Jones woke up, jumping up into a sitting position. He was on the couch in the office, where he normally slept. He looked over at his computer station. One of the monitors was beeping. It was a different sound than when they get an alert as to a new assignment. This was a sound that wasn’t triggered very often. There was someone nearby.
Jones quickly got up and rushed over to the desk. He quickly pulled up the security cameras. There he saw a man dressed in black clothing, milling around the steps that led up to the office. Jones gulped, and his heart started racing. His mind instantly thought it might have been the hacker.
The man just stood at the bottom of the steps for a moment, not looking like he was doing much of anything at the moment. He was just standing there, leaning on the railing. Jones tried to zoom in on the man’s face, but there wasn’t much to see. He had a hat on, pulled down low, and he kept his face down. It looked like a man who knew how to avoid cameras.
After a minute, the man started going up the steps. Jones’s heart felt like it was going to jump out of his chest. In all the years they’d been there, nobody had ever gone up those steps other than the people that belonged there. Until now.
The man was ascending slowly, very deliberate in his motions. Considering it was the middle of the night, and it was the back of the shopping center, Jones couldn’t fathom that the man had a wrong address. Or that he was drunk and wandering around, not knowing what he was doing. This looked like a man who had a specific target in mind. Him.
Slowly, but surely, the man reached the top step. Jones looked over to the door, with the man now on the other side of it. The man stood there for a moment, turning his head to each side, presumably looking to make sure nobody else was nearby to see what he was doing.
Satisfied that he was alone, the man then turned the handle on the door. It was obviously locked. The man then went down to one knee, reached into his pocket, and removed something. It looked like he was going to try and pick the lock. Jones looked on, not yet worried to the point where he thought the man was in danger of getting in. He was concerned that the man was out there to begin with, but Jones was confident in his safety protocols. He had long planned for a moment like this. He hoped he would never have to put it into practice, though.
Jones continued looking at the monitor. He knew the man wasn’t going to be able to pick the lock. It was specially made to avoid that type of thing. The only way the man was getting in was if he blew the door open. Jones couldn’t discount that happening right now, even though it didn’t look like the man had any explosives. Maybe he had a bag nearby, though.
As Jones watched the cameras, he could see the man get back to his feet and kick at the bottom of the door. It wasn’t a hard kick trying to break it down. More like the kind someone does when they’re frustrated and don’t know what else to do. The man then put both his hands on the door, looking like he was trying to feel it out, and determine what kind it was or how heavy it was.
If there was any further kind of threat, or it looked like the man was close to getting in, Jones had a few more tricks up his sleeve. Jones could’ve released some knockout gas through a small hole just on the side of the door. He didn’t want to do that yet. Not until he knew what kind of threat he was dealing with. And if this guy was the only one. Because as soon as he released that gas, if there was a partner nearby, they’d know that door was the one they needed to get into. Right now, Jones was still holding out some hope that maybe it was just a thief who thought he could get into an office and steal some stuff. He didn’t think that was the likeliest of ideas, but he couldn’t outright discount it either. He wanted to be absolutely sure. And he wasn’t yet.
Jones looked over at the cameras that he had set up that surrounded the entire property. He didn’t have them just overlooking the laundromat and office. He had them subtly placed around the whole property, including the parking lot, the entrance and exit area, and the woods to the back and sides of the shopping center. Jones looked at every camera, of which there were dozens, but he didn’t see anyone else that looked suspicious.
There were a few cars parked overnight, but that was usually the case. Some of the other businesses in the shopping center were open until ten. There was often a car that had broken down, or needed repair, or people deciding to carpool at the last minute, leaving their vehicle behind. There always seemed to be a handful there. And occasionally, there would be people, whether they were just hanging out and talking, or drinking, or people cutting through.
After checking all the camera angles, Jones couldn’t see anyone else worth worrying about. It seemed the guy at the door was the only one there that he needed to concern himself with. A few more minutes went by, and the guy was still standing around, not doing much of anything. He was still by the door, though. He also kept his head low. No matter how much Jones tried to zoom in on his face, it always seemed like he couldn’t get a good angle to see the man’s face.
After another five minutes, the man descended the steps. Jones kept a close watch on him. The man started walking around the back of the shopping center. Jones switched camera views to always have an eye on him.
