34 :

Internal Affairs Office, New York. 17:55.

Director James Mattews was looking at the mountain of files on his desk with a sigh. He loved his job but that was too much. With the police department sign of corruption, they were assigned to continue the investigation against Piotr Droski by the district Attorney Office. In addition they were tasked with finding every corrupted cop linked with the russian mob. The attack on Karine home and the corrupted cops implicated in it had been linked to the press and they were having a field day in front of One Police Plaza.

With the press involved, the political ramification of the case was magnified. The mayor had already talked against the Police Department for political reasons. With his reelection in jeopardy, he was willing to say everything to keep his job. Politicians were too busy talking and that was his job to work his ass off to provide some answers. He had already received dozens of calls from important people who urged him to find evidence and fast. In today's world, everyone wanted everything and now, the time required to make the work properly was not a thing anymore, he thought bitterly.

Looking at the statement of the sergeant involved in redirecting cops around his friend's home, he could understand how the russian mob managed to implant themselves that easily in the police department. He had been approached by the now dead lieutenant of Piotre Droski with money, which he refused at first. Then they start threatening his newborn child, showing up at his child school, throwing rocks in his living room and the like until he gives them what they wanted. And the moment he took the money, he basically was in it for the long run as they were holding the evidence against him. Once done, they were trapped working for them. He could realise now why none of the investigations against Droski never yielded anything.

Without the implication of Karine, he didn't even want to imagine the harm that he could have done to the people of the city and the law enforcement. Well not all of the cops implicated in the affair were forced to do so. They just love money more than they love their job. Not every cop was kind hearted and some just love the power that the function gives them. He was interrupted in his train of thought by a knock on the door.

"Yes?"

The door opened and one of his agents appeared on the doorway. He was a 5"10" bold man around fifty years old. He was one of the oldest of his agents and one of the most experienced investigators in the service.

"Sir, we found evidence of the SWAT raid against the bodega in the Bronx, you need to see this." He said with an excited voice.

Furrowing his brows, He start thinking about the raid and the various things that didn't add up. The leaking of the location, the sentries unconscious and the alarm disconnected. It was almost as if a team got there before they did despite no evidence on the scene. The fact that his subordinate was that excited show that was something good.

"Ok, lead the way." he said, getting up.

Exiting his office behind his agents, they went to the open office. It was a bg space crowded with desks. The desks were almost all empty as the majority of his agents were busy outside. The thing odd was the four agents crowded behind a desk, looking at a computer. Upon seeing their boss coming toward them, they were about to leave when he stalled them with his right hand raised. James was a demanding boss but not the dickish one. He understood that someone needed a break once in a while.

Seeing his boss approaching, the agents sitting behind the computer hastily rewind the video. Looking at the screen, He could make up a back alley with four guys patrolling with machine guns and smoking.

"Ok, now I'm here, what i'm seeing?" He asks no-one in particular. The men sitting behind the desk took that at his cue.

"This is a video surveillance from the back alley behind the bodega store, sir."

"I thought that the surveillance equipment was broken?"

"Indeed sir, the russian one did. That one is coming from a jewelry store not far from here."

"Right. I presume these four were the sentry knocked out?" Mattews say.

"Yes sir."

"Ok, play it now."

The video started playing with a few static and grey areas, the quality wasn't that great. Nonetheless they could clearly see the four goons gathering in a circle to talk and smoke together. They were talking for a few seconds when James spotted a black form moving on the first floor of the building not far from them.

"What is that?" He asks, pointing at the screen.

"That is our guy," responded the officer beside him.

In that moment, the black form launched itself from the building where he was, performing a backflip in the air, he landed on the circle form by the sentries. Without giving them a fraction of a second to understand what was happening, the form attacked them right away. The men moved so fast that the crappy camera could almost not keep up with it. He immediately punched one guy in the plexus, who doubled over, his respiration cut. The powerful kick hit the man's knee beside him making him fall on the ground. Turning on himself, an elbow hit the man behind him in the temple, knocking him out instantly.

On the first second of engagement, already three of the four mens were incapacitated while the fourth scramble to get his gun ready. He didn't have a chance to do so when the form took the gun from his hand and punched his nose with a hit, breaking it. As he falls down, the men quickly finish the two injured men already on their knees behind him with a kick on the side of the head. He then turned back to the last man still awake who was clutching his broken nose with his hand. Two quick punches later, the man fell down with his other unconscious buddy on the ground. Once finished, the form quickly dashed to the door of the building, entering it.

