Randomers

by Alexis Dogman

  Ada takes the pod one floor down back to her workstation and gets back to work. The wide monitor is continuously feeding information to her. Ada pulls out the online streaming of Zach in his room. Everything seems quiet and subtle now. He must have accepted the fact that he needs to comply. Perfect. Ada uses her fingers to swipe away the video stream and looks at the lifegrid. Mohamed Yusof the second last randomer is scheduled to arrive at destination at 7:00 a.m. Malaysia time. Perfect.

  The only thing that is not perfect is Kaew Saowaluk and Lee Yu Na. They have been quiet for the past few hours and Ada is still wondering how to lead Chin to them. If they don't surface she will have to find a way to make them surface but both of these women have got no one for her to take hostage of anymore.

  With her mind messed up by Zero, Ada decides whether to call it a night. What is he even thinking? Leave now? Doesn't he remember that they have to put in an application to leave the Hive? And waiting for approval? That will take days. And with all the task on hand, there's no way her application will go through. Sometimes she wish Zero will act less like a boy.

  Ada tries to re-focus on her targets and the more she thinks about it the more she is annoyed by these two women who are like ants in her sugar. Now they are threatening both hers and her brother's lives. Disrupting the MAP is the stupidest suicide mission anyone can embark on and if they are that stupid, she will give death to them.

  With a firm decision made in her mind, she decides to change it all. Poor Mohamed Yusof, Ada will need to sacrifice him in order to get to her goal. Ada's swift fingers immediately type a string of codes that will send her instructions to the lurker. By the time she wakes up, the lurker will have finished his job and she will be one step closer to ending all the misery caused by those two idiotic women.

  Chapter 30

  Malaysia: Tuesday, 18th November 7:00 a.m.

  A tiny and tanned woman in a black knee length skirt, white long sleeved shirt and black shoes is waiting by the arrival gate of the KLIA holding a white cardboard that says 'Welcome Mr. Mohamed Yusof from Dubai'. Her long black hair covers nearly both cheeks and she has a huge pair of aviator sunglasses over her eyes. She stands in the front line among the group of people waiting at the arrivals.

  It isn't long before people start coming out through the arrival gate. The first one is a Chinese woman with a large pink trolley bag. The next is a Chinese couple with three children. After them, comes a group of Middle Eastern tourist with the women all wearing abayas and the men in casual clothing. Among the group one Middle Eastern man is attracted to the sign and the woman. Wearing a business suit of dark brown, he slows down his hurried steps and hesitatingly walks towards the woman without the slightest smile on his face.

  "Are you waiting for me?" he asks sternly. He hasn't arranged for anyone to pick him up as this trip is going to be for a highly confidential meeting with a mysterious businessman who is willing to buy his ailing Malaysia subsidiary at a surprisingly high offer. Not even his Malaysia staffs know he is here. The forty plus slightly overweight man with a full beard, bushy eyebrows and potholes of acne scars all over his face is not happy that someone has leaked information of his travel to Malaysia.

  "Hi, are yu Mr. Mo-ha-mad Yu-sof?" the woman asks, reading the name on the cardboard in her less than Malaysian slang.

  "Yes -" he replies in a not so impressed manner, especially with her rude reflective sunglasses. Instead of her eyes, he is looking at two tiny reflections of himself from the lens of her sunglasses, "- who sent you?"

  "I from Hu-li-gan hotel," the woman answers.

  "What hotel??" the man asks, his face scrunched in confusion.

  "HU-LI-GAN," the woman repeats.

  "This is definitely not the hotel I booked into. I'm not the Mohamed Yusof you are waiting for," he shakes his head and turns to walk off. But the woman catches his arm in time.

  "Wait sir! Is my job. I no get yu, they fire me! Yu mus fo-lo me to hotel," the woman stops him.

  "I didn't book into your hotel, don't you understand? Now let go," he says, starting to loose patience before tugging his arm away from her grasp.

  "Sir, yu say your name Mo-ha-med Yu-sof! Yu kenot do tis to me! Please, tis is my first day. They fire me!" she pleads.

  "I am booked into The Axis! Not some hooligan!" the man strictly denies, starting to show signs of anger.

  "I dun believe. Yu show proof!" the woman demands, like a hooligan herself.

  "This is absurd," the man complains as he takes some folded papers from the inside pocket of his suit. He opens up the papers and turns to the one which is a printed hotel room reservation confirmation and shows it to the woman, "See! Mohamed Yusof Bin Saadan. The Axis!"

  The woman makes a surprised face and then the corners of her lips turn down in disapproval, "Why yu no say yu are Bin Saadan? Mine is Bin Laden! Yu waste my time."

  "What? Who's wasting whose time here? I told you I am not that Mohamed Yusof!" he raises his voice against her, "I'm not going to waste my time with you!" Mohamed Yusof turns and leaves with a grunt.

  The woman smirks at the sight of the disgruntled man leaving the arrival hall and she immediately leaves as well.

  Outside, Mohamed Yusof enters an executive taxi and as the taxi slowly pulls away, the woman in the white shirt has put on a blue jacket and a black full face helmet. She climbs onto the pillion seat of a white scooter and the rider drives them away.

