Anonymous (Anonymous Trilogy Book 1)

by Sweth Water

  Some information on the hard disks collected from them was sent to them. Coal’s wife’s name was there, if it was the same person that they were thinking, and a number. Some ID that they would have in Anonymous. It couldn’t be that she was working alone. Even if she was adroit enough to get something from the Department, she wouldn’t have forgotten the bag behind. Or someone else put the bag there? No, she would not go for that possibility. Planning everything behind Coal’s back and not letting him know was hard to digest.

  She went through all the names on the screen. Some link she could find. Not many times she failed in her life to achieve the goals. She wouldn’t waste her time to check the names against the people with criminal records. No. She was better than that. They had all the names of the people living in the country. It would take less than thirty minutes by applying the proper filters.

  For one name she could get tens of names from the database. It would be a hectic task. She hoped many of them were deceased to help her narrow down to few names. She sighed and started the work.

  More than forty-five minutes she waited before she got the result. The hard disk had one hundred names, and the list that she got from the database showed three thousand names. It was not what she was expecting. Even the proper filters didn’t work. Wastage of time.

  She sighed.

  She had her lunch with Taking.

  “I was working on the names we have on the hard disk. Nothing fruitful I got.” Chase said.

  Taking let his pasta cool down. “Linking Coal’s wife with someone else?”

  “Yes, there was no chance of her to be working alone. There must be someone who was helping her. Coal is not a naive who wouldn’t know what his wife was doing. To covertly do it, she must have a man from outside.”

  “You know Coal?”

  “I met him. He was here. I could tell by looking at his face what type of person he is. No-one can do something like that behind his back.”

  “But she did.”

  “Because she had a man out there.”

  “A man?” He started eating his pasta. “How do you know it was a man?”

  “Just a premature assumption. The list we have doesn’t have the names of the females but Coal’s wife. If there is no other list, it should be a man.”

  “Any suspicion?”

  “No. I checked the names. So many people are living in the country. Thousands of names we have.”

  “You should have few names. What filters you had?”

  “The age was the first thing. He must be between twenty-five and forty, not more than that. All the brilliant people working on programs have that age. He should be in the country right now. So, I filtered out those people who are outside the country. Should not be in a relation with the family, again this was just an assumption. Anything I am missing?” She blinked and ate the noodles with the chopsticks.

  “Yes. Actually, you are missing. Rather than checking all the people in the country, you should check those living in Earling. For a start, it will be best. Coal would have a suspicion if his wife would leave the city for days every month. It was not the case.”

  “Great! That will narrow down to only countable number of people.”

  “Yes.”

  Chase squeezed sausage over the noodles. “What about Gin?”

  “Tom and I are working on that. I want you to track the person working with Coal’s wife. You can go to his home too. President Earl said we need the documents which were scanned or photocopied or whatever she did, we get to them first. Finding Agent Gin is the second priority. I am not using all the resources for that. Only Tom and me.”

  “Just tell me in case of any help.”

  “Sure, I will.” He drank some Coke. “And one more thing I want your attention at. Our satellite stopped working as you know. Anonymous is behind that. At what time we lost the contact to our servers? Who was the first person to notice that it was not working? Get me the name.”

  “It might be Coal, I guess. He came to my cabin and asked me about the satellite. But I will check if someone else found it earlier or not.” Chase said. “Who else knows about this undercover operation? And are they – Anonymous – going to believe that?”

  “Only a few people know it. The plan was not very good, telling you the truth. What President Earl told me is that those three people would be sent for a trial. Judges would be asked to do their part. It is a big operation. While in the trial, Anons can approach them. Risky task. I am not counting on them to go there.”

  “So it is for nothing?”

  “I think in that way.”

  “Did you tell Madam President?”

  “No.”

  “Why?”

  “She won’t listen to it. If she’s made her mind, nobody can change that.”

  Chase breathed slowly. “Okay. Then we have to do our part. One more thing. Do you think these Anons and kidnapping of Agent Gin are linked?”

  Taking shook his head. “There is not even a single chance of that. That arrested man, Alex, he talked about Anons in an indirect way, Tom told me over the phone. I think that man who gave them the money is behind the abduction.”

  “Her disappearance is not making any sense to me, Agent Taking. Why would they get hold of her?”

  “She knew something that I didn’t.”

  “What?”

  “She called me on that day,” he was in deep thoughts, “she ordered not to tell someone. She must have gotten something on that road, or before that.”

  Chase struggled with her thoughts. There was some linkage that she heard or saw. Its importance she understood now. Just to be sure if she was right she must ask Taking about it. From the beginning, she had this intuition of knowing his role.

  “Officer Chase?” Taking asked.

  “It is Agent Base. He might have the whereabouts of Agent Gin.”

  “What?”

  “He was the one who came inside the local PD when I arrested Gin. I haven’t seen him since.”

  “I never heard of him. Which agency?”

  “No idea. He drugged everyone there. I thought he was with Top One.”

