Jessica looked up from her phone’s glowing screen and stared off in a daze as her breath fogged the windshield. She hadn’t seen any movement on the street, and she realized that she shouldn’t expect to either. It’s doubtful that anyone will see me. She glanced at her watch: 3:09 AM. She took one final look up and down the dark vacant street. She was meeting her source at a house in North Druid Hills, not far from where she was staying.
Jessica’s boss had wanted someone willing to cover the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Global Viral Mitigation Forum. As an investigative journalist, she wasn’t particularly thrilled to cover the conference, but it afforded her an ideal opportunity to connect with her source and avoid suspicion. As per usual, her source held on to sensitive information until they could meet in person. Zach insisted that she come down as soon as possible, and this conference’s timing worked out.
Jessica took another deep breath, then figured it was time to get inside. She checked to make sure that her car’s interior light was turned off. She got out and softly closed the door. As she approached the house, she avoided the streetlights, moving among the shadows. The house was not overly remarkable, just a single-story, red brick home. However, the house had the potential to be worth a lot of money once renovated.
Jessica opened the fence and entered the property from the backyard. The back door had a digital door lock. She used the six-digit pin that Zach had given her, and she heard the mechanical sound of the deadbolt opening. Zach had been incredibly forthcoming and trustworthy to this point, not to mention principled. She did not expect things to change now. The lights were out, making it difficult to see where she was going. Something told her not to turn on the lights. Jessica moved through the house, pausing every few steps to listen for any strange sounds. She entered a bedroom, then a small office, and later a bathroom. Besides a half-used roll of toilet paper, there was no sign that anyone had been in this house. The hallway led from the back area where the bedrooms were and opened up to the living room. The kitchen was on her left. Jessica paused before entering the room.
Her eyes shifted as she scanned the area. Did I hear something? She froze in place and strained to hear as much as possible. The house was quiet. The only sound was the faint buzz of the refrigerator.
She slowly moved forward into the living room toward a flat-screen TV monitor with a small box attached to it. Surrounding the monitor were several bookshelves with hundreds of Blu-ray discs. Unprompted, the box opened suddenly and ejected a disc. She squinted and whispered, “What?” She approached the ejected panel and reached out her hand to retrieve the disc. Just then she heard a sound to her left. She quickly turned toward the foyer, and within a split second, she saw a flash of light, noticed a metallic taste in her mouth, and collapsed onto the floor.