by Justin Bell
********
It had been two very long weeks between his meeting with Agent Grace and this very crisp morning, which had still revealed no sign of William Strickland at any local sites. There had been some NSA resources scattered throughout the region, searching local hotels and motels along with Irizarry's crew. Thus far, there was no hint that the former NSA contractor was anywhere in the area. In his gut, he knew that Strickland would be drawn to a Pollard Construction site, and he fully agreed with Grace that the biggest draw would be the vacant lot next to the three-story building in this town. It was by far the largest project that Pollard Construction was currently working on, and Strickland already had some experience with this town as it was. The problem was that even the NSA couldn't afford to pay six or eight people a full salary just to sit in a vacant lot and wait for someone to show up. Instead, Burndock was the main agent on the scene throughout the nighttime hours, and all other personnel were on call, ready to come in at a moment's notice. Burndock did have his own limited support staff of two, so the hope was that those three men could hold off Strickland if he showed up, and keep him penned in until everyone else made their move.
Supporting the hypothesis of Strickland's motivations, there had been rumors throughout some other Pollard Construction sites that a trespasser had broken in and ransacked a couple of the trailers, yet no corresponding police reports or apparent proof that this had occurred. If Burndock's radar hadn't already been up, he probably would have never noticed it. All that aside, it had still been two weeks of nothing, and anticipation leading to a realization that perhaps their guess had been wrong. However, these things went that way. Just when you were certain that something wasn't going to happen, it did.