  “Base?” Taking clasped his hands after wiping his mouth. “It may be an alias name. Can you describe him for me?”

  “He had ... some kind of paint on his face. Six feet. Brown eyes. Black hair. Strong muscles.”

  “I will call an artist to make a face for us.”

  “His face was painted.”

  “The structure can help us. Thank you, Chase. He might tell us what Gin knew.”

  She was back in her cabin, doing the last filtering to get the name. She crossed her fingers and hit enter after the filtration on the city. Three dots were moving from left to right on the screen. Her eyes glued on the screen.

  She started drumming on the table. It was going to be a major breakthrough if few names appeared on the screen. She was nervous too and she didn’t know the reason. Maybe it was something that had been going on in her head since she arrived here. With Gin gone, there was no-one to tell how to do the things. Agent Taking was more of telling about to do the searches and all but never the way of doing it. Agent Gin was sterner than Taking.

  The search completed and only one name appeared on the screen. She took a notepad from the drawer and wrote the address. She narrowed her eyes and read the name on the screen.

  Chapter

  18

  There was a knock on the door.

  March covered her bruised arms with the sleeves and got up. On the third knock, she opened the door.

  “You all right, March?”

  It was Coal. He was in his pyjamas and a T-shirt.

  “Yes.”

  “May I come inside?” Coal asked her.

  “I ... I ... was sleeping.”

  Coal sighed. “Wind is gone, March. I saw him go. Don’t lie now, please.”

  She controlled the tears in her eyes. She waited and swallowed. If Coal talked with her, she wouldn’t be able to hide it from him.
He had been a very good friend to her, and good friends know each other very well. And he said Wind was gone, no need to lie. It meant something. Something that she was afraid to talk about.

  She let him come inside and closed the door.

  The couch had all the mess that Wind put last night. He was so upset with her that he took out his clothes and was ready to leave the house in the middle of the night. Sun had started crying by their shouting. Somehow he stayed for the night and left for work in the morning.

  “So much stuff. Let me clean it.”

  Coal stood near the kitchen. “It is okay, March. We can sit in the kitchen and talk. Don’t worry.”

  She sighed and sat on the chair opposite to where Coal was sitting.

  “First of all I am extremely sorry for what I did. And you can hate me for that forever.” He sighed.

  She said nothing.

  He let few moments pass.

  “I know something is going on, March. You called me twice. You should have told me when it happened first. Don’t hesitate to tell me. I am here to help.” His face showed sympathy and emotions. Emotions of being a friend.

  March found herself looking deep in his eyes. They were good friends. He was a good friend that she had after Rose. People wouldn’t be ready to share the problems that they have in their lives. This is how the life is. People spread happiness but suffer alone in silence, and it was the bitter truth of her life too.

  She did that so many times in her life. In school time and then college, where people were not as friendly as they called themselves. In Earling, her neighbours were good. Especially Rose and Coal. The mere thought of Rose let the tears trickle down to her cheeks.

  She wiped the tears. “Nothing serious, Coal. Problems are always there in life, but you have to tackle them. Couples usually have the issues and they sort them out with time. You might have had with Rose too.” It was the half-truth.

  Coal nodded. “I agree. Can I ask you something, March? And can you be honest while answering the question?”

  I can’t. Please. “Please, Coal. Don’t.”

  “Did he raise a hand to you?”

  March was not expecting that. Even the little Sun didn’t happen to see that. Was it just Coal’s guess? It was what she was afraid of, telling the truth to him. She shouldn’t have called him that night using her other number. But there was no-one else she could have called for help. Coal was a police officer; she might hide it from a friend, but not from an officer.

  “No. Why are you saying that?” she said calmly.

  “Because I can see the bruises on your arm.”

  She covered them, and put her hands under the table. Tears fell from her eyes. She didn’t wipe them this time. Moments passed and nobody spoke. Was it really a question that needed to be answered?

  “March, I am still at the Headquarters. I can help you. You just need to speak.”

  March didn’t have the guts to say the words. Whatever respect he’d for Wind would be gone the moment he heard what Wind told her. Not only once but for days they had been fighting over the same issue, and he’d been using the same words to curse her. Maybe she was a woman that’s why.

  Her parents loved her so much that they didn’t disagree when she told them that she wanted to marry Wind. What he said to her didn’t change him. He was still a good person and a kind husband. The circumstances were not on their side. It was the only reason. She wouldn’t betray Wind for anything. No. She had to admit though that she gave a reason to him to believe that.

  “March.”

  “I am sorry. What were you saying?”

  “Are you all right? I am here to help a friend. If you think I should leave then I will leave.”

  Was she going to lose a friend? That was not how it should go. Only one friend was left in the city, and she didn’t want him to turn his back to her. “It’s you, Coal. I visited you several times and he saw me in your house. He thinks ...”

