Radical

by Sijal Aziz

  He took out a bottle of scotch from his cellar and drank all of it. Then self-pity gave way to anger. He had never felt angrier. He was angry at Jasmine for going away, he was angry at the drone for taking her away from him.

  Alexander stayed in his apartment drinking for the next two months. From time to time he heard someone knock at the door, but he didn’t open it. His partner Seymore Kent came to the apartment several times, but Alexander wouldn’t open the door for him.

  Whenever he went out to buy groceries and liquor, he tried to keep his eyes down and avoided looking at people. He hated everyone and did not want to look at anyone again. But still he heard them laughing. It was as if they were laughing at him. He wanted to kill them all for being happy. If he saw a couple kissing, he wanted to tear them apart, if he couldn’t be with Jasmine how dare they enjoy their lives with each other.

  When he looked at kids playing in the playground, he was reminded of the kids, Jasmine was trying to save. He was also reminded of his unborn kid that had died. He wanted to kill the kids. He wanted to kill everyone.

  As days passed, hurt gave way to anger and anger gave way to revenge.

  It hit him one day out of nowhere that he was supposed to avenge Jasmine’s death. Alexander suddenly felt better. He had a new goal in life. Now the only question was how he was going to do that.

  He looked at himself in the mirror and he did not recognize himself. His hair were long and unkempt and he had a bushy beard. His eyes were red and swollen, he wreaked of alcohol and human excrement and his clothes were shabby. He looked like a bum, the same ones he had passed many times in the streets. The only difference was he had a home.

  He went into the toilet and shaved off his beard and then took a long bath and cleaned off the stench from him body. When he got out of the bathtub, the water had turned black. His hair looked bad, so he decided to go out and get a haircut.

  He was about to go to the salon when the front door bell rang. A courier was standing there when he opened the door.

  The courier asked him his name and handed him a legal notice. Alexander tore open the envelope and he could not believe his eyes. His partner Seymore Kent had sent him a legal notice stating that since Alexander was not in the right state of mind therefore his 50% ownership in Kent and Cooper was to be reverted to Seymore. The letter contained other details as well regarding how many times Alexander had missed the board meetings and how his level of interest in the company was minimal.

  Alexander could not believe it. His partner was backstabbing him. The bastard who had never showed up for work in the past four years was trying to take his company away from him at this time of mourning.

  It was Alexander who had founded the company and built it up from scratch while his partner blew away his hard-earned money on girls, booze and drugs. It was Alexander who bid for and won all the projects. Lobbied with the companies to give him their contracts while his partner partied and wasted the money.

  Alexander looked at the legal notice over and over again until he could not control the surging anger in him anymore. He folded the letter and put it in his jacket pocket. He got out of his apartment, went to his car and drove straight to Seymore’s apartment to sort things out with him.

  He reached Seymore’s apartment and rang the doorbell. It took some time for Seymore to come to the door and open it. He was drunk.

  Seymore Kent was the same age as Alexander but he looked 10 years older because of excessive drinking and regular cocaine and meth use. He was of average height and built with a mop of pale blonde hair.

  “Good morning Alexander. What brings you here?” Seymore asked drunkenly.

  “We need to talk”

  “Come right in. But I don’t think I would remember later what we talked about” Seymore chuckled and staggered back to the sofa in his lounge.

  He slumped on the sofa and put his head on the back of the sofa, staring at the ceiling for some seconds before closing his eyes.

  Alexander looked at him contemptuously and said, “I have received a letter from you regarding my state of mind. What is wrong with my state of mind?”

  Kent tried to open his eyes to focus on Cooper, “Cindy says you cannot work no more so I am taking over”

  Cindy was Kent’s girlfriend who supported his lifestyle as long as she could buy expensive clothes and jewelry.

  Before Alexander could respond Kent got up and walked over to the desk picked up a syringe filled it with meth and injected himself, “Cindy is right you know. You haven’t shown up for work for six months. We called you hundreds of times and none of our calls were received. Your phone must be full of voice mails from me and Cindy. I can manage the office very well with Cindy’s help therefore your services are no longer required”

  “My services are no longer required? You piece of worthless shit. I am the one who built the company and ran it while you were fucking your whores and pumping meth into your body. How many contracts have to brought to the company since we started it?”

  Meth started sweeping over Kent and he could not respond. Instead he walked over to the sofa again and closed his eyes. He had a mocking smile on his face.

  Alexander waited for an answer. But instead of an answer Kent drifted into sleep. Alexander looked at him for a long time before walking over to the desk where the meth was. He took our two tissue papers, held the syringe and injection in his hand. Filled up a syringe with meth, calmly walked over to Kent and injected the contents into his vein.

  Kent did not move but he was still breathing, he opened his eyes when the syringe pricked him and finally managed to say, “What the heck are you doing?”

