UNDERCOVER The Secret of Luck

by James Kipling

  The two fighters kept up their running even as they fought off an incoming wave of crawlies. Sometimes they would jump down from behind and other times from the ground. Sometimes John would catch a crawlie about to jump on his only friend in the nightmare. Other times, Harriet would blow up a crawlie off John’s back. They continued to fight and continued to run. They reached the fourth street light and then the fifth, and kept up their speed and kept on fighting. Midway between the lights, John had to reload his torch while Harriet kept his back. Then she did the same thing. They both felt that the number of crawlies was going down, and things were slowly getting a little easier. Just a few feet from the final street light and the entry to the building that generated power, John’s torch ran out of battery power. Harriet’s was still on, and she took care of the last remaining crawlies. Harriet quickly did her work on the lock to get the door open, and they both stepped inside the facility. John pushed the door fully open and rammed a large statue that was close to blocking the door from full access.

  Inside, the whole facility was brightly lit. They seemed to be standing in some kind of repair lobby. There was electrical equipment of varying sizes and shapes. John did not recognize much of the items that were haphazardly placed on the floor, on the walls, and in the many compartments in the room. At the end of the room, they saw a door with the label ‘CONTROL ROOM’ in big red letters. The two torch holders looked at each other, nodded, and then walked toward the door. Once inside the control room, they noticed a big red button which was switched off. To the right of the button was a large window that was overlooking the entire forest. They both walked to that button and stopped.

  “Looks like this is the button that turns on all the street lights that will light up this entire forest. Take care of the crawlies infestation, once and for all. Do you want to do the honors, ma’am?” asked John.

  “Don’t mind if I do, John.” said Harriet, pressing the button. They both stood, waiting for something to happen and kept their eyes focused on the forest that was in front of them. Loud sounds were heard from all around, the whole building acting like some kind of a power generator. Then, with one big thud, the generator came alive, and the whole forest lit up like a tree that had been decorated. John and Harriet could hear screams of crawlies that were sitting all through the forest dying under the sudden light. Within seconds, the forest turned from the scariest place to the safest place on Earth.

  “That brings us to the end of a journey, John.” said Harriet.

  “What do you mean?” asked John, turning to look at her. Something wasn’t right. His eyes were becoming watery and the image in front of him was becoming blurry. He tried to grab her hands but couldn’t because she had stepped away. His eyes went completely blurry, everything went dark, and it was all over.

  The dream had come to an end.

  ___________________________________________________________________________

  For the first time in almost six months, John Russo woke up in the best of spirits. He did not know if the dream had anything to do with it. As he was reflecting on his dream, his phone rang. It was his former receptionist, Sheila.

  “Hey Sheila, how are you?” asked John, happily.

  “Boss, just got your message. It has been so many years since I spoke to you. How are you?” said the sweet voice of Sheila on the other side of the phone.

  “Sheila, it has only been a few short months. Then again, it does feel like a decade to me. I need to meet with you. Would you like to meet me in the office or can I come to your home?” asked John.

  “I will come to the office, Boss, since I also need an excuse to get out of the house. It is 2.10 pm now, so you can expect me there by about 3.30pm.” said Sheila.

  After talking to Sheila, he ordered pizza for a late lunch.

  Sheila arrived sharp at 3.30pm and looked fairly excited to see her former boss again. She was dressed in her favorite attire, red pants with a blue top. Her hair was let loose, and she had neither gained nor lost any weight. She looked just as John last saw her a few months back.

  “It is great to be back in the office again, Boss.” The office still looks as clean as it was when I left it.”

  “Yeah. You guys were let go, but I still had to entertain clients, whenever they showed up. The janitor services were never cancelled, Sheila.” said John, walking along with her into the main office. He took to his couch again and she took to the visitor’s seat. It was just like old times.

  Can I take a guess as to why you contacted me again after so many weeks?” she asked.

  “Go ahead.” said Russo, hiding his smile as much as he could.

  “You have finally decided to shut down the business and be done with it. On one hand, you don’t want to do the old stuff, but the type of stuff you want, Boss, just does not exist. You probably wanted to meet me one final time to thank me and to give me some kind of souvenir, and then probably say goodbye. Unless of course, you are thinking of asking me out, in which case, I don’t mind going out with you.” said Sheila, in one long sentence, stopping only once to catch her breath.

  “Well, I am afraid you are wrong on all counts, my favorite receptionist. I am not shutting down my business, and I don’t have a souvenir for you. I also didn’t plan to go out with you. Not because you aren’t pretty or nice. It is just that I can always find someone to go out to the movies with. I just cannot find a receptionist as good as you. There you have it.” said John.

  “So, why did you want to see me, then?” Sheila asked, taken aback.

  “Well, we are back in business. I have been retained by a client to find a missing person. Just like in those movies and stories that I watched and fantasized about in my younger years.” said John Russo.

