Agent Ross wanted to come, just to overlook his trainees but as things started to get more complicated, he had to reveal himself to the Mayor. He called his team and asked them to get Lilly online with the Mayor. And they did.

Mary spoke, “Lilly Lance, your son needs help. We want you to come here and try to talk him out of it.”
Lilly broke down, “My son.. he’s just a boy. Please don’t hurt him, he will not listen to me.”
Mary replied, “We have to try, Lilly. He has a gun and a lot of kids lives are in danger.”
Lilly was scared, “Why are the FBI there, you will kill my son. The police with guns are making him scared.”
Mary replied, “Do you know how many children your son has shot? Will you answer those parents Lilly? Just talk to him..”
Lilly was informed by the Editor before the call that it was a bait. If she goes there, both of them will be killed. So the best way is to get a lawyer observe everything that’s happening so that they wouldn’t kill her son. So she said, “He’s just a boy.. He doesn’t understand what he’s doing. Please leave him alone and call off the cops, I beg you. He will come out of there as soon as everyone’s gone.”

“Listen Lilly” Mary said, “I cannot save your son if he doesn’t cooperate. You cannot save him from there. We will have no choice but to take him down, one way or the other.” And she looked at Ross.
“Let’s move, the longer we wait, more people die.” said Ross. Sarah had some bad news, “Ma’am, the media just flipped the story on us.”

People were watching everything live, everywhere around the world. Clips of Mary being air-dropped and bringing the kids safely to the terrace. Social media was buzzing with the Eden Falls and School Shooting. But one channel decided to make a fortune.

Eden City News.
[ Mayor Mary Jones threatens to kill the boy, Cody Lance. This is just in, viewers.. I am the assistant editor, Caroline Girth and we will be beginning our big debate in a few minute… Now, the shooting at the Aim High International has a new turn to it. We have with us, the Mother of the boy, Lilly Lance who says his son is being victimized here. It all happened when Lilly found a video clip of Cody playing a prank on one of his classmates, Maggie Briggs. Apparently, Cody just wanted to have some fun by putting some ink on her and recorded it for his YouTube channel. But, Maggie and her Boyfriend, Daniel, both verbally abused Cody. Cody was dealing with his depression and ADHD as best as he could by playing harmless pranks.

It so happens that Maggie Briggs is the daughter of Sarah Briggs. The personal secretary of the Mayor, Miss Jones. The fact that she herself is being air-dropped and is carrying a gun with her and she has called the FBI to take down a kid, tells us that it could very well be a targeted assault and abuse of powers on the young Cody Lance. Very well, we have with us, Dr. Hafeez in our studio with Lilly lance and their lawyer. The Baumans will soon be joining us so let’s start with prime time Big Debate.

Caroline started, “So, tell us Miss Lance, What is your son like, in his daily life?”
Lilly was in tears as she started to speak, “My son, Cody.. He’s just a kid. He’s been pushed into doing these stuff. He never harmed a fly in his life. He had this YouTube thing where he posted videos of silly pranks. He has a lot of followers and all of them know that he is a good person.”

Caroline questioned, “He’s been pushed into doing this, you said. So, let’s speak to his doctor, Haffez who is a psychiatrist. What was Cody’s condition before today, doctor?”

Hafeez referred to his notes and said, “Cody is a special kid. He had a mild variety of ADHD, so he cannot stay idle for more than ten to fifteen minutes. He has to keep doing something.”
Caroline stalled him, “So, tell us about ADHD, Dr. Hafeez…. ]

“What in the bloody hell are they talking about..!” Sarah was extremely agitated. The media were using every evidence as an excuse to manipulate this case and trying to make the Mayor look bad, along with her secretary.
Mary replied, “They aren’t making any sense, they are playing us..”
Agent Ross turned to Mary and said, “Ma’am, Mary.. look.. We need your head in the game. Let the FBI worry about them.”

Ross called his team, “It’s time, take the editor into custody and get Alyssa to take over. Make some noise on the way, will you..”
As the live news debate took place, Ross’s team barged in and took the chief editor into custody, right in front of the debate. The official FBI spokesperson took over and showed the arrest warrant, stated his list of offences for the camera and put Alyssa in charge. Everything played live across the globe. People started trending good and bad side of the story on social media. Save the children and Save Cody Lance were the top trends.

The debate resumed, Caroline Girth continued more cautiously and The New Chief editor, Alyssa Ramon joined the debate. A representative of the Human Rights organization was present too.
Caroline’s voice shrieked, “So, we were interrupted when Dr. Hafeez was telling us about ADHD and it’s symptoms.”
Alyssa intervened, “I don’t think that is important now, Caroline. I mean, it’s been close to five hours and a killer is still in the building. Let’s talk about that, shall we?”

Alyssa took over. “So, Dr. Hafeez. You earlier said something about Cody being depressed, tell us about that.”
Hafeez said, “Well, he is alone most of the time and doesn’t really have any friends.”
Alyssa asked, “Do you know about the time when Cody was rejected by a girl and he referred to it as a ‘breakup’ but in reality, she was never his girlfriend to begin with.?”
Hafeez lied, “No, He did not tell me that.”
“Funny that he didn’t tell you, he told it to the rest of the world, on YouTube. Some understanding you have about him.!”

