I sat down with Rosa having afternoon tea after I made all the statements I had to make.
“Not to your tastes?” she leaned forward in the posh and quiet restaurant. I was severely underdressed, but that mattered not due to the lack of customers at the time. Apparently, we were also located in a separate room for VIPs.
“It’s,” I smiled, “an acquired taste I have not yet acquired.”
“Says the boy who drinks coffee daily,” she hooked her hair behind an ear. “Well, Mr Ugo, I know today has been a tiring day for you so I’ve got some good news.”
“You’ve decided to marry me?”
“Don’t tempt me now.” Her eyes swept to the right and left, in a dilemma on which of my own to focus on. “I’ve the perfect story to validate the evidence you’ve provided against Asher and Donovan. We need not tread lightly.”
I admired her beauty for quite a while, but internalised what she just told me with the recent events. “Donovan, you can sink. But not Asher.”
Her eyebrows raised slightly and her fingers intertwined on the table, “You’ve a preference? Why is that?”
Because… “Look at what’s happened today. A few ministers died. I most certainly don’t put it past Cennet to target the ministers of defence and education in particular, since they’re the ones who would be primarily responsible for granting his request should it be passed. Their lives are most in danger. I don’t care much what happens to Asher, but, after I found my parents and his daughter…”
“Hmm,” she sipped her tea, “it would leave a bad taste if he was to die right after learning that his daughter’s alive?”
“Yeah,” I leaned back and allowed the waiter to replace my tea with afternoon coffee.
“Quite the big heart you have for your enemies. Alright then. I will not proceed until you tell me to. But I will use my own discretion should the situation call for it. You should know, having them sentenced to a maximum-security prison is likely the best way to keep them safe from David Cennet.” She took a glance at her wristwatch, “I best get going.”
I bid farewell and she began walking off, but stopped not too far away. “Ms Stone mentioned a little party you wish to keep,” she pointed out, holding her clutch with both hands. “I do hope it goes well.” She stood there for a while before turning around again.
“Forgive me. I wasn’t aware madam Home Secretary had the time or patience for such things. If it eases your mind, the thought of inviting you frequented me more and more as the days went by.”
“Thoughts don’t put me at ease, Mr Ugo,” she said my name formally because our conversation at that range would be in earshot of the waiter, “results do.”
“You’d best clear your schedule, then,” I replied. She gave a toothless smile of contentment and left. Who’d have guessed the home secretary would feel left out because she didn’t get an invite to Jared Ugo’s party?
The two hours of visiting time in the evening came around and I became a little busy. Anna left work early to visit my parents, but I couldn’t go with her. The first visit I made that day was to Esther Serrette. We didn’t see eye to eye at first, but along the way we learned to respect each other. Some of her friends and family was there, along with a few TEOs – quite the turnout for one I couldn’t imagine people liking at first. Unfortunately, I didn’t get much time to speak with her in the presence of her close friends and family, but at least the photo lady was there to keep me company. I’d never bothered to learn her name, though.
My next stop was LocalHost. I messaged Backslash to find out which ward they were at and found out he hadn’t left the hospital since they were admitted. Their injuries included haemorrhaging, broken bones and fractures. But Xeno got it the worst of all. According to Backslash, he was kicked in the spine and couldn’t move and even at this point was currently in having emergency surgery. “Hey, Jared, wanna know a secret?” Backslash asked me. ItHertz and ByteMe’s ears perked up, but not Cryptic. She listened to us but didn’t talk too much, which was nothing unusual. I was over on her side and Backslash sat between the other two. “ItHertz has the biggest crush on ByteMe I’ve ever seen but he’s too afraid to tell her.”
“Even though he’s the most talkative person in LocalHost?” I asked, not wanting to drop the ball of conversation. But inside, I had the biggest shock I’d ever had. Even Cryptic was looking on with anticipation and a slight grin.
“I know, right? It’s strange!” Backslash exclaimed, continuing to nonchalantly drink his bottled water.