  They already have the information they need - The Axis. Now they just need to reach the place before Mohamed Yusof does. The white scooter speeds off, over taking the executive taxi and disappears into the distance.

  ONE HOUR LATER

  Mohamed Yusof exits from the premium taxi and enters into The Axis. The moment he enters, the young man behind the reception has already recognized him and greets him from afar with a huge smile, "Hello Mr. Mohamed!"

  He is quite a regular patron to their hotel, staying there every time he comes to Malaysia. Mohamed Yusof nods in acknowledgment to his greeting and collects his key card to a normal hotel room from the reception without saying a word.

  "Fifteenth floor, room one-five-two-two sir. Have a nice day," he smiles and watches Mohamed Yusof leave for the elevators to the hotel residences with a single small trolley bag. As he enters the elevator lobby and scans his key card against the scanner by the wall, a tall and lean woman struts after him in white stilettos and a bare back red knee length dress. Her long and wavy black hair carefully styled to drop over one shoulder as the dress drops into a plunging neckline. A pair of large, white butterfly sunglasses sits over her fair oval face complementing her chili red lips. In her lace-gloved hand is a small silver clutch.

  The elevator door opens and she steps in after Mohamed Yusof. He scans his key card onto the scanner followed by the woman. With his eyes fixated on the woman, he doesn't realize that she didn't actually scan her key card. It is a fake. She purposely stands before him as the doors closes, allowing him to admire the beautiful and flawless skin on her back. How the man wishes he can just touch the silky smooth skin of the woman's contoured back.

  After two seconds, the woman gently swings around and now he is staring at her cleavage through the plunging V-neck of her dress. She is a little small on her breasts but that doesn't matter, she is already sexy enough to give him amorous thoughts. The man is not ashamed for staring and his eyes are locked onto her like a hungry lion eyeing his prey. The woman does not oppose to his sexually harassing stare and her red lips turn up into an inviting smile. She glances at the level indicator - fifth floor. It's time to make her move.

  "Hi," she smiles almost amorously.

  "Hmmph," the man replies a weirdest grunt, trying to maintain his composure.

  "Alone?" she flirts.

  "Yes," he mutters with a nod.

  "Business or holiday?" she continues to ask.

  "Business," he clears his throat as he answers.

  "Ah, then maybe we can work our businesses together," she continues
to flirt as she closes in onto him, until their shoulders are almost touching. Mohamed Yusof smiles as he slips his one free hand behind her back into her dress to feel that tiny waist. His hand is about to go higher up her waist to reach for the side of her breast when she turns to avoid his grope skillfully.

  "Why don't we go to your room?" she suggests as Mohamed Yusof eyes her body, breathing heavily. He can hardly resist the sexual temptation anymore.

  "Of course," he answers and as the elevator lets out a ding, the doors slide open and Mohamed Yusof hastily leads the way out, hurrying to his room for some steamy action.

  They reach his room and Mohamed Yusof scans his key card at the door's scanner. He enters the room first, followed by the woman. Slipping the key card into its place on the wall by the door, the room lights up and the moment he turns around to look for the woman in hope of tearing her dress off and fucking her hard, he gets the most unexpected of all.

  "This is for touching me," he hears her say and the last thing he can register in his head before his mind fails him is a punch in the face that knocks him out. The woman knows just where to hit to put him out but not kill him. Without wasting anytime she searches him thoroughly, going through each and every pocket to find any clues as to what his business in Malaysia is.

  The first thing she does when she feels his phone in his pocket is to take the hand towel from the bathroom and placing it over the pants pocket. She then slides the phone out onto the carpet. With the hand towel over the phone, she grabs it and wraps it up so that the cameras will not be able to run facial detection. She then places the wrapped phone onto the dresser before searching further. There is no significant information on him however.

  Yuna proceeds to search his luggage but the lock is code number secured. "Fuck!" she curses to herself. Only three numbers; but how the hell is she going to guess what the three numbers are?

  "Okay... birthdays, lucky numbers, IDs," she tries suggesting to herself as she quickly goes through his wallet. She finds some sort of an ID card and starts trying using the numbers as the combination for the lock. It doesn't open.

  "Shit!" she curses at her failed attempts. Then she tries going through his body again for any other numbers that she can use. It is then that she sees the big golden ring around his fourth finger. On the large, flat oval golden surface is carved three numbers - 515.

  Yuna crosses her fingers and tries that combination, her nervous fingers quickly turning the numbers to the sequence. The lock pops open and she cheers, "Yes!"

  Yuna flips the bag open and inside it is nothing but some clothes, an electric toothbrush and a yellow envelope. She immediately grabs the large yellow envelope and flips it open. It is a business contract of him selling his Malaysian company called Cisto to another oil and gas company named PetroMax for a twelve million ringgit. So he must be here to finalize the sale. But what has this got to do with H-7842?

  Yuna grabs the envelope and darts towards the door but to her horror, the door knob starts to turn by itself before her fingers can reach it. Someone is coming in!

  In a split moment of fright, she instinctively slaps the bathroom lights off and sprints into the bathroom, hiding behind the door, praying hard that she will not get caught.

