RESTLESS : The Hunt For Peace Episode 194

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“Your boss is coming?” Evelyn who overheard their conversation stepped closer to Emily.

“Yes, he is,” Emily answered. “Would you like to question him too?”

“No,” Evelyn shook her head, forcing out a smile. “That’s not necessary for now.”

“Okay then, let’s proceed,” Emily said and led her on towards the previous destination.

“F***!” Evelyn cursed under her breath. The whole task was going to be ruined with Elvis Kahn coming and even worse with the cleaners going to the office at that moment. She needed to find a way to warn Carl.

She managed to turn on her communicator as she followed beside Emily.

___

In Elvis Kahn’s Office

Henry and Maxwell were at the cabinet, checking out the different files. They both had hand gloves on to prevent having their fingerprints on the items they touched.

Dave dropped a particular collection of books on the ground and placed a knee down as he began to check through it.

“Got anything there?” Henry glanced at him.

“Nothing yet, still checking,” Maxwell answered.

“There has to be something in this cabinet,” Henry said as he continued his search. He heard a beep from his earpiece and knew someone had just connected. He tapped the button on the device attached to his belt to turn on the mouthpiece. Maxwell also heard the beep but continued his search without bothering to turn on his mouthpiece. Soon, they both heard Evelyn’s voice.

“So, how long do you think it will take your boss to get here?”

“I don’t know,” Emily’s voice sounded very low as she was far from Evelyn’s mouthpiece. “Why are you asking, I thought you said there was no need to question him for now.”

“I’m having a change of mind if your boss is coming soon. I might just want to wait for him,” Evelyn’s voice sounded again.

“Are there questions you have that you can’t ask me?” Emily questioned.

“No, but there are questions that your boss might have better answers for?”

“If you’re still going to ask my boss the same questions you asked me, then why have you taken so much of my time?”

“I have different questions for your boss,” Evelyn replied. “You just need to tell me if he will be coming soon.”

“I don’t know how soon he’s coming, I don’t even know if he’s coming today.”

“Huh? But you just asked cleaners to go there now,” Evelyn argued

“Yea, I did. He could arrive in thirty minutes or by midnight.”

The connection was disconnected at that point. Evelyn had managed to pass the message to them.

“Shi*t!” Maxwell cursed and got up immediately. “I think Elvis Kahn is coming here or who else is the boss?”

Henry turned and stared at the wall blankly for a moment. He then turned back to Maxwell.

“We have to hurry up, the cleaners will be here any time soon,” he whispered.

“But we don’t know how soon we’re going to find something useful,” Maxwell countered.

“Then, we speed up our checking,” Henry replied.

Just as they both turned to continue their search, they heard some footsteps approaching the place.

“Did you hear that?” Maxwell whispered and rose slowly.

“Return those books now,” Henry whispered back and also quickly arranged where he was searching.

“What do we do now?” Maxwell asked after returning the books hurriedly.

“We go in through there,” Henry replied, staring towards the aperture.

“You’re gonna get dirty too,” Maxwell tried to counter but Henry was not listening.

Henry already took the backpack and was heading towards the hole. Maxwell followed him.

“Get in first,” Henry said as he clipped both palms and held it forward for Maxwell to climb up. “Hurry!”

Maxwell quickly placed a foot on Henry’s palms while holding his shoulder. He placed the other foot and then grabbed the woodwork behind the aperture above. He dragged himself into the hole.

— Outside the office –

“Hey, what can I do for you ladies?” the security man standing in the corridor asked the two cleaners approaching the place.

“We’ve been asked to clean up the chairman’s office,” one of them answered.

They were both dressed in blue outfits. One of them held a mopping stick inserted into a mop bowl while the other held some napkins and a broom.

“Are you sure?” the security man asked.

They shook their heads in affirmation.

“But I haven’t been told any like that,” he said to them, taking out his phone. “Give me a minute to confirm.”

He dialled a number and placed the phone close to his ear. The call connected and began to ring but wasn’t answered. He dialled the number a second time. This time, his call was answered in less than ten seconds. “There are some ladies here who said they’ve been asked to clean the chairman’s office,” he said into the phone and waited for a reply.

The call took less than twenty seconds in total. He returned his phone into his pocket and then move aside for the ladies to walk past him. “You may go in.”

