They told him that there was nothing they could do. He worked with them for six years, loyally obeying their every command and putting his life in danger on numerous accounts, and the best they could give them was a monotonous apology on how they couldn’t do anything. They were the top government intelligence agency in the country, had access to every file in every American computer in existence, could kill a whole city and cover it up, and they had the nerve to say they could do nothing.

This answer was just not good enough for one Drew Parker. He slammed his fist down on the long mahogany desk, the noise echoing slightly in the large room. The man behind the desk did not move, and kept his eyes trained directly on Drew’s outraged face. “What do you mean you can’t do anything? We can’t just sit back and pray that she will come back! We have to do something to help her!” The man’s jaw set firmly, and he opened his mouth to speak. He was fairly large, and didn’t look like the kind of guy you’d find sitting in a dimly lit room centered in the middle of New York. The man had piercing brown eyes, and at this moment, they held an almost bored appeal to it.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Parker. But, as I said, we are powerless,” the man said slowly, his voice even and holding a powerful aura of authority. “We don’t know who took Ms. Knight, and even if we did, we will not subject the livelihood of our crew for the sake of one life. Our men were lucky enough to make it out of the attack alive, and it is not their job to rescue Ms. Knight.”

“She wasn’t just any one life,” Drew growled, his vision turning red. “She worked for this agency for six years, and was one of your best field operatives. So don’t you dare say she’s not worth it. She’s worth more than any agent you have on your team, and deserves a chance.”

“I’m sorry,” the man said simply, though Drew knew he held no sympathy at all. His words were hollow, and because of that, Drew had never felt more hate for someone in his life. Well, maybe one other person - the one who kidnapped the love of his life.

“Sir, there has to be something,” Drew said, his anger slowly turning into desperation. “One piece of evidence, one little fiber of DNA! Something!” The man sighed, raking his hand through his thinning gray hair.

“We have about three seconds of surveillance footage, but that is it. The entire system went down after that, and we have nothing else. We couldn’t even trace what shut down our system,” he said. Despite the bleakness of his words, for the first time in a while, Drew felt an ounce of hope.

“You have footage? We could match the identities, find the guys!” Drew said quickly, his future suddenly seeming brighter.

“Our specialists could find nothing on the video feed that linked the attackers to anything, organization or identity alike. The footage came up a dead end,” the man said, sounding as if he wanted nothing more than for Drew to leave.

“But,” Drew started, trying to rack his brain for more loopholes, but he came up short. The man stood up suddenly, and walked over to Drew.

“Once again, I am truly sorry for Ms. Knight’s disappearance, but it is out of our hands. We can’t do anything, and neither can you,” he said dully, ushering Drew to the door. He obeyed sadly, looking down at the floor. From the point of him walking through the frame of the office to him arriving at his small apartment was a blur.

He walked into his kitchen, not bothering to flick on the lights. Brightness suddenly seemed to promising, and Drew felt nothing of the sort. He reached into his pantry, and began to prepare a can of soup for his dinner, more out of routine than actual hunger. Sitting down at a small table, Drew ate his food, not really tasting it.

“Why did you have to leave me?” Drew asked, listening as his voice evaporated into nothing. In response to his question, Drew heard the sound of a car honking, reminding him that life existed outside of his bleak world. Though it was only around seven o’clock, Drew decided to turn in early, deciding that he would need the energy for whatever horror the world decided to throw at him next. He lay in his bed, trying to get comfortable despite the coldness that amounted without her sleeping there beside him. He closed his eyes, and soon fell into a restless sleep.

*******

“Jeez, Kyra. Be careful, will you?” Drew asked, glaring at Kyra. She was lazily swinging around a loaded pistol, as if it was a mere pencil. “You could kill someone with that thing!”

“What?” She asked, laughing. She stopped twirling it and trained it on the cardboard cut-out fifty yards away. The two were in target practice, and had been for some time. “I’m a highly trained professional. If I could defuse a bomb with nothing but a pair of tweezers and some floss, I think I can handle a little gun.”

“Yeah, well don’t go crying to me when you blow you foot off,” Drew said in annoyance, aiming his own Remington 11-87 semi-automatic gun on a target. He carefully fired on the trigger-sensitive shotgun, watching in satisfaction as the head of a cutout was blown off from his own fifty-foot distance. “Bulls-eye.” Kyra snorted, clearly not impressed.

“I could do that in my sleep,” she said teasingly, putting her weapon on the table behind them. Drew peeked at her from over his shoulder, firing one last shot before joining her. “How much longer do we have before we could leave?”

“Another three hours,” Drew said, laughing lightly when Kyra groaned.

“We just get back from a whole three weeks in Sydney, and what does he expect?” Kyra mumbled, beginning one of her rants. Drew just watched her in amusement as he twirled his cup of coffee, the liquid lukewarm from the time it sat idle. “We have to go to 13 more hours of training, and don’t even get a rest from all that jet-lag!”

“It’s your fault for becoming an agent,” Drew laughed, and Kyra crossed her arms, huffing. She reached for her own cup of coffee, and started to drink it nonchalantly. When she tasted it, she spit it out, her face contorted in disgust. “I take it the coffee tastes awful?” Kyra glared at him in response, wiping her mouth on her sleeve.

“What do you think?” She asked, standing up. Drew watched her for a second, and took in her short, coal-black hair, and light blue eyes. She had a decent tan from their weeks in Sydney, and her body was toned from constant exercise.

