Chapter Seventeen

Nick Cladwell - Naguela

“She has to be onto me,” Nick Cladwell thought to himself as he watched the library entrance through his binoculars. Nick turned to the Japanese anime-style plushie he had sat on a foldable chair across the rooftop.

He’d bought the plushie for his son Thomas before his fallout with his ex-wife. The two of them were now embroiled in a bitter custody battle. Nick hadn’t seen little Thomas in three months, and it was driving him insane. The only thing stopping him from putting a bullet in his head was the sense of duty that came with being a COG spy.

“What do you think, Tom?” Nick asked, eyes locked on the plushie. “You think this hacker has my number? You think she found my bugs?”

The plushie’s arm twitched with the soft afternoon breeze. It was a female character from one of Thomas’ favourite anime shows. She had long dark hair, large rounded pink eyes, and a roll of bamboo stuck over her mouth. Nick did not know what the character's name was, and despite the plush depicting a girl, he continued to refer to it as Tom.

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The plush was silent as always, but somehow, Nick could hear the voice of Thomas in his head when he spoke to it. Or so he believed. “Keep watching, Dad,” Thomas was telling him.

Nick pressed the binoculars to his eyes. A red pickup truck caught his eye. It had just parked up in the small lot outside the library’s entrance. Two women stepped out of the vehicle, a dark-haired woman with brown skin and a redhead. Nick zoomed in on them.

“I don’t think they’re with our target, Tom,” Nick said to his plushie. “But, I dunno, that dark-haired girl looks familiar.” Nick racked his brain, trying to remember why her appearance was so familiar. An image stuck out to him. A sketch. He’d seen a sketch resembling this girl.

Nick grabbed his phone from the duffel bag on the ground. He opened up the MESH app, which was a COG database. He tapped over to the section that showed sketches of high-profile fugitives. “There she is,” Nick said. He read the paragraph next to her sketch. “Zella, huh? Looks like the Seers have business with her. I better call it in right away.”

Nick looked over at the plushie. “See, Tom? Today isn’t a total waste.” He smiled at Thomas’ plushie before calling the COG intelligence team.

-Mere Immortal is written by Gary Swift. If you see this on another website under another name, then someone has plagiarised it. Visit mereimmortal.com for official chapters. Subscribe to the Substack paid tier to read further ahead in the story.

-This version of Mere Immortal is written in US English.