The firefight that ensued had been anticipated, but certainly not welcomed.  Nor had the gun battle lasted very long…a mere minute perhaps had passed since the first shot was fired.  He had come out of it completely unscathed, acquired the encrypted tablet, and had managed to wipe out the four thugs as a bonus.  All of which should have made Alexander Parker quite happy…it should have been a relief, but…it wasn’t.<br/><br/>Something about the operation had been tickling the back of his mind from almost the moment the Director had given him the assignment.  It had nothing to do with him working alone…he often did.  It had nothing to do with the Director personally briefing him on the assignment…the Director had done that a couple of times in the past.  Nor did it have anything to do with the briefing itself…it had been straight forward enough, and yet…something about it all had been sending off little alarms in his head.  Had it been the ease in which he had been able to enter the Maximillian Office?<br/><br/>‘Perhaps…yes, perhaps that had been part of it, but not all of it,’ he thought quietly to himself as he his sleek fingers through his mane of coal dark hair.<br/><br/>“What is wrong here?” he thought aloud as his turned the vehicle smoothly down the almost empty streets of Dallas.  “Why does this all feel so….so wrong?”<br/><br/>It was then that Alexander’s mind seemed to have a spark of insight, because dark blue eyes widened in shock.  Swiftly, the agent’s mind turned over the idea, and the more he did so…the more he didn’t like what he was looking at.  It had been a very simple extraction assignment…too simple for an agent with twelve-years experience.  It had almost gone down like a textbook scenario…which almost never happened.  He realized he was less than a mile from the Harvey Hotel he was staying at, but he suddenly found himself having no desire to show up there.  Something wasn’t just wrong…something was deadly wrong, and Alexander had long learned to trust his instincts.<br/><br/>Without even really thinking about it; Alexander spun the car around a median, and proceeded a bit faster away from his original destination.  The Harvey Hotel, he was sure, was not safe for him now.  While driving, he snagged the tablet, and looked it over with a critical eye.  He could see nothing immediately wrong with it as his sleek fingers brushed against the screen and the backing.  It was an exceptional model…one of Apple’s finest to be sure, but nothing that told him more.  Tossing it aside; Alexander frowned as he made his way on to the freeway heading out of Dallas.  If he was right…then Dallas was also not safe for him…not even a little.  It felt like a setup…why, no longer mattered just yet, but that was what it felt like, and he dared not disobey his instincts.  Swiftly, he stopped underneath an overpass, and got out standing to his full height of 6’ 2.6” even as he swept his phone from his coat pocket.  A moment later, it was shattered under the heel of his shoe with an expert attack.  Even the chip inside that was used to track agents on assignments was destroyed.  It was not a perfect solution by far, but it was a beginning.  He wasted no time in returning to his vehicle and speeding away for DFW Airport.  His flight wasn’t due until the following morning…another little tidbit that did not set well with him now that he thought about it.  A flight that was more than 24 hours from the time of the assignment was wrong…very wrong.<br/><br/>From his inner coat pocket, Alex pulled out a small case containing something he had never thought to use.  Inside was a passport not registered with the CIA through one of his unofficial contacts in the underworld.  If he had any chance of leaving Texas alive…it would be as another person.  His next assignment was in Scotland, but taking a flight there was risky at best.  He decided instead to take one to London…same area, but different flight completely.  He checked his watch…by now he was overdue to report in, and certainly about ten minutes overdue from arriving at the Harvey Hotel.  He needed to act quickly…time was not on his side.