by Sweth Water
They were at the Headquarters, signing the papers. Coal didn’t believe what Chase told him in the car. It can’t be fucking true. His wife died in a car accident. It was the truth.
“You will have the picture. I am sure you will be as surprised as I was. I have not met her. Her picture I saw in the database.”
They were in Taking’s cabin. Fog was called and Chase advised him to be there for briefing. Taking was shouting over the phone. Fog was standing near the table, scratching his chin. Coal could have said that he was confused.
“Did you talk with Summer?” Taking asked someone. “Tina, be as precise with me as you can.”
“No, sir.”
“You were working on the missing frames, right?”
“No, sir.”
“Didn’t Summer tell you to work on that?”
“I don’t remember her saying that to me. What is the issue, sir?”
“Nothing.” He breathed. “Do you remember when Summer joined in there?”
“I can check that and tell you. Wait.”
Taking waited.
“It was 17th Oct, sir.”
“Damn it. When you talked to her last time?”
“Three days back.”
“Thank you, Tina. I want you to keep this to yourself. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
He pressed the button and cursed.
“Two days before the system was bugged she was there. I knew from the beginning. It was her the whole time. Even she said herself that nobody in the office would be able to do that. Damn it!”
“What is the plan?” Fog asked.
Taking saw a man standing there. Coal; he had seen his picture. His face had drained the blood. He was not the culprit as far as he could tell. The feelings were more of betrayal than ecstasy. “Come here. Need to have your opinion if we are doing it correctly. Nobody but you can tell that.”
He popped up a picture of Summer on his desktop. Rose. “You know her?”
Coal looked at the picture for a brief moment. For tens of heartbeats he said nothing, just stared at the picture. His eyes were going to fill with tears, but he controlled. There was no doubt it was Rose. Her hair was black, and she cut her hair. He nodded. “She is my wife. Rose.”
“You knew about it?”
“Agent Taking!” Fog snapped.
“I am not talking to you.” Taking’s furious voice was frightening. “This is a dire situation. I have to have everything and anything related to it.” He turned his head towards Coal. “This is the time to speak, Coal. If you have something that Rose stole then you can give it to us, and we all can go home after apprehending her.”
“No, Taking. Chase told me a few minutes back about Rose. I don’t know anything that Rose might have stolen from the Department. I just heard from Jo first and then the news. Before that, I had no idea about it.”
“You are a fool then.”
“Enough.” Fog said. “I won’t let you degrade any officers here.”
“You didn’t know your wife at all, Officer Coal.” His voice was calm. “She fooled everybody in this room. She sent an email to the Lufghan State Police saying she was the new Commissioner of Police. She was using our servers. Nobody checked if it was genuine or not because this was the process. And Earling is not under the jurisdiction of the Lufghan State Police.
“That day she didn’t come here, she knew the officers here would be able to recognize her. So she said the frames were missing; I believe she told the officer on the phone a day or two back, and then asked him to have my attention. I was a fool to send her out. She took over the satellites so that it will be hard for us to find her if we know about her identity. Adroit woman.”
“We should tell the President that we have her.” Fog said.
“Wrong step. Keep this to ourselves. Madam President will be informed once we have her. If this information goes out of the Headquarters, it will be aired and then she would know. Don’t underestimate her.”
“Where you saw her last time, Taking?” Chase asked.
“Venhoa.”
“She must be there.”
“Not even one chance. She is moving. If she moves faster than us, we will never find her.”
“Telling the President is the only way, Agent Taking.” Fog said. “She could tell the army to take her into custody. Her back is against the wall now. Can’t go out of the city.”
“We are not informing Madam President. I am making the calls. Is that clear?” He shook his head violently. “And she will not be in Venhoa.”
“Army personnel are not letting anyone go out of the city. Martial law was declared there.” Coal said.
Taking laughed. “Poor people. Us. I forgot to tell you that an army officer gave her a badge to pass any roadblocks in the way.”
“I want you and Jo on this case. First priority is to find Rose. Alive,” Fog was saying. “Nobody should be getting any information about this. In this department, Coal, Baldwin, Jo and me. That’s it.”
Baldwin nodded. He came back in Earling few hours before the martial law was declared. “What about Agent Gin? She is still missing.”
“Headquarters is not working on that. Taking knows it.”
“Is it possible,” Jo said, “that Rose had a part in that too?” He looked at Coal.
Coal said nothing.
“You can consider that.”
“What?” Coal shouted, a touch of rage in his voice. His eyes were red. He controlled, stopping the desire to hit him in his face.
Standing there and listening about Rose was so painful for him. Even if she was a criminal, he couldn’t just pretend that she was nothing to him. She was his wife and a very close friend. His duties to the nation were coming in his way to believe everything that he’d heard.
“Coal. If you can go out please.” Fog said.
He shook his head. “I want to listen.”
“You are not officially working. I told you that myself. Things will be said that you might not like. Please.”