  “That is great news, Boss!” said an obviously excited Sheila. I had a tiny bit of hope that you would need me again like this. Now that it is really happening, I feel a lot better about it. Okay then. Let’s get started!” she said.

  “Yes, it is, Sheila. That means we need get all the old gang back. As of this moment, you are back on the payroll. I need you to begin working right away. I assume you still have the office keys?”

  “Yes, of course.” said Sheila, standing up.

  “What is the plan, Boss? What are my immediate tasks for now?” asked Sheila, getting down to business right away. They had their reunion stuff done with quickly. It was time to get some work done. John Russo, as was always his style, had already figured out what she had to do for the rest of the afternoon.

  “I need you to call up and check if our information broker, doctor, and the weapons provider are still available. Our contracts with each of them expired a few weeks ago. If each of them is available, ask them about their new rates. If necessary, go and meet them personally. In fact, I think you should get new contracts signed personally during the next couple of days instead of over the phone. A little face to face interaction should make up for the lack of business in the last six months with them.” said John Russo, ticking off the list of things she had to do almost immediately.

  “I have already transferred money to your expense account. The building IT guys have already checked our office systems, so everything should be ready to go for you, Sheila.” said John Russo.

  “Sounds like you have figured everything out, Boss. Just like old times.” said Sheila, checking around the office interiors to see if anything had changed. Nothing. It was just like it was when she left. Since she spent a lot of time redecorating her own home, she thought John might have done the same. It did not look like it at that moment.

  “Yes, it is Sheila. I figured that this is my last chance. If I do this right, we might be able to do what we always wanted to do, investigate real crimes. Not some eloping wife with a stranger she met at a coffee house type of cases.” said John, his voice unusually serious.

  “Amen to that, Boss. I will get going then. What are you
going to do?” asked Sheila, standing up and heading to the office lobby.

  “Figure out how to find my client’s missing brother. I will wait for you to wrap everything up on your side, before I take to the streets.” he said.

  Once Sheila was at her desk, she sent emails to all the three contacts which were priority. As she waited for their replies, she rearranged her desk, and started planning for all the travelling she had to do. Meanwhile, inside the office, John Russo was lying on the couch with his eyes closed. He wasn’t sleeping though. He was developing a simple plan.

  His client had mailed everything she had on her brother, including his name, identity information, like passport, photos, educational history, and the history of his phone calls to her. All the information, at present, was useless. Once Sheila came to him with a confirmation that the information broker was ready to work with John Russo, he had to visit him, give him all the data, and let the information broker do his thing. Depending on how complicated the information retrieval was, the broker would give him a full report on the missing person. Armed with that information, John would be in a position to begin his search for the missing man.

  Even without that information, John had so many questions. Why did this brother character refuse to give his location information to his sister? Why would he call from a phone booth, and not from a regular cell phone? What kind of job was he doing? Why had he not called yet? Was he dead? Was he kidnapped? If he was kidnapped, what for? There were so many questions, and John had no answers. The answers would come, but first, Sheila had to get everybody on board. A detective was only as good as the people who worked for him. Without them, he would never succeed in his job. Telling his mind that he had done all the thinking he could, John turned on the radio. Classical music filled the room as his mind drifted off into a worriless sleep. Now all there was to do was to wait for his receptionist to take care of things.

  John found himself in a dark room again. Just a few seconds back, he was sleeping peacefully with the night light shedding a warm light on him, with the sound system next to him singing a sweet soothing song. The first sign of trouble was when the light stopped beaming. He woke up suddenly, and then the light went off, and it was all dark. Before that happened, he distinctly heard the light switches being turned off. He got off from his bed, shaken to some extent. He could not remember where the lights were located on the walls. He walked blindly in a straight line until he ran into a wall. Then he clung to the wall, and kept walking along it, hoping to reach the switches. Then, he thought he found something. He was just about to turn on the switch, when his name was called out aloud. He turned around and saw a shadowy figure. It had ugly teeth, and it looked scary. John usually did not scare easily, but this instance was particularly scary. He was just about to let out a scream when the entire room was flooded with bright light, blinding him.

  When he could see again, he was back in his office room, and Sheila was in front of him. He had woken up from another nightmare.

  “Boss, you alright?” asked Sheila, looking concerned.

  “Sheila! Hey! Yes, I am alright. Just had another nightmare. They don’t seem to go away.” said John, getting up and sitting on his couch.

  “I will be right back” said Sheila, heading to the office kitchen. John Russo got up, and headed to the office bathroom. When he was back in the office a few minutes later, Sheila was seated on the client chair. There was a pair of fresh towels on the table and two mugs filled with coffee. John grabbed the towel and wiped his face. Then, he returned to the couch and picked up the coffee mug. Sheila did the same.

  “Another nightmare? You have been having lots of these nightmares?” asked Sheila.

