She browses through the shelves, randomly picking a book and reading its cover. Well perhaps not so random as she only picks the books with interesting covers or titles. She moves slowly from one shelf to another, killing time. Great! Another two hours waiting for mom, she groans to herself.
She picks up Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and smiles. It is her favourite book of all time, she has read the book countless of times and she can never get tired of the story. The pairing of strong-headed Elizabeth with the misunderstood Mr Darcy is just the ultimate love story in her opinion. How she wishes for her own Mr Darcy! But of course, there is a reason why it is a fictional story.
As she puts the book down, she notices the boy that just entered the bookstore. Wow, he is good looking and well built! Must be a jock. Oh and I love how he messed up his hair, she thinks. She glances at him and as his roaming eyes meet hers, she quickly looks back at the shelf in front of her. Daring herself, she tilts her head up slightly and peeks at him. He is two shelves ahead of her and is reading the cover of a book. Obviously he did not even notice me. Well, who would? My hair seems to be a mess today, I'm not dressed to kill. I'm so plain and boring. And probably his super hot girlfriend will enter any minute now. I'm not the pretty type, not his type anyway. She does a mental check of her appearance and sighs to herself. Slowly, she drags herself to the shelves behind her.
~.~.~
The first person the boy notices as he steps into the bookstore is the girl holding the Jane Austen book. He could not help but to look at her, somehow she seems to stand out in this crowded place. She is pretty. I love how she dresses, it's simple unlike what most girls wear nowadays, he thinks. And when their eyes meet briefly, he wishes he could freeze that moment. She turned away so quickly, surely she takes no interest in me, he sighs.
He walks to a shelf and pretends to read a book. When he thinks that she will not notice, he steals a glance at her again. She seems quite engrossed in looking at the shelves, her eyes darting left and right. If only she will look at me, he wishes silently. And then she moves further behind, clearly oblivious to his existence. Ah well, even if she did see me she probably thinks I'm am all brawn but no brains guy. She seems smart so her boyfriend must be one of those honour students who excels in everything. Why would she like a jock anyway?
He glances at his mobile phone and realizes that his mom has sent him a text asking him to pick her up from her work place. Well, I guess I better go now, he says to himself. Taking one last look at the girl who has now picked up a book to read, he leaves the bookstore. I wonder when I might see her again. Probably never.
~.~.~
Her eyes follow the back of the boy's head as he leaves the store. Must be off to see his girlfriend who sent him a message, I suppose. Sighing, she returns the book she is holding back to its original place. She glances at her watch and realizes that only seven minutes have passed. Wow, brilliant! I now have an hour and 53 minutes until mom is done, she groans. She picks up another book, trying to read it but all the while thinking about the boy who has just left. Most likely he would not remember me at all. Oh wait, he probably did not even see me! I guess I'll never see him again anyway.
Veremor unsheathed his sword and pointed it toward a group of werelizards in front of him. As he unsheathed his sword he stepped forward. His facial expression slowly changed into a very mean one. He channeled his mana guiding them circulating his nerves. By the time he took his position, a massive killing intent emitted from his sword, pressuring against the group of werelizards. His eyes focused onto his target and he is well aware of the presence of enemy from his surroundings that has been moving their position to make an opening. He shifted his foot according to the movement of his enemy thus closing his opening.
He recited a spell quickly but softly. It was a spell to strengthen his vision. He can now see very clearly. He saw a breathtaking house. The house has got two wooden windows, a wooden door and brick roof. With bright red as a roof and dark blue as the body it seems that the owner of this particular house knows nothing about colour matching. Though they were not so very match but the craving of lion on each side on the door is very well done. Within them he sees the soft skill one possess and the patient of crafting a masterpiece. With each edge carefully crafted and the depth and shallow tone were accurate. No matter from what angle one see, the lion looks as if it were alive and with passion. The eyes of the lion were even more astonishing, they seem to be looking at the visitors at all angles.
He knows this is not the time for this but he was relieved. He sent an eye signal to the woman, asking her to move to the house. Each step they take might helped them to escape. He sent mana to the ground making a big magic circle with each step he took, retreating to the house. He stopped at about four meter away from the front door. The werelizards were closing in, claws ready to tear their prey apart.
“Summon your wolf and escape” He shouted. He stabbed his sword into the ground and collected mana to his palm. He sent his mana into the handle of his sword and into the ground, activating a barrier.
A semi-invisible wall formed and covered the two of them within a radius of four meter. A werelizard almost got through but it failed. When the barrier closed up so does its head, chopped off from its body.
The woman singled out her flute from the waist and started to channel magic into it. The werelizards were going rampage outside, clawing, banging and biting away the barrier. A line of sweat rolled down Veremor cheek as he tried to rest. He knew that this is the time for him to rest as much as possible for a far worst event: to drag the enemy in order to let her escape. She is far more delicate than anybody else in a battle like this.
