by Aman Gupta
“She’s the most important thing in your life, and if I’m not qualified to meet her, then it means I’m not that important. It’s not exactly hard to contemplate,” said Jay.
“Well, if you feel that, maybe it’s better we take a step back,” said Sarah.
“What are you saying?” said Jay.
“I’m saying I think we need a break from each other,” said Sarah.
“What?!” exclaimed Jay.
“Good bye, Jay, it was nice knowing you,” said Sarah as she got up and left.
Jay called her name but she didn’t turn back. She wiped away her tears as she got in her car and drove away, as Jay saw her leave, through the glass window. Half an hour later, she got a text from Jay thanking her for the memories. She was distraught having ended a relationship because of her fear of another heartbreak for her and her daughter. She went to the apartment, to find Katie missing.
She called Katie’s friends enquiring about her whereabouts but didn’t find any success. Fearing that something terrible might have happened, she tried contacting her father to use his connections in speeding up the search but couldn’t reach him. She ran to the nearby park, thinking that Katie must have went there but found it to be completely empty.
Suspecting that Jay might have taken her as retribution for Sarah’s actions, she called and lodged a police complaint about Katie’s disappearance, and named him the primary suspect. She called Jay but found that his phone was turned off. The police went to his apartment on Sarah’s directions but couldn’t find him there. According to the building manager, Jay had already moved out a few days ago. She went to Verati headquarters thinking that she might find Jay there, but no one in the building had seen him on that day. The security footages had no record of him for Saturday.
She went back to the coffee house, but the waiter informed her that Jay had rushed out an hour after Sarah had left. Later, she received a phone call from the police informing her that Jay had been located near the exit of the city, but was apprehended by the cops. On inquiring about her daughter, the officer informed her that he was alone and her daughter wasn’t in the car.
Sarah instructed the officer to use the necessary means on Jay as she needed to find her daughter at any cost. Fearing the worst, she returned, distraught, to her apartment at 4 PM, only to find Katie sitting on the bed. She cried and hugged her daughter.
“Where were you?” sobbed Sarah. “I was so scared.”
“I was with Jay,” said Katie.
This made Sarah angry as she believed that Jay indeed wished Katie harm.
“Oh my god, did he do anything to you?” asked Sarah.
“No, why would he do anything? He’s your boyfriend, right?” said Katie.
“No, he isn’t. Who told you that?” asked Sarah.
“Yesterday, I was just checking your phone and saw the messages. I like him,” said Katie.
“Well, he’s not my boyfriend anymore. But where did you go?” said Sarah.
“Well, I got bored, so I went to play in the park. But it was empty, so I returned back home. I thought I might surprise you guys since I knew you were meeting in the morning, so I used the Autocab to drop me to the coffee house,” said Katie.
“But I was there, I didn’t see you,” said Sarah.
“Yeah, I was stuck in traffic so I got there around 10 AM. But I didn’t know which coffee house were you in. So I was looking into all of them, when Jay came to me. He’s funny. We had so much fun much. We wanted to call you there too but his phone died. I took him shopping, well he paid for it. He even bought me this musical star, which played my favorite song, which he told me, is yours too. Anyways, we returned here around 2 PM. I asked him to wait, but he said he was going out of town for a few days to get some air,” explained Katie.
“Well, never do that again. I was so scared,” said Sarah. “I thought something happened to you.”
“Don’t worry, Mom. I only stayed with him because I think he is cool and your boyfriend,” said Katie.
“But now you say, you’ve broken up. I didn’t know that. Why did you guys break up?” asked Katie.
“We just wanted different things,” said Sarah.
“That’s too bad. He said he knew how to make a delicious pizza, the best I’ve ever had. Would have been awesome on my birthday today,” said Katie. “I hope we see him every now and then.”
Sarah realized she had misjudged Jay and regretted the entire turn of events. She called the police officer informing about Katie’s return and demanded Jay’s release. Jay was released within the hour, while Sarah rushed to pick him from the precinct.
