bush with large leaves beside him, a better option than dropping and breaking it when the patrol caught up to him.
"There he is," a man shouted. "Hands up. NOW!"
Chaz complied to the given instructions. "Quite a storm, don't you thi--"
The butt of a rifle catching him squarely in the face was the only response he got.
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