The Mind Hunter

by Mir Quadri

  Sarah just gazes at him and continued “is this why you asked…”

  “Yes, this is why I asked you to pull over in this park” said Will and after a brief moment, “well, it’s a gift and a curse to be..you know…”

  “So intelligent?” asked Sarah.

  “Yeah…did you get the blue prints?” asked Will.

  “Oh yeah, let me see” said Sarah as she started working on her laptop. Within a few seconds, she pulled the prints on her screen.

  “Here they are” she said as she slid the laptop towards Will. Will looked at the screen with Sarah and asked “which room is she in?”

  “She is on the second floor, room 209” pointed Sarah while Will continued to gaze the screen. This is a four floor building right in the middle of the city. As he scanned though the screen with his fingers, almost memorizing the lay of the land, he pointed to the garage and said “here, this is the garage that can let me in. This is a pretty big garage and I am presuming it’s for all the ambulance vehicles”

  “Yes, it’s the biggest hospital in the city” said Sarah and continued “but you can’t talk to Ms White yet. I think she is still unconscious after the whole Hunting Session incident.”

  “Yeah, I know. I just need to get into her mind. I don’t need her awake for that” he said.

  “What? Are you going to perform a Hunting Session on her, again?” asked Sarah.

  “Yes, that’s the only way I will know the truth about her and that whole murder she made me see” said Will.

  “But how are you planning to even get into the hospital. Did you not hear what I said before? There is a warrant on your name. They will arrest you the moment they see you” said Sarah.

  “Well, then I better make sure that they don’t see me” replied Will.

  “But how are you going to do that?” asked Sarah.

  “Sarah, you have been of great help. I won’t put you in any more trouble. It’s best if you don’t know any more details. You know - plausible deniability” said Will as he walked around the tree and pulled a motorbike from the other side of the tree which Sarah never knew was there.

  “Okay, so this was your ride?” asked Sarah. Will sat on his bike, turned the bike on and came closer to Sarah.

  ‘Thanks again Sarah for all your help” said Will.

  “There is one more problem with your plan — your Hunting Sessions take anywhere between two to three hours at a stretch. Dan was at the hospital all night yesterday and he said that the nurses check all the patients every hour. They do a manual count. So, even by some magic you get to her room, which is nearly impossible, but say you do it, you can’t perform a successful Hunting Session on her because of these hourly checks. What are you going to do about that?” grinned Sarah.

  “Who said anything about performing a Hunting Session in the hospital?” asked Will.

  “Then what?” asked Sarah as it suddenly occurred to her. “Are you going to …”

  “Yes. I am going to break into the hospital and break her out, tomorrow night” interrupted Will and rode off on the bike.

  “TRUSTING YOU”

  ‘ Is this a bad dream or am I really floating in the air?’ thought Sarah as the window panes started to make a crackling sound. The sound started intensifying to an extent that it became unbearable. Sarah slowly opened her eyes and realized that it was an earthquake.

  “Holy shit’ she screamed as she got up and took a red colored big fat teddy into her arms, that was lying beside her in the bed. As the tremors increased, she noticed that her bedroom lights started flickering — this was indeed a big earthquake. She quickly got out of her bed, with the teddy still in her arms, and swiftly crawled under the black colored desk adjacent to the bed.

  “Oh god..please!” she said while the ground beneath her rattled for a couple of minutes and stopped. Sarah, still under the desk waited with bated breath to see if it had really stopped or the earth was just taking a break. After a tensed five minutes, she realized that the quake was over.

  She then crawled out of her desk and looked around at her room, which was once like a Disney princess’s dream, was now more like a junkyard.

  “Damn!” she said as she reached out for her cell phone. As she looked through her phone, she noticed ten calls she had missed from Dan and one missed call from ‘unknown’ number with a total of eleven voicemails. She then dialed her voicemail number to listen to all the voicemails.

  “You have eleven new messages. First new message from Dan, received today at…” said the voicemail lady on the phone as Sarah pushed a button without listening to it.