ByteMe’s eyes looked right past Backslash and tethered themselves to ItHertz, but the young man didn’t budge except for curling his fists. His foot slung up didn’t help his cause either. “Backslash you conniving little piece of shit! I’m gonna fuckin’ kill you!” He tried to reach over at to him, but all attempts were made futile when Backslash simply leaned away a bit.
“Is that true?” ByteMe asked and ItHertz finally settled. He sighed, busted and unable to hide his feelings behind his usual gregariousness.”
“Y-yeah…”
“And you waited until they tied me up like a goddamn mummy to tell me?! Shit, you didn’t even tell me. The shyest person in the group had to do it for you!”
“Way to rub that in,” ItHertz said sarcastically.
“Don’t.” ByteMe simply warned. “Stop hiding behind that happy-go-lucky persona and be serious with me.”
“Ugh,” he groaned in annoyance. “Yeah. I like you. I really like you. Ever since we first met, I liked you. But I figured it was just infatuation so I second-guessed myself and the longer I took the harder it became to appear as someone other than a ‘happy-go-lucky’ guy. Figured at that point you’d never take me serious anyway, so I just kinda tried to let it go and forget about it. But that didn’t happen. The more I told myself we’d never date was the more I wanted it. Plus, I thought you’d never be interested in a younger guy.”
Right as he said that, Cryptic and I busted out in laughter and earned their attention. We simultaneously waved our hands in front of our faces, in attempts to dismiss their curiosity. It almost looked planned. I laughed particularly because I knew that Rosa didn’t give a damn, and I’d imagine Cryptic did something similar herself. Whilst we knew ItHertz’s worry about age difference was understandable, we both knew he was overthinking.
“Once we get outta here, we’ll have a drink together. Since you’re too spineless to ask a girl out!” ByteMe somewhat fumed.
“Hmm,” I rubbed my chin with an impish look about me, “someone seems pretty mad they didn’t get asked out.”
Cryptic guffawed this time, not at all hiding her whites. We chatted and laughed until the hour was up. I left them and made my way back to my parents. On my way there, I picked up some items to make their stay and comfortable as possible. Anna and a couple of the coats were there, as well as a few friends. They were in the middle of laughing about something until I stepped in. “Why’s everyone staring? You weren’t talking about me, were you?” I interrogated and Anna smiled, averting her eyes elsewhere.
“Anna was showing us a video of you flying next to a helicopter,” dad said, with a beaming smile as if he was proud. I wondered if he ever questioned the danger of it.
“Which one?” I asked.
“Which one? There’s more than one?” mom interjected.
“Let’s,” I scratched my neck, “not get into that. Anyway, here’s some–”
“Ms Ugo and Mr Foster?” A doctor came by. “Pardon me. We’ve received the test results. It’s nothing serious, so you can be discharged. But your bodies are a bit weak. Please eat properly and on time,” he placed his clipboard behind his back and smiled. “Don’t forget to stay hydrated. Avoid strenuous activity for a day or two until you start feeling stronger. If you experience anything out of the ordinary, please consult a certified physician. Please take care of yourselves.” He then stared at me, as if trying to remember where he’d seen me but walked off without saying anything.
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Ah, speaking of taking care of yourself… I unstrapped my shielders and gave one to each parent. I should make some more and make sure they have a pair at least… Dad inspected his shielder heavily and eventually tightened the straps onto his forearm. “Alright,” I got up and stretched, “I’ll go get some clothes. Hospital clothes aren’t too sexy.”
As I stepped away from the ward, I heard mom’s faint voice commenting on how much it felt like I was a different person. I juggled that thought in my head a few times whilst in the department store grabbing up clothes and busting my brain about what sizes my parents were. By the time I was done, it looked like I was a spoiled teenage girl with a bad spending habit considering all the bags I carried.
We finally made it home and we were greeted by the irresistible aromas of dinner. Anna probably told the maids to prepare something after she learned my parents would be discharged. Once a fork was in hand, I pigged-out even more than my parents. Their appetites hadn’t quite made it back yet, so they ate as much as they could but it wasn’t a lot.
The next day, mom’s lawyer came over to discuss things with all three parents. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay to find out what the latest development would be. Instead, Mr Andino and I had to have a talk about his son, Stan. I opted for tea instead, already having my morning coffee at home. Mr Andino had just returned home from dropping his daughter to school.