Fog was right.
Coal stood outside the door and cried. Why she did that? Her dying didn’t give him that much pain than her being alive did. Betrayal? His wife wouldn’t do something like that. He trusted her so much. But he had seen her picture. The woman who called herself Summer. Twin sister? He considered it for few moments and then wiped his tears.
He waited outside. Officers were murmuring on the ground floor. It was about him, of course. Talking about a man who was so bovine that he didn’t know his wife. Rose’s involvement was all over the news in the last few days. Just once he wanted to ask Rose about it. What reason would she have to fake her own death? How was Holl going to react to that? He would definitely be happy to hear about his sister being alive. It was painful for him though.
And March?
She considered Rose as a sister. More than a sister.
All his neighbours would show pity. Hard moments were going to come.
Jo and Baldwin left after ten minutes and Coal entered the cabin.
“I am sorry, Coal. I just didn’t let you stand there and hear about your wife’s involvement in this. You know how things get messy when we have a case.”
Coal feigned a smile. “I think I know where Agent Gin is.”
“What?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me.”
“You remember the person that I told you about? The one who was at March’s house.”
“Coal, please. Not again. I don’t have time for this.”
“I saw his photo. He is the one I am sure of it.”
“Go to your home. Take some rest.”
“Fog—”
“Coal,” he looked at him. “My hands are tied. I have very less time and I don’t have the resources. If you want to go and chase ghosts, I am fine with that. But I will not let you have the resources and time that I have.”
Coal left after that.
Fog would never agree to listen to what he had to say. The attac
k on him, and then Wind’s brother, and his wife ... these things were connected. He was not getting the clear picture. If he was able to solve one of these things, everything would be solved.
Rose was out of Venhoa, as suggested by Taking. He agreed on that. There were so many cities and people and they didn’t have the access to most of the technological devices to find Rose; she had hacked many of them and they were blind from the top. The guy who attacked him was dead and the report that they got on him didn’t give them any useful details. Wind’s brother was the only lead that he had.
He started his car – they let him drive his car from home to the Headquarters; he was still an officer, not a criminal – and called March.
“Hello?”
“I want you to come and meet me.” Coal said.
“Where are you?” March asked.
“I am going to Ball Factory. Meet me there. Is someone around to look after Sun?”
“Yes. Mom came few minutes back. Everything all right?”
“I can’t tell over the phone.”
“Is it related to Wind’s brother?”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to hurt him?”
“I don’t know.”
Chapter
30
The pain was still there; it didn’t let her sleep properly for two days. The agony was so severe that she’d forgotten that she was alive.
The man never showed up again. He said he was Rose’s brother. How different they both were. Rose was ready to do anything to save thousands of people in the other country. And this stupid man was talking about fake patriotism by killing his own sister. Even to her Rose’s death was a shock. She had this thought that someone killed Rose as she had said herself before dying that her life would be in danger, but there was no proof of that.
All the files that Rose had were gone with her. After her death, the only concern that Gin had was the safety of the data. Rose had not handed over the files to her. Gin had sent Base to her house when they were in London, he couldn’t get anything important.
She was blindfolded when she was brought here. She didn’t know how many people were there. One was definitely there at the door.
Struggling with the chains, she used her hands to pull the chains. The sound echoed but nothing broke. These wouldn’t break for sure. She shouted in frustration and the door opened.
A man came inside the room.
She remembered Rose’s brother calling him. Jashan.
“Stop doing that, woman. You are not going out.”
“The guy is a murderer. You shouldn’t be with him. He is on the wrong side.”
“Holl is our leader. He does what is good for this country. You sold your soul for money. Stupid woman. We still have pride that we will die with.”
“Pride?” Gin laughed. People are so stupid these days that they don’t even know what they are talking about. “Killing of innocents is no pride. Who taught you that living with the guilt of not saving people is pride? This is the introvert thing that has destroyed many lives.”
“Holl said you would do some stupid talk to change our minds and not to listen to you. I am not here to debate with you. You will be calm and quiet. That’s it.”
“You—”
“Enough. If you don’t have a wish to have another bullet in your leg, I advise you to shut your mouth.”
“I need some water.”
“What?”
“That’s why I was shouting. My throat is dry. And the water bottle is empty. Please.”
Jashan sighed. “Tommy.” he shouted. No response. “Where the hell is he? Don’t shout again.”
He locked the door and went outside.
Last time she gazed over the room to grab anything to hit him. Only chains she had in her hands to strangle him. He was a big man. There was no chance that she could do that without bruising herself. Pain in her leg was enough to stop her to even think that. What other way she had? She was in an abandoned house or warehouse. She never heard any neighbours talking or shouting. It was serene as if only this place was there in a hundred miles.
She thought of using a leg of the table or chair if she would be able to break it. It was a big, round and long piece that would knock him down. He would notice the broken table though. Every time he came in the room, he looked around to make sure she didn’t have anything to use as a weapon. She breathed and kicked the leg of the table to hack it off. Her other leg throbbed, her hands tight around the leg to stop the flow of the blood below the knee, she continued the kicking.