  “Message deleted. Next new message from Dan, received today at…” when Sarah deleted again. She deleted all messages from Dan one after another until she got to the eleventh message.

  “Message deleted. Next message from ‘unknown’, received today at 5 AM” said the voicemail lady. Sarah looked up at the wall clock, which was hanging diagonally due to the quake and it read “5:10 AM”. She pushed a button on the phone to listen to the message as the voicemail lady said “the message is” and played the voicemail “hey, Sarah, This is Will. Listen, I just wanted to thank you again for meeting me last night. I know that you were not obligated to do anything for me but you still tried to help me. This has been an extremely tough week. I feel like I am at a stage where I am falling down every morning and getting stuck into the beams of this prison called life. Seems to me that no one can reach me now and until this prison comes tumbling down, I can’t be cleansed. You know, this Friday is my birthday, and I had never planned to spend it running like this. Anyways, I really appreciate what you did for me and I just wanted to thank you again. I owe you one.”

  ‘I had almost forgotten. Damn! What the hell did I do’ said Sarah to herself as she suddenly realized that she helped a convict. ‘I could lose my job over this. Holy shit! What have I done!’ said Sarah. She immediately deleted that voicemail and started looking for the laptop. She located it lying under the sheets. She turned it on and deleted all the history of the hospital’s blueprints.

  ‘I don’t know what am I going to do now. I think I need to inform ma'am about it. Shit what have I done! I need to make this right’ she thought.

  ‘A strong earthquake that rocked Northern country side earlier today, injured more than 1000 people, sent brick and concrete tumbling from historic buildings and triggered fires and power outages. Officials said that at least fifty buildings were left uninhabitable, and many more awaited further evaluation. State transportation officials inspected highways and bridges and declared them safe for travel’ said the blonde TV journalist on the screen as the entire police department looked at the big screen. It was 9 AM, almost 4 hours after the quake. The office room was a mess with papers scattered all over the floor.

  “Looks like it was pretty brutal” said Kate as she walked into the hall, with a hot steamy mug of coffee in her hands and joined the rest of the group.

  “Yes. They say that it was the biggest that has ever hit the State in fifty years” said another lady officer in the group as they all continued to gaze at the big screen.

  “I am lucky I just slept through it” said Dan as he walked in, with a big bag hanging across his chest.

  “Morning!” said Kate and continued “really? The quake went on for over two minutes and you just slept through it, huh?”

  “Yes. When I am out, I am out” replied Dan.

  “Lucky you! I woke up and could not go back to sleep, so I went out for a run” said Kate.

  “Run? At that time? You are brave” said Dan as he put the bag down and sat at his desk.

  “Did you hear about the drama last night?” asked Kate as she walked towards Dan’s desk.

  “Drama? Are you talking about the quake?” asked Dan.

  “No, not about the quake. The drama that went down here at office” said Kate and continued “of course I am sure you know. Sarah probably gave you a download of it already, I am sure”

  “Sarah
? No. Actually, she called me last night while I was cooking. I tried calling her back later, actually several times, but she never answered. Have you seen her today?” asked Dan.

  “Sarah? No, not today. But don’t worry, I am sure she is fine. Probably just stuck in traffic” she said.

  Kate looked around through all the mess and said “anyways, who’s going to clean all this now?”

  “You” answered a voice from behind. Entered Evelyn with her mug of coffee.

  “Hey boss. I hope you’re kidding. I can’t clean up all this on my own” said Kate.

  “Well, you will supervise them” said Evelyn with a smile as a group of cleaners barged into the door. Evelyn continued “these are our special guests that have come to help us clean up the mess. Kate, being the organized one of us all, I was hoping if you could supervise them?”

  “I have got work to do, boss. You had asked me to look into Mr Zhu. Why can’t Dan supervise them” said Kate while Dan gave her a cold look while sipping his hot coffee.

  “Yes. He is going to help you too, right Dan?” asked Evelyn with a grin.