Two magic circles formed, the wolf came out from the circle. She got on to the back of the wolf waiting for Veremor to awake. She seems more and more worried when the barrier started to crack and he was still collecting his mana.
Veremor opened his eyes and bit his finger. Blood started to ooze out and he drew a bloody magic circle in the air. The bloody magic circle glows in crimson red under the moonlight. He got up and recited a spell.
“To the east!” he command “Escape and bring Reid here.”
The woman nodded and rode off. The wolf slashed and clawed its way through. It took them on by surprise so it managed to bring the woman to safety. Several werelizards quickly gave chase.
Blood Replica. Veremor punched through the bloody magic circle. His blood duplicated and multiplied, oozing out from the circle and form a several ‘him’. They have his face, his sword, his armor and his cloak. They look so alike that they even have the same smell as his. This may be the best solution to confuse sharp-noses beast after all. He commanded his duplicate to block the other werelizards from chasing her. He turned around and tried to chase the werelizards that are after her but he fail, they were too fast be it the wolf or the werelizards.
She will have to handle them herself and I’ll have to clean this mess before others got involved he thought. He escape from the village and vanished into the forest, waiting for daylight to strike them down.
The room was dark, and the teenage searched around with his hand, feeling his surroundings. Slowly he moved forward, step by step. He focused his mind imagining a trail to the center of this darkness. Slowly his imagination took form and it began to snow. With each flake of snow melt into the ground a small magic circle formed around it and slowly it formed a path which glows dimly. He pushed on forward following the pure white virgin snow path. Within a few minutes he reached the center. There was a small pure blue light lurking around. It was small and weak but the surrounding darkness was not able to devour it. It roam the area freely, floating around a few thread like figure and sometimes seep into it. He felt relieved watching that blue light lurking around.
Thank god my mana was still here, though it was little but it was pure.
He sat down onto the snow path, closing his eyes slowly. As he closed his eyes, the surrounding darkness disintegrated and fell apart like dust.
He opened his eyes and found out he was in a room. The furniture was the same as the one chapel room he recognize. He pushed himself up and searched his surroundings. There is a cupboard to the northwest corner and a door to his left. His north was a chair and there he found an old man sitting on it where his father would always sit when he fell sick. The old man examined him from head to toe with a big smile hanging on his face. His hairs were silver white and his exposed skin looks fragile as if a gust of wind could tore his skin apart, exposing his flesh. He wore a pure white robe and that is all, plain old cloth with a little something to tie it around his waist.
Before he tried to voice out, a teen of his own age came banging into the room. He was not quite tall but rather the average height. He has clear blue eyes, thin oval face and a rather naughty look. He had the same thing as the old man as his clothes.
“Hey old man, you lied!” he screamed and stomped his way to the old man “There is no way to hide ones presence!”
“Silence you insolent bastard, you should be thankful that I took you in when you’re roaming around like a street rat thieving others fortune.” That old man stood up and collected mana to his finger. They were formed into different shape some oval some spiral some round some square but all of them were spinning in high velocity.
“Don’t think that stupid torturing skill can make me shut up yer old fart!” He step a step forward challenging the old man.
“Well why don’t you have a taste of hell hahaha” The old man laugh??? He laughed hard and sent the mana into the teen body from several places before he could take a run for it.
As the old man mana seep into his body, the teen screamed and squalled. Tears began to flow. His body trembled and goose bum rose from his skin. He fell and rolled around the room, slamming the floor, struggling, knocking the wall and screaming. His voice was loud and sharp and probably a natural disaster to the teen on the bed as his senses was stronger ever since he started learning magic and martial arts. He slowly moved his hand protecting his ears from this spooky inhuman scream.
“Oh, this brat a bother.” He walked closer to him and cast a magic to pick him up. He sent him flying out from the room, down the stairs into the garden. He screeched and cried along his way to the garden, cursing the old man in a way that we won’t even know what he was cursing since he can’t even spelled them properly with all the pain the old man mana inflicted.
“Who are you?” the teen on the bed asked.
“Well well, from what Brassil told me, you hardly talk nor ask anything.” The old man reached for the chair and put it in front of the bed, sitting down in front of him.
“Brassil? Brassil who?” he frowned and his eyes focused on the old man.
“Gosh, didn’t your father told you his name?” he was surprise and his eyelid flickered.
“No, we never needed a name in this chapel. Anyway it’s just the two of us.” He answered slowly, staring deep into the old man eyes trying to get something out of him.
“Well forget it. Tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine with a gift from your father.” He sat back onto the chair, waiting for his reply.
He wondered for a moment and answered “The names Adel and yours are?”
“Peblo and here is your letter. He said he would be dead by this time of the year and it seems to be true enough.” He handed the letter over to the teen. “He also asked me to take you in to be my disciple and you have no other option but to come with me or you can have a taste with your fellow friend down there.”
There once was an urn that can grand anyone three wishes. It was made of pure clay.
