Chapter 13: Chapter 13
Darkness conquered the sky before the break of dawn as I stepped out of the minicab outside ‘Drake's Bar' which had its doors closed as usual then. I paid the cab driver and placed the change in my clutch bag when I felt some eerie presence around me. My eyes circled, discovering the street to be empty, however, my intuition raised an odd alarm that I was being watched by a pair of eyes, which monitored my every moment around the place. Chucking fear aside, I walked over towards the lane and entered the tunnel by placing my hand on the camouflaged panel. Scanning my fingerprints and eyes across the scanner beside the elevator (Holden had granted me access), I was led underground, with euphoria bubbling in my stomach as it was the final day of my training and a day, when I would potentially gain hundred percent control over my powers, and be battle-ready to advance towards my mission. Upon reaching the training ground, I noticed that it was dark as the lights were turned off, which was quite odd, as Holden would be readily seated on his trusted chair with the lights turned on, before my entry. Nevertheless, I switched on the light and with mild astonishment found him sitting on his chair with his back to me.
“Mr. Holden,” I called, walking towards him, but no reply from his side. As I approached him, I noticed something oozing from behind his hair, looking closely I saw realized fearfully that it was blood. Carefully, I patted his shoulder and slid onto the ground lifelessly, his white shirt smeared with scarlet blood and a bullet hole across his head with a handgun placed in his motionless wrist.
I nearly collapsed backward at this horrifying sight and with a substantial effort controlled my distressing yelp with a hand on my mouth, trembling uncontrollably. Breathing abnormally with aggrievement, I sprint out of the building as fast as my legs could take me, tears dripping away spontaneously the entire way. The entire taxi ride back home my sorrow knew no bounds, as I kept sobbing. Holden's death was a premeditated murder and not a suicide that was confirmed, as the amount of time I spent with the person made me understand him too well to believe that he wasn’t the type of man to take his own life, no matter how perilous the situation be or how arduous his life turned out.
Approaching home, I noticed that the lights were on, which enhanced my worries as mum and dad stood right in front of the bedroom window glaring at me furiously.
“Get inside right now,” shouted mum, and I moved towards the main door and entered the house. Mum, Dad, and my brothers dashed down the stairs with extreme anxiety on their faces, while mum boiled with anger. “What the hell were you doing outside at this time of the day?” she howled, as dad made a fruitless attempt to calm her down.
“Just went for a walk,” I murmured coldly, trying my best to sound normal. “Ellie, you know very well that we have placed a curfew on you and yet you disobey your parents and break it so carelessly?” she demanded loudly, glancing at dad to join in. Dad, on the other hand, appeared quite calm and understanding. He stayed silent till mum was done bawling at me. After the firing ended, he walked up to me and patted me on my head.
“I understand Ellie, how frustrating it is for you to be cooped up at home, but you must realize that as your parents we want to keep you from harm's way. The murderer is still free Ellie, and he can harm anyone,” I looked at him quickly at the sound of the murderer and he smiled gently. “Yes Ellie, even I believe that your friend Matt is innocent. These haven't turned grey just out of the blue,” he claimed, pointing at his greying hair. “I have this much understanding of a person's character and life's experience at least, to know who is what, and how he or she can turn out to be,” dad's words made me feel a bit better, and lessened the anguish which I felt at Holden's death. Before I could lighten my heart and hug dad, a message popped up on my phone, which caused my heart to sprint.
“Ellie, I don't know how to break it to you but, Matt's trial has been preponed to tomorrow,” Judy texted, as I leaped onto my feet.
“Dad, I need to visit Matt's parents,” I blurted out thinking faster than ever. “His mum has suffered a stroke,” dad stared at me for a few seconds, a battle being fought in his mind whether to permit me or not. Finally, considering the intensely saddened expression on my face he nodded with a faint smile of approval, and I blasted out of the house.
My heart and mind were in a race against time as I headed towards the LPCI headquarters to meet Matt. The building appeared quite a giant from the rear end as I observed it. My last visit there hadn't given me a chance to even notice it properly, little did I know then, that I would be coming back intending to infiltrate it. With the lord's name on my lips, I wore the spandex suit that my late teacher gifted me and placed my gloved hands on the concrete wall, which miraculously stuck to it firmly. And with the instinct of a daredevil, began making the climb. My heart was banging like a wrecking ball with every inch that I clambered. My reckless feet kept shaking tremendously, as I suppressed an unexpected desire to look below. My entire body was covered in excessive sweat, trickling across my arms and legs, causing my body to itch extensively. Increasing the pace of my climb, I finally reached the topmost floor and moved sideways towards the windows. An officer appeared dozing off on his chair with his legs on the desk. As gently as my hands could permit, I made an effort to slide the windowpane but it was locked, which forced me to use my telekinetic powers to unlock it and it slid aside. The officer woke with a start at the noise and revealed his gun in shock, but I was too quick for him as I gestured my hand towards his face which smashed into his desk and he was knocked out cold.
