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Chapter 1 - Summer Vacation



It was late that night when it happened. My mother, Felicia Jackson, one of the top FBI agents in the city of Los Angeles, was working on a case that left most people puzzled... or dead. Felicia continues to run down the streets chasing a man, until he runs into an alley and disappears from sight. She stops and then starts quietly walking down the alley with her gun out on high alert.



"There's nowhere to run! Show yourself!" she said.



She continues to walk down the alley looking around and then turns around suddenly when a can gets knocked over. She points her gun, but only sees that it's a stray cat. She then lowers her gun and pulls out her cell phone to contact, Dwayne Johnson, the FBI chief leader.



"Dwayne, I've lost him. I don't know where he went," she said, exhaustedly.

"What do you mean you lost him?" he replied.

"He ran into the alley and just... disappeared."

"Well, just hang on, I'll send some back up your way."

"Copy that," she says as she hangs up and begins making her way out of the alley.



Before she reaches the end, a gun goes off and she stops walking. She then collapses to her knees and falls face first on the ground revealing the gunshot wound to the back of the head. The wound bleeds out onto the sidewalk just as her backup arrives to a disturbing sight.



Meanwhile, 2500 miles away in Pittsburghthe next day, Felicia's son and daughter, Andrew and Lindsay Jackson, are leaving the Swanson School of Engineering, heading back to their dorms in Litchfield Towers.



"Finally, I managed to make it through my first year as acollege freshman. I never thought that I would make it through," Andrew said.

"You almost didn't make it," she said. "Remember the first week?"

"Hey, anyone can have a nervous breakdown. It was to be expected."

"Sure it was."

"It doesn't even matter, I still made it."

"You fell asleep studying for it," she said.

"If I had the willpower to stay up all night, I would. But Ijust didn't have enough energy to do so."

"I didn't have that much energy and I stayed up until 3:00 in the morning."

"That's only because of all of the coffee you drank and the number of times you went to the bathroom."

"What does that have to with studying?"

"It means you must have been unbelievably tired this morning."

"I wasn't tired. I guess I'm just one of those people that are just that are constantly energetic."

"Whatever you say," he says.



They continue walking down the street to Fifth Avenue and stop to wait for the light to change.



"So what do we do now? Should we stay here or go back home for the summer?" she asked.

"I guess we can go home for the summer. Pittsburgh's a nice city, but Los Angelesis my one true home."



Andrew's cell phone beings to ring, so he pulls it out to answer it.



"Hello?" he said.

"Andrew, is that you?"

"Xavier? Yes, it's me! Who else would it be?" he said.

"Never mind that. Have you seen the news lately?"

"No. Why?" he asked.

"Something's happened to your mother. It was on the news last night."

"Well, what happened?"

"Look, if you want an explanation, meet me downtown at the Wood Street Subway Station," he said.

"Wait, why there?" he asked.

"I'm headed out to the South Side for a job interview. Now you might want to hurry, the train will be here in about 20 minutes."

"All right," he says as he hangs up.

"What's going on, what's wrong?" Lindsay asks.

"It's Xavier and he says that something's happened to mom,"he said.

"What happened?"

"I don't know; he said he'd explain downtown. Now come on, so we can catch the bus!"



Andrew drags Lindsay across the street and gets on the bus to head downtown.



"Xavier better have a good reason for dragging us downtown!"she said, irritably.



The bus pulls off and heads downtown. Meanwhile back in Los Angeles, Dwayne is sitting in his office wondering how Felicia got killed so easily.



"How did this happen?" he asked himself. "He would've had to be right behind her to make a shot like that."



Just then, one of the other agents, Victor Cross, walks in with new information.



"I've been digging around about Agent Jackson's murder," he said. "The bullet that was fired did go into the back of the head, but..."



He pulls a picture of the bullet wound and shows Dwayne that the bullet's path was at an angle.



"It's at an angle," Dwayne said.

"The suspect must have had some hidden sniper rifle on top of one of the buildings next to that alley," Cross says. "It's the only possible motive we have. How he did it when he wasn't on top of the building is a mystery to the whole department."



Dwayne continues to stare at the picture, then gets up and starts to walk out of the office.



"Do Andrew and Lindsay know about this yet?" Cross asked.

"I don't know," he said. "The only way they might have known about it is on the news or on the internet."

"What about the newspaper?"

"Who reads the newspaper anymore?"



Dwayne walks out of the office and starts down the hall.



"Did you ever stop and think that it might be me?"