The Mind Hunter

by Mir Quadri

  “Surviving, Dan. I am just trying to survive. Something you should consider doing if you want to survive in this place” said Will.

  “What? I did not get you?”

  “Well, you are a good guy, Dan. As I said, I am glad that you’re learning. But you might want to learn faster. There’s a long way for you to go before you can contain a situation like the one we are in right now” said Will.

  “What do you mean?”

  “What is the first rule when approaching a suspect?”

  “Make sure the suspect is unarmed” answered Dan.

  “Well, that’s the second rule. The first rule is to ensure you maintain a twenty one feet distance from the suspect” said a smiling Will.

  Suddenly, Dan started getting a burning sensation in his eyes. He started rubbing them a little.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “Well, you are about twelve feet from me. Clearly, you were not listening when they taught this at your school. But you were right. The second rule is to ensure that the suspect is unarmed. Tell me Danny boy, have you ever seen me wearing glasses?”

  “No”

  “Then why do you think I am wearing them right now?”

  “Why?” said Dan as his teary eyes started burning furiously now.

  “Well, as they say, lessons not learnt in blood are often forgotten, and you are about to learn a big lesson now. Never forget what they teach you at the Police academy. Before you approach the suspect, maintain a twenty one feet distance. Do you know that if you had remembered this one rule, you could have caught me today”

  “What are you talking about? Are you saying…” said Dan, as he continued rubbing his eyes.

  “Yes. I am telling you that I am going to get away and there is nothing you can do about it” said Will and continued while jabbing his thumb to the right “do you see the air conditioning vent on the right side?”

  Dan slowly turned around and looked at the vent — there was a back colored plastic bag with holes in it stuck at the opening of the vent.

  “That’s pepper flowing out of that bag. And you know that about pepper, don’t you? It blinds you. Slowly” said Will and continued “you know, I wasn’t lying. The door of this room is about twenty feet away from me. If you had only followed the instructions, you would be standing outside the door holding that gun. You could have locked the door from outside and contained me in. But, you didn’t pay attention at the academy. And, here we are.”

  Dan could hardly see anymore as he tried to widen his eyes and look through.

  “You see the dilemma here, Dan? You can’t shoot me because I am technically unarmed. You can’t lie about it later because there is a camera on the corner of this room recording everything. You can’t hold me because in a few seconds you will loose your visibility. Here I am in front of you but alas, you are going to lose me and you know it… and you can’t do anything about it.”

  “I can get out and lock you in.”

  “You could if I did not know you were here. The moment you turn around, I am going for your gun. Sorry, no hard feelings”

  Dan, really trying hard to see, started thinking of what he was going to do next. He was really helpless.

  “Whatever you are thinking, I have already thought of. There are a million ways this could go down and not one includes you continuing to hold me in here and you know…. containing this situation. It’s too late for that. It’s not possible” said Will.

  Dan could not control the burning sensation anymore. He fell down on the floor with his hands on his eyes screaming in pain. Will got up from the ground, came closer to Dan and said “and as for Evelyn, give her the message” and he walked out.

  “THE MESSAGE”

  “Move out of the way” screamed Evelyn as she honked furiously. Her car zoomed into the parking garage. As she and Harry got out of their cars she saw two more cars zoom right at her. Cas and Kate came rushing out.

  “What happened, did we get him?” asked Cas as soon as he got out.

  “We just arrived” replied Harry as they all ran to the elevator.

  “Come on…” screamed Evelyn as she pushed the elevator button repeatedly. In the meanwhile, Harry took out his phone to instruct his guys — “please surround this building. He should not leave.”

  Evelyn could not wait for the elevator. She ran towards the stairs and the group followed. She immediately ran to the fourth floor. As soon as they entered the floor, they took out their guns and slowly started walking towards Sarah’s office, looking around to see if Will was still there. Evelyn slowly arrived at Sarah’s room and saw Dan lying on the floor, with his hands on his face.

  “Dan!” she screamed as she opened the door. As soon as she went into the room, she herself felt the strong burning sensation in her eyes.

  “Jesus Christ!” she screamed as she closed her eyes with her hands and screamed at her fellow officers outside the office

  “Don’t get into the room. It’s sprayed with pepper all over.”

  Evelyn looked around with her teary eyes and located the source of the spray. She turned around and instructed Harry “turn the air conditioning off, fast.” Harry ran to turn it off. Slowly she moved closer to the vent and removed the black bag as the air conditioner turned off. Needless to say that by now the entire room was infested by pepper. Evelyn slowly moved towards Dan and asked “Dan, are you okay?”