It was so quiet in the house that we could hear nothing more than the chirping birds and ticking clock. “I should really get back to work soon, so…” I hurried them along. Stan, short for Stanley of course, leaned against the wall whilst his father, Samuel Andino and I shared a cup over the coffee table in the centre of the living room.
“Does he really have to know?” The cautious, almost paranoid Stan questioned.
“He…” Mr Andino paused and sighed, resting his cup down on the table. “Stan…” he began speaking again but couldn’t finish.
The young man sighed, “Alright, alright.” He bounced off the wall using his shoulder alone, “Listen, kid. Cennet only really knows robotics and stuff like that. His real strength comes from his network. He knows people. He picks his prey carefully, and always chooses those with family.”
“What’re you saying?” I questioned and he finally stopped pacing the room and looked me straight in my eyes.
“I’m saying, most of the people working for him have had the safety of their family threatened in some way and aren’t in a position to refuse their service to him. He knows people at multiple morgues and top-notch costume designers. How do you think you were able to bury your ‘parents’? They’re dolls, fake corpses. Every single person he made a show of killing weren’t actually killed. The only people he’d actually kill were never his targets.”
A lot more stuff made sense as he explained it, but so many more questions rushed to my head as well. “Why were you working with him then?”
“I wasn’t. I was blackmailed into it.”
“And the files you gave him? What was that?”
He looked at his dad, his face contorting slightly. “An investigation on each member of parliament’s family habits. If they don’t meet his demands, he’ll find some way to slaughter them.”
“How’d he blackmail you?” his father questioned.
“Cindy,” Stan replied and Mr Andino gritted his teeth. “That’s how he got me in the first place. Once my death got staged and I changed my appearance a little, I could be the perfect person to steal and gather information.”
“And? What makes you resurface after all this time?”
Stan paused, looked away and found it difficult to answer.
“Answer me, boy…” Mr Andino was boiling with rage, but kept the lid on.
“David Cennet wanted me to kill my sister. That’s when I called it quits. Plus, he made an enemy of the state publicly. I figured that was the best time to get out.”
A wintry moment of silence encapsulated us at that moment. It’s been, three or four years since he went missing, according to the data. I recalled the information about the case that Mr Andino pulled for me. I stood and up and yawned, stretching some languor out of me. “Thanks for the tea.”
There were still so many unanswered questions, but what Stan said about the dolls answered the most burning ones. I requested him to summarise his time working for Cennet into a report of sorts, so I could sort out all the data I had. Especially the things I found from the hideouts such as the biology and computer labs. The warehouse with the abundance of TS was also a concern to me. In fact, I flew over there immediately after.
Sitting atop some wooden pallets, I cussed in frustration as the scene wholly painted the truth I didn’t see before. Every single TS I saw there the day before, were still there. The place wasn’t touch. That meant, all the androids Cennet had under his control weren’t any from this litter. No, he had a supply of it from elsewhere and the only people I could depend on to get me that information were now hospitalised. At that point, his five hideouts that we discovered yesterday probably weren’t required assets for him. It meant, that any purpose they served, could be replicated in another place.
Computers? Bah, I shrugged that one in particular off. After all, he could have hackers do his bidding anywhere. The same goes for a random place to keep people captive, like the hangar in the old airstrip. The only places worth tracking down was another place to assemble the TS parts, another weapons depository, and another biology lab. Once we found those, we could defang him a great deal.
I envisioned my fingers tightening around his neck and lost myself for a minute. He was infuriating! Before I could properly enter a rabbit hole of anger, my phone rang. Hana was calling for another interview. “I’m here with Diana Ugo and she says you found her. In fact, you found a lot of people we thought Cennet killed,” she mentioned.
“You’re with Diana Ugo, you say? Then put her on the phone,” I told the reporter, failing to believe her. But she proved me wrong and mom answered the phone. Now why on earth would you let a reported in the house? I sighed, but didn’t actually ask that question.
