by Aman Gupta
“Sorry, I think I misplaced it,” said Emma, after sitting next to him.
“You didn’t,” said Vik, handing over the paper.
“Where did you find it?” asked Emma.
“In the trash in your bathroom,” said Vik.
“Thank god, you found it,” said Emma.
“Thank god, you went to Orange Town. Else, you would’ve thrown it away days ago,” said Vik.
“Yeah, maybe,” said Emma. “Why are you so sad if you found it, though?”
“I’m happy actually,” said Vik, struck with an arrow of nostalgia dipped in the emulsion of despair and panic.
“Why?” asked Emma.
“It’s her handwriting,” said Vik. “Notice the 6?”
“6? It looks like an 8,” said Emma. “But yeah, now that you mention it, it is a 6.”
“It’s 6,” said Vik. “Katie writes it that way.”
“So, you think she wrote these numbers?” asked Emma.
“I need to find the other slips,” said Vik. He snatched the paper out of Emma’s hands and got up.
He hurtled to the main door.
“Wait, I’ll come with you,” said Emma.
Vik was already in the car when she came out of the building after locking her apartment. As soon as she got in, he raced towards Kate’s house.
“I’ll tell her we’re coming,” said Emma.
“Don’t,” said Vik.
“Okay,” said Emma.
She texted her anyway.
When they arrived at Kate’s house, she was already standing outside her building with the note in her hand. Vik enquired if both of them had met the same woman or not. Based on how both of them described her, they knew they were talking about the same woman. Kate told Vik that the woman introduced herself as Kristin and made up a story about being in an accident.
Vik was busy reading the note. It wasn’t written by Katie, as it wasn’t her handwriting. Some of the letters were extremely different to how Katie used to write them.
“You coming to Joey’s?” asked Vik as he opened the passenger door.
“There’s a problem,” said Emma as she looked at Kate.
“What?” asked Vik.
“He told us he threw away his note,” said Kate.
“Why?” asked Vik.
“He didn’t think it was important. I kept it because I am a hoarder,” said Kate. “We didn’t think it was related to Katie.”
“He must remember something. I gotta see him,” said Vik.
“Maybe that’s not the best way to go about it,” said Emma. “You’re too emotional. I’ll talk to him. He only remembers the woman’s name, ‘Elvira.”
Vik looked at her. He felt she cared more about protecting Joey from Vik than finding Katie.
“You think I’ll beat it out of him?” asked Vik, slamming the door shut and walking towards her.
“No, no, no. You’re taking it the wrong way. Joey’s memory fails him when he’s under pressure, and with you being there, he might feel being put in a tight spot,” said Emma. “You told me yourself. Being emotional is bad in these circumstances.”
“So, what do you suggest?” asked Vik. “You know, the approach that doesn’t break your brittle Joey.”
“What she’s saying is, maybe you should try figuring out the clues in your hand right now, while we give Joey some time to remember his,” said Kate.
“Okay,” said Vik.
Vik and Emma left. She tried talking to him, but he didn’t reply. She tried explaining her stance, but she noticed he didn’t care. In his mind, his action of seeing Joey in the middle of the night to know the contents of the slip, wasn’t entirely unjustified.
As she got out of the car in front of her building, she uttered, “You should be thankful.”
She slammed the door shut before he could reply. He got out of the car.
“What do you mean, thankful?” asked Vik.
“We gave you the only clue you have that might lead you to your daughter, and you act like we still owe you,” said Emma.
“I never said that,” said Vik.
“Your actions suggest otherwise,” said Emma.
“What actions?” asked Vik.
“You showing up at night, for starters,” said Emma. “You couldn’t even wait till morning.”
“I’m honestly not in the mood right now, so I think I’ll go,” said Vik, and sat back in the car.
“You act like we are the ones keeping you from your daughter, but all we are trying to do is help you. We didn’t choose to be involved in this mysterious game that your enemies started. Not to mention, they killed Charlotte to get your attention, in your own words. We have been trying to help whenever and however we can,” said Emma.