-In the attic—

“They haven’t gotten in yet,” Maxwell whispered to Henry. Both were squatting carefully on the woodwork close to each other.

Henry was yet to give a reply when they heard sounds of the door opening. They glanced at each other and remained mute.

“They’re in,” Maxwell whispered, in much lower tones now. “What do we do?”

Henry let out a sigh, wondering what the next step was. The plan was perfect until they found out that Elvis Kahn or anyone else was coming to the office. Now, they were wasting time that could have been used for searching in the attic.

Evelyn was only supposed to take twenty more minutes of Emily’s time. Henry had predicted he would be done with the searching in less than fifteen minutes more if not for the interruption.

The cleaners turned on the bulb in the office and it provided some brightness through the attic hole.

“What do we do boss?” Maxwell whispered again. “It could take them up to 30 minutes to clean up the place.”

“Shut up and let me think!” Henry slammed at him.

Henry remained quiet for a while, listening to the cleaners working inside the place. He was quiet for about three more minutes before he spoke.

“You have to return to Emily’s office now,” Henry turned to Maxwell.

“Now? How?” Maxwell widened his eyes. “Am I not supposed to go through the door when we’re done.”

“You’re supposed to go through the door in eight minutes. But as you can see, we can’t get into the office right now. You need to go back to Emily’s office before she returns there.”

Maxwell gaped. He was about to ask another question but Henry gave him the answer before he could ask.

“You go back through the attic, that’s why you need to go back now so that you get there and clean up quickly before she returns,” Henry explained, handing the backpack to him.

“How about you? How do you get out?” Maxwell questioned.

“Don’t worry about me, go now,” Henry replied to him.

Maxwell shook his head and then took the backpack. He opened it and took out the protective materials he had previously worn. He put them back on quickly and proceeded immediately.

Henry watched him for a few seconds and then closed his eyes to think. He opened his eyes again and then took another look towards Maxwell. Then, he looked around the attic and located a brick corner where he could balance properly. He moved carefully towards the place.

“Hey, Evelyn,” he whispered into the mouthpiece. “Hey… Can you hear me, I can’t speak louder than this. I need a reply so that I know if you can hear me.”

He waited for almost a minute and didn’t get any reply from Evelyn. Then he quickly removed his mouthpiece and placed it very close to his mouth. “Evelyn…Can you hear me? Give me a sign if you can.”

“This was the room the body was found,” Emily said as she opened the door for Evelyn to enter.

Evelyn walked straight towards the bedside and stopped. She looked around for a second and then turned towards the window side. She raised the curtain and then looked around.

“It’s been cleaned up several times after that, I’m not sure you can find anything,” Emily stated.

“I know,” Evelyn almost spoke out in frustration. She had just heard something sound in her earpiece but wasn’t sure what it was.

“Can we go to the restroom where the murderer was said to have been spotted last?”

“Do I have to be the one to show you all these?” Emily grumbled. “The security head would have been in a better position to give you whatever details you need about the case.”

“Uh? I can’t really hear you loud,” Evelyn replied.

Emily widened her eyes at her. “What the f***! We’re just two in the room, do I have to shout before you hear me?”

“I’m sorry,” Evelyn apologized with a smile as she walked towards her. She took out her phone. “I was answering a call, my partner outside was sending a message across,” she added, tapping the earpiece plugged in her left ear. “Sorry for my bad manners.”

Emily stared at her with utter disgust at her unprofessionalism and stepped aside for her to go out.

“Can you show me to the restroom now?” Evelyn asked with a smile.

Emily scoffed, wondering why the Agent was now smiling after keeping a straight face for long.

“I won’t be able to take you around for much longer. I’ve got someone waiting in the office for me,” Emily said as she led Evelyn towards the restroom.

Evelyn followed quietly without giving a response.

“Try to keep her with you for at least five minutes more,” Evelyn heard from her earpiece.

— — — —

Bexford, Bethanna

11 PM

Steve remained glued as he dug out more about the case on the gang’s involvement with Carl Winston and Rex Morris’ death. From what he had found, he couldn’t imagine how members of the Gang could have murdered Agents of high calibre like Carl and Rex.

