He remained so quiet in the car that it actually did make the wheels spin inside Skye’s head. Not that she didn’t like the silence—in fact, it was a welcome change to the constant bantering between the other agents—but she rather wondered how she was supposed to wrap her head around him. If he wouldn’t talk, there was only one thing to do, so she accepted the silence and resorted to just carefully studying him as he drove the car across town.

It was noticeable that he seemed to be on edge, but whether it was because he was new and reserved or whether it simply meant that he was actually trying to do his job, Skye struggled to see. She definitely hoped that it was the latter, but she had seen agents that upon first impression seemed thoughtful and actually capable of the job, and then, once it got down to business, either got too heated or grew stone cold. Both instances seemed to be especially common among mundanes, many of whom had rarely interacted with supernaturals, so she reminded herself to keep an extra watchful eye on him to discern any behaviour that indicated the possibility.

So far, however, so good.

As he parked the car, looked at her and broke the silence, Skye straightened her back to look around the area. It was a relatively run-down neighbourhood consisting of lonely, grim-covered houses with fenced-in yards. Having been near the area before, Skye knew that just a couple of blocks away, the houses turned more upscale and well-kept, most of them lacking the chipped paint and rusty fences seen on the street Skye and her new agent had just parked at.

”All set”, she confirmed as she leaned her head to the side to get a better view out of the window. She gave a single nod. ”See that house over there? That’s it.”

Unless someone really paid attention to it, they probably wouldn’t notice that the house was any different from the other buildings lining the street. It was covered in the same white paint that had since long turned a weird gray, or possibly green colour caused by the dirt, lichen and algae amassed upon its surface. If, however, one paid close attention, one could see that the house seemed to lack any signs of someone actually living there. While its surrounding neighbours had plastic toys strewn across their lawns and cars parked on their driveways, that sole house had an overflowing mailbox and drawn curtains preventing any stranger from looking inside its windows.

Skye looked at it with a suspicious gaze and doubted that their mission would prove successful.

”Let’s go.”

Convinced that Stan didn’t need any more briefing—he probably remembered what they were there to do and was probably more annoyed than relieved by her concern—she grabbed her bag and strung it across her body before getting out of the car. Skye made sure to close the car door quietly, anxious that any noise might scare the old man away if he actually was at home.

Agent Humes seemed to be experienced enough to take his own initiatives, so this time, Skye didn’t even bother waiting for him to make sure he was alright. Instead, she headed straight to the closed fence. She’d offered, so he knew the deal. If he wanted to stop or ask her anything, all he needed to do was raise his voice. Still, there was that little nagging part inside of her that caused her to look across her shoulder and back at the new agent while she walked up to the house to make sure that he was following her.

The flimsy gate to the fence gave off a piercing sound as she opened it, and she cringed slightly inside, but the rest of neighbourhood seemed to remain unaffected in its empty silence. Skye walked up the pathway leading to the tiny porch outside of the house and stepped carefully up in front of the door. She almost raised her hand to knock, but instead, as a last minute decision, she gestured for Stan to do it instead. Whether it was to be nice or to play with him was left to his interpretation.

A tiny part of Audrey, but a part nonetheless, was relieved that he had taken her digression so well. That he ignored it, rather than sighed or openly disapproved was a refreshing change. People could say what they wanted about Audrey, but one thing she knew for sure—she wasn’t a fool, and she knew what people were saying about her both behind closed doors and her back. She tried to ignore it, sure, but sometimes it was hard when she tried to speak up in the group of agents she worked with. No names mentioned, but she knew that certain people had a tendency to roll their eyes and dismiss whatever she said.

Well, Audrey always thought, there was a reason she was there. They had accepted her and she was still on the team. Technically, she had proven more successful than certain other agents who had left the team as soon as they realised that the job wasn’t at all as action-packed or interesting as it seemed. Sure, there were days when Audrey felt that the work was not stimulating enough, but everyone who ever worked anywhere probably felt that from time to time. All professions were bound to have good and bad days. Luckily for Audrey, the good at the ASA often outweighed the bad.

Besides, the other agents on the team could snicker or talk how much shit they wanted. Audrey was there to stay.

The young woman was quite happy to hear Granderson say that she’d get to take the lead inside the police office. Not only because that meant that she would get to decide and delegate tasks, which in itself was rewarding, but also because it showed that he trusted her abilities enough to give her the opportunity. Despite that he seemed unwilling to talk about anything else except for their case, Audrey actually appreciated Granderson and his professionalism—at least when it came to matters like herself where people’s insensitive preconceptions only impaired Audrey and her career development. ”Sure thing, boss.”

