Cascading waves of change

The future

Events we think to be inconsequential,

Can affect the future unintentionally

-

「8:09 AM| Cine Undrehart」

One hand to politely knock on the door. The other to carry a box of freshly delivered pizza.

The voice of a female news reporter embodies the room as Cine entered the office. The rapid clicking of electrical mouse and the tapping of keys on the laptop accompanied the noise in a hasty rhythm.

"Your breakfast, sir," she said to her boss, Kleighton Edrun. He prefers being called Clay instead. He is one of the leading managers of the InerOrg, and the Chief's reliable right-hand man.

And the only member who behaves like an average Joe. She knew him long before they became a part of the InerOrg.

Minutes gone by her boss replied with a tilt of his head, a little too late to recognize someone else's presence. "Oh, sorry." His swivel chair jerked backward from him as he quickly stood, re-organizing the piles of folders and heap of papers mounted on his desk to make room for his breakfast. "Right here."

Cine placed the box on the vacant spot then sat on a chair next to the desk. Her boss pressed few keys before settling himself again in his chair.

For a brief moment, they relished a bite of pizza in silence.

"How was the mission?" her boss inquired. Despite the noise the television was making at the corner, his baritone voice was clearer.

She pursed her lip. "If it weren't for Cred we wouldn't have figured out where his whereabouts are."

Ashe Credence aka 'Cred' is her best-friend since high-school. Ashe has a British demeanor with a petite stature and acts incredibly slow as a tortoise. Being the youngest member of the organization, everybody seemed to underestimate her, as she behaved rather unproductively. Cine would've agreed with the others, if she doesn't knew her friend at all.

Her boss' striking dark eyes peered at her through the frames, raising an eyebrow. "So, you caught him?"

"No... Lycas managed to give him a slip."

"Well, that confirms it."

While biting her pizza she shot a nonplussed look at her boss.

He reached for the remote on his desk, switching off the television. "Finish your pizza first, then I'll show you."

Although her boss insisted on letting her eat more than just a slice, she persisted in letting her show the video-feed already, in a safe just-doing-my-best-in-my-job-and-not-disrespecting-you-sir persuasion. Tentatively, her boss browsed through the files of his computer and informed her it will be about the aftermath of the mission last night.

It was some news broadcast. The video feed came from the same female reporter she heard a little while ago on the television. But instead of hearing about political affairs, the reporter talked about a brutal murder.

She leaned closer to the screen of the laptop, dragging the chair next to her boss. Her face a look of pondering as the captured image showed a censored, mutilated body. 

The reporter deliberated it was a body of a man that was found next to the river by some local folks living nearby since early in the morning. She then proceeded to explain that the body was internally ruptured by the bones before being dumped in the water to death before dragging it back to the surface. There were a mugshot and few pictures of the man in question.

Having seen enough, her boss paused the video feed on an image of his ID and contact information to anyone who knew of victim.

"That's him," she muttered. "It's the traitor we pursue last night. For sure Lycas let him run away." Like he always does to his alleged targets, she thought in dismay.

Though partly pixelated on the horrific part, the clothes of the dead body got to her much more like a red dot on a piece of paper more than his face. But Cine was still frowning toward the screen, as though there was something else that was nagging her.

"Then somebody else did. It goes to show that the traitor was discarded; no longer useful. This may sound far-fetched, but suspicion considered that he's not the only traitor in this organization."

She turned to face her boss. "How can you tell?"

"I talked about it with the Chief and Ashe this early morning." He fiddled with his curly hair near his temple. "It's highly likely that it was all a set-up."

Cine recalled her friend telling her that too when they met outside the building. "That they already made contact with the traitor before he was pursued and then made contact again to be killed after." She paused, attempting to make a quick deduction herself before the boss had to explain. "The other traitor could be the one transferring the information they need, perhaps the main lead, whereas the traitor we were pursuing this whole time was the decoy."

"In theory, yes. Someone who blends well as a fellow member. Has authorized access to the important materials we have." Deliberately leaning closer, he gave Cine a steely look. "For instance, you, Miss Undrehart. You're a militia, and qualified to the traitorous persona I mentioned."

"That could be true," Cine replied pensively, welcoming the experimental accusation of her boss. "But that doesn't apply my drive to do it. For one, I'd have second thoughts on risking myself just to steal that information. I'm smart enough to refuse first to save my own skin."

Leaning back, her boss agreed by nodding. "It's not all that hard to figure out if we put it like this. But we're at the standstill. I couldn't really tell if the motive was compensation or threat. So we can only eliminate the people potentially to be suspected; since one is already had a hand in the filing department, the other is it is either the militia or the informant in the filing department."

While the militia serves as the one doing most of the spontaneous, blue-collar jobs such as investigations or recons; the informants were the ones wracking their heads on negotiations or keeping their eyes glued both on a computer screen and stacks of papers.