  Dan slowly got up, still trying to clear his eyes as the rest of the group entered the room. Harry, now having turned the air conditioning off, barged into the office and went straight to the windows to open them. Cas, however, went straight to Dan and asked “What happened? Did you see Will?”

  “Yes. Yes sir, he was here. Five minutes ago.”

  Harry immediately took out his phone — “has anyone located him. He was here five minutes ago. He could not have gone far. I want us to setup a ten block radius around this building. Find him, now” he screamed.

  “What happened? Did he talk to you?” asked Cas.

  “Yes, sir. I had him. I bloody had him. I put a gun to his face and he was sitting right over there with his hands behind his head” said Dan while pointing to the area where he held Will.

  “You mean to say he was sitting there with his hands to his head and you were standing with a gun in your hand and you still managed to let him go? Are you a kidding me?” retorted Cas in anger.

  “Well, sir. I don’t think it’s entirely his fault. He was alone here with no backup. We lost Will because we have been one step behind him all this while. He played us, and we got played. If anything, blame me for not figuring it out early enough.” interrupted Evelyn.

  “Very well, Evelyn. Good job standing up for your people but the fact of the matter is we lost him, again” said Cas. After a brief moment, he turned around at Harry and continued “have your men found anything yet?”

  Harry just nodded his head in regret and disappointment.

  “This is disgraceful. This one guy has made a mockery of the entire system. I hope you guys can sleep well at night” said Cas and left the room. Harry, Evelyn, Kate and Dan just looked at each other in dismay. The room slowly started dispersing off. Just when Evelyn was about to leave the room she turned around to Dan and said “don’t worry Dan. This wasn’t your fault.”

  She then took out her phone and called Sarah.

  “Hey Sarah. How you holding up?”

  “There’s some bad news, ma'am. Though Ms White seem to be conscious now and doing okay, I think she is really upset with what happened to her. She called her lawyer.”

  “What? Did I not tell you to not allow her to talk to anyone?”

  “Yes ma'am but that’s her civil right. How could I deny it. I didn’t know what to do.”

  “Jesus, you should have called me, Sarah. Don’t take decisions that aren’t yours to be taken.”

  “I’m sorry ma'am. This is all new to me. You give me a computer and I can do whatever you want me to do. Dealing with peop
le is messy. When she woke up, she started screaming at me and asked for her lawyer. When I said no, she snatched my phone and called the lawyer herself. I just didn’t know what to do.”

  “Hmm.. Alright. Has the lawyer arrived yet”

  “Yes”

  “Okay. I am coming there.”

  “I think they want to get her out ma'am. He already left the hospital and is on his way to meet you guys.”

  “Okay. Thanks Sarah. Hang in there” said Evelyn and hung up the call. As Evelyn was about to leave the room, Dan interrupted “there’s one more thing ma'am. I did not know what to make of it so I did not share it with the group. Before leaving the room, Will came close to me and whispered in my ears and asked me to give you the message” he said.

  “What? What message?” asked Evelyn.

  “I don’t know ma'am. This is all he said. I thought you knew what he was talking about?”

  “I have no idea. What is the message?”

  “I don’t know. That’s all he said”

  “What did he exactly say?”

  “He said and I quote — and as for Evelyn, give her the message.”

  “That doesn’t make sense” said Evelyn.

  “I am not sure either. I don’t know what he is talking about, ma’am.”

  “Well, thanks Dan. Thanks for not saying this in front of everyone else. You go rest up a little. Keep this between us” said Evelyn.

  “Absolutely ma'am. And thanks for standing up for me in front of the group. I know you didn’t have to.”

  “Yes, I had to. Now go” said Evelyn with a smile as they both walked out of the room.

  Evelyn walked straight to her office. She sat on her chair and started swinging around thinking deeply. She kept playing the line in the back of her head ‘and as for Evelyn, give her the message.’

  ‘What does this mean. What are you trying to tell me, Will’ she thought…when it suddenly hit her. “Oh my god” she said as she rushed out of her office towards Kate, who was sitting at her desk working through the orange file.

  “Kate, do you have the log of the message that Will had left Sarah?” she asked.

  “I guess” said Kate while looking through the pile of papers at her desk. “Ah , here it is” she said while handing it over. “Why, what’s up boss?”

  “Nothing, just working on some theory” said Evelyn as she rushed back into her office and closed the door from inside. She went to her desk and read out the message carefully.

  “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.”

  She paused for a minute and said “This is so weird. How did I not see this before!”

  She took out a pen from the pen stand on her desk and wrote this part out on a piece of paper while reading it loud.

  “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.”

  She turned around into her computer and pulled up Will’s profile. She looked at his birthday and realized that this Friday was not his birthday. She turned around and looked at the digital calendar that was hanging by the wall and it showed Friday.