A rich man get a hold on it once and wishes for a concubine and yes he did get one so beautiful that every man would give up anything for her. He lived on happily until his wife ran away from home taking his son with her. Still he did not regret his decision. Not long he felt ill and his concubine took all his fortune and ran away. When he tried to find the urn for his second wish but the urn was never to be found again.
The urn drifted along a river and was found by a man passing by. He went home and told his wife about the urn. His wife advised him not to wish for anything because the rich man was an example so dreadful.
Her husband said that the rich man’s wish was way too much but if they wish for little things then no harm can be so dreadful. Therefore he decided to wish for 100,000. The next day, his son had an accident and yes he died. His colleague and the insurance company collected money for him. The collector came to his house and gave him the amount they collected. The amount was 99,000. The collector said that he would give the man another thousand to make it 100,000. In the end he got his 100,000 but lost his only son.
His wife heartbroken and her mental state were not stable. She would scream and screech calling for her son and sometimes beat and scratches her husband. There was nothing her husband could do so he just let her be the way she is. Every day he lived with regret and cursed himself for not listening to his wife. One day, his wife search for the urn. She wishes for her son to come back.
Storm starts raging in and wind blowing like mad. Faintly her husband and herself heard a voice calling out “mom, mom open the door. Please open the door” and for real the door got wham and knocked at. She got up and ran toward the door trying to open it but her husband quickly hugged her and stops her from doing so. She cried out load begging her husband to let her go, her son is waiting for her. The man dare not to let her go and he screamed out loud that the thing came knocking the door will never be their son as their son has already died because of his wishes.
His wife did not listen and continued to beg and screamed, still trying to pull herself toward the door. The man lost all hope and was ready to let her go. Suddenly he saw the urn. He decided to let his wife go while he reached for the urn. He managed to get to the urn just before her wife open the door. He cried out load to the urn “My last wish is to wish that I have no wishes!” The storm slowed down and soon vanished. The whamming and knocking on the door has long gone. His wife died a several months later.
I hope anyone who read this find something valuable to learn.
Dark clouds gathered slowly and fog began to stretch its arms embracing a spooky, broken down chapel. Stained steel fence barricaded it poorly, with spooky weeds ever growing taller clinging onto the fence. The lights within the chapel on the second floor were dim; all other floors have got no lights and the earthen path to front door crooked. Tiny animals roamed around the weeds within the fences, rustling sound grew ever stronger. With the cold breeze blowing, weeds waved like hands. Not long before all the rustling ends, a man carried a new born baby pushed open the front gate and walked in, his footsteps were heavy. Each step he takes cost him his life, blood rolls down like a tiny stream from his chest. A fatal wound that none will survive; but somehow he survived. Upon reaching the door, he gently lowered his arms and laid the baby on the doorsteps. He caressed the baby chubby cheek and kissed his forehead. The baby was covered in a white cloth now tainted with his blood. The baby chuckles innocently as he touches his cheek.
“Grow up well” He bid the baby goodbye and took a last gentle glance. A sense of sadness grew ever deeper within his eyes. He felt horrible leaving him, not to protect him till he grew up is his regrets. He knew it but yet he have to distract the enemy or all effort will be in vain, be it the mother of the baby or his alone. He raised his arms and exerted mana onto his finger. He recited a spell turning his fingers into brilliant blue, without further hesitation he clawed open a dimension portal. He lifted his heavy legs and with each step he walked closer the portal. The dimension portal devoured his body and soon he vanished into thin air.
As soon as the portal closed, raindrops started to pour from the heavy clouds, nourishing the crooked earth with each dripping. Tiny animals sniffed back into their wonder home avoiding the rain while plants and trees joyfully spread their roots towards deeper ground for water. Soon after, a man opened the front door, stood there watching the rain pouring. They baby chuckles in excitement when raindrops splash to his face. The man whispered “Rain, a confusing event. Looking at it makes one wonder what meaning has it brings along. Some brings misfortune and some brings life while some signify a new era.” He picked up the baby and fade away into the darkness, the door closed as if was pulled by magic.
A teenage was hurrying his way as the rain began to pour like mad. He pulled over his hood and clutch his cloaked tightly, he ran.
“Rain~” he sighed. Soon, he came across a group of cavalier. They were all clad in armor except for one; the one that caught his eye. She was wearing a dress with frills at each ends. She has fair skin and dark black and long hair. Her hair looks silky and smooth. Though her dress covered quite much of her body but it cannot hide her well care and splendid body figure. He quickly passed through them as they looked ‘not to be staring at’.
About half an hour later, he reached a small town and walked in from the east gate. Another group of cavalier rode passed him in a hurry.
The leader suddenly halted, turned around and asked “have you seen a group of cavalier escorting a girl?”
“Well, I did.” He answered. “She’s too pretty to not be noticed in this rain.”
“Direction?” the leader frowned, clearly he was not please by his behavior.