He had read the documentation of their murder again and again. Even though he was now certain that the gang works with the Red Wolves, he couldn’t still explain how they were able to get Agents Carl and Rex off guard. He was sure there was some conspiracy he needed to unravel.

Something else that bothered his mind was why the Wolves were sending the gang men after Agent Evelyn. But what was more confusing were the people around Agent Evelyn and why she was hiding the fact that the Wolves were after her life.

He leaned towards the system again to check the request he had just sent over the server. A pop-up box on the screen showed “Processing Complete” and an “Okay” button below. He clicked on “Okay” and then moved his cursor to the top bar of the software where he could see the result of his request. He clicked the result and it switched him to another window.

In the new window was a list of all the Agents Carl and Rex had worked with on their last mission, both dead and alive. He used the search feature at the top bar to find Evelyn’s name but there was no result. He sighed. If Evelyn wasn’t part of any of the teams that worked with Carl and Rex on the last mission, why is she being chased by the Wolves? It made no sense.

He wondered why it was so difficult to crack. There must be something he was missing, he thought. He closed his eyes and drew in a breath, trying to figure out what could be missing. After some minutes, he got some ideas.

Firstly, he would have to dig deeper into how Carl and Rex were killed and everything that happened to them that day. The second one was knowing those who were around Evelyn.

For the first one, he would only need to pull out the case files of their murder and also request footages around the scene the murders took place. The second one was where the bigger challenge was. The only face the cameras had picked was Dave’s but he was quite sure that there were more people in the house with them. He had to find a way to know who the others were and find out why they were working with Evelyn. Maybe it would help him solve this mystery surrounding Evelyn.

He finally closed the running apps on the computer and shut it down. Then he got up stretching and yawning. Just as he proceeded to his bedroom, he remembered there was someone he needed to call. Maria.

_ _ _ _

The DIA Club,

Benuit, Bethanna

Emily walked towards her office hurriedly, thinking of the best way to apologize to Oliver for keeping him waiting for so long. She hadn’t expected that the Agent will keep her waiting for that long.

She took in a deep breath behind the door before opening and stepping inside.

“I’m so…” she closed the door and looked around the office. There was no sight of Oliver anywhere. “Oliver,” she called softly as she walked further in.

_

“I couldn’t keep her any longer,” Henry heard in his earpiece. “She got another call from her boss, I guess Elvis Kahn. I think he is really on his way here.”

Instead of whispering again, Henry replied to her message via SMS on his phone. He had had to stop whispering to prevent being heard by the cleaners in the office. The noise from the club music, coupled with the noisy chattering of the two cleaners had given him room to whisper freely earlier. But now that they were cleaning the place silently, he wasn’t sure they wouldn’t notice any sound he made.

“We have to hold on a bit. These guys are almost through cleaning the place, I can still get in and find what we need,” he typed and sent.

“I think we need to go now boss,” Evelyn replied from the other end. “We are not ready for a confrontation if Kahn and Hutton Ryker meets us here.”

“Don’t bother, Evelyn. I’ll handle it. I just need you to connect to Samantha and ask her to check her messenger, I dropped some messages there for her,” he typed on his phone and sent.

His message was marked read and soon the communicator line was disconnected. In just about two minutes, he got a reply from Samantha.

“WTF! Elvis Kahn is on his way? What are we going to do?”

“We stay. We can’t just back down on this task.”

“Are you sure he’s not going to meet you in the office?”

“I don’t know if he will but I’m not backing out without getting what we came here for. When he comes in, the rest of you should go ahead with the escape plan, I’ll catch up with you later.”

“Damn it! You ain’t asking us to leave you behind again, you know I won’t agree to that.”

“This isn’t the time for arguments, Sam. And I’m only staying back to do the job. I catch up with you. I promise.”

“Let’s just hope we get it done before Kahn arrives.”

“I want you to reach out to everyone via the communicator now and let them know we go ahead with the escape plan whether or not I’m out at the right time. Start with Maxwell, I’m listening to your conversations. So, don’t disobey me.”

Just as he sent his last message, he heard Maxwell’s voice sound in the earpiece.

“Boss, there’s some trouble here. She’s already here and I’m not ready.”

“Shi*t!” Henry cursed under his breath. Now, Maxwell’s failure could get things really messed up.