  Coal was perplexed. His face showed the disgust for the wrong accusations, not about him but her. “Is he mad? You were being a good friend, March, nothing more. Just visits are enough to break the trust? Stupid person. I will talk to him. There is nothing like that between us, and never will be. We are and will be just good friends.”

  She wiped the tears. “No. Please don’t talk to him. If he finds out I talked to you about it, he will be very upset.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “But I will arrest him if he does it again.”

  She controlled herself not to break into sobbing and walked near the basin. “I will make some tea.”

  Coal sat there at the table. March did the dishes and opened the window to get some fresh air. She never thought it would come to that in her life. She was a good wife. For Wind, she left the job just because he thought she should spend her time with Sun. Was it really her responsibility alone? He did not do anything to make the baby?

  But she gulped that down and agreed on that. She loved him so much. If doing that made her a stupid woman then she was okay with that. Maybe people in love are stupid. Or love is blind. Or, as some people believe, love makes us blind. Whatever the reason was, she didn’t want to leave him just because he had her quit the job, or thought of her as an immoral wife; they could talk about it and sort it out.

  Since Sun was born, she would spend her whole time with her. Her mother had said Sun was like her. Sun should be more than what March was. She hadn’t told her parents about the fights that Wind and she were having these days. They would worry about her. It’s better to tell them she was happy with her family.

  She poured the tea into two mugs and handed one to him.

  “There. Strong as you like.” She feigned a smile. “Let’s talk about you now. How is the case going on?”

  “They removed me from the case. I am in the house these days.”

  “I didn’t know that. How are you doing with Rose’s name showed in the news?”

  “Not good. They are using my dead wife’s name just to ...” he didn’t complete the line.

  March sipped her tea. “Coal?”

  “Yes.” He smiled and had a strong emotion as if he was going to cry. “They are right, March.”

  “What are you talking about?” March gave herself a shrug and asked again. “What you saying, Coal?”

  “She was an Anon. They have proof of that. Fog called me in the morning. Rose was in the Department few days before the accident. She stole or scanned something from there.” Coal’s voice was calm. There was some pain though.

  “I am sorry, Coal.” March saw his face. He was not looking at her, his eyes staring at the tea. “Did ... did you—”

  “Know that? No. I still believe she was innocent. President Earl has told RAAD and Top One to do the investigation on the basis of that. They would be coming to my house soon. Asking me questions that I don’t have answers for.”

  “Is it official from the Office?”

  “Not in the public. In the agencies, police officers and agents know it.”

  “Sorry, Coal.” she said again.

  There was a knock on the door. For a second, March had a frightening feeling. Was it Wind? He left on the exact time and wouldn’t be back by night. What if he forgot something here? That was unlikely be the case. He had everything in his hands while going to the office. His presence at this time when Coal was in the house would not be good for her. He would think bad things again.

  She stood up and passed the hall to go to the door. Coal was behind her, in the kitchen.

  There was a woman with a badge in her hand that March never saw in her life. Three men and two women were behind her. Two cars were behind them.

  “Can I help you?” March asked.

  Coal showed up near the door.

  “Coal. I thought Wind lived here.”

  “Chase.” He shook hands with her. “Yes, he lives here. He is a friend of mine. What is the issue?”

  “We have a warrant to search the
house.”

  “Sure, I know.”

  That was what March heard from Coal.

  Coal continued. “There is my house. Come. You can collect what you need.”

  “Actually not yours. Wind’s.”

  Chapter

  19

  “What is going on, Chase?” Coal said.

  “Come with me.” she told him. “Search the house,” she ordered the police officers and agents. “Madam, you want to step out for few minutes, if you don’t mind.”

  “It’s okay, March. Take Sun, and stay outside. You can go to my house.” He turned his focus to Chase as she took some steps away from the house.

  Her blonde hair was falling over her face. She pushed it behind her back with her hands. “Wind was the help that your wife had.”

  “What?”

  “His name was on the file where we found Rose’s name. He was the only Wind in the city.”

  “There can be so many Winds in the country. Why only this city?” His voice had fury.

  “We are not arresting him, Coal. Just going to ask some questions.”

  “You are not sure then?”

  “No.”

  “Are you out of your mind?”

  “Fog gave the orders. You check with him.”

  “Sure, I will.”

  She turned away and entered the house.

  He slid his cell phone from the pocket and dialled Fog’s number. A long ring, nothing else. He dialled again. Nothing. He was frustrated. Jo was also there in the office. So he dialled his number.

  “Jo, Coal here. You at the Headquarters?”

  “Yes.”

  “I am trying to reach Fog on his cell. He is not reachable. Any idea?”

  “Yes. He is on a call with the President.”

  “Ok. You know about the warrant to search Wind’s house?”

  “Fog nodded to that.”

  “That is crazy, Jo. What proof you have?”

  “No proof. Fog doesn’t want any loose ends. Agent Gin’s whereabouts are still unknown. And the bait that we have for Anons doesn’t seem working. He wants to capture anyone who is a suspect.”