“Mild form of ADHD? It has a separate name and it’s a different diagnosis all together, don’t you know that? And the fact that Cody has patiently filmed, edited and posted a hundred and thirty five videos will rule out any form of Attention Disorders. It’s time we stop using Depression and Psychiatric illnesses to cover up murderous instincts. You may walk out of here, Dr. Hafeez.” Alyssa’s words were keenly followed by the people and other journalists alike.

Vicky, from Human Rights wanted to say something, “He’s a still a kid, he’s not even eighteen and we don’t approve of him being labeled as a murderer. How do we know for sure that he isn’t depressed? If his depression is shut down on his face today, people like him will stop coming forward with their psychological problems.”
Alyssa smiled, “Your parents must be very proud of you today Vicky. How old are you? twenty six?? Cody turned eighteen five days ago and according to the law, he is an adult. You don’t like me for calling him a murderer. Now, What would you call an adult who has shot and killed twenty three kids below eighteen and five adults, including his math teacher and three police officers..? Right, a Mass murderer.”

“Tell me something Vicky, why do you think that the kids’ lives are less important than the one you are defending right now. Don’t the kids qualify as ‘humans’ in your holy books? If not, then you are free to walk out of here.” Alyssa looked at him
“I will stay” he replied, “I thought kids made mistakes and everyone deserves a second chance.”
The new Editor in Chief stood up from her chair, “A mistake? Is that what it is now?? Take a look at this clip, a senior high school kid is being shot at, through the door, for no fault of his.. NO FAULT. And you want to call it a mistake? I just hope that you would never be a victim of someone’s ‘mistake’ apart from the one that your parents made.”

“We are here today because a school student has a gun in his hand and is on a rampage, shooting everyone he sees. Now, How did he find a gun, that too an AR 15? And how did he manage to get it inside the school.??” Alyssa made her point after shutting down every other diversion. “It is easy for anybody to own a gun in the United States. You need your ID card to vote in each and every state but owning a gun doesn’t need an ID card. Doesn’t it sound ridiculous Caroline?” she passed.

Caroline’s mouth had dried up long ago. ” I guess. I mean a gun is an article, like a knife or a car I suppose and those can be used to kill too.” she said. “Only a deranged psycho can think like you do, Caroline. A valid point indeed, considering you are a journalist. What do you use a knife for Caroline?” Alyssa knew this topic would arise.
Caroline replied, “To cut things, li.. like vegetables..”
“To cut vegetables.. And what do you use a Car for, Caroline?”
“To travel.”
“To travel, good. Now, what possible use can you think of, about a gun?”
Caroline wasn’t expecting this.
“To shoot at somebody” she hesitated.
Alyssa had a fake smile.
“To shoot at animals” she replied suddenly. “People die of animal attacks every day.”

Alyssa lost her calm, “You don’t understand, do you? You think these debates are a college competition and you have to speak every garbage in your mind or else you lose points for thinking.. A journalist will debate to get to an understanding, to differentiate right from wrong and to solve an issue which concerns everybody. You cannot debate to win Caroline.”
Alyssa drank some water and started to explain, ” I could give you the statistics of people who died of gun violence versus those that died of animal attacks, but you wouldn’t understand it. Just remember, when you look at gun violence, animal attacks are negligible, which means you can ignore them. So much for prime time news showing shark attacks by playing clips of ‘Jaws movie series’, isn’t it?”

She showed how strict the gun control was in so many other countries. “Japan, has three tests to give you a license and you have to take the test every three years to renew. There was a school shooting in London around twenty two years ago and they implemented strict laws. Do you know the number of school shootings since then? Zero! Why are we so reluctant to implement gun laws in our country? So what if your grandfather was a hunter and he gave his gun to you when he died? Keep it, framed on the wall, for display. Animals are getting extinct, what else would you kill?”

“We want to take our children to the woods and teach them to shoot a gun, kill a harmless rabbit, instead of teaching them to play ball or adopt and care for pets. We want them to be safe by learning to kill everyone else, instead of teaching them to help others..” Alyssa’s tears rolled down her cheeks. “We created these monsters.. yes! Only if there wasn’t a gun, right infront of us.. within our reach, so that we couldn’t pull the trigger and let out the frustration. All the rage, bursting like a bubble.. one loud sound and everything is gone!”

“It’s not that everybody with access to guns starts shooting at people, No… But a gun within our reach, pills in the bottle which stares at us and the view of the ground from the roof.. it freaking helps!! It helps the raging monster to take control..”

Ross and Mary try to open the door of a classroom. It seemed stuck. There was a kid inside, so they push open the door as hard as they could. There was a strange smell and suddenly, something exploded and created a dense, acid smoke. Both of them were trapped inside. Cody had setup the same prank he had pulled off in the chemistry lab!

…to be continued…