Will adjusted the box in his arms to look at a clipboard with forged documents he had made. "It says here that the priority package is for a Charlie Patton."

"Yes, that would be me." The woman in a business casual outfit replied. "Strange...whose the sender?"

"Do you mind if I..." Will gestured with the box. "It says on the box."

"Sure." She stepped aside and Will placed the box down inside.

"Is anyone else home?" Will slipped on a pair of gloves as she leaned over to scan the forged label.

"My husband is still at work."

Will immediately shut the door, pulled out his pistol, and spoke softly. "No sudden moves."

Charlie turned around, her eyes widened and her breathing froze as she saw the barrel of a gun pointed at her.

"Now slowly, put your hands up."

"If it's money you want, it's in the safe in my office..." She said with a shaky voice, raising her hands up. "You can take it all and leave. I just don't want any trouble. Please."

"Show me your office."

She turned around slowly and led Will down the expansive hall to a large modern home office. "The safe is just over there." The frightened woman pointed at the corner where a safe with an electronic lock sat under the table.

"Sit down." Will gestured at the office chair behind the desk. After she complied, he tossed her a zip tie. "Both hands, to the desk."

It took her a while with her hands constantly shaking but she eventually tied her hands to the table leg. Will checked afterwards to make sure it was snug.

"The password to the safe is 8 9 2 4."

"By the way, what's your blood type?"

"What? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just answer the question." Will raised the pistol.

"B positive!" She cried out. "Why are you doing this?"

Will ignored her and grabbed the phone on her desk, turning it over to face him. "Now I want you to call your bodyguard over here.

"Bodyguard? I don't have a bodyguard."

"Adrian Barnes."

"I don't know who that is!" The woman was beginning to break down. "Look, there's twenty thousand in the safe. Please, just take it and leave."

"Adrian Barnes!" Will raised his voice to grab her attention. "I know for a fact that he currently works for your ZS Financial Group."

"I've never heard of that name before!" Charlie sobbed. "Please, please, the safe...please..."

Will moved the pistol till it touched her forehead. He gazed down at her into her eyes and spoke calmly. "This will be over as soon as you cooperate with me. Do you understand?"

She nodded as tears continued to fall from her face.

"Now I need you to gather yourself together. And then I need you to call the office and ask for Adrian Barnes. Once you do that, all you need to do is tell him to come over here. That's all. Understood?"

She nodded again. Will grabbed some tissues from the side and gave it to her.

"Clean yourself up first."

She looked down at her hands that were ziptied to the table.

Will sighed and grabbed a handful of tissues, wiping all the tears and snot from her face. He then pressed the speakerphone button and then dialed in a number.

A professional but flat sounding woman's voice came from the phone.

Charlie looked at Will for permission and he nodded.

"This..." Her voice cracked. "This is Charlie Patton. I seem to have misplaced my phone, can you patch me through to my assistant?"

The voice perked up.

Another voice suddenly came on.

"Charlene? I need your help with something."

"Can you check if we have any employees who go by the name Adrian Barnes."

Typing could be heard on the other side of the call.

Charlie turned to Will for permission again, she continued once she received his nod. "Yes, Charlene. Can you tell him to come over to my residence ASAP? I'm having security installed here presently but we've run into a bit of a hiccup and could use a second opinion."

Will was impressed by her ability to quickly come up with a cover story. This showed him a glimpse of the woman she would soon become.

"That will be all. Thank you, Charlene."

Click.

Will turned off the phone. Charlie sent him a questioning look but ignored her, turning around and left the room. He returned shortly after with the box had he brought and unpacked it. Inside was a battery powered cooler.

He opened the cooler and brought out a testing kit, laying it on the table. Taking a small disinfectant wipe, he cleaned one of Charlie's fingers.

"W-what are you doing?"

He took a lancet and pricked her finger with it before collecting a few drops of her blood with a micropipette. After applying the blood to a card he prepared, the results soon showed up.

"B positive. You were telling the truth for once."

"If it's not money you're after, then can you tell me? I may be able to assist you." Charlie spoke up. Not receiving an answer, she continued. "Is this about the Sullivan account? Because I can tell you that I'm not the one in charge of it anymore..."

"That reminds me." Will muttered to himself as he crouched before the safe, ignoring her as she continued trying to speak her way out of it. "8 9 2 4."

Click. Will opened the safe to see manila folder and binders stacked up inside. On the topmost shelf were expensive looking jewelry and a couple stacks of hundred dollar bills. He browsed through the documents but found nothing of interest. In the end, he transferred about $20,000 in cash into the cooler.

As for the jewelry, he didn't even bother. Demand for jewelry and precious metals was about to take a huge nosedive and never recover anywhere close to the same levels again. He also didn't want to go through the hassle of trying to get rid of them, and he didn't know if someone would be able to track him down through the jewelry or not.

July 11, 2027 - 4:16 PM

Ding dong.

Adrian Barnes was a little nervous when he arrived at the house of one of the big wigs of the company he worked for. He found it a bit odd when he received the call from the VP's assistant, but if he could lend his assistance to one of the higher ups, perhaps he could get that raise he had been working towards.

"Come in, Mrs. Patton is waiting in her office."

He found it a bit odd once again when the door was answered by a WUSP delivery man, but he soon found out that something was very wrong when he entered the office and found the VP tied up and he was held up at gunpoint by that same delivery man.

"Vice President Patton? What's going here?"

"Just do as he says."

"What blood type do you have, Adrian?" The delivery man asked.

"I-I don't know, my wife keeps track of that stuff."

Adrian soon found himself sat in the corner of the room and tied up to the table there while the delivery man ran a blood test on him. Although, he was wearing a face mask, the delivery man's eyes seemed to smile when he saw the results of the test.

Adrian had a very bad feeling at that.

He decided to try to appeal his case. "Hey, man, I'm just a security worker. I barely have any savings in my account. I don't think I have much to offer you." The delivery man glanced his way, so Adrian thought it was working. "I have a family. I have a kid on the way. I have a wife waiting for me at home."

That seemed to be the wrong thing to say because the delivery man's eyes suddenly turned cold and Adrian felt his blood freeze along with it. The delivery man checked his watch.

"Have either of you two ever have those hypothetical chats with your friends?" The delivery man suddenly asked. "You know what I'm talking about...something like...what would you do if you had the chance to kill Hitler before he rose to power?"

"What?" Adrian couldn't understand where this was going.

"There's the argument of, would killing him prevent the horrors and wars that followed afterwards? Or if someone more capable ends up replacing him? Then there's the argument of completely changing history. We've had a lot of advancements because of the way things ended up. There's also the moral dilemma of killing an 'innocent man', someone who hasn't committed a crime yet."

The delivery man paused and regarded his two captives.

"So? What would the two of you do?" He pressed.

"I don't know, I'm just a regular guy. I'm just trying to get through life, the same shitty life everyone else is." Adrian said.

His boss seemed to have an answer. "The way I see it, we are trading a life of one man—someone that we know will become a mass murderer, for over 40 million lives."

"Then your answer?"

"Yes, I would kill someone as horrible as Hitler." Charlie Patton said.

The delivery man looked over at Adrian.

"I guess? He's supposed to be the worst guy ever, right?"

"I've seen a group of people sacrifice an entire city—over 200 million lives to get what they want." He said before he nodded to himself. "But I'm glad the two of you agree."

The delivery man raised his pistol without warning and aimed it at Charlie Patton before she could even react.

Bang!

A bullet hole suddenly appeared on her forehead as she went limp in her office hair, eyes still opened.

Adrian flinched when that happened and the only words he could get out were, "WHAT THE F-!", before the gun swung his way.

Bang!