  “Yes, ma'am. Of course” said Dan and got up from his desk.

  “Good. This will be a good team building activity. Where is Sarah?” asked Evelyn.

  “I am here ma'am” said Sarah as she entered the door. She had a dreadfully dreary look on her face as she walked in slowly.

  “Sarah, are you okay? what’s the matter?” asked Evelyn as she went closer to her while Dan and Kate followed.

  “Ma'am I need to talk to you. I think I did something I was not suppose to” muttered Sarah.

  “Did what?” asked Dan as he placed his hand on her shoulders. “What happened, Sarah?” he said.

  Suddenly a bunch of FBI agents, wearing black suits, with ear plugs and bluetooth stuffed in both their ears entered through the door. They surrounded the floor as Ronald Casity followed inside. He took out the gun from his pocket and held it against Sarah and said “Ms Sarah Kendall, please step aside from the group and kneel to the ground, now” he said.

  “What the hell is going on?” interrupted Evelyn angrily.

  “Ma'am please step aside” said Ron.

  “What the hell is all this?” Evelyn repeated angrily.

  “Ma'am, I won’t say it again, please step aside” said Ron acutely.

  “Agent, I am asking you to lower your weapon right now or I will make sure this is the last time you hold it” said Evelyn firmly as she gazed at Ron and continued “I am the Special Detective of homicide and this is my department. That courtesy you get of being a cop, it has a limit and you’re pretty close to exceeding it”

  Ron slowly lowered his gun. “I am sorry for the intrusion ma'am, but I have an arrest warrant for Ms Kendall.”

  “Arrest warrant? For what?” asked Evelyn.

  “I am sorry I can’t disclose any more than that at this time” said Ron.

  “Well, if you can’t disclose anything more, then I can’t give you Sarah. She is one of us and you have no right to come in here and arrest my team member like this” said Evelyn.

  “Ma’am, I have a warrant from the District Attorney and I can and will arrest Ms Kendall” countered Ron.

  “I don’t care. Either you tell me what’s going on or get the hell out of here” said Evelyn furiously.

  “Ma'am, don’t make this any more difficult for yourself” said Ron as he came closer to Evelyn and murmured “if you don’t back off, I will arrest you on obstruction charges”

  “Well, we just have to see about that, don’t we?” interrupted Kate as she took out her gun and held it against Ron.

  “Yeah!” said Dan as he took out his gun to join Kate.

  “Ron” screamed a thick voice from behind. Ron turnaround and saw Harry at the door.

  “Lower your weapon right now. It’s an order” said Harry.

  Ron lowered his weapon slowly as Harry walked inside.

  “Everyone, lower your weapons. Didn’t you hear me?” shouted Harry as everyone lowered their weapons. Harry then went closer to Ron, who was now standing next to Evelyn.

  “Agent, you were talking to Special Agent Lead Detective, Evelyn Monroe. How dare you threaten her of arrest?” asked Harry angrily. “You will now apologize to her right away in front of everyone”

  Ron, observing everyone’s cold looks, slowly muttered “I am sorry, ma’am” and stepped back.

  “Well, that does not change the fact that you are not going to take Sarah away unless I know what the hell is going on” said Evelyn.

  “You deserve to know, Evelyn. Why don’t we get into your office and chat about this. In the meanwhile, Ron can escort Ms Kendall into the interrogation room” said Harry.

  Evelyn came closer to Sarah and said “Sarah, don’t talk to anyone until I get to the bottom of this” she said.

  “I am scared ma'am” said Sarah

  “Just don’t talk to anyone until I speak to you” she said and turned around at Harry and said “Fine. But Kate will escort her to the room”

  “Sure, this is your department” said Harry.

  “Kate?”

  “You got it, boss” said Kate and took Sarah with her to the interrogation room as Dan, Ron and team followed them. Meanwhile, Evelyn and Harry walked inside Evelyn’s office.

  “Now, what the hell is going on, Harry?” asked Evelyn as soon as they entered the room.

