March 15th, 2014 (11:03 pm)
It was night time and the street was full of superstructures. Lionel was at one end of the thoroughfare. With occasionally cars and trucks passing on the road at the back, Lionel and one of his constable talked as they went through the pathway. Lionel had a dark brown beard which matched his long coat. He also wore a black pair of pants and a pink and white colored shirt. His constable wore the near-same pair, just with a blue shirt. He also didn’t have a beard or mustache either. Lionel asked, “So, Louis, you’re new here, right?”
“Yes, sir. I’ve joined just a week ago,” Louis sincerely replied.
“What was your whole name, again?”
“Louis Taylor.”
“I suppose you were a migrant of New Zealand, right? How’s the life there?”
“Well, not very different. I lived on the mountainside, so living in the plains is a kinda... different,” Louis casually replied. “I’ve never been to such a place for a long term in recent years. I used to live on the mountains in a small village while I was in college. College was a kinda tough, so I didn’t travel much; I studied the whole time. Then, I applied for the job here, and trained for a month or so. So, it’s not been even a whole year, and I needa adjust here.”
“Oh, was your village a kinda backward… or, you know.”
“Yep, it was a backward one. We didn’t use cars for a variety of reasons. First: there was not so well-developed roads. Second: the village was small, so we never felt the need to have one,” Louis replied. “But, you know, the best thing was that the mountain had fresh air because of no use of cars and ACs. The climate remained cold the whole year, because it was also some hundred meters above the ground.”
Lionel nodded. “That’s good to hear. I’d like to visit your village.”
Louis nodded and they continued walking silently for a few seconds. Then, Louis asked, “By the way, sir, do you use to know Mr. Scott?”
At this, Lionel looked at him, with a sense of seriousness in his eyes. “We didn’t just know each other; we were like best friends.”
“Oh, so it must be very sad to hear what happened to him, right?” The two continued walking.
“Yeah. You may not know, but I’ve seen this several times. You… You just do something else— paper work, case file and all— and then… then some criminal comes out of the jail… a-and… and you see your friends, your mates, your brothers die by his hands. I-I have seen it several times, Louis, several. You may know about The London Police Attack Scandal of April 28th. I-I was new at that time. I-I was very afraid, so-so I just hid somewhere. When I came back, all I saw was Mr. Scott, surrounded by tons of corpses of his men. His eyes… they were wide open, in shock. He didn’t move for over ten minutes, so we called an ambulance. He remained in the same state for the whole day. But, when he woke up the following day, he didn’t remember a thing. There was no proof against or with him to prove if he killed them all.”
“What? Really? How can this happen? A person waking up and not remembering a thing what happened the previous day?”
“There have been many cases in the past about this. Doctor told us that it was due to the hard mental trauma.”
Louis rubbed his chin. “What do you think must have happened?”
Lionel shook his head. “That criminal burnt the entire security room the following day. But after the next week, he was found dead.” Lionel remembered running into the room while pushing other policemen. Then, as he remembered, he opened the door and found the dead body of the criminal. His face was full of blood which ran from his neck. “He was found hanging through a rope. His neck had deep scars of a shaving blade. So, we still don’t know if it was a suicide or murder. The case is closed now.”
“Interesting. Who must have killed him?” Louis asked.
“It’s your job to find out.”
Louis nodded. Then, he turned towards the right and while pointing towards a building, he asked, “Here we are, right?”
“Yeah, let’s get in.” Lionel turned towards that direction while Louis followed him. Lionel pushed open the door and walked inside. The room had a dim bulb glowing at the center of the room. It was a waiting room and all the rooms behind it, made for clinical purposed, had their lights off. A woman doctor was waiting for them inside, while a man was beside her. They both wore lab coats. “So, did ya both find something useful from this?”
“Oh, yeah. We did find a lot of things. You’d be happy to hear them,” The woman said with a smile.
“Whoa. That’s great,” Lionel also smiled, and so did the other men.
The two surrounded the table of the reception beside the woman. The other doctor followed by. The man started explaining along with the documents on the sheet. “See, the fingerprints of Zack Will, accused of robbery in this case, taken from his governmental cards and all. And they are the fingerprints found in the portrait. Can you spot the difference?”