“It’s that way, good sir.” He pointed to the direction he came from and smiled gently “have nice journeys.”
The leader turned and rushed along, disappearing into the road. The rain has tune down and soon will stop.
He took notice at the lance the group of cavalier was using. They were Renval symbol. Renval has quite an easy symbol. They were a cross that looks like a sword while a fire was burning at the top.
“The carving on the lance,” he murmured “Renval army?”
He wandered around the town. The town was separated equally into three sectors, one on the east, the other west and between them another sector. Industrial sector, shop lots and residential sector were well-planned. Industrial sector were build far away from residential sector which is on the east. Therefore, the middle sector was none other than shop lots. Without wasting time, he has had a stroll along the shop lots looking for items. The shops here have got one thing good about them and that is they were controlled by the local lord. The price will never be overprices. So basically shops owner will have to come together monthly to decide the price. Good news for buyers as they can get better services as each shop compete using services.
This was his first time coming here because all this time his father took care of all business leaving him playing in the forest. He was allowed to come here today so he was excited. By seeing the well-planned structure of this small town, he thought he might see better plan in the inside. He was rather disappointed to see that all the shops were not planned well. Dairy shops scattered about and so do clothing shops and other shops. Well at least they were in their sector.
He walked around wondering whether to buy some tools back to the church. Soon, he came across a wondering peddler demonstrating his goods on a piece of big cloth lying down on the earthen floor around the corner. There was this one pair of gauntlet that caught his eye. That pair of gauntlet was coated in dark red material. There were some crimson lining glowed on every edge around it. For some reason the gauntlet released a comfortable aura that attracted something deep within him. He moved closer and the feeling grew stronger.
“How much is this?” he singled out the gauntlet and held it by his hand.
“GOOD GRIEF, young sir!” The peddler shouts out in surprise.
“You’re confusing me here, mister!” he replied. “How much is this?”
“If you would, do please take it” he answered happily. “Ever since this ‘thing’ I found in the woods came into my good business been lagging”
“Well if you say so.” He took the gauntlet and wore it.
After having a stroll around the town he search his way to the east gate and went back home.
He ran slowly along the road for about three quarter and slipped into the forest to his left. Pushing through the bushes and weeds walked a few narrow paths and cross a little stream, slowly he came to a chapel. It was broken down but the fences were well-cared and a crooked path leads to the front door. There was a figure lying beside the path, fists clenched hard. The grass around his area were stained in blood and not far from it a dark foul stain devouring the ground; leaving the ground pitch black and smells of death emits from the circular stain. There was some black liquid oozing out from the middle of the devoured ground.
“N-no, no, no . . .” he trembled as he murmured “this cannot be! What happen?”
He flipped through the fences and dashed to that figure. He reached out his finger to test the man pulse. Later he tried listening to his heartbeat. All his effort tells him that he was dead.
“I won’t let it happen!” he whispered. He channeled mana to his fingers and gathered them into one point, solidifying it. He raises his fist and hit the concentrated mana into the man chest. Upon hitting it he changed the pure concentrated energy ball into electric element. When it reached the man’s heart; his body trembles from the electrification and bounced up a bit. He tried the same method several times but it was all in vain.
“F-father” he murmured “I-I swear to make whoever did this pay!” trembling in anger he screamed as a thin line of tears stream down his cheek.
As he tried to stand up a surge of pain rushed through his head. His veins throbbed madly in fear and excitement. It was far more painful than migraine. The pain waved in and out like sea water. He gripped his head as if the head was not his and he kneeled down. He screamed in pain and soon his mana outburst. His mana run along all his veins like mad and without directions they collide against each other like billiards. He knows if this goes on he will probably tear into pieces or chunk of flesh by his own mana. He has got no choice but to release all his mana. This is a bitter choice as mana was like a source of life to a mage. There were very high percentages that one would be dead by doing so and some who were force-release by enemy in the battle committed suicide, some lost confidence in themselves and for worst they lost their faith.
Mana that was supposed to be formless formed a humanoid form around him. Every little bit of mana flowed out from his marma (pressure point) and slowly the concentration increased.
Gui watched her as she closed her eyes, fell quiet, mumbled to herself, before opening her eyes to start on another sheet of printed material. Then he became conscious of someone else giving him a dark look.
‘They say you get old fast if you forget to smile.’
Radzi’s expression did not change. ‘Where are you exactly? Off-screen, I mean.’
‘Too far away for you to guess.’ Changing the subject, Gui commented, ‘So you’re the computer whiz, and she’s Memory Girl. We should’ve recruited you. I’d always tried to tell the rest that there were more untapped talents.’
‘Wouldn’t have joined anyway, not with you. Even from another corner of the globe, your face still screams money.’
‘And here I thought I was the one who didn’t trust you.’ The mischievous look slipped back into his face. ‘Why does she do that – the mumbling?’
