by Mir Quadri
“Okay, at least tell me where Ms White is” continued Harry.
“Well, that’s the first sensible thing that you have said so far in this conversation. Ms White is alive. My work with her is over and I want to return her back to you guys”
“I totally get it, Will. I know that you kidnapped her only to perform the Hunting Session to know about her memory where you saw yourself kill Mr Zhu. We all understand that you’re trying to prove your innocence in this case. Let’s end it. Why don’t you come in and we’ll talk about it?”
“I thought so too, which is why I called. Ms White is with me and I want to come in.”
“Great, tell me where you are.”
“Heh..not like this Captain. As you know, I don’t work with people who I don’t trust. This might break your heart, but you aren’t on my list of trustworthy.”
“Okay, how do you want to do this then?”
“I would like someone from my team to bring me in. Someone who I worked with before.”
“Okay. But Will, if it’s me who you want to talk to, then let’s just meet?”
“Captain, you’re trying too hard. Don’t stall me. You can’t trace this call. You know that, don’t you? If you could trace me, I would have been arrested by now. So let’s go back to the point. I am giving you four hours. Send someone from my team, alone, at the Rivermark station, east to the water fountain and I will turn myself in. Four hours captain. Four hours” said Will and hung up the call.
Cas entered the room “No trace. He probably was using IP phone and bouncing numbers off different subnets. He was right, we could not trace the call.”
The room went silent again as everyone — Cas, Harry, Evelyn, Dan, and Kate just stared at each other. When everyone contemplating the next move in their heads, Evelyn broke the silence - “alright, let me go and bring him in. I have worked with Will more than anyone else. He trusts me more than anyone else. I can convince him to surrender.”
“I don’t think so” interrupted Cas.
“But sir, you need to understand. This is probably the best shot we have of getting to Will” explained Evelyn.
“Well, you can’t really believe that he is going to turn himself in, can you?” interrupted Harry.
“Well, why did he call us then?” asked Kate.
“Listen, he is just playing with us. He has been playing with us, all along. Evelyn, do you seriously think he is going to turn himself in?” asked Harry as he turned around and looked at her.
“I don’t know, sir. I don’t think any of us can guess what he is thinking of doing. But I know I can talk to him and bring him back” replied Evelyn.
“What if he is planning to kill whoever we are going to send. He is a criminal for god sake!” said Harry.
“We don’t know that” said Evelyn.
“What’s wrong with you, officer. Did you not see just now. He confessed of kidnapping Ms White. We don’t know that she is even alive” said Harry.
“It’s funny you believe him when he said that he kidnapped Ms White, but refuse to believe him when he said she is still alive” said Evelyn. Harry looked at her angrily and retorted “alive or not, we all know that Ms White is with him. Period”
“I think Evelyn is right. We don’t know what he is up to. We have to follow all leads, dot all I’s and cross all T’s here. We have to send someone to go see him” said Cas.
“Thank you, sir” said Evelyn.
“You’re not going, Evelyn” noted Cas.
“What? Why not? You still don’t trust me?” asked Evelyn.
“It’s not about trust, Evelyn. We have no idea as to what happened at the hospital. We don’t know how he got Ms White out, or even if he has her or not. We don’t know what he is planning to do with whoever we are going to send out there. We have no leverage whatsoever in this case so far, and unless we get some leverage back, I think he is going to play us like this. I want you and Harry to completely focus on finding Ms White. You clearly understand Will very well. You could probably figure out where he is keeping Ms White much faster than anyone of us could, and the last thing I want to do is to put your life in danger. So you and Harry, go to the hospital and try finding some clues. Maybe we will get lucky and we can find Ms White, and in-turn find Will” said Cas.
“What about the station?” asked Harry.
“I will personally lead that operation” said Cas and looked at Kate - “Kate, you will be going to Rivermark and talking to Will.”
Kate looked at Evelyn for approval when Evelyn asked “What about her safety?”