In front of the screen, there was not even a sound. Director Mattews paused the video on the screen and turned to look at his five shocked agents.

"Ok I will say it first. What the hell was that?" Mathews exclaimed.

"It's like he was a ninja, he fucked them up before they could even realize what was going on." Say an excited twenty five old officer.

"It looks like a scene coming from a kung fu movie." A thirty something men say with awe.

"Okay, This is real life and ninja do not exist. Can someone have a pertinent observation to make?" James says, looking at the other two officers who did not yet talk.

They were the two that he sent protecting Karine yesterday. They were former military and the two that could likely spot something.

"That was not anything that I saw before and I saw Delta's in combat. This guy is at another level entirely." Say Homes.

"I second that. I noticed that every move that he made was thought carefully, every one of his movements were executed perfectly for the next. There was no waste of movement. Even the force that he put behind every punch and kick that he made was carefully controlled. with too much force, he could have killed the four of them, he chose not to and they ended up with a few broken bones and bruises, that is impressive. Whoever that was, that much control is not something that you can learn. you need decades of experience." Bry supply.

Director Mattews was surprised to say the least. In the five years that he worked with Bry, that was the first time that he heard him talk for so long. But what he said surprised him even more. Himself was an ex cop and never served in the military so he could not pick up so much even if he recognized that this was something not ordinary.

"So you estimate that he is what? thirty/forty years old?"

"I don't know sir, this is weird. I estimate someone with that much experience to be at least forty years old but the fluidity of his movement says that he is much younger, like early thirty late twenty. That backflip alone would be impossible for a forty years old veteran." Bry said with a furrowed eyebrow.

"This is not the only thing weird in this case. Why someone so skilled would involve himself with a domestic case like that. Don't take me wrong, I'm glad that he was there or we would have casualties on our side and he helped us put a bastard behind bars but still."

"Maybe one of the two bodyguard who protected the prosecutor last night? They could match our profil." Say the man who made the movie reference prior, he was trying to redeem himself.

"I thought so too but no. One of them did not leave the prosecutor since last night even for a second. I know because I was there. The other one did not leave Robert Lyndon residence in Manhattan, I confirmed it with one of my guys. I put up the personnel files of every person working for the Lyndon label security and none of them could knock out four guys in five seconds." The director says. Despite what Karine said, he did check anyway as it was confident that she did not say everything to him.

"2.6 seconds sir. I timed it" The agent sitting in front of the computer. Seeing the look that the director gave him, he hurriedly added something before a bad thing happened to him." Sir this is not it." He adds, launching the video again and fast forward it to one minute later.

They could see the form exiting the building the same way that he entered. They immediately noticed that he had a pronounced limp to his gait. As he was nearing the position camera, they could distinguish him better. He was wearing grey hoodies with the hood on his head. A black ski mask was hiding his face. He was wearing leather black gloves and blue sweatpants. He seems to be slightly below six foot and weigh around 160 pound with broad shoulders and legs.

Before going out of the camera line of sight, the form suddenly stopped and turned to the camera. The face still hiding by the hood, the men made a mocking military salute with two fingers and then disappeared with a step out of the line of sight.

"He knew the camera was there and that we were going to watch it." Realize Director Matthews with a hand on his chin.

"Yes sir. He appears he was hurt by one of the guys inside so maybe we would find forensic evidence on him." Said the agents behind the screen.

"No he was not, I don't think that there was anyone inside this building who could hurt him based on what I saw. The limping was there only to fuck up our biometrics scanner. He controlled everything that we saw as he was aware that he was being watched." Said Homes with a thoughtful look.

"Based on his mocked salute, he is definitely former military. He did it to mock us but the inclination on his wrist and elbow show that he performed the sign for years. He seems playful too so definitely below forty years old. " Said Bry.

"Yes, he is highly trained and highly intelligent. That would not surprise me if he had incursion training. We should contact the CIA or NSA." Homes confirmed.

"Yeah right. Whatever happens, they will tell me that this is not them so why bother. Focus your time on Droski as of now, we don't have the time or resources to investigate him. Send me the video file on my personal server and delete it after it." He ordered.

A chorus of 'Yes sir' echoed through the room before they all came back to their work station. With a pensive look, director Mattews went back to his office.