Agent Jason Mathis almost missed his phone ringing in his pocket. The noise of the crowd gathered around the scene was making it hard for him to concentrate, much less hear his cell phone. It was a horrific sight, and one that despite its grotesquery was dulled in his mind by its familiarity.
“Mathis, go ahead,” he never wasted time on the phone, it might be required for the job, but he hated using cellular technology.
“Agent Mathis we have a connection from Director Andrews please hold.” The operator on the line must be new.
If there was one thing that he liked less than his phone, he hated having it up next to his ear waiting for someone to connect. Anyone other than the director on the line and Mathis would have already put the phone back into his pants pocket where it would be out of sight and out of mind. Thankfully the director was prompt in connecting.
“Mathis, we have a problem.” It was a typical preparation line that Mathis was used to hearing. Homeland Security was good at not shocking its agents too hard in doling out bad news. “I just got off the phone with a state trooper barracks in northern New York, they say that they’ve found something we might be interested in and want us to send up an agent. We’ll have a car come get you and have you en route in 20 minutes.”
“What’s the problem sir, if you don’t mind me inquiring?” Mathis asked casually, knowing that the answer wouldn’t be to his liking. He rubbed his free hand back through his curly hair; it was an old habit from college when it was much longer.
“I’ll let you figure that out when you get there, the plane takes off in 45 minutes and you should be landing somewhere up there in roughly 2 hours. Call me when they’ve filled you in and update me.” The phone clicked and went dead.
It was typical; no one ever told Mathis anything, which was fine. After 7 years in the department he was used to it. His face had a lot more lines now then it did back then. He had even begun finding a few stray gray hairs recently; not a good sign. He pocketed the phone and pulled the rubber gloves he was wearing off and turned back to the scene on the sidewalk. His assistant for the day was bent down over what was left of the body going through the pockets for information.
“Tyler, I’ll need you to take over here, the director wants me upstate in 3 hours. You call me though if you find anything here.”
“You got it Chief. CSU is just about finished examining the area and the witnesses are already downtown giving statements.” Tyler never bitched about his role and that’s why Mathis appreciated him so much. “Damn shame though if you ask me, why anyone would jump 67 stories straight down is beyond me.”
“Well it’s the fifth one in as many days so let’s start asking some relevant questions to the relevant people. Get in contact with his family once he’s identified I want to know everything there is to know about this guy. Don’t leave out anything.”
“Sure thing, I’ll make sure you know his favorite restaurant and what’s playing on his stereo too.” Tyler was always thorough.
“Alright then I’m outta here, keep this place locked down. Do not let the media in here until every last drop is cleaned up, you got me?”
“Loud and clear, now get the hell out of here before they have to come drag you away.”
--
The ride to the airport was uneventful which afforded Mathis with enough peace to get a little reading done. The preliminary report from upstate was unclear at best. There was a body found in an abandoned tin mine and the police couldn’t identify it.
The information was sketchy at best but it appeared that someone had been sealed up in a mine alive and was discovered by some local kids who were fooling around in the old tunnels.
Mathis arrived at the airport on time and was driven right out on to the tarmac. Agent Lopez was waiting there for him with a grin on her face. She was Mathis’ other assistant. She was of Mexican descent, a beautiful dark haired woman, with a fiery Latino attitude and a wit as sharp as her dark eyes.
“Chief, I got your overnight bag from the office, what do you keep in there anyways it weighs a ton.” The bag was on the ground next to hers. It looked quite large next to her small carryon bag. “I thought I packed heavy but you got me beat, is there a dead body in there I don’t know about?”
“The contents of my travel bag are classified, and only I have the clearance to know what’s inside.” Mathis smiled despite his exhaustion.
He’d been working for the past 3 days on what the media were calling “The Long Jumpers”. Various unrelated individuals had begun jumping off buildings in Manhattan. There was nothing odd about jumpers; New York City had its share of suicides. However after the 3rd jumper a connection between them began to emerge. Witnesses always said they jumped at around 6PM and it was always sudden, like they just decided to take a walk. The height was also interesting in that in each case the jumper leapt from the 67th floor of whatever building they were in; never higher and never lower. So someone called Homeland Security, and that meant Mathis and his team.
In his seven years in Homeland, he’d seen a few strange things, but more recently things were getting even stranger. Unsolved cases were beginning to pile up in government agencies across the globe. A decade previous the statistics for crime and other investigable events had been at an all-time low. The 20’s had been a quiet decade. Mathis had joined in 2025 imagining a roaring career like the lawmen of the last century; gun fights, car chases, deep mysteries. Instead he ended up being bored most of the time reviewing video camera surveillance and studying bank transactions. In his first five years he saw less than a dozen violent crimes.
But that all changed in 2030. The uptick in violence and crime had been shocking. Now after nearly two years of constant investigation he was looking back on the boring days with a little more than longing.
Standing on the tarmac waiting to board the jet Mathis really started feeling older. His best feature, his piercing blue eyes, that had once been so bright that people joked he could see in the dark, had faded and sat above hollowed cheeks and dark circles. He imagined that in addition to his desensitized mind he also had lost his soul somewhere along the path. Now he just did his job because he didn’t know what else to do, and even if he had known he couldn’t imagine that anything out there would make him happy.
“There ready for us Chief.” Lopez was looking worried, apparently he’d been lost a little too long in his reminiscing.
“Alright, let’s get to it.” He tried to sound more positive as they climbed the stairs up to the small jet’s cabin.
He sank down into the seat closest to the door and put his overnight bag across the aisle in the other seat. It was his way of telling everyone that he needed a little time to himself. By the time the plane took off he was already asleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment