Charles and Jasmine were on the bus to Eden Falls. They were talking about the last time their grandson visited them. It was just a week ago when Daniel and his mom Nicole had surprised them. Daniel wanted to have his grandmother’s recipe, roasted chicken. “He’s a sweet kid, our Dan..” remarked Jasmine. “Yes he is..” replied Charles.

The Trumans arrived at the school and were stopped at the Main road. Lisa was furious, “That’s our son, in there.. I have to get in. Take me to the authorities..” she screamed. Dave calmed her, “Let me check with Mark at the FBI..” he took out his phone.

“I see a kid, he’s holding the door.. there are kids in the room, far east beside the playing field.” Sarah informed.
Mary recognized that place, “They are all pinned down, there’s no way out of there.. Quick, rest of you gather near the field at the east end.” she took her gun from the car and proceeded there.

“What do you see Sarah?” she asked. “Just the boy, holding the door. The kids are towards you.” replied Sarah. The drone was hovering at the window. Mary climbed on a couple of officers and spoke through the window to the kids. “Everyone calm down, we will get you out of the window, one by one.” The cops removed the window frame and started to evacuate the kids. There were still five kids remaining and someone started to shake the door. “Quick, everyone out” the boy shouted, “I can’t hold it much longer.”
Mary tried to divert the shooter’s attention by asking the cops to fire at the main entrance. It didn’t work, he started shooting at the boy through the door. Multiple gunshots. The boy was killed right there but everyone else managed to escape. Sarah fell unconscious as she saw the boy being shot. Mary sat down, her back to the wall. Close to twenty kids escaped because one kid held the door.

Meanwhile,  Jasmine entered the apartment, calling for Nicole. The door was open and she was on the ground, not responding to anything. “Call 911” Jasmine cried. They take Nicole to the hospital in an ambulance.

“Where is the FBI?” The Mayor roared. Just then, a chopper arrived with eight agents. Fully equipped, they waited for her briefing. The media intensified their coverage, an FBI chopper meant businesses. Soon, many other news channels started to arrive and they had their own helicopters. They started to air the view from the window of the class room. The body of the boy, in a pool of blood was clearly visible.

The people at the local Wal-Mart store gathered around the TV sets kept for display. “Here is the exclusive footage from Aim High International, Eden Falls. The shooting which started around 90 minutes ago has still not stopped! This is the exclusive clip of, what appears to be, one of the boys at the school, shot dead at the door of the classroom. Now you can see the face of the teenager, killed in the shooting today. This happened just minutes ago..”

A young man who worked there, recognized the boy on TV and rushed to inform Jade and Kaya, the parents of the boy. Kaya screamed in shock and Jade broke down instantly. A couple of people at the store took out their phones and started to record the parents’ reaction. This video spread like wildfire and the media surrounded them to get a word, in no time.

Mary asked the agents to take positions while she and two FBI agents would be air-dropped onto the terrace. And, three drones monitored the movements inside from three angles. After the briefing, she felt she had to collect a little more info on the shooter, Cody..
The tech support informed, “Cody Lance, he is a prankster and has his own YouTube channel.. he’s pretty popular on the internet. And he seems to have commented on Islamic extremists’ group pages on social media, a couple of times over the last month. His father is a businessman and for some reason, he owned an assault rifle. He is in Mexico right now.”

“No, extremist attack doesn’t seem likely, what about the pranks?” Mary asked.
People at the tech support started quickly watching the videos and spoke along. “Some are pretty childish pranks, gum on the bench, uncapping the water bottle.. some are offensive, like he overtakes people in his car and starts abusing them..”
“Alright, keep looking” said Mary, “Get me the Principal and the girl Emma.. I want to know the full story..!”
“Alright, let’s move.. Remember, wait for my signal..” Mary hopped on the chopper with two agents while the others took positions all around the building along with the police.

One of the News channels offered to take Dave and Kaya Truman to the school asap and in the process they could talk to the parents on a live show on air. When they arrived at the school, the media caught hold of the Trumans too. They were furious for not letting them inside.

Emma was asked to get inside the tech support van along with the Principal. They were all wired up and watching the drone camera visuals. Mary and the agents were being Air-dropped and the media choppers focused it from all angles. She was furious and gestured the other choppers to move away but they didn’t listen. “I want these choppers out..” she said on the mic as they moved to the east side door on the terrace.

“They are ready for you, ma’am” said one of the guys on the earpiece. She replied, “Put them through..”
She asked Emma, “You said something about his pranks dear, can you tell us about the pranks?”
“Yes ma’am, Cody has this YouTube channel and he gets his Go Pro camera to the school and shoots him pranking the other students and sometimes, the teachers.”
Mary asked the principal, “Were you not aware of this Mr. George?”
To which he replied, “I was well aware and I had spoken to his mother, Lilly Lance about it.”
Mary was going down stairs, she asked “When was it?”
“About a week ago”, he replied.

“5th floor, clear.” “Clear..”, “Clear” everyone said into their mics.
“What happened one week ago?” She asked.
Phil replied, ” His pranks used to be harmless before so I used to let him go with a slap on the wrist. But last week, he mixed up chemical reagents at one of the student’s desk during the chemistry lab. The reagents sort of exploded and there were toxic fumes released. So I suspended him for five days and spoke to his mother about this.”

Emma interrupted, “It was Dan’s desk.”
“Who’s Dan?” Mary asked.
Emma recollected that incident, “Daniel Bauman, it was his chemicals that Cody mixed up.”
Mary was interested, “4th floor is clear. Ok, Go on Emma..”
Emma started to narrate, “Cody’s Pranks were getting out of hand. He used to embarrass all of us. One day, Cody put ink on one of the girl’s skirt and made fun of her and he recorded the whole thing. So Dan, sort of took his camera and deleted the whole thing. And Maggie was Dan’s best friend so he planned something.”

“Wait Maggie?” Mary stopped. “As in Maggie Briggs?”
“Yes ma’am.” Emma replied. “She’s in there with Daniel. They both ran towards the Junior class.”
Mary was slightly relieved, “Oh God..” she said.
“So what happened?”
Emma continued, “So Dan filled Cody’s water bottle with ink and it had a spring, sort of a rubber pump mechanism. If he opened the bottle, it would spray ink on his face. Cody was trying to open his bottle and just then, our math teacher, Vivian offered to help. She was furious when the ink sprayed on her face and Cody was blamed. No one would believe him. Miss Vivian expelled him out of all her classes.”

Mary understood the rest, “So Cody mixed Dan’s chemical reagents.. Alright, let them rest for now.” She said and as the climbed down the third floor, they saw some movement in one of the rooms. “Quick, get the drone outside the window on the third floor, west side. What do you see?”
The tech support saw a few students, hiding under the desks and shielding themselves with their bags. “There’s no sign of the shooter” they said.
The Mayor focused, “Alright, moving in” and one of the agent broke the door while the other, covered them. She barged inside and said, “It’s okay, you are safe now.. come on out..” her voice had a sigh of relief which was instantly transferred to the kids. One of them, a boy let down his bag pack and ran to hug her, like a child running to his mother. A tear formed in her eyes at that moment. Slowly, the other kids started to stand up. It was the 5th grade classroom.

Mary decided to take the kids to the terrace. One agent was leading the way, she was in the middle and the other, at the end. They hear sudden gunshots while on the stairs to the fifth floor and the kids screamed. “Shh.. calm down children, nothing’s going to happen to you, I’m here..” she was able to get them silent but couldn’t stop them from crying. Their legs trembled with every step they took. The adults were too busy being alert and they made it to the terrace. She put one of the agents in charge and was about to leave with the other agent. No sooner did she turn, the boy held her from behind and wouldn’t let go. “Please don’t leave us” he cried. She managed to convince him that she had to save other kids but she lost it completely when the news choppers surrounded them and started filming.

“What part of getting the choppers out didn’t you understand?” she yelled into her mic. “Where’s Sarah.. put her on.. And call the news head office and tell them we will take them down if they didn’t..!” saying so, she went back in the building with the other agent.

“There are kids in the north classroom of the third floor.” It was Sarah’s voice.
“Are you alright, Sarah?” The Mayor was concerned.
“Yes ma’am, and we are bringing in Cody’s mom as we speak.” The Secretary replied.
“It’s good to have you back, Sarah. Put her on the mic as soon as she gets here.” They proceeded to evacuate the kids out of the class room on the third floor.

“There has been a problem, Ma’am.” Sarah informed. “The City News people have picked up Lilly and she is on air.”
Mary’s temper had seen the roof, “Darn it! Get the Chief editor online.”
“We have him on line 1, switching over to you..” Sarah knew her Madam’s thinking.
Mary spoke “Look, Mr., there’s a shooter in the building with a lot of kids trapped with him. I need Lilly here.”
From the other side, he said “I’m afraid she only speaks with you live, on air, from the studio. She is here voluntarily and seeks protection from the cops.”
“I am the Mayor you idiot, get her here in five minutes.” she yelled.
“That’s impossible,” he argued, “You will need a court order. She is with her lawyer.”
“You filthy swine..!” She roared as he hung up on her.

Sarah talked, “There’s no time Madam, we have to do something quick.”
“I know, Sarah.. I see no other way.” her voice showed hesitancy.
“Well, not if I could do something.” said the agent. Mary turned around and looked at him. “What are you saying?” she looked a lot confused.
The Agent spoke, “The Chief editor, he has some dirt on him and I can get Lilly to talk to you.”
Sarah and Mary were both surprised, “I heard you guys just finished training.. How do you know all these?” Sarah said.
Mary asked, “Who are you?”
“I am Ross Payton, Executive Assistant Director of the FBI law enforcement.”

…to be continued…