“We are all going in. Anyone who is not at the hospital with Harry and Evelyn should be coming with us. We are going in heavy” said Cas and turned around and looked at Evelyn “Don’t worry, we will have all the snipers, civilian soldiers, foot soldiers in place. We will get him this time.”
Evelyn nodded to Kate, giving her the approval for this operation.
“Officer, you have thirty minutes. Get ready” said Cas and continued “Come on people. Let’s get him” and walked out of the room as others followed him.
“Kate, all the best. I am available on phone if you need me” said Evelyn with concern.
“Sure, boss. Don’t worry, I will be fine.”
“Well, let’s go Evelyn” said Harry.
“Just a minute” she said and walked to Dan.
“Dan, I would like you to continue looking into Mr Zhu that Kate had started. I still feel there’s a lot to learn about that man”
“Sure ma'am. I will get on him” said Dan.
“Good” she said and turned around to Harry and continued while smiling “one last thing, Dan. Let’s get Sarah. We might need her expertise in this investigation”
Harry stared back and said “fine. Let’s get going.”
“Sure” said Evelyn as she, along with Dan and Harry started walking to the interrogation where Sarah was put up.
“I happened to visit the hospital where Ms White was being treated yesterday. This is the hospital located right in the middle of the city isn’t?” asked Evelyn, while walking to the interrogation room.
“Yes, it is” replied Harry.
“I also noticed that this hospital was surrounded by a bunch of fine hotels and bars.”
“Yes. What are you getting at?” asked Harry.
“Can you ask Ron to check if any suspicious person checked into any of these hotels? I know that we looked into all our security footage but if Will really broke into the hospital last night, he could possible have used any of those hotels” said Evelyn.
“How?” asked Harry.
“I don’t know, Harry. I guess that’s what we need to investigate” said Evelyn as they reached the interrogation room. Harry took out his cell phone and called Ron as Evelyn opened the door and walked in “hey Sarah. Come on, let’s go. We got work to do.”
Sarah, tired of crying, with puffy eyes, was sitting on the floor, in one corner of the room.
“Oh no..I don’t want to go to the jail. Please ma’am, I am very sorry” pleaded Sarah.
“No one is going to jail, Sarah. Ma'am has convinced others to set you free.” said Dan as he hugged her. Sarah could not believe what she had heard. She started jumping with joy. She came closer to Evelyn and hugged her so hard that Evelyn almost stopped breathing.
“All right, all right, that’s fine. But remember Sarah, this is your final warning” said Evelyn.
“Thank you ma'am. I owe my life to you” said Sarah.
“Alright, let’s get going. I will catch you up on the way to the hospital” said Evelyn as they all walked out of the room. Just as Evelyn, Sarah and Harry were about to exit the hallway, Dan interrupted “ma’am, do you have the orange colored folder that I gave you? It had information on Mr Zhu and I can continue my investigations from where I had left.”
“Oh yeah, I actually gave it to Kate. I had asked her to keep a copy on my desk” said Evelyn, she turned around to Harry and continued “why don’t you guys carry on? I will join
you at the hospital in a bit.”
“Sure, but hurry up” said Harry and walked out with Sarah. “Come with me, Dan” said Evelyn as she walked to her office. Dan followed her in. With all the recent chaos in the office, her desk had a mountain of files scattered across.
“Umm, it must be somewhere here…” she said while searching through the pile of hard covered files on the desk when suddenly the orange colored file fell down the desk.
“Oh yeah, here it is” she said and proceeded in picking it up. Just as she picked it up, some papers along with a picture fell down from the file. She picked up the papers slowly and proceeded to arrange them back in the file. Just as she was putting the picture back into the file, she happened to take a glimpse at it. Just as she was pondering over the picture, something suddenly hit her. She realized something. Her face became pale and her eyes popped out. She started sweating and breathing heavily as she kept gazing the picture. With just the picture in her hands, she dropped the rest of the file back on to the floor. “Ma’am, are you okay?” asked a curious Dan.