Once the man had walked back around to the front, Jones was curious to see where he’d go next. He continued walking through the parking lot, not appearing to have a vehicle there. The man kept walking through the empty spaces. He wasn’t walking toward the entrance/exit area. It looked like he was headed towards the woods. Maybe he had a car on the other side of them.
Jones intently watched as the man kept walking, though he thought he noticed a vehicle at the far corner of the lot. It was a dark area. One of the few in the lot. Most of the center was brightly lit, even at that time of night. But the far corner of the lot was the one area where there wasn’t a light nearby. The car there was basically sitting in darkness, concealed by the night, and the woods next to it.
As the man got close to the car, the headlights suddenly came on. The man walked toward the passenger side and got in. There were two people. At least two. Jones zoomed in on the car as its engine started. The car started to drive, and quickly sped up, going towards the exit, looking like they were anxious to get out of there.
Everything on the cameras were recorded and stored for a couple of days. That way, Jones could always go back and review them for any irregularities. This would certainly qualify. He kept his eyes on the entrance for a few more minutes, in case that was just the reconnaissance, and someone else was coming in after them for the heavy duty job. It didn’t appear to be the case, though. At least, not on this night. Who knows what was in store over the next few days?
Jones put his elbow on the desk, holding his head up with his hand on his forehead. He was still watching the cameras. And he continued doing so for the next ten minutes. There was nothing else there.
He thought about calling Recker and Haley to let them know what had happened, but then thought against it. What good would it do to get them wound up in the middle of the night? They’d come over in case of a threat, but then they’d all be working on a loss of sleep. It didn’t seem necessary at this point. Not when they could just come in like usual in the morning and do the same thing.
Jones knew Recker would give him a hard time about it, but the crisis seemed to be averted for now. But there were still a lot more questions than answers. Who was the person that was outside the door? And who was waiting for him in the car? Did they know Jones was in there? Did they assume he was gone for the night, and hoped to leave a surprise for him? Or was it just an unbelievable coincidence?
He already knew what Recker’s view would be. Recker didn’t believe in coincidences. Not when they just got hacked into. Now this? Even people who believed in luck, and chance, wouldn’t have believed it in this instance.
Jones already agreed with what he assumed his friend’s position would be. Then he started looking over the footage again, hoping he could pick up on the man’s face somewhere. He wasn’t having much luck with it, though. It would seem that this wasn’t the man’s first time doing this sort of thing. Probably not his last, either.
Jones then focused on the car. He rewound the footage, trying to pinpoint the exact time the car came in. He found it exactly one hour before it left. It parked in the same spot and sat there for a while, with nobody getting out. Not until the man dressed in black did. There was no doubt it was trying not to be seen.
Luckily for Jones, the cameras he had placed through the area picked it up. He was sure the driver of the car believed it wasn’t noticed, as there were no visible cameras anywhere. But the ones Jones had were concealed very well, invisible to almost everyone.
Jones sped up the footage, stopping at the point where the car was speeding out of the parking lot. He zoomed in on the back of the vehicle, focusing on the license plate. There it was. A perfect shot of the plate. Jones grabbed a pen and wrote it down on a pad he always kept on the desk.
Jones rubbed his eyes, wondering if he should go back to bed. He finally looked at the time. It was a little after two in the morning. He doubted he’d be able to fall back asleep now. There was too much on his mind. Plus, he wouldn’t be able to lie there, wondering if someone else was coming. No, he’d have to keep one eye on the cameras.
Curiosity was getting the best of him, anyway. He had the license plate of the car. He wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, knowing there might be some answers only a few minutes away. He looked at the digits from the plate, then pushed his chair over to another computer. He pulled up the page he needed to run the numbers. He looked over at the other monitor to check the cameras. He still wasn’t sure he was in the clear yet for tonight.
A few seconds later, he got a hit on the plate. The car it belonged to seemed like the same one that was seen on the cameras. A good amount of time, the plates would come back to a stolen car, or the plates had been switched, not matching the car at all. That didn’t seem to be the case in this instance.
Jones stared at the name the car belonged to. It didn’t seem familiar. Certainly nobody that he had ever come across before. Jones went back to the cameras and tried to zoom in to get a clearer picture of the people inside the car. He tried for a while, but was never able to get a good look at the people inside.
He turned his attention back to the name of the person that owned the car. He still didn’t know it. Jones struggled to try and think of how they might be connected. Nothing was coming to him, though. The name was a complete stranger to him. He didn’t know it. But somehow, that man knew him.