“Do you know why I love you?” Drew asked suddenly, and Kyra looked down questionably. He got up from his chair, and wrapped his arms around her, staring into her curious eyes. “I love you because you’re passionate, and not afraid to speak your mind. You’re random, exiting, and the most interesting person I’ve ever met. You are beautiful, on the inside and the out, and I love you for it.” Kyra smiled at him, closing the space between them. The kiss was short yet loving, which pretty much summed up their entire relationship.

“And I love you too,” Kyra smiled, leaning her head of his hard chest. After a few seconds, she suddenly pushed away, surprising Drew. “We better get back to work before the boss comes over.” Drew glanced at the surveillance camera for a millisecond, and then nodded. Just as he was reaching for his shotgun, a loud siren suddenly blared throughout the room. Having gone through the procedure many times before, Kyra and Drew routinely reached for their guns, and silently made their way to the door. Kyra was about to look out, but Drew stopped her protectively. He motioned for her to go behind him, and she unwillingly complied. Drew slowly opened the door, his gun in position for a quick attack. Seeing no one, Drew silently maneuvered out of the room, Kyra on his rear.

The two walked down the hall, hearing and seeing nothing but the still blaring alarm. Red lights from the siren danced ominously across the walls, its sound nearly deafening. The pair walked cautiously, their guns ready. Suddenly, the alarm stopped, and the hall went silent.

“Must have been a drill,” Kyra said, relaxing slightly.

“I don’t know about that,” Drew replied wearily, his eyes darting around quickly, looking for any possible attackers. He didn’t know why, but something felt off. A gunshot was heard nearby, followed by a muffled scream. Both of their eye’s widened, and they quickly rushed to the noise. They rounded a corner, still seeing nothing. More gunshots were heard, this time closer. Drew tapped Kyra on the shoulder, pointing to the end of the hall.

“They’re right there,” Drew mouthed, and Kyra nodded in response. The two slowly walked to the corner, and prepared themselves for the fight. They darted around the corner, only to find no one there except for the three lifeless bodies of people who Drew used to call his coworkers. He wrinkled his nose in disgust at the sight, and turned away, his gun still poised for attack.

Out of nowhere, a figure in full body armor appeared from behind Kyra. “Kyra, watch out!” Drew yelled frantically, and Kyra whiled around, kicking the man in the gut. He grunted slightly, but otherwise stayed put behind his armor.

Coming from behind the wall to Drew’s right, more figures appeared, each decked out in their own protective suit. One of the men punched Kyra in the face, causing her head to whip back. Just as she tried to punch back, another of the men came from behind her, kicking Kyra in the center of her back. Drew yelled in anger, firing a round at the men. They stumbled slightly, only receiving a small sting upon impact because of their bulletproof suit, but this was all Kyra needed.

She kicked the man in front of her in the face, and he fell to the ground. The man behind Kyra made a lunge at her, but Drew kicked him in the shin, sending him flying. One of the men tried to punch Drew, but he was too quick. He ducked, and delivered a sharp uppercut to the man’s face. Kyra let out a pained cry, and Drew quickly looked over to see her on the ground, a cut forming above her eye.

Drew kneed the man in front of him, causing the attacker to stumble back. Not bothering with finishing the man off, Drew rushed over to Kyra, and tried to fire another shot at one of the men. It clicked loudly, signaling that it was out of bullets. A man tried to punch Drew, but he jumped back, narrowly avoiding the strike. He flipped his gun around, hitting the man in the head with the butt of the shotgun. Out of nowhere, and another man kicked Drew, and he fell to his knees from the blow.

Kyra shot the man who kicked him, quickly coming to Drew’s aid. More of the men came from behind the wall, and Drew looked at them helplessly. The two were simply outnumbered, and could not win. A few of the men surrounded Kyra, and pinned her down. Drew leapt up, and tackled one of the men. In retaliation, another of the attackers shot at Drew, and he screamed as the bullet entered his chest.

“Drew!” Kyra yelled in terror, watching as he fell to the ground. He clutched his chest, and within seconds it was dyed red from blood. The pain was nearly unbearable, and Drew struggled to stay conscious.

“Why did you shoot him? He could have been useful!” One of the men said, his voice heavily accented, but Drew didn’t recognize it. He tried to get up, but the pain didn’t let him. The last thing he saw was Kyra being injected with something, her limp body being carried away. That’s when everything went black.

*******

Drew shot up from his bed, his face drenched in sweat. Realizing where he was, Drew groaned audibly, laying back down tiredly. He had the same nightmare every night, and all it did was act as a painful reminder of the day that Kyra was taken. Closing his eyes, he couldn’t help but remember what happened after.

When Drew had regained consciousness again, he was in a hospital bed. He had tried to lift him self up, but the minute he moved his chest began burning in excruciating pain. Drew remembered looking down and noticing that his chest was heavily bandaged. The minute he saw the bandages, Drew had remembered the struggle. He yelled for Kyra over and over, but the only people who had come were a team of nurses, telling him to calm down. But Drew didn’t. Instead he kept screaming, struggling to right himself, despite the pain. The nurses had to hold him down and inject him, to which Drew subsequently lost consciousness. When he awoke again, the director of Drew’s unit was sitting on one of the chairs surrounding Drew’s bed. The man explained to Drew that Kyra was taken, and that they had a team of forensic analysts going over the scene. Drew had nodded then, more out of shock then understanding. Six days later, he was released, and that is what had later led him to his boss’s office, demanding that something be done.

Drew turned on his side, his eyes still shut tight. He brought his knees to his chest, clutching his pillow. He pictured Kyra’s face in his mind, and that was the last thing he saw before he fell asleep again.