"The man works in the filing department," Cine recalled. "So the other..."

"Could be with him or a militia. But I suspect it is more likely to be in the militia."

"Because of the better option laid out... access to information and control to few but crucial strings."

The most likely motive for everyone was 'compensation', but 'threat' was also possible. However, it is not a hearsay that every member of the organization was being monitored. The Chief was sure not to let any single thing amiss slip on his watch. But then again, there are little to no reason for any of the members to betray the very organization who had helped them provide work. They were loyal enough for the sake of returning the favor, meaning, there was no reason for any traitorous act.

"And we only have about thirty-five percent being militia. All of the parties were called-up to the other side of the water to deal with distracting tasks..."

"Which leads to the remaining percent; our division," Cine finished. Her partner, Her best friend, her boss, and herself.

"That, of course, is only a hypothesis," her boss kindly reminded her. "After all, it doesn't make sense if..."

Cine waited for his boss to finish, but he didn't continue after that thought. A confused scowl formed on his face, as he went back to using his laptop. "In any case, I'm still surfing through the security cameras, and about the murder case as well. I've already asked Chief to assign you to the filing department for the time being."

"What are they doing?"

"Checking everyone's alibis. You're in charge there to keep them in check and the testaments from falsifying."

"Why not the real-deals?" The real-deals were their personal term meaning, the professionals, pertaining to the police enforcers and public investigators. "They're perfect for that particular sniffing-around."

"The Chief doesn't want outsiders involving our own affairs. The kind of saying that it's preferable to keep our problems to ourselves."

She chose to be silent and still, looking down on her oxfords. But she lifted her gaze when she could tell her boss was staring at her for what seemed to be a long time. The expression on his face was quite strange to see; hurt. "Miss Undrehart."

"Y-yes?"

"You must be thinking if ever there is an ulterior motive behind your assignment, but I have none. I never said that I doubted you."

Until she felt her shoulders relax, she didn't realize they were tensed the whole time.

The flicker of light from her boss' laptop grabbed his attention as he hovered his mouse before the click. Hurt in his eyes was now masked by the light reflecting on his glasses. "I will see you later," he said.

Silently, she left the office and let out a long sigh.

"That eased few of my confusions," she muttered to herself. "But the rest are still a bunch of question marks."

Willingly, she fished the events of last night from her memory, invoking them out loud. "Lycas was to wait inside the cafe 'till I signal him to act. According to the plan, Lycas has to secretly tail the traitor for Ashe and me to route our way into cornering him. As many plans executed, it wasn't a success but thanks to Lycas anyway, the classified information was saved."

That was what mostly matters. They got to get on about their normal businesses.

Cine paused, closing her eyes for a moment of concentrated thought.

Making up her mind, she headed forward without a need to squeeze through among the people in the hallways. For some reason, they were parting for her. Not so long she found Lycas yawning and walking the same direction she was heading to. She closed in, but in a respectable distance, before calling out, "Hey."

It was louder than she planned it to.

Startled, her partner turned around. His mouth in a tight line and his shoulders too stiff and square even for his hands tucked inside his hoodie pockets. His voice was throatier than usual. "Uhum! Hi. Mornin'."

She tried not to give him an odd look. "Is that all you have to say?"

There was mega confusion over his poker-face look as if to say; It's morning, what else is there to say in the morning?

Never before in Cine's life, she has the urge to be violent. Lycas was an exception.

"Last night. You were... kinda odd. I can only figure out that something happened, am I right?"

He didn't respond for a minute or two, positively confirming her inquiry. Unblinking, his stare was blank and glossy.

"Tell you about it later." It was a casual answer, but he said it seriously. "Gotta do somethin'."

"Alright." 

Knowing there was nothing Cine could do about that, she left right away. Going after hallway to another hallway. The more she was getting closer to where she headed to, the air around her thickened by the silence. Her partner's footsteps ringing in her ears; heavy and discordant, until she had forgotten it, not hearing a single thing but merely her own walk. The time seemed to stretch on.

Darting to the east, as she indulged deeper inside her mind, her visions abruptly turned to black.

That suddenly slapped her back from her trance, trying to make sense of what just happened.

It was dark. Pitch black. Probably a short black-out, though, this was a first. Based on the silence, she was alone in this particular hallway. She expected the ground swaying or the walls creaking, but there was no sign that it was caused by a sudden earthquake for her to be on alert.

She drew her phone for a temporary torch to guide her through the dark, but her arm jerked by something that caught her. Something that felt like a hand but doesn't feel like flesh. It slithered around her neck in a tight grip. Fabric pressed on her nose and mouth. Her phone clattered to the floor.

What happened next became a blur to Cine. It was only dark, darker, and even darker.