Narvari was not sure what time it was but what she was certain of was that this was indeed an unholy time to be waking up. She yawned when her xuul beeped again. A notification.
Narvari bolted out of her much larger bed — the sleep was suddenly gone. She switched on the lamp on her bedside table then took her xuul. It was only 5:45 am. Narvari opened the notification and a rectangular holographic screen hovered above the xuul’s touchscreen with a message on it:
New Mission Team Azmel
Client: Richard Oko Armah
Location Code: AF-GH-001-AR5–29
Case type: Private
Emergency Level: Yellow
Based on the Location Code, they were going somewhere in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. She wasn’t sure where exactly in the region since she had not memorized all the location codes. Well, at least she was going to Ghana as she had wanted. But the emergency level was only yellow which meant that their mission was going to be rather boring.
Depending on the mission's urgency, they were classified into red, orange, and yellow. While red was the most urgent, yellow was the least urgent.
After a quick preparation, she went to find her team in the Junior Lounge. Azmel, Yanvirrak, and Pheera were already waiting, smartly dressed in their black and green vanquisher uniform.
“Nice suit,” Pheera said, a sweet smile adorning her beautiful face. Narvari grinned like an idiot.
“You’re late,” said Azmel in his no-nonsense voice. “Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?” Narvari followed the team out of the Junior Lounge.
“Weapons Room,” said Yanvirrak, as if that alone was enough explanation.
“For what?”
“Um, weapons.” Yanvirrak shook his head like he did not believe she had just asked him that.
Narvari narrowed her eyes. She had never considered that vanquishers needed weapons since they already had their savaz. After a few moments of passing several hallways, they came across an elevator and stepped inside.
Azmel punched the elevator keypad taking them deep underground.
Seconds later, the elevator door opened.
“Holy shit.” Narvari gaped as she stepped into a ridiculously large room full of futuristic-looking machines, vehicles, and just about anything one would find in the garage of a billionaire superhero. Exactly how much money did the school make from killing demons even with the few vanquishers they had?
A small group of people in black overalls roamed all over the place doing various things. Some cleaned up strange gadgets she had never seen before, others worked on expensive-looking cars and motorcycles, while others stood before large wall screens doing… She had no idea what they were doing.
All of this was in Draghein School? Since when?
A petite woman with short blue hair slid on a mechanic creeper from beneath a silver sports car. Getting back on her feet, she promenaded towards them, smiling cheerfully.
“Oh, look. It’s Team Az.” She waved curtly.
“Well, hello there, the ever-so-lovely Grain,” said Yanvirrak.
“Aw, you flatter me, Yan. But I’m still not giving you the plasma grenade.”
“Damn.”
The woman laughed. Her amused eyes stopped on Narvari. “And you must be our newest recruit. Narv, is it?”
“Huh, it’s Narvari Shar.”
“Sure, Narv.”
Narvari raised a brow, her eyes on the woman’s outstretched hand. What was it with these people giving her names she never asked for?
Narvari glanced at Pheera and Yanvirrak. Pheera smiled, and Yanvirrak smirked. Narvari took the woman’s rough hand giving it a firm shake.
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“The name is Graindel,” she said. “But you can just call me Grain. Your scores during your simulation training were impressive.”
“How do you know that?” Narvari tilted her head. She thought only Trixan kept track of her training.
Grain chuckled. “Dude, I designed most of the simulation.”
“You did?”
“Grain is the Head Engineer,” said Azmel. “She and her team are responsible for designing and making all the equipment we need. Now that the introductions are out of the way, can we get back to business?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Grain rolled her eyes. “So what do you guys need today?”
“It’s a private case,” said Azmel. “Just get us the usual.”
Grain nodded. “Sure.”
“And what’s that?” asked Narvari
“Our vanquishing services are normally sought after by governments and large organizations,” said Grain, taking a black hard case from a shelf full of briefcases. She put the case on a massive table with various gadgets lying on it. “Occasionally, individuals also reach out to us when they think they have problems that have to do with demons.” Grain looked up at Narvari. “Except that usually their problems have nothing to do with the supernatural. But they are paying for our time, so who are we to complain?”
“Right?” Yanvirrak grinned, to which Narvari just gave him a blank look.
Grain chuckled. “Language translators.” She took a round device that could easily fit into the ear and offered it to Narvari. She took three more of those giving one each to Azmel, Pheera, and Yanvirrak. She grabbed a hand-sized crystal prism, carefully placing it in the hard case. “Solar prism. In case you run into any sun-averse demon. Two holy cages. And that’s it Did I miss something?”