‘You don’t know about eidetic memory, do you?’ Radzi smirked. ‘Her photographic memory registers raw material, just like the way raw information is absorbed into any normal person’s sensory memory, except that hers last several seconds longer. And in those seconds, in order to commit the impression fully, she’s got to reconstruct the images in her mind. The mumbling helps with audio recall, and processing the raw stuff comes later.’
‘Naturally. Long-term memory is aided by repetition.’
Annoyed that Gui caught on so quickly, Rad added, ‘Even with repetition, her memory has to be exceptionally fine-tuned to recall information word for word. Which she has, obviously, hands down.’
‘Tell me again why you need her to memorise all of that.’
‘Because, when we want to analyse the data, it’s perfect to have someone who knows every little detail in order to make the slightest connections. And if new information is received, there’s no point to it unless we know all the old information to make the links. Only then can we understand a situation.’
‘Ah.’ For a moment, Gui seemed uneasy, but a second later, that look was gone. ‘How long does she usually take?’
‘For every twenty-five pages with a rough average of 32 lines, it takes her an hour. She could do it much faster, but she prefers to rest in between, just to clear her mind before entering new material, so that the accuracy of recall will be over 99%.’
At this, Nikki spoke up. ‘But with the both of you talking about me in third person, it’ll only be 95%.’
Radzi turned around, smiling slightly, and explained to no one in particular. ‘Though, of course, even among the best, the memory is only a part of the human mind, constantly subject to variables such as adrenalin, distraction, or tiredness.’
Strangely, Gui looked as though he was trying not to puke. ‘No news about them, I’m afraid,’ he said directly to her.
She didn’t reply. There was still a lot of anger towards him, simply because he had contact to the outside world and he had people hunting down her mother and sister, whilst they were holed up in this stupid metal box. But no news was good news, and she couldn’t fault Gui.
‘Here.’ She thrust the papers to Radzi and looked cuttingly at him.
It was a horrible sound, that vindictive cackle … he was so close to her, only inches away … and then his face changed … it became Radzi’s … and he was standing over her, proud in his shining armour … he scooped her up in his arms, and she held onto him, relieved … then he started laughing in her face.
‘Shit!’ Radzi glanced at her from his computer. ‘Oh no, did I wake you up?’
She rubbed her eyes and checked her watch; she’d been out of it for about four hours.
‘Good rest?’
‘Yeah. Much needed.’ She squinted her eyes at him, looked at him for a little too long. ‘You got anything?’
He nodded solemnly. ‘It’s only some final information about Iyseek that I managed to screw up. This one –’ he pointed to the computer ‘– it’s gone. Virus attack. Either it’s protected by a very new system, or it’s got a really good bug on it, ’cause I’ve never seen such a virus. I got everything else printed though, so if you memorize all of it, we wouldn’t be needing this computer anyway.’
Nikki took a look at everything Radzi had printed out. ‘This is everything about the five criminals?’
‘Like you said: Andrea Kaniso, Chek Kavok, Hugo Jamber, Tallulah Printip, Jed Zhen. I’ve gone through most of them, but my memory only extends that far.’
‘Okay. Want to give me a summary? It always helps to know what I’m dealing with.’
Radzi tilted his head towards the documents. ‘You can sift through them while I recap. The first page for every person includes several close-up photographs, at different ages. Thought you might need to know what they looked like.’
She was inwardly impressed. He’d thought of everything.
‘So we already know about Kaniso and Kavok. Both thieves, both dead within year of each other. But Hugo Jamber is still alive. He was suspected of robbing three millionaires and running away with close to 5 million dollars. All he did was to sneak inside the rich houses, get a couple of collector’s stuff, like a painting or a china vase or an eighteenth-century Russian doll, and resell it on the black market. In all three cases, the police didn’t have a speck on him, his work was clean. And you’ve got to imagine the amount of security and alarm systems already installed – getting away was a ridiculous miracle.’
‘Yet, he did it.’
Radzi tapped his chin. ‘See, the 5 million was never recovered, but the police did get suspicious when the people in the mainland ghettos started coming out more, and started crowding the local hypermarkets. It happened three times, each time almost directly after a millionaire’s filed a case. One of the women they interviewed even mentioned that they called their ghetto Jamber-town, which was obviously meant to be sarcastic as well as political. No one'd call the ghettos a town.’
‘So Jamber was playing Robin Hood.’
‘Yup. And the best part was, the ghettos stood up for him, provided more than ten alibis for each case. But he’s MIA now. No one knows what happened to him, and I can’t find any leads either.’
Weeding out the papers, she studied Jamber’s pictures for little while, then held up another set of photos. ‘This one’s quite a looker.’
Rad shrugged. ‘Not the last photo. By then she seemed to have lost her mind a little. She was a high-class prostitute from 1993 to 2004, took a break in 2005, resumed work a year later. Her colleague – known only as Madam Madam – said she was never the same after that, and it shows in that last picture of her.’