  “Oh my god. Today is Friday. Is that why he broke-in. Was he expecting to meet me?” she asked herself.

  ’That may not be true. Because if that were true, he would have not asked Dan to remind me about the message. There’s more to it’ she thought and started looking at that clipped message again. She ran to the white board and wrote these lines on it, trying to break the code. She spoke it out loud as she began writing on the white board by breaking the message line by line.

  “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.”

  She then took a step back and stared at these three lines…“Beams…beams of life…that’s so odd. I have never heard anyone describe life this way. Beams…beams..” and then it hit her again… “oh god…this is part of the conversation that Will and I had at the patio right after the Hunting Session of Mr Jon Hendricks. Will had said this about the cigarette getting stuck in those beams. This is exactly what he is referring to here” she said anxiously as she read the lines again — “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” she paused and said “Okay, this is a location where this happened. You are trying to tell me about this location where you told me this before” and then she continued reading out loud again “you know, this Friday is my birthday, and I had never planned to spend it running like this” she paused and said “Friday is today and today is definitely not your birthday” and then she got the message… “oh my god. He is still here.”

  She immediately erased everything she had written on the board and briskly moved out of her room. She could not run as she did not want to attract any attention. She briskly move passed the main floor and to the patio on the east where this conversation took place. As she walked out she locked the door behind her. She went straight to the edge and peeped down to see the beams and looked around for Will.

  “You sure take a lot of time to break a coded message” said a voice from behind. It was Will - standing in a corner, by the side of a pillar wall.

  “Will? My god!” said Evelyn. It was obvious that in-spite of all the grief Will had put her and her team through, she was still happy to see him.

  “What the hell is going on? Where have you been and what are you doing?” she asked.

  “It’s good to see you, Evelyn” replied Will.

  “What the hell is wrong with you? I have been trying to get in touch with you for a long time. What’s going on, Will?

  “I am sorry, Evelyn. I am sorry that we are meeting in these circumstances. I needed some time to figure all this out.”

  “So, have you figured it out?”

  “No. I am more confused than I was before. I am hoping that you can help me here.”

  “Me? What can I do to help. What exactly happened in that Hunting Session, Will? Did you really kill somebody?”

  “I saw myself killing Mr Zhu. I have never seen him, Evelyn. I know for sure I haven’t killed him”

  “How is that possible? Aren’t you suppose to see what actually happened because it’s a memory?”

  “Yes. You’re right. But that’s not what happened this time. I saw something that never happened. I saw myself killing a man I don’t even know.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “I wasn’t. Which is why I went to see my mother, who advised me to look into my own memories.”

  “Can you do that?”

  “Yes, apparently I could do that and I didn’t know. This is why I broke into the hospital and got Ms White out. I performed a Hunting Session on her again, only this time I went into my own memories.”

  “And?”

  “I didn’t see myself killing anyone.”

  “Then how did you see that in Ms White’s memory
?”

  “That’s why I am here, Evelyn. I think you know the answer to that.”

  Evelyn’s face turned red. She had no idea what Will was referring to.

  “What do you mean, Will? I am not sure that I am following you?” she asked.

  “There was someone else in the first Hunting Session. In the Hunting Session, when I saw myself killing Mr Zhu, and so did the killer!”

  “So you could see yourself? I mean the Will who killed Mr Zhu could see the Will performing the Hunting Session?”

  “Yes”

  “Is that even possible. I thought the suspects can’t see you watching them?”

  “Yes, they can’t.”

  “Then how did he see you?”

  “I don’t know, yet”

  “I am confused, Will. What can I help you with?”

  “When he saw me, he came closer to me and said—I know you’re there.”

  “Geez, so he could really see you!”

  “Yes, but then, just before he said that, he got a call from a woman who shouted on the phone and said to him — Run, Will”

  “So that guy was indeed you?” asked Evelyn.

  “That’s what I saw.”

  “Again, how could I help you, Will?”

  “The woman on the phone, Evelyn, was you.”

  Evelyn was flabbergasted to hear that. Her face turned pale and her eyes popped out.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  “Well, I did hear that.”

  “How can you be sure, Will. You were probably freaked out at the time.”

  “Yes. That’s why I broke into Sarah’s office. When I looked through my health report from the Hunting Session, I saw a sudden rise in my heart-rate towards the end. My heart-rate went from 150 to 165”

  “So?”

  “So I pulled some previous reports of my phone conversations with you. My heartbeat rate is at 165 when I am speaking to you on the phone.”

  “What? That’s nonsense. Why is that?”

  “I am not sure. Probably because I like you” he said, clearly not comfortable sharing that with her.