“No,” said Azmel.
“Great.” Grain ran her hand over the table as if she was scrolling through something. That was when Narvari realized that half of the table’s surface was a touch screen. “You know the drill, Az.”
Azmel stepped forward, putting his palm on the touchscreen to scan it.
“All done?” Grain asked and Azmel nodded in the affirmative. “Great. Here you go.” She tossed the bag to Azmel.
“Thanks.” Azmel carried the hard case backpack.
“My pleasure,” said Grain. “Now go kick some demon ass.”
Azmel activated the portal function on his xuul.
----------------------------------------
“Aren’t you worried about being seen?” Narvari asked, adjusting her language translator in her right ear. Being the last to walk out of the blue portal, she wondered what it would seem to an ordinary person seeing people just appear out of nowhere like that.
“You watch too many superhero movies.” Yanvirrak chuckled. “Tell me, what’s going to happen if a random person finds out that vanquishers and demons exist?”
“Nothing much.” Narvari shrugged. “I mean, they might just lose their sanity. But obviously, it’s nothing much.”
“See.” Yanvirrak patted Narvari on the back. “It’s no big deal.”
She chuckled as she looked around her, admiring the beautiful palm tree-lined street. The street converged at a roundabout where a fountain in the shape of three flower pots stood. A building towered before with the name High Garden Hotel written above it in massive block letters.
“I sense no demon energy.” Azmel stared at his xuul.
“Where the hell is everyone?” asked Yanvirrak.
Not a single person was in sight as they strolled down the empty streets. Even at the front door, no one was around to open the door for them as many hotels did. No one was inside the hotel either. There wasn’t even a receptionist.
“I don’t think there’s anyone here,” said Pheera.
“Did we get to the right place?” asked Narvari. This was too weird. Maybe Azmel had miscalculated the location code and teleported them somewhere else.
“It’s the right place,” said Azmel. His eyes suddenly turned grave, as if sensing something. Narvari understood why since she too heard the dull footsteps. “Someone is coming. Stay alert,” he instructed.
They waited with bated breath as the approaching footsteps became louder and louder. Someone finally darted out of a corner stepping in plain sight in the hallway.
A middle-aged man with a balding head and graying temples. An aura of fatigue surrounded him so much so that Narvari would not doubt it if the man claimed he had not slept for a month. He painfully dragged himself towards them.
“Good morning. You must be the people I’m expecting,” he spoke in English, his voice full of weary. “You deal with spirit issues, right?”
“You can say that.” Azmel nodded.
“Thank God. Someone helped me to reach you. He said you can help me.”
“You are Richard Oko Armah?” Azmel read the name on his xuul.
The man chuckled. “Yes. That’s me. You can just call me Richard. I own this hotel.”
Everyone took turns introducing themselves and shaking Richard’s hand.
“Narvari Shar.” Narvari took the man’s hand giving it a firm shake.
She nodded at the tattoo on the back of Richard’s hand. It was a five-pointed black star inside a circle with a thick black outline. And together they were inside a semi-circle with a thin red outline. It was a rather simple tattoo but it was professionally done.
“Cool tattoo.”
“Excuse me?” Richard raised a brow.
“What kind of help do you need from us, Richard?” Azmel interrupted before Narvari could repeat herself.
“We can’t talk here,” he said. “Come with me.”
They followed Richard into one of the hotel rooms where they eased themselves into the plush cream sofa.
“What seems to be the problem?” Azmel went straight to the point.
Shaking his head, Richard sighed. “Everything is the problem. My life is a complete mess. It can’t be physical, you know.”
Narvari raised a brow. Did this man call them because of his life problems? But when she glanced at Azmel, he didn’t seem surprised by this. Did they often get missions like this? What Grain said about private missions usually being dead ends came to Narvari. She had been so excited about her first mission only to turn out to be a waste of her time.
Richard continued, “I’ve been to so many churches already but no one could help me.”
“What exactly is this problem?”
“Didn’t you notice anything when you came in?”
Azmel paused. “I don’t know what you mean. There was nothing to notice. No one around.”
“Yes. Exactly. This place was one of the most popular hotels here in Osu. But now…” Richard shook his head, looking even more exhausted than he already did. His sunken eyes reddened.
“In the last two weeks, eighteen people have died in my hotel.”
“What?” They all gaped. Even Azmel.