Nikki gazed at the photos with a slight expression. The woman was beautiful, with cascades of nut-brown hair and a pair of deep-set, intense eyes, but in the final photo, her skin was sallow, her face hauntingly old.
‘She died. Age 29.’
‘Any thieving?’
‘Once, after her holiday in 2005. It seemed that she kept chanting, I took it from him. he’s going to find me, he’s going to kill me. But it was reported by Madam Madam, so we don’t know if it’s made-up.’
‘Well, she did die –’
‘Of natural causes. Became too depressed, fell sick, and wouldn’t take her medication.’
Nikki tapped her chin. ‘Okay. And this Jed Zhen?’
‘Constantly on the run, but he was no professional at it. He left traces everywhere, so it’d have been really easy to locate him at any one time. His thieving was a lot more random – some food from a kitchen restaurant, an unlocked car at a petrol station, a few hundred-dollar bills by threatening women who had pretty handbags.’
‘If he was so obvious, why couldn’t the police get to him?’
‘He had a kid with him. There was one particularly close call, but the police didn’t want to shoot a small-time thief, not when it would risk hurting the little girl. In fact, no one knew about the kid being held hostage until then – no missing person’s report matched her. His body turned up a few months later, in a construction site that had collapsed.’
Radzi looked away now, as if he’d talked too much about something too reprehensible.
‘What happened to the child?’
‘Don’t know. There’s nothing at all on her. Don’t know where she came from or where she went or who she was. Might have been an immigrant child, which would make sense if the parents were illegal – wouldn’t have wanted any records of her.’
She pursed her lips. ‘But what does it have anything to do with Jed Zhen?’
‘You tell me. We have four dead people, one missing Robin Hood, and an unknown child.’ Radzi leaned back in his seat and made a face. ‘I already know what you’re thinking.’
‘And what’s that?’
He sighed. ‘The cases are all so different, Nikki. And if what I think makes any difference to you - no, they can’t possibly be related.’
‘Okay,’ announced Radzi, a pack of ice balanced on his head. His fingers moved like lightning on the keyboard. ‘Basically, in these computers, there is a database that’s been hacked from the local police force, and since our population is a pitiful total of 15,000 including the mainland, there will be no problem tracking down individual activities.’
‘We can start with the Iyseeks.’
‘That’s what I thought as well. But the person himself - he doesn’t exist, not really. He was born as Reginalt Iyseek in 1949, attended the Coska nursery in 1953, pulled out half a year later. His parents migrated to the US, but in all the years until their deaths, they’ve never been seen with a child. No trail of him until year 2000 when he moved into a room above a pub. Reginalt Iyseek, 51 years old, citizen of Coska Island, born 27th January 1949, paid the mortgage installments until he turned 53, bought the whole pub three years later. Worked as the bartender until 16th October 2009 when the pub closed down due to permanent power failure.’
‘16th October,’ she repeated. ‘Nick died on the 18th. He must have closed down the pub and started terrorizing Daniel.’
Radzi frowned. ‘He didn’t have to close the pub down, surely he had other people to carry out his orders?’
‘Or maybe he wanted to make sure the deed was done right – what better way than to do it himself?’
‘Maybe. But that’s it about Iyseek. He was nothing more than a baby when his parents shipped him off to goodness-knows-where, or probably even left him behind with a different name, and then nothing – until he comes back.’
Nikki paused. Nothing more than a baby. ‘How did the parents die?’
‘It says here – oh –’ Radzi’s expression changed, ice droplets sliding to his chin. ‘It was a car accident in San Francisco.’
Nikki’s face was cheerless. ‘Can you find out anything about Andrea Kaniso?’
‘She was born in 1957, Cuban parents, attended a private high school here and later went to college in the US. In 1988, she stole 4,000 US dollars from a man but charges were dropped when the guy was found to be drug dealer. Apparently she snuck up on him in his own home.’
‘Looks like stealing from drug dealers can be justified.’ She looked disgusted. ‘What happened to Kaniso?’
‘Died ten years later. Natural causes.’
How strange. Why would Nick be researching her if she was a dead criminal?
‘What about Chek Kavok? K-a-v-o-k.’
‘Born in 1959 in Slovenia, got a scholarship for a Master’s degree in San Francisco when he turned 35. Prime suspect for stealing 30,000 USD from a doctor who specialized in bones, but no one could pin him down for earning that much by working three jobs over a year.’
‘You’re saying he covered himself with alibis?’
‘From the records I’m reading – he knew what he was doing, all right. Three different bar owners vouched that he’d been working for them for the whole of 1998 and that they only paid him at the end of the year, which explains why such a large sum of money came into his hands at one time.’ Radzi clicked some more and did something fast with his fingers. ‘You’ll find this interesting. He died in 1999, a few months after getting his money.’
Nikki had gotten out a pen and paper, and was drawing a timeline. ‘Which was also a year after Andrea Kaniso died. Anything else about Kavok?’