Noticing that he looked at her from the corner of his eye, she smiled at him and retreated into a, for Audrey, rare silence. Well, her lack of words might have appeared silent to Granderson, but inside her head, thoughts of what she was gonna say during the briefing ran through her mind. Yes, she knew the drill, get the police, tactical, SWAT… and yet, she had to run things through properly to make sure she wouldn’t mix things up while on the spot.

The car neared the police headquarters, and as soon as they’d parked outside the building, Audrey got out and hurried inside.

Once inside the headquarters, she went up to the desk to check them in. The security guard behind the desk looked as though he had been sleeping, but as soon as they walked through the doors her perked up and sat straight in his chair. Pulling out her ID and throwing her bag up on the counter, Audrey smiled at him. The man had seemed rather grumpy, but he returned her smile with a grin as she folded her arms under her chest and leaned over the counter with an excited greeting.

”Agent James and Agent Granderson from ASA. We’ve got an arrest warrant and are here to get a team with us. I’m sure you knew we’d come.”

The man nodded slightly and looked through a couple of papers before gesturing to the agents to go inside.

As they walked to the house, it again stood out to him how quiet the neighborhood was. It didn’t seem unnatural though, so that was a good thing. Many of the things that Skye noticed, Stanley took note of also. He looked around the house and there didn’t seem to be any sign of anything other than neglect. It may be a dead end coming her after all. It didn’t matter much though. In truth, dead ends and empty leads were all a part of the job and he didn’t often let them perturb him, if ever.

As they stepped through the gate, the metallic screech sent chills down his spine and he shook his head. He smirked at her as she looked back at him, shrugging dismissively at the sound. They moved to the door and looked around and listened for a moment before Skye hesitated with the knock and indicated for him to go ahead and do so. “In case there’s some magic booby trap, right?” He smiled after speaking in the hushed tone, but before he had a chance to do anything further, there was a loud sound that shook the calm of the neighborhood.

Behind the house, off some way, the sounds of a construction site coming to life could be heard easily over anything. There were the sounds of men talking, starting the day off, and machines firing up and men yelling to be heard over those machines. Stanley looked over at Skye and then raised an eyebrow before moving to the side of the porch. He looked over and the next block over, he could see the activity. Things started to get busier and the sounds of beeping as vehicles backed up and machines started to roar as the hammered into concrete.

It was all so sudden and a very stark contrast to the quiet and calm that was overwhelming a few moments before. Stan looked at the other agent as thoughts raced through his head. “Do we know the time of most of the incidents, and when they started?”

Ken and Audrey spent the next forty-five minutes sitting in a lobby while those needing to be briefed were assembled in a conference room. It would mainly be heads of departments, about a dozen or more individuals, who’d then pass down word accordingly. Eventually, all those needing to be there were present and accounted for and Granderson stood up and moved to the front of the room. He was dressed rather casual compared to what he wore around the office, but days he was out on the street, he dressed down accordingly. Today, he was wearing some dark brown cargo pants and a white and brown striped button-up shirt. His pistol was holstered at his side and there was another strapped to his ankle that wasn’t visible, so he looked very much like a run-of-the-mill detective for the most part.

He waited a moment for people to shift their attention up to him as some were still reading through the notes in front of them. To be honest, this was a very dull, low-key case and the only reason most of the people from other unites were here was because of the POTENTIAL for something out of the “normal” to happen, as is the case with all SNs. In most cases, a case like this would be run by ASA via a file, and the locals would be given the green light to handle this on their own. The ASA generally got involved when there were loose cannons, missing facts, or when anything but a VERY low chance of a situation happening was the case.

Truth be told, Ken himself was somewhat curious why the police chief directly asked for assistance on this instead of handing it to the locals, but a request from a chief of police was generally not simply ignored. And so here they were. It could be anything from a family member being involved, to it being an election year and they may never really find out. But a case was a case.

“Good morning. I’m Chief Agent Granderson with the Indy ASA. I’m sure you all know why we’re here, and I won’t waste time going over that info. I will be very brief as Agent James will be taking point for this. I’ll be assisting for the most part, so please ensure she is the person all questions and information is routed through. If there are no direct questions for me, I’ll hand the floor over to her.” There was a brief silence before he nodded and took a step back, allowing James to move up.

The plan was relatively simple. The locals would block the area, James and Granderson would go in, maybe with several uniformed officers, and they’d make the arrest. Once they were confident that the situation was going to be routine, they’d give a quick debrief to whoever the commanding officer was, which in this case was the Chief of the local police, and they’d head back to do their final reports.