Etienne stomped into P.I.'s office and almost passed out before he reached his receptionist's desk. The concerned woman looked him up and down multiple times. His tattered outfit barely hung on by a thread, and his body was cut and scraped all over.
"Is…P.I. here? Can you call him for me?" Etienne struggled to speak between exasperated breaths.
She grabbed the corded phone without breaking eye contact with Etienne.
She spoke into the phone loudly, "Sir. One of your clients, Etienne I believe, is here to see you."
She put her ear to the phone and listened for a few seconds, nodding her head.
"P.I said he can see you immediately," She stated.
Etienne nodded his head and shambled to the back.
"Are you going to be alright?" She called out.
Etienne put his thumb up behind him.
He pushed open the door to P.I.'s office and sat down on top of one of the piles of books haphazardly stacked around.
P.I threw his hands in the air, "Hey, those are for one of my other investigations!"
Etienne looked down at the stack, "Oh…sorry," He continued to make himself comfortable.
P.I snarled and clasped his hands together, "So what can I do for you, Ninjaman?"
"It was one of your guys that cracked Lionel's laptop, right? I've got some hard drives I recently acquired. I need to see if he can recover some information from them."
P.I sniffed deeply, "I'll have him get started on that, but you really need a shower and a nap by the looks of it. You can go grab the hard drives and bring them here. Did you need me to call Gabe to pick you up?"
Etienne threw his head back and sighed, "No, I don't want to see Gabe right now. We're…fighting. What's your tech guy's address? I'll deliver it straight to him."
P.I shook his head, "I guess Gabe didn't tell you all the details. My 'tech guy' is my nephew, Peter, who does IT work for us. He's right down the hall, in the office to the left. He'll be happy to help you out."
Etienne nodded and stood up slowly. He shambled out of P.I.'s bright office and made his way down the hall to a lone door on the left.
He knocked on the door hard and pushed it open accidentally.
"Hello? Peter?" Etienne called out as he cautiously stepped inside the dark room.
A man stood up from a row of computers, the only light source in the room, and turned around. The young man was muscular and hairy. He wore thick-rimmed glasses and pushed them up several times as he walked over to Etienne. The young man towered over him.
"Hey, man! You're that rich guy, right? Etienne? Nice to meet you!" The young man's voice was warm and friendly, and he spoke very quickly. The young man put his hand out and smiled.
Etienne shook his hand and noted his strong grip, "And you must be Peter. I've heard a lot about you."
Peter pulled a chair from behind his desk and sat it next to Etienne, "All good things, I hope. You can call me Peter, but most people call me Petey. The hero org calls me Petey the Lycan."
Etienne sat down in the chair, "You're a hero, Petey?"
Peter walked back behind his desk and sat down, pushing his monitors to the side, "Yeah, man! I'm a contract hero just like you. Even if you're not active on missions, you still get good benefits just from being a hero. You get a 20% discount at most restaurants and 15% off electronics. Make sure you use those!"
Etienne crossed his arms and leaned his head back.
Petey divided his attention between his monitors and Etienne, "Soooo…did that laptop I cracked help you out at all?"
Etienne nodded his head lazily, "Yes, it did, Petey. The info you found on there helped me find something a lot more valuable."
Etienne stretched his arm out across an empty area of the room. He closed his eyes and bit down hard, and a bedsheet appeared in a puff of smoke. It fell open, and several large drives sprawled across the floor.
Petey's eyes got wide with wonder, "Nice solid states! Looks like one terabyte a piece. Are you going to fence them or…"
Etienne shook his head and thought to himself, "Fence? What kind of stuff are these people really into?
Etienne said aloud, "Nope, I got another job for you. From what I was able to gather, these drives came from a private email server. I want you to hack into these and find any email you can pertaining to an event on August 22nd, 2017."
Petey laughed, "Nobody says hack anymore, dude. This isn't Code Lyoko. But sure I can, force my way in. Any more info on this August 22nd event?"
Etienne hesitated for a second, "There was a hit. An assassination made to look like a car accident…on my parents. Blessing and Amaya Blessad."
Petey bit his lip and gathered up the hard drives, "Okay. Give me a week, maybe. It shouldn't be too tough. Your payment is already secured, so you can head home if you want."
Etienne sighed and turned toward the door. He stopped before fully exiting and turned back to Petey, "Hey, Petey, I've got another job for you. More permanent, not just a quick assignment. Are you interested?"
Petey stopped grabbing the hard drives and stared back at Etienne, slightly intrigued.