‘I’m hacking now. The database is useless. We don’t need formal information, we need the informal stuff, all the gritty details.’
As it turned out, it was difficult to track down his trail. There were no medical records that registered a similar age with Kavok’s asthma and hypoglycemic symptoms, no bank accounts with suspect passwords, no dental records.
‘Are you going to hack into foreign records?’
‘Yes, but it’ll take longer. Not so familiar with their security.’ He glanced at his girlfriend, the circles round her eyes dark. ‘Take a nap, Nikki. Seriously. When you wake up, I’ll have all the information ready.’
‘I need you to find out about the rest – Hugo Jamber, Tallulah Printip, Jed Zhen – here –’ She scribbled down their names for him. ‘Can you find anything about Jamber on the –?’
‘Sleep.’ Radzi looked like he meant it. ‘You’re no use when you’re tired. And I’ll need you to save everything into that photographic memory of yours.’
But he couldn’t know how hard it was for her to sleep. It was so much easier to be about and moving and doing, because when she lay there in the quiet, with only Radzi’s tap-tap-tap sounds for distraction, the speakerphone in her head roared with such ferocity that her head spun: You’re not Nick. You wanted to know. You left them for dead.
The computers that got installed were like no other.
‘These are massive,’ she commented to the bulky man who’d brought them in.
But it was Gui’s on-screen face who answered. ‘I already have two people on the case. Are you sure you want to do this?’
The question made her think of Radzi. ‘And these two people, they know about everything you and Nick have done?’
Gui didn’t say anything, which was as good an answer.
She touched Radzi lightly on the shoulder and spoke to Gui. ‘You got him the medicine, so yes, I think we can pull this off. Whatever information you already have regarding the Iyseeks, now would be the time to let us know. We don’t need to waste any more time.’
‘See the file over there? 50 pages.’ Seeing her expression, he added, ‘Not much. The Iyseeks clean up well.’
It took her two hours to have the entire file read and memorized. Frankly, she had no clue about what she was doing, but it seemed worth it – studying whatever knowledge she was privy to – because every time she thought of Jean’s disappointed face, something inside her ached like a gnawing tooth, a sore lump that sharpened her determination.
She tried to think back to six months ago, when she’d entered Nick’s room to find his papers on his bed. It was certainly odd, the way the papers were laid right side up, as though he’d just been reading them, or as if he’d wanted someone else to.
‘Think, dimwit. Think.’
There were the documents about the criminals. Andrea Kaniso, Chek Kavok, Hugo Jamber, Tallulah Printip, Jed Zhen – petty criminals, mostly thieving, all who managed to escape the law. Were they the criminals Nick researched on before settling on Iyseek? Were they Iyseek’s people? And the pictures of small babies, tiny babies, at least 20 of them, but Nick hadn’t offered any relevant information, not even their names. Why? What was so important about the babies?
Disconcerted, she racked her brain, and it dawned on her how meticulous her brother had been. He had filed birth certificates, driving licenses, fake identification cards, bank account numbers, times and dates and methods of thieving, names of victims – everything to know about the criminals had been carefully printed, splayed out across the bed like a winning credential. Nick must have known that once she looked, she could never get the information out of her head – but if that was the case, had he purposely made her know? Why hadn’t he told her earlier? What did he expect her to do now?
‘Nikki …’ Radzi stirred next to her.
‘Hey.' She mustered a small smile. ‘You feeling better?’
‘Head hurts like a son-of-a-bitch, and that medicine was pretty much made of poop, but otherwise, yes, I’m fine.’ He looked at her closely. ‘Wish I could say the same for you though.’
She helped him get up. ‘Gui got us the computers.’
‘Those big things? They look like calculators from the 1920s.’ He winced at his own joke. ‘And oh of course, yes-I’ll-use-my-amazing-brainpower, since you’ve already asked.’
She smirked at his sarcasm, becoming again the tough girl he knew. Right then and there, Radzi thought it'd be enough for him.
Veremor sat up and shook his head. He was drenched in sweat. He stared at his hand and questioned himself: one shall hath control over his fate, shall he not?
“Good heavens you’re up!” a woman shouted out. She pushed through the bushes and soon came into sight. She pulled her cape to cover her legs and simply wrap it. She examined him for a moment before she squatted down saying “Snap out of your sweet dreams already!”
“Well” he really did snapped out of it and looking back at her saying “it wasn’t that sweet seeing your own death!”
“Oh! Yes it does!” she called out playfully as she hugged her feet tightly “at least you get to know when, where and how you’ll fall asleep in that eternal chamber of woods, right? I know I’m not wrong, I’m just too correct! So, you don’t have to be embarrassed about how wrong you are, right?”
“Whatever...” he sighed “Let us go. We have destination to reach.” He stood up slowly, sweeping off some leaf on his shoulder. He channelled his mana around his body and evaporated his sweat. He studied his surrounding and soon came into conclusion about where they need head to.
