Black: Day 01 - Chapter 06

Los Angeles, California
Tuesday, June 7th, 2016 - 02:00 AM

Fleetwood Street

The suspect managed to gain distance on Adam as he was stopped by the police officer, but they are hot on his trails, surveying the empty streets.

As they run, the officer is trying to get some information from Adam.

"Who is this guy anyway?"
"I don't know yet, but I need to find out."

Adam takes notice of a broken lock to a warehouse building.

"You carry a flashlight, right?"

The police hands it to him.

"Yeah."

Adam opens the door to the building and enters with the gun in one hand and the flashlight in the other.

No sign of the suspect.

They go in further until Adam hears something.

"Take cover!"

Shots are fired in their direction just as they take cover behind a corner. And the pursuit continues.

The man they're chasing clearly knows his way around, and uses this to his advantage, managing to outrun them with ease.

---

Somewhere Outside of the City

Another pursuit is taking place outside of the heart of the city when Megan and Julie are doing their best to get away from Mark and Johnny.

Neither girl recognizes where they are, other than it being a barren industrial area, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

And the lack of light doesn't help things, either.

For a moment, it seems like they have lost the boys at least momentarily. Julie stops running to lean on a wall for a little bit.

"I'm sorry- I really..."

She takes a deep breath.

"I really need to catch my breath."

Megan, despite often coming across as a stubborn teenager, is quick to show her caring side by wrapping her arm around her friend, consoling her.

"It's okay, we'll make it through this, I promise. But we really need to keep moving."
"Yeah, just- just give me a second. So... what is going on? I don't understand anything."
"Me, neither. But Mark and Johnny are dangerous. There never was a party, they were kidnapping us. You were passed out, I think Johnny gave you something. They made me call my mom..."

That thought immediately makes Megan go through her pockets for her phone.

"Shit!"
"What is it?"
"Tell me you have your phone with you!"

Julie also searches her pockets.

"Oh no... I must have left it in the van."
"Son of a bitch!"
"What are we gonna do?"
"I have no idea where we are, we really need a phone."
"It's the middle of the night!"

They can then hear the boys approaching them from nearby. Megan then takes Julie's hand and helps her out from the ground.

"They're here, we gotta go!"

---

Fleetwood Street

There is no sign of the suspect anywhere and Adam is starting to get frustrated, though he is trying to keep his emotions in check.

The police officer's radio then gets a call. He goes to reply, but Adam stops him.

"Turn off your radio."
"Right."
"I wish you hadn't called for backup."
"Why?"
"You cops have to play by the rules. I'm gonna have to break a few with this guy."
"Oh."

Adam senses nervousness in his voice.

"Are you okay?"
"Uhh, yeah. I'm, uhh, I'm okay."
"This is your first one, huh?"
"Well, yeah."
"What's your name?"
"Tim."
"Tim. My name is Adam. I'll give you my word: we're gonna make it through this. Just stay behind me, and do as I say, okay?"
"Yeah. Okay."

They approach a corner, and Adam puts his hand in front of Tim before going in first.

He counts to three before jumping out of the corner, checking the area. No sign of the suspect.

---

ATC Headquarters

Mona storms out of the meeting she had with Gregory and heads back to Kevin.

"Greg wants to speak with you."

Kevin takes a deep breath and rolls his eyes. Mona then gets a few last words in.

"He's gonna grill you."
"I know."

Kevin enters the office and Gregory greets him.

"Shut the door. Take a seat."

Kevin shuts the door, but ignores the second command.

"I'll rather stand. So. What did you want to talk to me about?"

Standing with his hands in his pocket, Gregory does his best to stare Kevin down to intimidate him before getting into the questioning.

"Oh, you know, Kevin."
"You're asking me where Adam is? I already told you: I don't know."
"Look, Kevin. I know the two of you are close. And you're very adamant about not selling out your buddy. But if he's done nothing wrong, he has nothing to worry about."
"So, this is about Richard's death, right? Adam had nothing to do with that. You can save yourself a lot of time by dropping this, alright?"
"How many times have you taken the bullet for Adam over the years?"
"I have a job to do, Gregory. So, do you mind?"
"And my job is to keep this office running. Adam Black is a disruptive force, and I want to solve that problem."

It would be easy for Kevin to cooperate, but he remembers what Adam told about Richard's suspicions about someone within the agency being untrustworthy. So he can't say anything even if he wanted to.

"Well, good luck with that. Right now, the one disrupting the work that we're trying to do here is you. Why don't you call off this lockdown, so we can get back to preventing an assassination attempt, huh?"
"Richard Williams is dead. Adam was there when it happened. We have no further details at this time, so therefore a lockdown is standard procedure until we get some answers. So, where is he?"

Kevin has no patience for Gregory so he opens the door and steps out.

"I'm gonna get back to my work. You can fire me or not."