  “Why don’t you sit down. I will tell you” said Harry, trying to calm her down.

  “I don’t want to sit down. What’s happening?” asked Evelyn, again.

  Harry shut the door of her office from inside. He then turned around and looked at her briefly and said “the intelligence picked up something against Sarah last night. We believe Sarah met William last night and gave him confidential information, hence conspiring against her own department.”

  “What nonsense! Sarah would never do that. There’s definitely been some mistake. What proof do you have for all this?” asked Evelyn.

  Harry took out his mobile phone from his right pocket and said “she received this voicemail early morning today” and played the voicemail “hey, Sarah, This is Will. Listen, I just wanted to thank you again for meeting me last night. I know that you were not obligated to do anything for me but you still tried to help me. This has been an extremely tough week. I feel like I am at a stage where I am falling down every morning and getting stuck into the beams of this prison called life. Seems to me that no one can reach me now and until this prison comes tumbling down, I can’t be cleansed. You know, this Friday is my birthday, and I had never planned to spend it running like this. Anyways, I really appreciate what you did for me and I just wanted to thank you again. I owe you one.”

  Evelyn was shocked. She started sweating as she rubbed her forehead and sat down in the chair.

  “I know it’s tough” said Harry.

  “I can’t believe this” she said when she suddenly realized something. She looked up at Harry and asked “but tell me something. How did you get your hands on this?”

  Harry looked back at Evelyn, wearing his guilty face.

  “What? Did you bug her phone? Did you bug my team?” asked Evelyn sharply.

  “Listen, I can explain…”

  “Are you recording my phone conversations too?” she interrupted.

  “Evelyn, you know how it is…”

  “Answer me Harry. Are you taping me and my team’s phone calls?” asked Evelyn, who was clearly furious at this time.

  “Yes. We realized that William will reach out to you guys at some point, and see, we were right” said Harry.

  “That’s ridiculous. I am going to report this to Cas” Evelyn retorted.

  “This was his idea. He authorized it” said Harry.

  “What?” exclaimed Evelyn disappointingly.

  Harry pulled a chair and sat close by Evelyn.

  “Listen, Evelyn. We knew that William would contact your team. He has no where else to go. So we started taping y
our phones in the hopes that he would call. I realize that I should have told you about this, but Cas felt that it would have compromised this whole operation. Anyways, I can’t help Sarah now. You can’t help her either, unless she cooperates” said Harry.

  “This is very disrespectful, Harry. I am disappointed to know that my department does not trust me and my team” complained Evelyn.

  “ I am sorry you feel that way, Evelyn. I really am. But to be honest, your closeness to William is the very reason why we haven’t included you and your team in this particular case from the beginning” said Harry as he got up and walked towards the door. Just when he was about to go out, he turned around and said “It’s funny you are upset that we don’t trust you, yet you were the one who failed to mention that Ms White had told you that she had information regarding William’s family murder and you didn’t tell me — knowing very well that my team was investigating this case. And yet, you blame me for not trusting you” said Harry.

  “You always had problems to play by the book, Evelyn. Trust is something that needs to be earned. And frankly, you haven’t done a good job of earning ours” he said and walked out.

  “WORST NIGHTMARE”

  Her hands were sweaty. She was shivering with anxiety. As she stared down at her fingers, in this cold interrogation room, a droplet of water fell on her index finger — only that it was not water, it was a drop of tears. She suddenly realized that with all things happening to her - sweat, shivers, she was still crying. With a little more focus on herself, she realized that she was definitely crying…and out loud!

  Ever since Sarah had joined this team, she felt completed. This was her biggest achievement in life - she was working at the Police Dept. She knew what she did last night was completely out of line. She should have reported it the moment it happened, but she didn’t!

  ‘Well, I was about to report it in the morning anyway. But who’s going to believe me now’ she thought as she started whimpering, taking long deep breaths. She has been sitting in this cold, dark room for just an hour now but it felt like a year has gone by already.