Earlier...

Niall Trenton sits in his chair in the AMI, scrolling through completed cases. He can't make himself comfortable, since this is the same chair he's been sitting in for four years. The door of the office slams open, making his head spin around comically. He sees his friend, Eudora Kathlyhan, holding a cup of coffee in the doorway. Well, I can't describe their relationship, since they were more than friends but less than dating. Her hands were already shaking from an overconsumption of caffeine. He laughs his slightly mad laugh.

'Aura, that's your third cup of coffee today. I know what you're like with caffeine, shaking after one sip,' He states, his fingers working fast at the keyboard on his desk. He feels the collar of his smart white shirt being pulled back by a small, cold, sharp-nailed hand.

'My name is Eudora, and you know it,' She hisses, her other hand touching his pale-skinned face. He feels warmth creeping up his cheeks. She leaves him hanging, walking to her desk and flicking her straight waist-length black hair behind her shoulders.

'I do know it, I just like teasing you,' He replies, continuing to scroll through the gory pictures. He giggles in a girlish manner at a rather disgusting picture of a man with his head cracked open. Eudora pushes herself over on her chair to see the picture.

'That was a good team effort from us,' She marvels. Niall simply nods and looks at the completed case file. Eudora takes a sip of coffee, her hazel eyes already shiny and mad from the overconsumption of caffeine.

'How do you think Piercebridge is doing on that case?' He asks, rolling his eyes softly. His fingers absent-mindedly trail over the keys on the keyboard, 'He shouldn't have got it in my opinion. I know what he's like around Strangelove. Suck-up.'

Eudora gives him a look of confusion, 'I wouldn't call him a suck-up. I talked to him, and it turns out he left his friends and family for his job. I think Strangelove's sucking up to him. Plus, I don't know if he's even found them since he's pretty awful at that.'

'If we can't do it, he can't,' Niall says softly.

'Strangelove said to release some zombies on Greenmoss Avenue. I hate doing that,' She groans, going off-topic. She picks at the nail on her thumb, 'I'm going to finish my coffee, then I'm going.'

She sips at the hot mug of latte, her red lipstick staining the thousandth mug. She quickly downs the rest of the coffee.

'You're off, then?' Niall asks, standing up next to her.

'Yeah, I am. See you later,' She kisses him on the cheek and leaves. A message pops up on Niall's computer monitor. In a desperate attempt to simultaneously rub off the lipstick, sit down, and not blush, he falls over rather exaggeratedly. He looks up from the floor to see a message from Kristoffer.

From: K. J. L. Piercebridge

To: N. Trenton, S. L. V. Strangelove. E. R. Kathlyhan, P. Denzell

Subject

I've found the targets (A. Florakis, A. Rockwell), they're rather easy. I'll be in contact soon.

Niall stares into the screen, his eyes beginning to burn from the light. His hands tremble. How could Kristoffer defeat even him at finding a target? His stomach and brain fill with fiery rage.