Gregory is left standing in the office as Kevin slams the door shut.

---

Outside of the City

Megan and Julie arrive at an alley where they get a glimpse of hope upon seeing signs of life. Two men appear to be standing at a corner.

They rush towards them, yelling for help.

One of the men flees the scene immediately, seemingly making the other one furious.

Megan and Julie don't take notice of this as they frantically ask for help.

"Please! You've got to help us! We're being-"

But the response they get is less than helpful.

"You realize what you just did? You just fucking cost me a hundred bucks!"

Megan takes the lead.

"We're really sorry, we really are, but we really need your help! We're being chased! Please, we need your help!"

Johnny and Mark are approaching their location. Megan and Julie hear this and hide behind the corner. The boys then stop to ask the man if he's seen them.

"Did you see two girls going past here?"

The man is as disinterested in helping Mark and Johnny as he was in assisting the girls.

"What about 'em?"
"Have you seen them, or not?"
"Yea, I seen 'em."
"Which way did they go?"

He waits for a little bit before giving an answer. Megan and Julie are praying he won't give them away.

After some thinking, the man points in the opposite direction.

"They went that way."

The boys rush away, and the girls think they've won the man on their side and want to express their gratitude.

"Thank you so much, do you-"

But he talks over them, pointing at the clothes the girls are wearing.

"Yo, nice dreads. What are those designer jeans worth?"

He also notices the necklace Julie is wearing.

"Or this piece of work, very nice."

Julie then goes to take off the necklace.

"You want it? Please, just take it. Just help us. Do you have a phone?"
"Yea, I got a phone. What about it?"
"We need to borrow it for just a second, please."

The man grabs the necklace from Julie and observes it.

"You two are in the wrong neighbourhood, you know that?"
"We just want to use your phone. We're in trouble."
"Oh, I bet you're in big trouble. Is daddy not going to pay you your allowance this week? Wanna trade places with me? Huh?"

Megan also tries to reason with him.

"We're sorry for any trouble, but our lives are in dang-"

The man then turns aggressive. To him, Megan and Julie are just two spoiled brats from rich families that have it easy. He has no interest in them, or their troubles.

"Just fuck off."
"We just want to-"

He then pulls out a knife and yells even louder.

"I said fuck off!"

The girls run away scared, once again.

---

Unknown Location

At Noah's base of operations, Noah is finishing something with his computer with Mia standing by his side.

"There. See for yourself. One million dollars transferred to your account. That's one million along with the money you already got. Now, where's the damn ID?"

Mia pulls out her phone and doesn't respond while fiddling with it.

"Mia? The ID?"
"Gimme a sec, sheesh. Just making sure you didn't misplace a period or something."

Noah is getting increasingly aggravated by Mia's apparent lack of seriousness in the situation. But before gets too mad, Mia approves of the transaction.

"Pleasure doing business with you, Noah!"
"The ID."
"I'll take you there."

Noah then gets up and signals to his men to come with them. But Mia has other thoughts.

"Uh-uh. Just you and me. And don't be doing anything naughty now, Noah. You're so close."

Noah then tells his men to stay put and goes to leave the house, but Mia still doesn't follow him.

"What did I just tell you, Noah? The gun. Leave it."

Noah places his gun on a table and they finally leave the house and get into Noah's car.

---

Outside of the City

Megan and Julie come across another man hanging around the area, and they hope to have better luck with him than they did with the last one. He is doing something with his phone, leaning on his car, so everything seems perfect.

Megan approaches him first.

"Excuse me. We really need a ride home. Can you help us?"

And Julie adds to the request.

"We'll do anything, just please help us."

Julie's words bring out a sleazy smile in the man's face as he responds.

"Oh, you'll do anything, huh?"

Megan tries to clarify.

"We'll pay you anything. Just give us a ride home."
"Well, let's see the money."
"We don't have anything on us right now."
"Oh, too bad. I only accept cash."
"But our parents will pay you whatever you want if you just get us home."

The man then goes to grope Julie.

"I'm sure some kind of a reward can be arranged. Come here, girl."

The man then receives a 2x4 to the back of his head by the drug dealer the girls talked to earlier as he had second thoughts about helping them.

A fight erupts between them, and the man drops his phone on the ground. The drug dealer urges the girls to get away.

"Take the phone and go!"

Megan grabs the phone and they make a run for it. After getting away, they stop and Megan calls Adam's number.

"Please, dad. Please pick up."

---

Fleetwood Street

Still no sign of the suspect.

Adam is taking careful steps when going through all corners of the alleyway in his search.

Then his phone rings in his pocket.

"Son of a-"

He gets behind a corner to shut the phone off.

But the phone ringing gave away their location, and Adam hears a voice from behind him.

"Drop the gun!"

Adam turns around and sees a terrified Tim grabbed from behind with a gun pointed at his temple.

"Drop the gun now. Or he's dead."