She couldn’t not notice bruises on the side of his face and his taped shoulder. He got down the precinct’s stairs, looking at her and turned left towards the corner, walking away. She called his name but he didn’t turn back.
Sarah returned to her apartment and saw Katie decorating it. Sarah broke down in tears, on her knees. Katie saw it and rushed towards her to figure out what’s wrong.
“I’m sorry, I ruined your birthday,” said Sarah, as she looked at Katie with tears in her eyes.
“Why? Is Jay not coming with the pizza?” asked Katie.
“No,” said Sarah.
“He told me,” said Katie.
“No, I don’t think he’s coming,” said Sarah.
“But he promised me. He’s just getting the toppings, he told me on the phone,” said Katie.
“Lots of stuff has happened today, sweetie. I think most of it is my fault,” said Sarah. “Wait, what do you mean?”
“Most of it?” said Jay, standing behind Sarah.
Sarah turned around, got up and hugged Jay.
“All of it,” whispered Sarah.
Katie separated them, and asked Jay to get working on the pizza with the stuff he had brought. Sarah wiped away her tears and volunteered to help Jay in the kitchen, while Katie decorated the house.
“Thank you,” said Sarah.
“We have a new problem now,” said Jay.
“What? Please don’t say that. I would do anything to take it all back,” said Sarah.
“Yeah, no. See, now once I make this delicious pizza, I’ll be Katie’s new favorite out of the two of us. So next time, you try to break up, you might be breaking up with us both,” joked Jay.
Sarah chuckled. She and Jay kissed. The following week, they got engaged when he proposed.
Jay’s work ethics and technical skills had already caught attention of Victor Daulton who was eyeing a new leader within the Tech Department to be part of its core team. Jay had successfully and privately created an AI program which streamlined his daily work of going through Exabytes of data, to check for anomalies. The data also contained several encrypted chunks of files as heavy as 10TB, which were encrypted by a strange yet powerful algorithm to which Jay was secretly devoting most of his time and attention, when he wasn’t running facial recognition scans on whoever entered the building.
Olivia returned after two months, on successful establishment of Verati’s new Science Centre in DC. Wanting to meet Jay to hopefully pick up where they left off, she went to the 13th Floor courtesy her new access clearances being head of her department, during lunch hours. She got off the elevator and saw Jay working on his computer.
With no one around, she sneaked behind him, turned his chair and kissed him as she got on his lap. Jay pushed her away in surprise while she looked confused. As she got off him, she saw a ring on his non-wedding finger.
“Oh,” said Olivia.
“You’re back,” said Jay.
“And you’re married, aren’t you?” said Olivia. “You’re not fooling anyone with the ring.”
“Engaged, yes,” said Jay.
“Same thing,” said Olivia. “Wow, you couldn’t wait 2 months.”
Jay noticed she was upset and angry.
“I’ll let you get back to your work,” she said as she turned around and hurtled towards the elevator.
“Wait,” he
said as he ran to confront her.
“You just got back and you’re suddenly leaving,” said Jay.
“Yeah, I just remembered that I left something exposed at the lab. Got to go,” said Olivia as she stepped into the elevator without looking at Jay.
CHAPTER 6: POLYSEMY
Vik followed the tracker he had placed on Olivia that he had smuggled via infirmary through Emily’s sister. The tracker placed her in Atlantis, a town that was believed to be largely abandoned after uncovering of residual traces of harmful radiation. Or so was the story. There were a lot of worldwide disinformation campaigns the day after 1/1 and it was only many months after that, when the dust settled, was the actual scenario unearthed with brave contribution from independent communities. The observable world had shrunk. The habitable parts had dwindled to an all-time low.
Atlantis Town was renamed to its name for its hope and most potential to restore the past glory of the country’s finest cities and act as the beacon of light for the world but the following year, multiple reports squashed many dreams. But those reports were wrong too, as observed by Vik.