It didn’t work. She was too fragile to do that. If she were not shot, she would have been able to do that. She sighed.
Jashan came with a water bottle and opened the cork.
She drank the water and sighed.
“I need to use a loo.”
“What?”
“You want me to piss here?”
“Disgusting woman. Tommy, need your help here.” No response. “Where the fuck are you, asshole?”
“It’s okay. I will not try to run.”
“Nice and easy.” He gave the key to her. “Open the chains, go to the loo and get here.”
Gin opened the chains, first wrists and then ankles. She stood up, Jashan’s gun pointing at her head. There was an agonizing pain in her leg. Damn kicking. I shouldn’t have done that. Stupid step. His finger on the trigger, he moved behind her. Staggering, Gin rubbed her wrist and got inside the loo, and locked it.
It was worse than the place she worked at. There was nothing there that it could be called a proper loo. Not even a window to let her escape. She had made her mind to run away even if there was a ventilator. But there was nothing. Nothing at all. The window in the room was away from her reach, and she couldn’t have climbed the wall without any help. It was a trap set by that idiot who called himself a patriot. She wondered how long he had been planning everything. Rose, you should have uttered the words. You should be alive.
She stayed there for a couple of minutes and thought of doing something. The man had a gun.
“Come on, woman. I don’t have the whole day to stand here.”
She washed her face and opened the door.
The gun was few inches away from her face. She could grab it, and then a low blow. It’d be over. Coal needed her help. He wouldn’t have any idea that his brother-in-law had a plan to kill him. Rose’s brother was right: she had a doubt that Coal knew about the documents. After Rose’s death, he could help them to put the money-hungry beasts behind the bars. And then she was captured.
She closed her eyes and cleared her head.
She grabbed the gun, the muzzle pointing at her face. She used both hands to force his aim up at the ceiling and lowered herself down. There was no time to punch him. The force was too much that she would lose the balance if she kicked him. Even her feet didn’t move.
Jashan tried to shake her off but couldn’t. She wouldn’t hold for a long time. He pushed her on the table, arms stretching above her head. Right then she kicked his balls with her knee. The gun dropped to the right side. She struggled to stand and moved towards it. He grasped her legs, lying on the ground.
He was so darn stubborn that he didn’t let her go. Her hands were inches away from the gun, her fingers crawling to get the butt of the gun. Her nails touched it and then she was pulled away from it.
Jashan sat over her chest and slapped her twice. “Stupid bitch!”
She used her legs and took his head between them and tried to snap his neck. She never did that. Bullets were what she used to kill the people. In the training, she was taught how to snap a neck. She didn’t have the experience in that. Maximum that she could do was choke him and then let him go to unconsciousness. And then the way was clear. The door was open.
He was trying to get the breath and his hands were around her legs. She was not letting him go. His face started getting pale. Few more seconds.
Grunting, he used his hands and punched in her stomach. Blow after blow after blo
w. She lost the grip and coughed hardly.
He breathed heavily and took the gun.
He laughed. “You are really a trained fool.”
She was still on the ground. He was over her, pointing a 9mm gun at her. “Any last wish? Loo or water?” He grinned.
He checked the magazine, his finger on the trigger. “Ready to die?”
He fired.
The bullet passed to her left and hit the ground. Gin had a blurry vision. Blood was not coming out of her mouth, but she coughed hardly. She blinked her eyes several times. His hard knuckles were like a hammer. She felt as if some bones were broken.
Soon she realized that the bullet passed without hitting her. He was still seeing two images of her, she guessed. It gave her few more moments to live. Next shot he wouldn’t miss. She hoped it would be quick. The power to have another fight with him was gone with the punches she received.
She felt weak. She had a smile on her face as if mocking the death. She closed her eyes. This was over for her. She hoped Taking would find these people and give them a painful death. With her hands, she wiped sweat from her cheeks and opened her eyes. He still had the gun in his hand, smiling.
Suddenly, Jashan fell on the ground, hands over his head.
There stood a woman with a rod in her hand. A brunette. Her mien looked familiar to her. She struck the rod again when he was trying to stand up. Now he lay on the ground, unconscious. Or dead. Gin saw the face of the woman again. She knew her.
Gin’s mouth opened.
“You missed me?” Rose grinned.
“You died!”
“I know. Now my spirit comes to rescue you.”
“I was at your funeral. What type of sorcery is this?” Gin asked.
They were in the car, Base in the back seat. “God had some other plans for me. That’s what I can tell you now.”
“Who was buried then?”
“A dead body that I had to frame Holl for a murder. It didn’t go well.”
“Who else knows about you?”
“You know she played as the Commissioner of Police in Venhoa? And her name was Summer.” Base laughed.
“Shut up, Base.” Rose snapped.