  Alexander stared at him. Then he calmly walked over to the desk again filled out another syringe full of meth, made his way to Kent and inserted it in his vein.

  This time Kent tried to take his arm away. But Alexander held onto his arm tightly and emptied the second syringe into his vein. Although Kent was under the influence of meth and God knows what else still Alexander could see horror in his eyes when he realized what Alexander was doing to him.

  Alexander repeated the process a third time. Kent’s eyes were still open, and Alexander could see the life being drained out of them. It sent a thrill throughout his body.

  Alexander had never killed before, but it made him feel like God. He felt excited and exhilarated. He was ready to get back to work again, to take back his company and avenge his wife’s and child’s death.

  He headed straight to the salon and got himself a haircut and went straight to the office to work.

  Once in the office, Alexander went over what he had just done. He was sure that Kent’s death would not be traced back to him because he had not left any evidence behind. But Kent’s girlfriend Cindy could be a problem as she could get the police to investigate Seymore’s death.

  But on the other hand, Cindy was a gold digger and she will move onto her next target that she could live off on, instead of wasting her time on a dead man. So, there could be nothing to worry about. He knew that police will investigate Kent’s death seriously, as he was a millionaire.

  He also knew that with Kent’s death the entire company would belong to him and he would become number one suspect for Kent’s murder.

  But to his relief, police declared Kent’s cause of death as drug overdose and only paid him a brief visit and talked with a few office people.

  Everyone told the police that Kent was a drug addict and a drunk and it was only a question of time before he overdosed.

  When the investigation into Kent’s death was closed, Alexander could focus on his work again.

  He worked at the office at all odd hours of day and night meanwhile hatching a plan to avenge Jasmine’s death. He needed to get closer to the very people whom he wanted to exact revenge upon. So, he initiated his plan by holding meetings with the department of defense and other important government agencies and gained their trust by making several softwares for them.

  Now when he was so
close to the execution of his plan, this woman, Katherine Hawkins, had appeared out of nowhere and the police had started asking questions about things that they should not have known about in the first place.

  Alexander slammed his fist on the desk, got up, went to the window and looked outside. He saw people walking in the street. He said out loud, “Very soon my love. Very soon all these people will be dead”

  CHAPTER 18

  The next morning Kate turned on her laptop but did not know what to do. How would she go around solving her case? She could not be on the run from police forever and she could not hide forever. Pretty soon someone will recognize her, and she will be caught. Once she was caught, she would be convicted and put in jail.

  It was difficult for her to solve her case just based on computer alone. She needed to do some ground research as well but with everyone looking for her and the media publicizing her case, as if she was the only news in the world, people would eventually recognize her. She had to do something quick.

  Kate went over the events from the last few days in her mind again. There was one thing she could still do. She had to get the word across to detective Derek that her company had compiled the CJIS and was providing maintenance services for the CJIS software. She didn’t know whether detective Derek will believe her or not, but she had to get the message across. So there was a strong possibility that her company had changed her police record.

  She did not want to place the call from the same diner again as by now, detective Derek may have put a trace on his phone. Kate decided to go out further and place the call from somewhere far away from her motel and the Union Station felt like the perfect place even if the call would be traced. With so many people around, it would be possible for her to disappear.

  As she was heading out, she saw a copy of the Washington Post in front of the reception window. She picked it up and went out. She walked over to the nearest bus station and took a bus for the Union Station. During the travel she put the Washington Post in front of her face as she was reading it.

  Once off the bus, she started making her way to the Union Station, making sure to keep her head down so that she would not be recognized if they checked the traffic camera feeds later.

  Once she reached the station, she made her way down to the main hall.

  She could see a number of cops and many homeless people in the main entrance hall.

  This was a dangerous place for her to be at, but she was betting her safety on the number of people that were in the metro station. It was easier for her to slip out without being noticed even if she was identified.

  She made her way over to the closest public pay phone and placed a call to detective Derek.

  He was on his desk when Kate called. He picked up the call on the second ring.

  “Detective Markus”

  “Hello detective this is Katherine Hawkins”

  Detective Derek motioned to Jim to start the tracking.

  He knew he would have to keep Kate on the phone for at least 1 minute so that the call could be traced.

  “Hello, can you hear me detective?” Kate said again.

  Derek took some time before responding.

  “Yes, Ms. Hawkins. I just want you to know that your frequent calls to me do not mean that you are innocent. Unless you hand yourself over to the police, I really cannot do anything about your case”

  Jim was motioning to Detective Derek to keep on talking.

  Detective Derek was looking at Jim’s screen which was quickly zooming in on the geophysical location of the call.

  “I understand detective. But please look into Kent and Cooper. Kent and Cooper was the company that compiled CJIS for FBI. I have done enough research in the last few days to know that my criminal record was entered by someone who worked in a channeler firm with the FBI. My company has a subsidiary known as People2People Inc. It works as a channeler firm with the FBI”

  The call was already 40 seconds.