“You’re no fun!” she stood up and laid her hand at her back. She followed him leisurely, still enjoying the natural view around her.
The forest was unusually quiet. No birds singing or animals sneaking about in the bushes. The wind blew gently caressing the woman elegant hair. Grass and bushes waved and rustle as they fractioned against each other in the wind.
Quite some time later, they have walked out from the forest to a narrow path. They came to a village. The village was fenced by strong thick and sturdy log. The unreasonably tall fences covered the inside of the village perfectly. Several watchtowers were behind the fences and two were just beside the gate. The village’s guards were busy. They held their weapon firmly and stayed vigilant. Their eyes marked tightly to the left of the village. The watchmen ringed a bell as they spotted Veremor and the woman. Every guard that was on the outside of the fence whispered against each other discussing what to do with Veremor and the woman. Soon they decided.
“Whoever you are, I suggest you take your leave before sunset” one of the village guards shouted out.
Veremor stopped and stand still. Pausing briefly he throw in a question “Something happen?”
“Several days ago some villagers spotted a few Lizardman lurking in the forest and butchering cases as well as kidnapping has been happening since then!” the guard take a deep breath “It’ll be dangerous when its dark!”
“Shooing us out when we have just arrive is a little unfriendly don’t you think?” the woman exclaimed “Besides, we may be of help if we stayed.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
The guards ringed a bell and someone on the inside ringed back. The gate was slowly pushed open by ten guards and ten more pulling some rope that is connected to assist the opening of the gate. The ropes were tied firmly and simple machines were used. As soon as the gate was opened about a height that was a meter and half, Veremor and the woman slipped in quickly. The door guards released the door and it slammed down, kicking up layers of sands.
They found an inn to rest in just before sunset. The inn was quite big with a total of three floors. They had to have two rooms on the second floors as all the others were full for whatever reasons the owner gave. The first and third floor was bright but the second floor was not so nice at all. The lamps were dim and the moonlight seems to be more useful then the lamp. The floor looks fragile and with each step it creaked. There were some cobwebs around the corner.
Veremor sat on a bed in the room while the woman laid herself on a comfortable bed in the other room. She took out her emerald flute and looked at it with deep passion. Soon she lost herself in dream, holding onto the flute. On the other hand, Veremor found himself a stool beside the window and sat on it. He unsheathed his sword and started to polish it. He polished each part thoroughly.
Veremor looked into the moon from his room window. The moon that night was quite fascinating. Some clouds slowly drifted nearer the moon. The dazzling moonlight reflected from his sword brightens up the room. Shadows danced on the ceiling, illuminated by the reflected moonlight. As the clouds blocked a part of the moonlight he sunk into deep thought. Recalling every scene he had watched today. Suddenly he stood up, pushing open his door and knocked on the woman door.
“Hey, you still awake?” he asked.
“Thanks to you now that I’m awake!” She answered. Rustling sound of blanket, a few light footsteps and the door opened. “Something bother you?”
“Lizardman don’t kidnap, they eat whenever they want!” he asked while examine his surroundings. His hands slowly slipped down to his sword. “They don’t have plans!”
“Now that you mentioned it, I guess it different area have different beast maybe” she lifted her hand to rubbed her eyes and yawned.
“Packed your things” he returned to his room; still resting his hands around his sword. “We must leave.”
She stood there a moment and thinks hard. Then, she shivered. She quickly turned around and packed her things. As soon as she finished packing her things, Veremor was waiting outside her room. She quickly followed him when he walks down the stairs. When they reach the first floor the owner get up from his room wand walked out.
“It is not safe out there.” He closed his door. “I suggest you stayed until morning.”
“We have urgent matter to attend.” He ignored him and walked to the front door while reaching for his sword. The woman followed tightly.
“Well, it’s very sad that we don’t like clever people!” the owner sprung up to the woman and clawed her.
Veremor unsheathed his sword and pulled the woman. His claw almost had her if Veremor was a little too late. He banged opened the door and command her “go west”
Meanwhile the owner screamed and his body started to expand. Scales slowly covered his body and shard claws protrude from his fingers. Veremor stabbed onto its head without second thought just when he started to take form. Blood spurt out as he pulled his sword out of the lizard head. He swung his sword hard to chop off the lizard head.
More lizards came out of the village as he caught up with the woman.
“I’ve never heard of lizard in human form!” she asked “How is that possible?”
“These were not lizardman!” he sped up his pace and casted a wind spell on the woman boots. “These were werelizard!”
“What!” she shouted out in surprise. “How is that possible? They don’t hunt in group!”
“Well they don’t but what if something controlled them?” he casted a fire spell lighting the way. “We better hurry!”
He suddenly stopped and so did the woman. He examined the surrounding carefully, his eyes search deeply into the dark. Slowly, few werelizards emerged in front of them from the shadow. Few seconds later more came out around them; they were surrounded.
