I was finishing up my breakfast when I received the call. It felt good to know that he's back on his feet. John is skilled when it comes to a manhunt. As the Commissioner, I have more resources than he does, but he has a knack for tiny details. I still remember how he helped me when my daughter was kidnapped.
What he said to me the other day, was still whirring in my head like a buzzsaw. Politics isn't my forte, I'll be honest. What's worse? World politics. His claim, if true, could cause more problems in our country's stability. It's already part hell. I just don't want it to get worse. I promised him that I'll look into it if he kept silent but I just couldn't bring myself to investigate that. Knowing him, he won't keep it to himself and so it didn't matter.
I turned on my car, pulled it out of the garage and set the destination. I switched to manual and started driving up, towards the highway. In another 40 minutes I'll be at the Memorial Hall. These cars are automated & don't need a driver. They have GPS, Early Threat Detection System, Infrared Image Processing, waterproof lining along the doors & a lot more of the good stuff. Being the Commissioner, I got some additional perks for safety and security as well. Yet, I couldn't bring myself to let go and lay back, while the V.I. did the driving. True. Accidents have reduced to less than a thousand a year in the state and almost 90% of them are due to human errors who didn't want the automated drive. But I just couldn't.
My daughter wanted me to buy one and that's the only reason why I bought it. She said someday it'll save my life. And it did. But in that moment, I wish it hadn't. I really wanted to crush this piece of metal to junk but my daughter wouldn't let me. So I drive this everyday, knowing that, it stopped me from acting. Suddenly the steering wheel vibrated violently.
'You're moving out to the oncoming', the voice-over told me in a soft voice. I hadn't noticed that I've driven slowly away from the lane and was heading into the oncoming traffic. I changed course instantly. I shook myself to come out and drove all the way with heavy music turned on.
After half an hour and seven rock scores, I reached the Memorial Hall. I switched to something light to soothe my ears and mind. Instead of pulling in to the parking, I stayed in the car for sometime. I simply closed my eyes and let the music wash over me. Beautiful memories started flowing in me and my body started to relax. Then there was an explosion. I heard a deep scream, only it was me. I woke up suddenly and noticed that I was still in the car. I checked the time and a few minutes had passed by. I parked my car and started walking to the door.
The place was buzzing as usual like nothing happened. I went to the control room. I checked the footages from the previous day. While on that, I noticed John prancing around, kicking down stuff in the medical wing. First thought to hit my mind: he's crazy. I heard a couple of guys from the surveillance team sniggering behind. Can't blame them, can I? I was glad that there was no real damage to his legs.
"Keep watch. Ping me if you find anything suspicious." I left for the medical wing on the fourth floor.
The room was empty when I got there. I checked the logs at the side screen and noticed that he left less than half an hour ago. I checked the name of the nurse that cared for him and something interesting came up. A doctor had taken care of him. That's not interesting but she wasn't a usual. She was a specialist in major burns and despite being certified for physio, this wasn't her turf. Anyway...
And my communicator beeped. The ping was from the surveillance team. They wanted me to check on some activity in the ground floor. I pulled out the live footage but didn't notice anything until I did. I saw two people standing right opposite to the front desk. The first one was tall, well built and the second one was a bit short and lean. As I noticed closely, they both were wearing the same attire. Black Tees with black pants, a long coat, gloves & shoes, the complete set. Something hit my head hard and I understood what it was, a moment later.
They resembled the character from John's memory.
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