THE RETURN Of the LEGENDARY KING of WAR

Shadow And Truth

The air inside the Verizon building had shifted and it all started the moment Andrew had spotted the car. For some reason he couldn't just get it off his mind.

“Something seems off…” He muttered, taking a step backward.

For what felt like a minute of eternity he listened evenly. If he could hear anything with his years in the military, he would be able to pick any slight sound.

Sighing he shrugged his shoulders, there was nothing afterall…There was nothing but solace and quietness that filled the room.

There was no music playing, no soft hum of janitors working through their routine. Just the dull throb of the emergency lights and the faint creak of something far away.

As he moved slowly towards the sounds, Andrew slowed his steps as he reached the fifth-floor landing, every muscle in his body tense at the anticipation for what was to come

Something was off. He could feel it in the way the building was quiet, too quiet. And he couldn't let it go.

He paused again near the fire exit door, glancing over his shoulder…Nothing, all he saw was empty darkness.

At this moment he stood still. He could àlmost stop but that strange sensation gnawed at him deeply …

This time It wasn’t just the silence or the car he thought he'd recognized. It was the feeling that something was about to happen. Or maybe already had.

A flicker of light on the hallway monitor in the distance caught his eye.

He walked over, swiped his keycard, and the door to the surveillance room slid open. The screens blinked alive, one after the other.

“Where are the bloody guards!" He grumbles as he pulls out his phone to make a call.

Something on the screen caught his eyes and he leaned in for a closer view—

The camera showed only a shadow moving past the hallway near the executive wing.

Andrew’s heart jumped. He tapped on the feed, trying to enhance the image.

He straightened. “No way…Who could that be?” He thought to himself.

One of the workers?

He didn’t waste a second. He was already moving.

Who the hell else was in the building?

“Damn it,” he growled under his breath, torn between standing there and looking at the car, and going to have a look.

He turned, cursed again, and veered toward the south stairwell.

*******

All these while, Lizzy was hyper aware of the footsteps, at this point her mind went berserk.

Burke's number had been on redial for the past minutes, and was still dialing, but still nothing.

Lizzy pressed herself flat against the wall outside the CEO’s office, ears tuned to every creak and groan in the building.

Her hand hovered over the flash drive she’d just pulled from the drawer behind the desk. To her, it had everything she was looking for.

“Finally, now let Burke pick his god-damned phone so we can get out of here." She grimaces

A sudden movement from outside the door caught her attention, sending a shudder through her soul.

Panicking, the flash drops from hands skidding under the table.

Lizzy's face turns red. "Shit!”

Lizzy looked around the dark room where she had been standing. The last thing she would want to do was switch on her phone and draw attention to her location.

Just when she was telling herself that the sound could have been in her head, a soft ding of the elevator made her freeze.

“No…No no no.” She stuttered while running her fingers frantically through her hair.

Whoever it was stood there in the dark hallway. Lizzy tried to look, but all she saw was this dark shadowy figure lurking outside.

She ducked behind a tall shelf, pressing a hand over her mouth as the sound of footsteps, slow and heavy, made way to where she was. They stopped just a few feet from the doorway.

Lizzy’s pulse pounded in her ears. She peered through the gap but couldn't make out who it was. In her mind, she hoped that he would turn away and leave.

Her lungs felt like they had collapsed. She didn’t need to see the face of whoever it was. Just the stance, broad shoulders, the dark overcoat, the way he moved showed he belonged here.

She clutched the edge of the shelf as the man stepped further into the office. She hadn’t left any trace, had she?

She mentally retraced her steps, the drawer, the chair she hadn’t even touched…

Then she noticed it.

The monitor. The damn monitor she forgot to power down!

His gaze landed on it like a magnet and she saw him move. Just as he got to a section of light that could have illuminated his face, she hid hers in fear.

Andrew moved toward it, brow furrowing as he saw the file still open.

“Damn, workers." He muttered in disapproval.

He leaned over and switched it off and groaned before turning like he was about to leave.

She sighed in relief and took a step back, then came the sound that nearly shattered her composure—

He’d turned. She didn’t have to look to know he’d spotted movement.

“Who's there?” His voice cut through the air like a whip.

He took a step closer to where she had been. Just as he reaches for the handle, his phone beeps.

She heard whoever it was groan in what felt familiar before leaving—

After he left, her eyes darted to the hallway, but the elevator was behind him, and there was no way she'd make it without being seen.

Her only hope was the emergency stairwell a few steps down the corridor. She inched back into the hallway, heart hammering louder than her footsteps.

She shoved the stairwell door open and bolted down the stairs two steps at a time. Behind her, she thought she heard the guard or whoever it was burst into motion.

Just as she stops to catch a whiff of air, Burke’s voice crackles softly through the darkness.

“I am here, we need to get out of here ASAP!" He whispered.

“You’re insane,” Lizzy whispers back, breathless. “What took you so long!"

“You’re welcome.” He grins.

She slipped through the side corridor, into the lot behind the building. The rain had picked up, soaking her within seconds. She didn’t stop running.

The trees swallowed her quickly. Within a minute she was back in the car, soaked and shaking, but alive.

Burke jumped into the driver’s seat seconds later.

“Did you get it?” he asked.

Lizzy didn’t smile. “I lost it."

She looked back once toward the building, its lights still glowing against the rainy night. “We will have to get back here later."

Somewhere in the building, Andrew, who had heard the footsteps, was tearing the place apart, trying to make sense of what he just heard.

Like a bolt of lightning, he races back to where he had been before all the incident happened.

The car was gone, just the heavy downpour remained.

He dials Mason's number. “Something just happened, I need you here now!"

Andrew stood there furious, In anguish he smashed his phone. It shattered, the pieces littering across the room.

“Who in the hell was that? Definitely not the guards!” He clenches his fist.