I returned home close to noon, and sure enough, Hana and Jack were there. She was taking a smoke break whilst Jack reviewed some shots. “Oh!” She jumped a bit, “You scared me, kid!”
“And you constantly scare me,” I said, a testament to her persistence when it came to her job. “What’d you tell security for them to let you in, anyway?”
“What? You don’t like me here?” she smirked devilishly. “That breaks my heart, kid.”
“Let’s finish this up,” I said and entered the house. She put her cigarette out and scurried behind me, immediately fixing her hair. It didn’t take very long for her questions to start rolling in. Anna eventually went to work so it would just be Charlie, Diana, and I. I sat between them, laid back a little on the couch.
“Have you seen the entire contents of David Cennet’s proposal to the government?”
An eyebrow went up, “I haven’t seen any of it actually. Why?”
“Why?” she questioned. “Haven’t you heard the TEO’s statement? They’re suspicious of you having ties to Cennet because you knew where his weapon stash and his hostages were.”
What absolute bullshit is that? They said those things on TV? “Intriguing. And who, specifically, said these things?”
“The police commissioner,” Hana answered. “Does this come as a surprise to you?”
I took quite the moment, reminiscent of Rosa’s unshakeable habit. “No.”
“Why not?”
“It’s easy to point fingers so others won’t see your own incompetence.”
“Are you saying the police force is incompetent?”
“No. I’m saying their backs are against the wall and they’re confused.”
“I see,” Hana smiled a little. “Some of our viewers are interested in knowing, now that your parents are back, will you continue to thwart Cennet’s plans?”
I looked her right in the eye, my expression unmoving. “Thus far, all the incidents I’ve been in, I’ve been in because I had no choice.”
“And this last one?”
I chuckled, “You really know which buttons to press, huh?”
“Thank you for the compliment,” she replied, smiling in turn.
I leaned in a bit more, “This last incident was voluntarily. I got information about Cennet’s hideouts and checked them out–the hangar and weapon storehouse. When I returned to the parliament downtown, it was never my intention to participate there but simply to ensure you were safe.”
“When you say ‘ensure your safety’, do you mean…”
“Yes, you,” I pointed, “the reporter, Hana Koizumi.”
“W-why?”
“You know why.”
She stopped, closing her eyes and swiping her fingers at her neck for Jack to kill the recording. “Is that why he was in the hospital yesterday with those strangers?” Her suspicions were answered with my nod. “So, my son’s involved in this whole fiasco?”
“He is,” I answered.
“Fuck, Jared!” She stood up suddenly, her fists curled. “I’m, going for a smoke…”
By the time she did that, I visited the website with Cennet’s proposal to the parliament. It wasn’t as long and complicated as I imagined. To summarise the changes in policy he wanted, I could simply mention two points. One was to have cameras set in such a way that there would be no blind spots in places that students were required to be in. Classrooms, hallways, gyms, and the general grounds. The next change would be to hall monitors, actual adults certified in some way to quell conflicts between students should any arise. They simply had to be present for break, lunch, and an hour or so after the school dismisses its students. Cennet pointed out numerously, the effects of bullying and no matter how much I painted this man in the colours of a despicable criminal, he was right. These things he wanted to implement were good things. I couldn’t help but think that, if these measures were put into place before, Jonathan would still be alive. The solution to most of the bullying problem could be implemented like this, with simple surveillance. It wasn’t the cure by any means, but it was a damn good place to start.
“Why like this?” I thought out loud, pondering why he’d go to such lengths. Sure, the legal route would be insufferably slow, but it could’ve been achieved, couldn’t it? Why should a parent think that holding politicians’ lives at ransom was needed for implementing something as logical as this? Many schools already had cameras and student-based hall monitors. This wasn’t too far a stretch for the government nor the treasury and the results would be greatly appreciated by parents everywhere. Why? I asked myself again but wasn’t quite sure.
Suddenly, a message came through with a location. ‘Halogen Towers’, it read, a skyscraper located deeper in the city. Hana came sprinting inside a few seconds later and turned the television on, “Something’s going down!” she exclaimed, as if forgetting about her son already.
There was a little video to the corner of the news anchors, showing five people dangling from Halogen Towers.