Vik got back out again.
“I didn’t ask them to do it,” said Vik.
“Well, they did, and you’re acting out because you’re losing the game,” said Emma.
“It’s not a game. It’s my daughter!” bawled Vik. “As for them, involving you, they’re stupid because they thought I cared about you idiots. Well, if anyone is listening now, stop with your senseless plans and come after me. I’m done with the people of this godforsaken town!”
He got in the car and drove off.
Emma called Kate, who mentioned that she had told Joey about the note. Emma asked if he remembered the contents, to which Kate replied he didn’t. They decided to talk to Eric in the morning.
Traveling for a few miles, he parked his car in an empty lot. After a couple of deep breaths, he took out the two pieces of paper. He wrote ‘Tamina’ and ‘Kristin’ on them. He took out a diary from the glovebox and tore a piece of paper. He wrote ‘Elvira’ on it.
He couldn’t make sense of the numbers or the text and fell asleep in his car. The next day, there was a knock on the window. Vik opened his eyes and realized he had slept in the car. He rolled down the window and saw Eric in his sheriff's uniform.
“What’re you doing here?” asked Vik as he got out of the car.
“I was worried,” said Eric.
“How did you find me?” asked Vik.
“Fred told me where you were,” said Eric.
Vik noticed the sun was nearly on top of him.
“It’s past noon. I asked around. Fred said he spotted you here,” said Eric. “Any idea how he knew about you?”
“Nope,” said Vik.
“Emma and Kate told me about the mysterious woman,” said Eric.
“Are you here to tell me not to pursue it?” asked Vik.
“On the contrary. Here’s what I didn’t tell them – I got a visitor too. I was suspicious the minute I saw her, but she left in a hurry,” said Eric.
Vik’s eyes lit up.
“Did she leave behind a note?” asked Vik.
Eric grinned. “She did.”
Eric showed him the paper. Vik grabbed it instantly.
“What did she say her name was?” asked Vik. “It wouldn’t happen to start with an A or I, would it?”
“As a matter of fact, it does. Ivy,” said Eric.
Vik smiled.
“What?” asked Eric.
“Nothing. Thanks for this,” said Vik.
“Anytime,” said Eric. “You showed up in Orange Town to help us. You didn’t have to, with everything that’s been going on with Emily and Katie, but you did.”
“Emily..” Vik thought.
“What?” asked Eric.
“Nothing. I got to go,” said Vik. “See you soon.”
“Karen wants to see you,” said Eric. “And Joey says sorry.”
“I’ll be there soon, and tell Joey, it’s okay. Let’s see if 4 out of 5 helps me,” said Vik, and drove off.
“4?” uttered Eric.
Eric returned to the precinct, where Emma was anxiously waiting for him. Before she could ask him anything, he told her to get Kate and Joey, and meet him in his office. Bill and Karen looked suspiciously as Emma, Joey, and Kate headed to the office within a spac
e of a few seconds.
“What’s wrong?” asked Emma. “Did you find him?”
“Yes,” said Eric.
“So? What did he say? Is he still mad at me?” asked Emma.
“Everything’s not about you, detective,” said Eric.
Emma felt embarrassed. She looked at Joey, who gestured her to relax.
“There is some good news,” said Eric.
“What?” asked Emma.
“Now, he has 3,” said Eric.
“How?” asked Kate.
“I had a visitor that night, too,” said Eric.
“What? Really?” asked Joey.
“Yeah, I thought she was suspicious but forgot about it when Bill and his team came,” said Eric.
“That’s great,” said Kate.
“There’s another thing. He said he had 4 out of 5. Any idea how he is planning to get the 4th one?” asked Eric.
They all shook their head.
“Me neither,” said Eric.
“Why us?” asked Kate.
“I think I can answer that. Vik believes that whoever’s behind this chose us because they think we are close to him,” said Emma.
“Oh, now I know where he went,” said Eric.