“Who the hell is this man?” asked Evelyn as she pointed Dan to the picture she had in her hands. This picture was of a bald Asian man, with white colored framed glasses on.
“This is Mr Zhu’s brother, Evan Zhu. We are still looking for him” said Dan.
Evelyn just quietly sat at her chair behind the desk, still pale, as if trying to recover from a shock. “Ma’am are you okay?” asked Dan again.
“I have been a fool, Dan. We all have been fools, all along. I think Will really killed Mr Zhu” said Evelyn.
“What are you talking about ma’am. Did something happen?” asked Dan.
“The picture you are holding right now, I have seen that man before” said Evelyn. “Evan Zhu? Where?” asked Dan.
“When I went to pick Will up for his meeting with the Generals, the morning of Ms White’s Hunting Session, I stumbled upon a dark room in Will’s house that had a lot of pictures and locations of the suspects of his family’s murders. I saw this picture on his wall, labelled as a suspect. Evan Zhu, was his number one suspect.”
“WELCOME, RONALD CASITY”
‘The sound of it crushing the air really defines it’s speed. People coming out, being replaced by another batch that gets in — there could be a million people who use these everyday, and this makes it so much difficult to track him’ thought Kate as she stared at the train that just came to a halt at the Station. She was sitting on the bench at the Rivermark subway Station, right opposite to the spot where the trains stopped. She was wearing a bright grey colored coat with a hoodie and a pair of black colored hand gloves. She kept looking around at people suspiciously, trying to find Will. Underneath the hoodie was a wireless ear piece.
“Anything?” asked Cas, speaking to her through the earpiece.
“Negative” responded Kate.
“Alright, Kate. We have two snipers on the towers at 11’clock and 9’clock. Can you see them?”
Kate raised her eyes and spotted both snipers, aimed at her in the pillars.
“Yes, I see them” she responded.
“There is an agent wearing a khaki pant and white shirt onto the left exit” said Cas.
Kate turned to the left and spotted him — “Yes, I see him”
“Good. There are two agents who are sitting on the bench behind you and there are a couple of agents who are on the bike, ready to intervene if anything happens” said Cas.
“Got it” responded Kate.
“All the agents have shoot to kill authority if things go out of control. You, keep you eyes and ears open. He should be here any moment” said Cas.
“Got it” responded Kate as she continued to scan through her surroundings.
In the meanwhile, Harry and Sarah arrived at the hospital site. Things have been awkward for Harry and Sarah to say the least. They hadn’t spoken a word in the car while coming here — in-spite of having a flat tire on the way, which made them two hours late! They walked silently into the hospital and to the elevator. Harry pushed the “G” button as the elevator door closed.
“Listen, Sarah. I know what happened was awkward. I just want you to know that I never doubted your abilities. But I do hope you realize that you were not suppose to do what you did and I was just doing my job interrogating you” said Harry.
“Sure sir, I understand. I am just happy to be free again” chuckled Sarah as the elevator door opened.
“So, no hard feelings officer” said Harry as he walked out the door. Sarah followed.
They both proceeded towards the ambulance, the only one, which took the power away for the whole building — which was still parked at the same spot. On the way there, they noticed a doctor, arguing with Ron.
“I understand doctor but I can’t help you” said Ron.
“Officer, you need to understand. This is a hospital. We need to keep functioning. We can’t afford to shutdown like this” said a doctor, Indian, with scruffy hair on his face.
“What’s going on?” interrupted Harry as Ron turned around, shocked to see Sarah with Harry.
“I am Doctor Patel. I was just telling your officer that we need to bring all the ambulance vehicles back. We need to have an operating hospital. It’s been 24 hours, you can’t just shut us down like this” complained the doctor.
“I am sorry…Mr Patel was it?” asked Harry.