Scott was confused. To him, both were exact copies of each other. So, he shook his head and replied, “No.”
“That’s it! Both had entirely NO DIFFERENCE!”
The woman explained further, “It states that Zack Will, along with Adam Atkinson, are the ones to do the robbery!”
“That sure is a good news,” Louis commented with a smile.
“Just as Mr. Scott said, this is the first case to be solved within a day,” Lionel added while smiling. “Damn you, Zack!”
The man raised a brown envelop towards Lionel and said, “Here is the copy of the documents, along with the portrait.”
Lionel took it and said, “Thank you guys. It was your non-stop hard efforts that brought this piece of paper in my hands just an hour before midnight.”
“Happy to help,” The woman said and the two doctors smiled.
March 15th, 2014 (11:23 pm)
The door opened and the two policemen entered their office. Lionel kept the documents and the portrait at the table and sat on his seat. “In how much time is Mr. Johnson gonna be here to collect his portrait?”
“Sir, we’ve given him the time of midnight, so we can’t expect him here now,” Louis also sat on his seat which was in the front of that of Lionel.
“Okay. So, what cases do we have now?”
“One was completed just yesterday, before Zack’s case, and then the cases were taken away from us due to such a failure.”
“Damn it. It wasn’t our fault anyways,” He replied with irritation filling his tone. “That one was sure a professional one. We were unable to do anything.”
At home, Mr. Johnson sat in his car, along with his daughter Lucy. “So, I think it’d be great to take you to a tour to the Station. You must learn about these places, because y’are gonna be a spy. A spy must learn about such places and see what are the weak points, from where to run, and all that.”
“Dad! You already gave me enough of training in these past months! I will become a good spy, I promise!”
“You can’t, if you won’t see this place.”
“OOF!” She turned her head away.
“So, what’s the ETA?” Zack was just on the roof of a tall building beside the Police Station, along with Adam. Both wore black suits, perfect for thieves, along with full face masks.
“First, answer me. Are we gonna go to the Station by throwing webs?”
“What? You think we’re the sons of Spider-man?”
“No, you think.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Then why are we here, up on the roof of a building?”
“We’re gonna use X-Bow to go down and come back. Just like before,” Zack replied.
“Can’t we have a new plan this time?” Adam disgustedly asked. “Why do we need to follow to same plan all the time?”
“That’s because it takes a lot of time to make plans, and I’m also new to this field. Plus, I was given the captaincy without my permission. That’s not my fault now, okay?” Zack sarcastically replied.
“It’s not mine either.”
“Even I didn’t say that it’s your’s. I just said that it’s not mine.”
“Okay okay. Now, let’s focus on the mission. We don’t even have a good plan.”
“Yep, ‘cuz we were low on intel and data.”
“Right. Plus, we didn’t even have the time to collect some. Just some hours were what we got. But, we still did pretty well.”
“Stop giving your pre-match lectures,” Zack replied.
“Ah, okay.”
Zack suddenly spotted the car of Mr. Johnson arriving on the spot. He pointed towards it and shockingly asked, “What? How is he here so early?!”
“It’s only half-past eleven. He was gonna collect it at midnight. I-I’m damn sure he’s early.”
“Whatever, just focus on the mission now. We’re already in so much trouble.” Zack opened his bag and took out a suitcase. He opened the suitcase and took out the parts of the gun. He assembled it in a few seconds as Adam took out a rope with a hook attached at one end. Zack took the rope, tied it on a pole beside him tightly, and placed the end attached with the hook on the X-Bow. Then, he pointed at the roof of the station and pushed the trigger. The hook wen with a bang, and after a second’s travel, the hook holed inside the bricks of the building. Then, Adam took out two hangers and placed them on the rope. Zack held on tightly, and zapped away towards the roof of the police station. Zack stopped himself through kicking his feet on the building, and then he pushed himself up by standing up on one of the window frames. There was no one on the other side of the window, and the lights of the room were also off. Zack got a hold of the railing, and climbed up. Watching that Zack’s gone perfectly, Adam also zapped, stopped himself through kicking towards the building, and then climbed up by standing on a window frame. Zack gave him a hand, and held it tightly. Then, Zack pulled him up without much efforts. The two stood facing each other. “So, we made it. Let’s get to the next part.” Adam nodded in response. Zack turned back and saw the door which probably had stairs behind it. Zack dashed towards it and Adam followed him. Zack took cover on the right side of the door and took out a pistol. Adam also took cover on the same side and took out his pistol from is pocket. “So, we needa review the objectives. First: obtain the main object, Mr. Johnson’s portrait, and two: release Olivia.”