It was now a town of skyscrapers, buildings, complexes and futuristic roads. It was a town which had more cameras than people. It was fortified on each side, as it stood tall surrounded by a forest. Though only spread around 5 miles in each direction, still it looked like a maze. The population wasn’t ordinary either. There were dapper men, women and children wherever the eye could see. Mayor Pete could’ve taken the credit for such an extraordinary development and gained favors with the President, but he never did. In fact, every time he was asked about Atlantis, he uttered the word, ‘a graveyard’.
Yet it looked like that town didn’t even have its own graveyard. Perhaps they have found the Fountain of Youth in this town, wondered Vik. He was seeing this from a small plateau just outside the town’s boundary but he knew that he needed something sturdier than an ordinary pair of binoculars to enter this magical town and discover its blind spots. The buildings were tall, but only one of them could be classified as a skyscraper.
Vik thought of calling Eric and asking for his help, as Eric was now the Chief Sheriff of the entire county courtesy Mayor’s intervention. But it wasn’t the right approach for a stealth mission.
“So Olivia, what are you up to?” said Vik to himself.
He knew that his tracker would be found, if not already, by the scanners placed in the buildings. It was an ordinary tracker that would’ve interfered with any modern electronic device, plethora of which were expected in such a contemporary town.
Not sure about the security provisions in the town, Vik decided to spend the night in an abandoned, damaged shelter, in the forest, before returning the next day to build an invasion plan and perhaps gather a team of individuals who could go in undetected.
He later decided to monitor the traffic movements for a couple of days, to comprehend the situation. There were regular movements of cars, trucks, construction crews and armored vehicles. It didn’t look like civilian movements as there were always a steady influx or outflow of vehicles. It wasn’t random, at all. It resembled a convoy.
The entire area had no network at all, yet he could see people talking on phone while crossing the streets inside the town. Seeing such rapid construction in the middle of a protected region would make Tim Simmelman roll in his grave, he thought. Tom Clifford, his Vice President then, had other plans, of course. He made a deal with the devil to stop Tim, but the devil came to collect sooner than he would’ve liked.
After a few days, Vik left for New Bay to assist in the investigation of the missing girl, unaware that in those five days, the investigation had taken a strange turn.
◆◆◆
Kate and Joey had learnt that the missing girl, Ally Drew, was actually the granddaughter of New Bay’s wealthiest man. The cops had investigated the incident as a kidnapping, but the family never received any ransom call. Her grandfather had also hired private investigators to locate her, but they hadn’t been able to get much ahead except cashing in their checks. The family didn’t even know who the real deal was, anymore. The town had received a number of tourists who just happened to the best detectives on the east coast. They demanded upfront payment for their valued services and the family relented.
Vincent Drew wasn’t a fool though. He knew he was being taken advantage of. But there wasn’t a father alive in the world who loved his daughter more than Vincent loved his granddaughter. Often, he would introduce his granddaughter as his daughter, lest people would inquire about the girl’s parents who had died in a trekking accident. The entire town loved Ally and her chirpy personality. She could melt mountains with her laugh and start a war with her tears. In the first fifteen days, he had spared no expense, hiring anyone who showed up at his doorstep. In the next fifteen, he hired a different kind of talent, to hunt down the investigators, with a simple goal - To ‘make sure that they didn’t do it again to any unfortunate family.’
“Mr. Drew, I’m sure you must’ve gone through this before, countless times, but still we need to ask a few questions, regarding your granddaughter’s disappearance,” said Kate.
“I want her back. I can go through the questioning an infinite times more, if it would help me get her back,” said Vincent.
“When was the last time you saw her?” asked Kate.
“Around five weeks ago,” said Vincent. “I had to leave for a few days for business. When I came back, she was already missing.”
“Any family or business rivalry?” asked Kate.