Jumping inside, I ransacked his computer system to determine Matt's location in the building. Lady luck smiled upon me finally, as I discovered Matt's file in the prisoners' database which displayed his cell to be at the bottommost part of the building, basically in the dungeons. Without wasting a single moment, I scuttled across the floor and discovered a door which led to a hallway, pushing it open slowly, I perceived a CCTV camera facing the door and with a flick of my wrist directed it towards the other side. The footsteps of two female officers echoed from the other end, allowing to them get closer in proximity I waved my hand and their heads collided against each other. With the help of powers, I dragged one of the slimmer and petite female cops and briskly donned her uniform over my skinny spandex suit, and put on her service cap to lower the risk of recognition. I carried their bodies through the air and sat them respectively on two chairs in two separate vacant cubicles.
Passing across the hallway, I noticed the dreaded face of Jason Fox luxuriously seated in his massive glass cabin, buried into a file. I hid my face behind a file, to avoid his eye, but my luck had to vanish at that point, as I nearly tripped and dropped the file, thus, attracting his attention.
“Are you alright ma'am?” he demanded loudly pacing out of his cabin, as I hurriedly lifted the file and turned my back towards him.
“I am alright sir,” I assured, in a horrible imitation of a mature woman's deeply shrill voice, totally unlike mine. He paused for a second, staring at my back then shouted as suspicion took over him.
“Hey you, come here,” as I increased my pace and dashed across the stairway alarmingly. Fox began following me immediately, but I was quick enough to get out of his proximity. Dashing onto the second last floor, I crashed against an officer holding a mug of coffee, and he yowled in pain as the boiling liquid squashed his uniform.
“Oh I am so sorry,” I apologized, pretending to wipe it with a napkin in my pocket and then paced away towards the lift. As I pressed the lift button frantically, the annoyingly magnified voice of Jason Fox blared across the building and slammed my eardrums harshly.
“Attention officers, this is Secretary Fox, we have a female intruder in the building dressed in an officer's uniform, heading down. I repeat, we have a female intruder in the building in an officer's uniform heading down,” his magnified voice died out and the lift arrived. I rushed inside and the doors slid in. There were numerous buttons each with a description on them. I banged a large red button which read ‘Oubliette' at the bottom, and the lift began its descent speedily.
Thankfully, the lift didn't halt on the last floor and descended straight to the dungeon... The oubliette was supposed to be a secret dungeon, thus, I expected it to be a highly secured area. The lift halted, but before the doors could slide open, I held them under my control and they slid enough to allow an eye to peep outside. As anticipated, I perceived a long corridor with two heavily built security guards carrying rifles and guarding a large metallic door. I closed my eyes for a second attempting to pluck up the courage and aligning my focus with my emotions. Spontaneously, my eyelids swung open and I slid the lift doors aside, thus, alarming the guards who instantly showered bullets in my direction, which I deflected randomly with a swing of my hands. Two of those bullets struck their feet and they collapsed on the ground yelling in pain, and I banged their heads against the wall to diminish their atrocious noises. Lifting one of the officers in mid-air, I scanned his eyes and fingerprints over the scanner fixed on the side of the door, and it crashed aside revealing a dark room.
Upon entering the room, I noticed a vast pane of highly strengthened soundproof glass on the floor beneath which lay the cell of Matt. There was a flap on the ground near the pane of glass for sliding down food. Matt was lying on a bed with his eyes closed and since the glass was soundproof, I couldn't call him, therefore I pushed the file through the flap with a note on it which read, ‘mind the glass', to grab his attention. Matt’s eyes opened as the file went sliding towards him. Reading the note, his eyes traveled upwards and landed on me, and his mouth swung open as he gazed at me with an excessively intense mixture of shock and amazement. I smiled at him joyfully as a tear trickled across my right cheek. I directed my hands towards the pane of glass, and with an intense surge of my telekinetic powers, the glass shook violently for a few seconds and eventually went crashing onto the floor, while Matt move placed his arms on his head to save himself. As the cell was barely seven feet below the floor room level, I jumped inside with exhilaration.