While Loran decoded his message, 173, or Ghost, sat in the kitchen of his house. The kitchen was 173’s favorite part of his house; it was big and had good cooking supplies, so he could cook as much as he wanted and anything he wanted. 173 sat there in silence, in a conforming space, and just breathed. Suddenly he heard the footsteps of a friend.

“Hey, how are you,” the friend asked calmly.

“Great. How was your day?”

“Good,” the friend paused, “Did you leave the message?”

173 sighed, “Yes. But I made it a little more challenging this time.” 173 smiled.

The man laughed, “You are so childish.”

“Well it is more fun when it is harder.” 173 declared throwing his feet on the table, resting back into his seat.

“Uh huh,” the man started to walk to one of the cupboards, “Hey could I have some water?”

“Sure. Just remember not to-'' The slam of the closing cabinet shook 173 back into the past. 173 started to breathe heavily, he closed his eyes in the attempt to focus and when he opened them he was suddenly back in his cell, the bang of the hall door closing woke him. The General opened the cell door and stalked in while the guard stayed behind. The General grabbed the front of 173’s hair and pulled it back so that he was forced to look at the general, “What am I saying,” the General demanded.

“You said ‘What am I saying’,” both the General and 173 spoke in Chinese, “you can leave now, can’t you?” Immediately after he said that, 173 threw his hands to his mouth and looked like a child who had just sworn in front of his parents. The General’s face contorted. The general was a very proper and disciplined monster who would not stand for contracted words, believing them to be improper, “‘Can't’?” Questioned the General. He turned to a guard and boomed, “Take him to the tank for two minutes!”

173 whimpered, “No! Please, it was a mistake! Please just not the tank!” The guard grabbed 173 and started to sooth him by rubbing his shoulders.

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173 opened his eyes and he was back in his kitchen. 173 was wet with sweat and tears. He was huddled in his chair with his knees pulled to his chest; he could feel his muscles ache as he released the tension and began to slow his breathing. The familiar man was kneeling in front of 173 with his hands on his shoulders. The man looked worried, “I’m so sorry. I forgot that that cabinet hadn’t had its slow hinges fixed.”

“I-it is okay. I-I am okay now,” 173 hesitated, “What- what happened?”

“You were yelling in Chinese again… while you hyperventilated. I tried to calm you down,” the man said gently, “Here I’ll help you to your bed. You need to rest. Remember what the doctor said.”

173 replied, “It is late, you should go home. Do you not have to work early in the morning?”

“I do, but I’ll leave after I know you’re safe in your bed.”

173 said nothing and all he could think was: ‘I will’ and ‘You are’.

Loran was baffled, “‘Do you know Morse’! That is what you wrote? Are you kidding me?” Loran continued to go on her rant. Then she was interrupted by something that caught her eye. She had totally forgotten a part of the message; she almost overlooked it completely in a fit of rage. She examined the lower case and upper case a’s and b’s, and it was as she thought- the case of the letters represent the dots and dashes in Morse code. Loran closed her laptop; her face dressed with a smug look- she had Morse code memorized.

Loran scrunched her face in her hands. She had been doing that for thirty minutes, refusing to use her laptop for Morse code. She had it memorized but not anymore, she guessed. Loran removed her hands from her face and went to open the laptop- no! She still has it memorized. She didn’t need a laptop. She bit her lip and stared at the computer, “Aw, screw it!”

She opened the laptop and looked up Morse code. Loran now knew the true nature of the message. She slammed her hands on her desk and shot up out of her chair. The once sleepy Loran was now fully awake. She twirled around, causing her long brown hair to fly through the air, and lunged for her phone. She stumbled with the numbers as she called Bryan, “Bryan!”

A groggy Bryan answered the phone, “H- huh? Loran?”

“Byan! Wake up!”

“Loran, what is it? It’s three in the morning.”

“I know, I know, but I just deciphered Ghost’s message.” Loran took a moment to breathe then continued, “I need you to scan the area for veterans of world war three.”

After this she heard some rustling then, “Okay,” Bryan now sounded awake, “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. I’ll do it; see you in the morning. I’ll have the information by then.”

“Thanks Bryan.”

“No problem.”

After she hung up, Loran heaved a sigh of relief; there was finally a breakthrough in the Ghost case. She turned to take a look at the note resting effortlessly on her desk. The note had evolved once again. It now read: “I served in world war 3 did you?” Loran still had so many questions; why now? What was Ghost playing at?