  The door slowly swings open and through the gap of the door, she can see a tall and big Chinese man in a grey coat entering. He has short cropped hair and a pair of sports sunglasses over his eyes. Yuna knows in a heartbeat who he is. He is the killer. Yuna starts to feel so frightened that she is almost quivering behind the door, her whole body turning ice cold and stiff. She did not expect him. She watches, her eyes wide opened with fear as the killer walks in and quietly closes the door behind him, carelessly touching the furniture.

  Yuna does not see it but on the killer's bare fingers are actually thin layers of special, transparent silicone. Not only does the silicone prevent him leaving his own prints but over the outer layer of this silicone are Yuna's prints. He is deliberately leaving her prints all over the place. As he passes the doorway, Yuna looks away, trying to press herself hard against the wall so that he will not notice her.

  Seeing Mohamed Yusof lying on the floor, the killer knows Yuna has been ahead of him and left without him realizing it. The ghost's guess is right. This is the first time he starts to feel impressed by a ghost. He has watched from the lobby at how Yuna followed the randomer into the lift. The ghost's instructions were discreet. If the target is still on sight, kill her. If the target has gone, plant the evidence and leave. This is considered an easy job and Chin has denied the ghost's offer to counter monitor the extermination back at the Hive. Who will want another pair of eyes watching him work?

  Once he is pass the bathroom door, Yuna resumes peeping through the slight gap of the door, waiting for a chance to make a run for her life.

  The killer smiles to himself as he calmly stares down at the unconscious Mohamed Yusof. His job has been made easy and all he has to do is finish his mission. Without wasting any time, he bends down to check the pulse on Mohamed Yusof's neck. He is still alive. The killer removes a small hunting knife and to Yuna's horror the killer slits Mohamed Yusof's throat from ear to ear. Blood seeps out from the wound like an overflowing sink, soaking the carpet wet with blood.

  Yuna's legs weaken, almost collapsing under her as she lets out a tiny, horrified gasp. She immediately cups her mouth to silence her own frightened sobs. But the killer has heard her. He slips the knife under the bed and raises himself back to a standing position, reaching his right hand underneath his gray coat drawing out a gun. He looks her way immediately and starts pacing towards the bathroom carefully with his gun in his hand.

  There is no hope. Yuna frantically scans her surrounding for the first time, trying to find just anything that she can use to save herself. The opened door faces the mirror and the wash basin counter-top lined with neatly folded hand towels and little bottles of toiletries with a round sink at the center. Behind Yuna is a white stand-alone, oval whirlpool bathtub and next to it, smartly fitted into the other corner is a semi-tubular glass shower cubicle. On the wall opposite to them is the sit toilet and above it the air vent.

  As her last resort, Yuna lunges forward and closes the bathroom door, locking it before the killer reaches. The killer is merely two seconds late. Yuna immediately climbs up and knocks the aluminum grill off. She jumps and her fingers catche the edge of the vent. The moment she hoists herself up she knows she's doomed. A foot in and the vent narrows into a tubular structure that only a cat can squeeze through. She lets herself down and one of her stilettos comes off and drops right onto the toilet seat cover.

  The killer tries to force turn the knob and when it won't open, he starts shooting at the lock through the silencer, muffling the noise of his shots.

  "Fuck!" Yuna curses to herself, realizing there is no other way out but just as she is about to give up she sees her stiletto and the opened vent. An idea suddenly pops into her mind and she hopes he sees it the same way as she does.

  Yuna pulls the bath towel from its rack and climbs into the whirlpool bathtub before covering herself with the white towel. She hides herself just in time, shivering under the towel as she hopes the killer will fall for the diversion.

  The door bursts open and the killer aims his gun first at the toilet end. Seeing the vent opened and a stiletto on the toilet seat cover, his first assumption is that a woman, most probably his target has climbed away through the air vent. What his mind didn't process is the lump of towel in the whirlpool bath that he can vaguely see through the reflection of the wide mirror before him.

  "Fuck!" Yuna can hear the killer curse before shooting into the ceiling randomly. She can barely breathe anymore.

  Finally he decides to leave the room. He has set the timer on his computer back at his lair to pause the recording of the security cameras for fifteen minutes when activated through his watch. Once activated, he has no means of changing it and right now he is running out of time. Hearing the door close,
Yuna can start to breath again. She quickly throws the towel off her and quietly climbs out of the whirlpool bathtub, although her heart is still beating like a drum against her chest. Putting her stiletto back on, she hurries out into the room, grabs the hotel bathrobe from the closet and puts it on over her red dress. She takes the file and slips it under her robe before grabbing her clutch and making a move for the door.

  Picking her sunglasses up from the carpeted floor near to Mohamed Yusof's body, she quickly puts them back on. She peeks through the door hole and then sneaks out the door.

  With her head held low, Yuna makes her way to the elevator and presses for the down button with her gloved finger. The stairs should have no security cameras but if it is safer, the killer will be using it.

  One of the four elevators is coming down from the eighteenth floor and Yuna immediately goes to hide behind the turn of the corridor, embracing herself anxiously.

  Ding.