Collins quickly hid behind a tree at the park. He was trying to steady his breathing when all of a sudden, two little hands grabbed him from behind.
"Got you!"
"Okay you got me, I surrender."
He said, laughing. Collins slowly raised his hands up in surrender and turned around quickly which left his cheerful six years old daughter, Stacy, no room to react. She was caught off guard.
They both burst into laughter as Collins picked her up and headed for where his wife had spread out a thick blanket for their picnic.
"Honey, your phone has been ringing non stop." His wife, Chloe, informed him.
"Thank you dear." Collins said as he answered the phone.
Chloe watched Collins keenly and noticed concern and worry written all over his face. She braced herself up for the news as she had always known when her husband needed to attend to an emergency.
Collins looked up and saw two pairs of eyes peering at him. Stacy spoke up,
"Not again Dad."
"I'm sorry ladies. Work emergency. I promise to make it up to you." He leaned across and kissed them both good bye.
Collins walked fast and got into the car where his partner, Kathleen updated him on the latest developments on the phone.
"So you mean the witch finally made her demands after her little show yesterday?"
"Yeah, after releasing a missile from a North Korean submarine and detonating it close to the Russian border. The Agency had no choice but to take her threats seriously and it even gets more dramatic. She sent a letter listing her demands through the defence minister's grand daughter in school and we have just 4 hours more to the deadline."
"Have they taken the envelope to the lab for possible fingerprints?"
"That's why we are heading to the Pentagon. The director of the FBI is expecting us there."
The Security Chiefs were all gathered in the Pentagon and they were all deliberating on the best way to avoid a world war which could only be avoided if the codes to the missile launching system were given to them by the witch.
This means they have no choice but to comply with her demands or she launches the missiles from the US naval ships and submarines targeting Russia, North Korea, Iran, China, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Libya.
They put up a team together with special agent Collins in charge to follow every lead and if possible catch the Witch.
Karren, the FBI director, addressed the team, informing them that a partial fingerprint was lifted from the envelope sent to the Minister of Defence and the owner of the print has been tracked down to a location in Queens.
"As of right now, POTUS has given the go ahead for the sum of $50 million dollars to be wired to the account number the witch gave us and yes, as you all can guess the account number was traced to a shell corporation in the Cayman Islands. So that's a dead end and we have also enlisted the help of Prisoner 501, Kingston Miles, the famous hacker in our custody to help identify the malware used by the witch to hack the Military missiles launching system. So be fast and precise. There is no room for error, we have limited time sh. Let's go!"
Collins was ahead of the other agents as they broke down the door and searched the building where their suspect lived. They came up empty.
"Sir, over here. We got a laptop here and a half eaten cake."
"Okay, bag them and let's head out."
The other hackers and tech personnels were surprised to see the legendary hacker walk in handcuffed as he sat close to a computer and started typing away. Two agents sat close, watching his every move.
Karen came in to the office looking terrified as she informed everyone about the witch's latest demand and ultimatum. Everywhere was quiet as she told them that they only have 1 hour more as she discovered the efforts and signature of Kingston Miles trying to locate her malware and has also demanded that we take Miles off the case and turn him over to her. Take him to the airport with a jet fuelled and ready to go without any agent in site.
Collins was able to gain access into the laptop found at the location they raided. It was discovered that it belonged to Krystal Martins, a defence attorney.
"How is an attorney linked to all these?"
"Collins, the director, just called us to prepare a vehicle to convey Miles to the airport as part of a new demand made by the witch. We have 30 minutes more to go." Said Kathleen.
Miles was already on his way to the airport when Collins got the directive from the FBI director to tail the vehicle from a safe distance and avoid detection.
They were a few miles to the airport when suddenly the vehicle conveying Miles burst into flames. Collins radioed it in. There was nothing they could do but wait and hope the witch honoured her end of the deal.
5 minutes left......
"Ma'am, the code just came in."
"Quickly! Enter it into the system and stop the missiles from activation."
Done.
The missile system responded and shut down immediately. Everyone in the office breathed in deeply and were congratulating each other when Collins and his partner rushed in.
"We followed up on the lead as you directed and we just located Krystal Martins dead at a substation. We are currently pulling up feed in the area for her killer. But the interesting thing is that we dug in deep into her financials, background and found out that she was clean except that she was the defence attorney for Kingston Miles and even after the case she was the only name on the visitor log for Miles."
"So are you saying she was the witch? And why will she end up dead in the sub station after receiving a great pay?" The director asked.
"I think she is the witch's accomplice and she lured Kingston Miles to his death but unfortunately for her the witch had her executed because she has seen her face and the witch cannot afford that."
"That sounds reasonable Collins."
"Ma'am here is the video feed of the murder," said an agent as he pointed to the screen. They all watched intently in shock as they saw someone who looks exactly like Miles hug Krystal and a few seconds later saw her slump against him. He gently laid her on a bench and disappeared amongst the crowd.
Collins and Kathleen quickly headed out in search of Miles.
After three hours of combing the city they caught Miles on his way to board a flight to Canada dressed as a woman. When he noticed he had been made, he pushed and shoved and used people around as a shield but unfortunately for him Collins was at his blindspot and tackled him hard to the floor.
"Hey witch, you forgot your broom?"