“I think I do too,” said Emma.
“Emily,” said Kate.
“Well, he has all the pieces to solve the puzzle. I was worried for nothing,” said Joey.
“Or you lost the center-piece,” said Eric.
“You couldn’t even let me have a moment, could you?” said Joey.
Eric and Kate smiled.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Bill and Karen came inside the office, and Bill asked Eric if there was a meeting he forgot to attend. Eric dismissed it, saying that it was just some personal discussion between friends. Karen asked for Vik, to which Emma told that he was sick and taking a day off. Karen deviated the conversation and asked for access to the lab. Initially, Eric resisted but was forced to give away the spare key to the lab. Emma noticed that Karen didn’t ask about Troy but kept silent.
Chapter 14: Intent
Vik went to Emily’s after a quick stop at his home but was told that Emily had gone running an errand. He occupied a corner booth, patiently waiting for her to show up. He couldn’t help but see that the waitresses were carrying an additional set of kitchen knives in their apron’s side pocket. They weren’t trying to conceal the knife, as it looked like an inextricable part of their uniform, almost as if it was already there. He laid out the four slips he had with him, including the dummy one he created of Joey’s.
He arranged them to spell Katie’s name, hoping that it was the order that they were expected to be read in, as the woman purposely changed her name to spell out Katie’s. He read out loud the slips.
‘5604’
‘6280’
‘Dr. Feet says hello.’
Vik tried to make sense of the numbers but couldn’t. Emily showed up an hour later and saw Vik sitting in the corner, impatiently looking at the door. After handing over the food material to her staff, she went to Vik.
“Hey,” said Emily.
Vik got up and hugged her.
“How are you?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” said Emily.
They sat down in the booth.
“What are those?” asked Emily.
“Clues to a mystery,” said Vik.
“Where will it take you?” asked Emily.
“Hopefully, to my daughter,” said Vik.
“Oh my god. Really? She’s alive?” asked Emily, a little shocked.
“Yes, she is,” smiled Vik.
“I’m so happy for you,” smiled Emily. “Anything I can do to help?”
“You can. Did you happen to have a visitor a few days ago? A woman?” asked Vik.
“Why do you ask?” asked Emily.
“A woman visited some friends of mine and left these notes behind,” said Vik.
“I did, actually. Her name was Ashley. She left behind her clothes. I did find a note in it,” said Emily.
“Do you still have it?” asked Vik.
“No, I threw it away, but I remember what it said,” said Emily.
Vik grabbed a napkin. Emily wrote on it.
“That’s it?” asked Vik. “No numbers, symbols, or anything?”
“Nope. Just this,” said Emily.
Vik put the napkin in its proper position.
“So, here’s the riddle,” said Vik.
‘5604’
‘Place me. Look East’
‘6280’
‘Dr. Feet says hello.’
“Now, I’m more confused,” said Vik.
“Do you have all of them?” asked Emily.
“No, still missing the last one that spells out Katie’s name,” said Vik. “If you see anything, fire away.”
“East could be TS – 17, where she claimed she was from,” said Emily.
“But TS – 17 is south-west of here,” said Vik.
“Yeah, but TS – 17 is divided into two regions. East and West,” said Emily.
“Okay, so place me means the place where the person claimed to be from, which is TS – 17. East means the eastern part of TS – 17,” said Vik.
“Who’s Dr. Feet?” asked Emily.
“That’s a distress code word that Katie used to use whenever she thought she was in trouble or about to get caught,” said Vik. “But that’s not her handwriting.”
“What could that mean?” asked Emily.
“She doesn’t trust the people around her, including the person who has written it,” said Vik. “She’s telling me that I might be walking into a trap.”
“That proves it. She is definitely your daughter,” smiled Emily. Vik smiled back.
“5604 and 6280 could be a phone number or a mile marker,” said Emily.
She took out her phone and dialed ‘56046280’.
“No such number,” said Emily. “They could be mile markers.”