  “Yeah. They started a while ago. Anyway, what do you have for me?” John asked, quickly changing the subject. He knew that Sheila was more than just a receptionist, and that she did not mean to pry. John would never admit it, but he always thought of her more as a friend than a work colleague. Sheila seemed to have realized this, although neither of them would say it outright.

  “Yes. It looks like the old team is still interested in working with you. The doctor, the weapons guy, and the information broker. They all thought you had given up on detective work and did not really believe me when I called them up. The weapons guy actually thought you had killed yourself. I thought that was funny.” said Sheila, swiping through her tablet.

  “Yeah, he is like that.” said John, taking more sips from his mug. He enjoyed the coffee as it was prepared by Sheila. One of the many things she was extremely good at.

  “So, I have gone ahead and made advance payments to all of them.

  “I have set up appointments with all of them for tomorrow. The doctor’s appointment is at 1pm. The information broker will see you at 4 pm, and the weapons guy insisted on seeing you here for dinner at 7pm. He actually went ahead and emailed what he would like to eat for dinner. I am going to make arrangements for that. I had a feeling that you might not feel like driving on your own, so I took the liberty to book a taxi for each of the two out-of-office assignments. I have sent the schedule to your phone with the cab details and everything. So, would there be anything else?” asked Sheila, locking her tablet and putting it face down on the desk.“

  “That’s all for now, Sheila.” I think we should call it a day since I am very tired and have a full day tomorrow.

  “You go ahead, Boss. I will leave after taking care of a few more urgent issues. Have a nice evening, Boss.”

  Next day

  John woke up early next morning after a good night’s sleep which wasn’t disrupted by nightmares. Russo knew he had a big day ahead of him. He had already received an email from his client who had agreed to all the details and terms & conditions spelled out. The email also carried a digital signature which confirmed everything about her. Information like her identity, her contact address, the payment schedule, and other legal stuff. Those were things that John Russo was required to do to comply with his legal obligations. He might not be part of the legal enforcement of the city, but he was a detective who was licensed to practice.

  John double-checked that the paperwork was in order. The next email was from his bank, which wanted to confirm a payment that had been made by the client about 24 hours earlier. HIs first pay check in about six months. John was thrilled to say the least. He felt that the relatively high fees was justified since missing person cases generally tended to get nasty. He did not know this personally, but he had read about it in his University while studying criminology. Worst case scenario, John could possibly find himself in a lot of danger. He could even die. He had a close call with death just once in the line of duty. There was this client who had hired him to get some nasty information about his wife. Turned out she was a cop, and did not like what John was doing. John Russo was chased down three blocks and shot at twelve times. One of those shots did graze him but, it could have easily pierced his chest. If such a thing could happen with something as simple as a divorce investigation, who knew what was in store for him when searching for a missing guy. So yes, the advance payment he had asked for was justified.

  Since his first appointment was at 1pm, John decided to meet his Dad in the morning before heading off to the office. He needed to update his Dad on the ongoing situation. Perhaps his Dad would be happy for him, or maybe he would not. Only time would tell. Concluding those thoughts, John Russo locked his apartment up and headed to the parking garage. John was just about to take his car out of the garage and drive through the exit onto the next turn when his phone rang. It was Rod on the line. John parked his car to the side and answered his phone.

  “John, how are you feeling this morning?” asked Rod.

  “Pretty good about myself. In fact, today is one of the better days, Rod. I did not have a nightmare. Or rather, I turned the nightmare into one of those pleasant dreams.” answered John. He gave a quick summary of the dream he had yesterday to his best
friend, who listened intently. For some reason, Rod went quiet for a few seconds, and then spoke.

  “John, you have to take my advice. Remember that shrink I referred you to a few days ago? Did you meet her at least once?” asked Rod.

  “I did as you said. I met her once.” answered John, still remaining stationary at the side of the road.

  “I think you need to speak to her about this dream. It is important that you find out why it is that you are dreaming about your first client in six months, John. I am not a psychologist, but even I think something is not right here. Tell her my name and she will adjust her morning appointments to make room for you.” said Rod.

  “I was on my way to see my Father. I wanted to tell him that my problems are over, for the time being at least.” said John.

  “That won’t do John. Your Dad can wait. You head to the shrink right now. I got to go. Catch you later.” Rod quickly hung up the phone.

  Not willing to go against his friend’s wishes, John called up the shrink’s office. The receptionist complained that there was limited flexibility in the doctor’s schedule. John only had to mention Rod’s name once. The receptionist quickly agreed to book an appointment immediately. The appointment was in an hour and John was there, sitting in the lobby with ten minutes to spare. The doctor walked in five minutes later, and she asked John to join her in the consultation room.

  John noticed that the good doctor was once again wearing the same blue dress she wore the last time he consulted her. Almost out of habit, he could not help remarking on it.