“Yes, Hardik Patel”
“Mr Patel…”
“It’s doctor Patel if you please”
“Doctor Patel, we do understand your concern. We will have your hospital up and running in a couple of hours. How about that?”
“Just two hours, otherwise I will be forced to go to the court to get a restriction order for a lot of you” warned Dr Patel and walked off.
“What the hell is she doing here?” asked Ron, referring to Sarah.
“Ron, there’s a lot that has happened in the past hour. Don’t worry, I will bring you up to speed later. For now, please assume that whatever happened with Sarah, didn’t really happen. She is working with us, like before” said Harry.
“Sure, sir. I am confused but I hope everything is fine” said Ron.
“Well, it depends on your definition of fine” said Harry and continued “anyways, did you get the list of all the guests that checked in at one of the surrounding hotels?”
“Yes, sir. There are four hotels in a five mile radius around this hospital. We got a list of all guests who checked into these hotels. I have already given the list to her” said Ron.
“Given the list to who?” asked Harry.
“Special Detective Agent Monroe” responded Ron.
“Evelyn? She is here already?” asked Harry.
“Yes, sir. She arrived a couple of hours ago. After I handed her the list, I think she realized something and ran into the hospital. She also called that hotel’s staff. I think she said that she was going to the third floor” said Ron.
“Alright, thanks Ron. What are you doing now?” asked Harry.
“She asked me to keep an eye on this vehicle and ensure that no one moves it anywhere. Sir, tell me something, am I now suppose to take orders from her?” asked Ron.
“Ron, let’s deal with politics later. For now, do as she says” said Harry and ran to the elevator to go to the fourth floor. Sarah, confused if she was suppose to be with Ron or not, just stood there waiting for orders.
“Are you coming?” asked Harry holding the door of the elevator.
“Oh ok” said Sarah as she got into the elevator.
Meanwhile, A big train came to a halt at the Rivermark Station. Will, wearing a black hoodie, covering his head, got down the train and spotted Kate from a distance, who was clearly trying her best to remain anonymous. He took out a binocular and adjusted the range from the right side as he looked around Kate. It did not take him much work to spot all the snipers and the cameras around her from a distance. This was a busy Station with a lot of people getting in and out of these trains. Wil
l, proceeded with the crowd, hiding from Kate, snipers and the cameras. Meanwhile, Cas was sitting in the Station manager’s office, staring at all the cameras to locate Will.
“Anything?” asked Kate through her microphone chip by her sleeves.
“No, nothing yet. You stay put” confirmed Cas.
At the hospital, Harry and Sarah joined Evelyn and a few other officers on the third floor. Evelyn was standing across the window, staring right at the Wilshire hotel.
“How did you get here so fast?” asked Harry as they entered the room. As he looked around, he found all the officers frowning in dismay as if something bad had happened.
“So, what’s going Evelyn?” asked Harry.
“This is how he broke in” said Evelyn as she turned around to look at Harry. It was evident from her face that she was in shock, probably because of the big revelation she had at the office.
“Who broke in?” asked Harry
“Will” replied Evelyn.
“Will? How? I was here that night remember?”
“Well, that’s where we were all fooled. This did not happen that night. It happened the night before”
“What?”
“Ron got the list of guests that stayed in the hotels around this hospital. Take a look at the guest, Fernando Lynchi, in room 403 of the Wilshire hotel. He checked into the hotel and never checked out. This is the hotel manager, Mr Arnold Gajeski and the receptionist Shelly, who gave him the room, and yes she has identified his picture” she said pointing towards the hotel manager and the blonde receptionist, who were standing by her side and looked very nervous.
“Did you guys even look at his identification?” asked Harry to the receptionist and continued “do you have any idea of what you have done”
“Excuse me sir, I understand that he was a fugitive, but we had no idea about it. Per policy, we took a scanned copy of his driver’s license and let him in. His picture showed on his driver’s license. Well, on his forged driver’s license, I guess. There’s nothing you can hold against us” interrupted the hotel manager.