“And let’s also review the plan. Firstly, we’re gonna go downwards through the stairs and enter the desk of Mr. Scott. Then, we needa eliminate his mates and find the portrait. After the portrait, we’re gonna go to the fifth floor and find Olivia in there. And at the last, we needa come up here again and go the same way we came.”
“The plan’s not detailed, but we’ve considered many things and we’re gonna adapt ourselves according to that, right?”
“Yeah, ya got your casuals, right?”
“Yep. I’m the leader, so it’s my duty, Ads. Now, let’s move forward.” Zack silently opened the door, but it had rust on it. It as also very old, and thus, it didn’t open so silently as they wanted it to be; it made a cracking and horrifying sound, just like in horror films. Anyways, Zack turned towards the stairs and aimed inside. “Clear,” He said when he observed that no one else was coming up the stairs. Then, Zack started descending the stairs in the same position. At a U-turn, he turned back again and started descending. It was a dangerous mission; going into the building full of policemen striving for your blood is no easy task. “Gotta be careful,” Zack said in a low tone.
It took them ten to twenty minutes to descend down the stairs and now they stood in front of the board with ‘Second Floor’ written on it. “I don’t remember correctly what the floor was when we visited Scott, but it’s definitely gotta be the second floor,” Zack said as he sat on the last stair.
“Yep. But I can’t quite understand why the policemen here don’t use these stairs,” Adam asked as he descended down.
“They’re emergency stairs. Moreover, they are at a corner of the building, including that the lift nowadays is more convenient and closer to the staff.”
“Oh, okay. So, where’s the washroom?”
“That side,” Zack pointed towards the door in front of the stairs, and adjacent to the door. Adam went inside as Zack also stood up and advanced towards it.
Zack was wearing a blue T-shirt upon a black pair of pants. He also had sunglasses on and also had a mask which is worn during fever and cough. Adam also had the near-same outfit, the only difference was the T-shirt; Adam had a white T-shirt. The two came out of the toilet and walked outside with their bags. Then, they entered the door adjacent to that of washroom’s. Zack pushed the handle, and saw the clerk area. Zack saw thousands of policemen with their uniforms sitting on their desks and working non-stop. Suddenly, Louis came towards them and asked, “Sir, may I help you?”
Zack nervously said, “A-Ah. Um, we wanna meet Mr. Scott’s partner, if I may.”
“Oh, yes. Sure. But, can I ask the reason why?”
“Um, we heard about the death of Mr. Scott. So, we’re given the responsibility from the London Police’s Family Help Group to serve our condolences about his departure. We also want to provide him the information about his last farewell.”
“Oh, why not. Please follow me.” Louis politely turned back and went past through the white walls full of boards with notices hanged on it. Zack and Adam followed him. Louis, after some seconds’ trip, stopped, turned right towards a door, and opened it. “This way, sir. Mr. Scott’s partner, Mr. Lionel Garza, has been promoted recently and I’m currently working under him.
“Oh, that’s a good news,” Adam gave a warm smile.
Louis entered the room and told Lionel, “Sir, two men are here to meet you.”
Lionel, who was busy looking in his laptop, said in a dull tone, “Come in, please. Make yourself comfortable.”
The two walked towards the chair in front of the desk and sat. Zack, who was a bit uncomfortable by such dull gesture, said, “Sir, we’re here to provide you condolences about Mr. Scott’s death.”
Lionel looked at the two and stared at them. Then, he opened his mouth, as to ask something, but he didn’t. Then, he looked here and there, and asked, “Um, y’are Zack Will, right?”
“What?”
“You know how lame excuse it was to enter the room and get back the portrait?”