  “Do you have proof of this?” Detective Derek said hoping that Kate would stay online for 60 seconds.

  “Please go online and check. All the proof is there”

  “I will do so. Meanwhile it is best if you hand yourself over to police. I am sure we will be able to work a lot better once we can discuss this case with you”

  Jim’s screen was showing that Kate was calling from the Union Station. Derek motioned to Jim to alert the officers at the Union Station about Kate.

  Detective Derek was trying to keep Kate on the phone long enough so that the police in the metro station vicinity could capture her.

  Kate saw some police listening into their radios and moving.

  “That is not going to happen detective” Kate said before hanging up the phone.

  She could see the police at the entrance gate and some of them were moving towards the phone booths.

  Kate started moving towards the escalators. She took an escalator going down. Problem was there weren’t many people on it. She could see cops at the base of the escalators. Kate could only see 15 people on her escalator, and it would only take seconds before she would be face to face with the police.

  Kate’s heart was beating so fast she thought it would jump out of chest. The police were looking for a single female. Her mind was racing. She saw a man going down with his two daughters. Kate went closer to the man and entered into a conversation with him.

  “Hello, this is my first time in this city. I am here with my daughters. Since they are the same age as your daughters, can you please let me know what activities are available for them here”, Kate asked trying to get as close to the man as possible.

  They were close to the bottom of the escalator. The police looked at Kate but then started looking at other women who were alone.

  At first the man eyed Kate suspiciously but then smiled at her and said, “Well I have no idea. I am just visiting my daughters in their college here. But my daughters here can sure help out”

  The daughters gave Kate a disinterested and bored look.

  From the corner of her eye Kate saw some people gathering in a group on the side of the train track concourse. Some of them were wearing Canadian caps.

  “Oh, I forgot I am late for a meeting. Thank you for your help”

  The man shrugged, unsure of how he had helped. He was about to say, “You are welcome” but Kate was already gone.

  Kate made her way to the Canadian group and started a conversation with a man who looked to be around 50.

  “Hi, are you a tourist?”

  The man gave Kate a hearty smile and responded, “No, young lady. We are here to attend a conference”

  “I have been to Canada twice and the people are so friendly and helpful there. I have made it a point to always help visitors from Canada. Please let me know if you plan to do some sight-seeing. I can assist you with everything”

  Before the man could respond, the group head who was wearing a red sweater and a red cap with a maple leaf on it, announced, “Now we will make our way out of the Union Station and go to the Union Station metro. I am sorry we don’t have enough time to visit the main concourse. But I promise you we will visit it on our way back. Now if you will please follow me”

  There were murmurs of disagreements, but people reluctantly followed the group head.

  “So, let me tell you about the places you can visit while you are here in Washington DC. My name is Kate”, Kate said to the man before she could stop herself.

  “Nice to meet you Kate. I am Chris”, the man replied.

  “I have half a day free after the registrations today. So where should I go first?”, Chris asked.

  “Well if you are into museums, I can recommend a lot of them, depending upon your interests”

  From the outside it looked as if Kate was part of the group.

  When Chris started moving, Kate started walking with him and when they finally made it out of the Union Station, Kate breathed a sigh of relief. But it was short lived. She saw dozens of police vehi
cles parked outside.

  She debated whether to stick to the group or take her chances out on the street. She decided to stick with the group. At least she would be safer like this as the police were looking for a single female. Once outside, the group started inching its way to the Union Station Metro escalators.

  Detective Derek came running out of the station after the phone call. He was about to sit in his car but thought better of it. Because of the traffic he would never make it to the station in time. So, he ran to the closest metro station and boarded the red line for the Union metro station.

  There weren’t any cops at the metro station. Kate along with the group was at the train platform and waiting for redline to arrive. She was hoping that it would not be delayed as the police would start looking for her in the metro station too.

  Detective Derek got up from his seat and reached the train door as soon as Union Station stop was announced.

  Kate began to relax once the clock showed that the metro was about to reach in 30 seconds. She looked around and there were still no cops there. She started praying silently.

  “You look a bit tense. Is everything alright young lady?”, Chris asked.

  “Yes, yes, I am fine. It’s just I have to be in a meeting within 15 minutes”, Kate lied.

  The metro finally stopped at the station. Detective Derek came out the doors immediately ready to dash to the Union Station. The group started boarding the train slowly. Kate was standing on the side of the group and the door was a bit further from her. It looked as if not everyone will be able to board the train. The group leader began shouting, “Everyone try to enter through other doors we will gather again at the next station. If someone is left behind, please board the train and get off at the next stop”

  People in the group started going left and right creating a lot of commotion and noise.

  Detective Derek looked in the direction of the group. Then started heading out towards the escalators.