“Why two markers?” asked Vik. “Seems unnecessary.”
“You’re right. Could it be coordinates? No, too short,” said Emily.
Vik wanted to be sure that they weren’t.
“You wouldn’t happen to have the GPS Map tracker that I got you from that black-market dealer, would you?” asked Vik.
“I do. Just a minute,” said Emily.
Emily went upstairs to her apartment and returned a few minutes later with the tracker. It looked like a second generation tablet. Vik played with the touch screen for a while.
“How would you use it? The satellites haven’t been working for us for a while,” said Emily.
“I don’t need directions. Just need to know the area,” said Vik. “I’ll use the offline mode. The guy told me that these devices had everything stored in the memory. Old routes and such.”
Emily zoomed out and traced the approximate region of TS – 17 with her fingers. Vik tapped on the device to isolate the region. He tapped on the bottom corner to display the longitude and latitude corner points of the entire region.
“5605 and 6280,” said Emily. “56.05 and 62.80 falls outside the territory of TS – 17 East.”
“The latitude varies from 43.8 to 45.3, and the longitude goes from -74.3 to – 75.1,” said Vik.
“Maybe it’s not TS – 17 East,” said Emily.
“TS – 17 is actually the perfect area if you want to hold someone in the middle of nowhere,” said Vik.
“I heard most of the forest cover was destroyed a decade ago. I haven’t been there myself,” said Emily.
“Me neither,” said Vik.
Vik didn’t want to tell about his involvement in the intelligence operations into all TS territories through Josh, on President Clifford’s insistence. Vik didn’t know about Josh’s direct involvement at the time, though he knew Verati had hundreds of satellites and drones that were being used to keep these areas in check. Josh had assumed control of these satellites and drones during Phase 3.
Vik knew Emily
wasn’t entirely wrong about the forest cover. However, most of it was just stories concocted by Verati to keep the prying eyes away from TS – 17, and manipulate the President’s remaining cabinet in believing that the revolutionaries residing in these areas were far greater in number than originally thought.
“The only way these numbers come close to being in this area is if they represent the decimals,” said Vik.
“That’s it,” said Emily. Vik stared at the screen for a minute
“Yeah, you’re right. So, it’s 44.5605 and 74.6280,” said Vik.
They smiled, looking at each other. Vik entered the coordinates in the device.
“Could that be it?” said Vik. “Is she really there?”
“It could be a trap, too. Hence, the Dr. Feet note,” said Emily.
“I’ll have to risk it,” said Vik.
“What’s the plan?” asked Emily.
“I’ll leave tonight. I don’t want to go through 19 and 18. Do you know an alternate route?” asked Vik.
“Actually, yes,” said Emily. “I took a wrong turn once.”
Vik smiled.
She took the device from Vik and began marking a route on it. She didn’t know the exact roads, only remembered a few checkpoints in the form of structures on the ground that led to TS – 17. She insisted on going with Vik, but he didn’t want her involved. He told her that she needed to take care of the people who needed her to be around.
“I don’t feel good letting you go alone,” said Emily. “I want to help.”
“You’ve already done so much. I promise I’ll be alright,” said Vik.
“You need anything, you let me know, okay? If you are not back in 4 days, I’m coming to find you,” said Emily.
“Okay,” said Vik.
“You got the supplies? I have a stash if you want anything,” said Emily.
“No, I got it,” said Vik.
“Last pizza?” asked Emily.
“Okay,” said Vik.
Emily asked Sandy to get them Vik’s favorite pizza and fries. Vik and Emily ate and talked. After an hour, Vik hugged Emily and left. Emily wiped away a tear when he left.
***********************************
Emma, Joey, and Kate were having a late lunch when Vik showed up. He sneaked past them. His mind was elsewhere. It was creating and recreating the events that could transpire while attempting to rescue Katie. He didn’t know much about the situations he would face in TS – 17, so he felt he should arm himself for the worst. As he was going towards his lab, he ran into Bill.