“None that I can think of,” said Vincent.
“What about her grandma? Can we talk to her?” asked Kate.
“You could try. But she doesn’t talk anymore. She spends most of her time in her room, or visiting the chapel,” said Vincent.
“She could have seen something that could help us,” said Kate.
“Sure, if you think so,” said Vincent, as he took them to his wife, Maria’s, room.
There she was, one of the town’s most influential woman, sitting near the window staring at the street, hoping to see her granddaughter at least one more time. She and Vincent looked younger for their age, and one could tell that both of them had beauty genes in their body. Vincent was tall, close to 6 and a half feet, and one of the most handsome grandparent Joey had ever come across. Martha must’ve looked beautiful before Ally had left, Joey imagined. He was never close to his parents or grandparents. The room was bigger than his entire apartment, Joey thought. There were 20 more just like this. It would take an entire day if they were to search every room in the mansion. But that would’ve been a waste of time. Maria and Vincent had already done that a dozen times.
“I’m the wealthiest person in the state, let alone the county, and yet I cannot make my wife smile, and haven’t seen my granddaughter for more than a month. People think I valued money more than family, in the last 2 years. Maybe I did, and now the bill comes due, and all the money in the world isn’t enough for it,” lamented Vincent.
Maria looked at Vincent as he sat down on the bed, stooping forward, his hands on his head.
“Ma’am, we would like to ask you a few questions,” said Kate, after a minute of silence.
“What! You want our money, take it. But don’t play with our feelings,” snapped Maria.
“You’re mistaken, Mrs. Drew. We work for Morrow PD, and have come here to offer our assistance on this case,” defended Joey.
“It’s not a case. It’s my granddaughter,” shouted Maria.
“We understand what you’re going through,” consoled Kate, as she grabbed Maria’s hand.
“My friend had this beautiful daughter. We would meet each other every now and then, and I wouldn’t know what to get her. So I would buy everything that a girl her age could possibly like. But I think she was wiser for her age. She never accepted anything that I bought for her, except this one doll house that I had bought her once. It reminded her of her perfect family. What 4 year old wouldn
’t like the stuff every kid used to dream of, I used to think. Once day, she told me that the reason she didn’t accept all those things when she was 4, was it wasn’t what she wanted at that time. She wanted a family. She got it when she turned 7,” recalled Kate.
“My Ally is the same. She just turned 12, but she isn’t here to celebrate her birthday. She lives a simple life when she could live like a princess,” said an emotional Maria. “Where’s she now, the girl you are talking about?”
“I lost her. I couldn’t protect her, but I’ll do everything I can to find your granddaughter. Please help me, Mrs. Drew,” said Kate, as Joey looked at Kate with doubt.
“What do you want to know?” asked Maria.
“Everything,” said Kate.
“We were wondering if you could tell if Ally had a bike that she used to ride,” said Joey.
“No, she didn’t have a bike. I used to ask her if she wanted one. She always said no,” said Vincent.
“Then, how was she seen miles away near a fuel station?” asked Kate.
“Maybe she walked there,” said Maria.
“What time did you last see her?” asked Kate.
“I was making her favorite pancakes. She always used to eat them at 12. She came by the kitchen around 11:30 AM when she said she was going to play out in the street,” recounted Maria.
“The timing doesn’t match,” said Kate.
“What do you mean?” asked Vincent.
“She was last seen around 12:30 PM at the fuel station around 15 miles away from your house. She couldn’t have walked that far. Not a 12 year old,” said Kate.
“I know about it. And the guy at the fuel station is a drunk idiot. Maybe he messed up the time. Maybe he saw her some other day in the town and then told the cops that he saw her on the day she went missing. One time he asked me if I could see the sun up in the sky sometimes, at 9 PM in the night,” said Vincent.
“We have to assume that he’s telling the truth. Maybe we can uncover something,” said Joey.
“Well, then how did she get there?” asked Vincent.