Running Code

Title: Running Code

Author: Prentice

Rating: NC17; FRAO (Fan Rated Adults Only)

Fandom: Numb3rs

Warnings: Violence, Adult Content, Language

Pairing: None

Spoilers: None

Category: Case-Based, General

Series: None

Archive: Patterns, AFF.net. Others, ask first, please.

Feedback: Is always cherished and appreciated.

Disclaimer: The names of most of the characters contained here-in are the
property of CBS and its creators. No infringements of these copyrights are
intended, and are being used here without permission. No profit was made and no
harm was done. The characters of Jason Parker, David, Jennings, Amelia Johnson,
P.J. Markham and the company Cycom are purely the author’s creation and should
not be used without prior consent.

Author’s Note: This chapter is, indeed, very short but not all of them
will be so no worries about this in the future.

Dedicated: This one is for San, because she heard it first.

Summary: We all have the right to keep secrets.

 

Chapter 1

 

Cycom International Office Building

Los Angeles, California

8:15 a.m., Tuesday

Special Agent Don Eppes moved deftly around the office buildings interior,
side-stepping bullet shells and blood matter sprayed across the floor and, in
some cases, imbedded into the walls. The six bodies of the unfortunate victims
had already been carted away in ambulances, none of them able to be resuscitated
and almost all of them dead before the paramedics could get to them. Scenes like
these were never easy to bear, no matter how many times you’ve seen something
similar.

He shook his head, turning to look at his partner and fellow FBI agent, Terry
Lake. “What do we know?”

“Not much.” She replied, stepping over a bullet casing. “A man walked in,
opened fire for less than a minute and then left just as quickly. We’re trying
to get statements from everyone who was in the building at the time of the
shooting but with so many injured on their way to the hospital and it being the
beginning of the week when most of the employees are working…” She shook her
head. “David’s already talking to the head of security, trying to see if he can
get a list of all the employees who were suppose to work today but it‘ll take
hours, maybe longer, before we can get to everyone.”

Don nodded, eyes once again scanning over the room. It was identical to
almost any office in the business section of Los Angeles: packed full of desks,
high cubicle walls separating one person’s work space from another; which were
now knocked over or sporting holes from the bullets, a slightly old Apple™
computer sitting on even older metal framed desks, a copy machine, a fax, a
office phone, a company reminder and announcement bulletin board on the far
wall. If he didn’t know any better, he would have been tempted to say this was
his own office. The only thing that set it apart from the rest were the
personalized touches that each employee had brought with them: Family pictures,
multi-colored sticky notes, tacky calendars that had Dilbert cartoons on them, a
few with scattered plush toys, now ruined from the blood splatter. The one
closest to him, a pink elephant with a red ribbon around its neck proclaiming
“Happy Birthday”, was mutilated. A hole from where a bullet had shredded the
material overflowed with red soaked cotton and the plastic beads in its bottom
were scattered across the floor; opaque dots with a crimson background.

Somehow, that alone made the scene all the more grotesque. He turned away.
“Any suspects?”

The other agent nodded. “One. A Jason Parker, twenty-eight; he was fired a
week ago from the Tech Support team. No one has seen or heard from him since.”

Don frowned. “What was he fired for?”

Terry shook her head uncertainly, stray wisps of hair brushing against the
collar of her charcoal-gray colored suit-jacket. “As near as we can tell it was
a standard firing, something to do with pay cuts.”

The dark haired agent blew out a breath. “All right, see what you can find
out. In the mean time, I’m going to go see where David is with the head of
security.” With one last glance at the blood splattered pink elephant, Don moved
away from the scene, briefly wondering why the image disturbed him so much.