—-

“Boss, are you listening?” Maxwell said into the communicator when he didn’t hear a reply. “Well, I’m here in her restroom. I was still cleaning when she got in. I’ll just put on an act.”

Maxwell turned off his mouthpiece and stared at himself in the mirror again. He was still dressing up in her restroom when she got in and had heard her calling his name.

To get her attention towards the toilet, he turned on the washbasin tap.

“Oliver,” he heard her call again. He then turned off the tap and proceeded to the door with the backpack in his hand.

“Hey! You’re there,” Emily smiled in surprise as she saw him. She was already walking towards the restroom on hearing the water rushing.

“Yeah, I was here. I’m sorry I had to use it. I hope you don’t feel offended that I used it without your permission.”

“Of course, no,” she chuckled. “I’m so sorry for keeping you waiting.”

“There’s no problem. I knew you must be very busy,” he replied with a smile. “I was about to leave anyway.”

“Oh!” Emily sounded disappointed.

He walked towards her and wrapped his hands around her waists. She noticed the bag in his hands and also noticed that he was smelling differently.

“I didn’t see this bag with you before,” she pointed out.

“This…” he stuttered. It met him unexpectedly and he didn’t have an answer. “I was with it when I came, you probably didn’t notice.”

“You’re sure?” Emily stared at his face.

“Yea, I am,” he tried to put on a reassuring smile.

She smiled back, not totally convinced but didn’t want to argue about it.

He placed a kiss on her lips and she responded gently. Soon, they were kissing passionately again.

—-

From the conversation between the women cleaning the office, Henry could tell they were almost done. He was getting ready to get back in and get what they came for.  He could not but stop wondering how he could speed up his search and get whatever he wanted before Elvis Kahn or whoever was coming arrived. However, the ladies seemed to be delaying with unnecessary talks.

“But why don’t we ever clean this toilet except the chairman is around?” one of the women asked the other.

“Well, I don’t know for sure. The Chairman barely uses the toilet for his convenience. But I think he hides some drugs there. Anytime we clean it, there are always signs of cocaine and hemp. So, he doesn’t give out the key to anyone until he’s around.”

The one who asked the question widened her mouth in surprise.

“Don’t tell anyone about this, please,” the other lady warned.

“Sure, I won’t.”

The ladies soon packed their cleaning tools and made their way out without knowing they had given vital information to an intruder.

Henry smiled to himself where he was. The toilet was where important things were hidden and not just a place for hard drugs.

He got back into the office as soon as the women left. He had to turn on his torchlight again as they switched off the bulb. Without wasting time, he walked straight to the restroom door.

As expected, the door needed to be opened with a key and the lock seemed strong. The next challenge for Henry was to force the door open noiselessly.

“F***!” he cursed as he remembered that the tools he could have used to unlock the door were in the bag given to Maxwell.

The romance was already getting intense and almost leading to sex when a call distracted them.

“Hold on, please,” Emily pushed him away slightly and quickly drew down her cloth to cover the exposed thighs.

She reached for the phone and answered the call.

“The Chairman just drove in and he’ll like to see you once he gets into his office,” a voice said from the other end.

“Okay, will be ready before he comes in,” Emily said and turned back to Maxwell. “I’m sorry, Oliver. I’ve got to go now, my boss is here already and I need to meet him.”

“He’s here?” Maxwell couldn’t hide his shock as his eyes widened.

“Yes,” Emily squinted at him, wondering why he looked shocked and terrified.

“I’ve got to go before he meets me here,” Maxwell said and quickly picked up his bag.

Emily chuckled and held him back. “Why are you so scared? He’s not coming here. Besides, you’re a client even if he meets you, he’ll have no problem with it.”

Maxwell took down a deep breath and smiled. “That’s true,” he forced on a smile which graduated into a brief laugh. “We’ll talk on the phone, then. I’ll call you when I get back to the hotel.”

“I will be expecting your call,” Emily replied.

He leaned towards her and kissed her on the lips for a few seconds before he proceeded towards the door.

She turned and watched him go, wondering why he was acting strange that night.

“F*** it, boss, Elvis Kahn is around already and he’s on his way to the office,” Maxwell said into his communicator immediately he got out.

To be continued.