Catch Me When You Can

by Innocent-Diamond

Excavating a new artifact sent him back thousands of years, only to help an herbalist trainee investigate a series of bizarre events. His present-day colleagues uncover the mystery behind the artifact, but both sides discover conspiracies that are both dangerous and connected.

2. Helping Hands

"Miss Gehabich, you have five more minutes!" shouted the same prison guard.

Shun was stilled confused about his situation. "We don't know each other, but you're confident that you can find the real killer. Based on what?"

"I know the victim and who killed him. Simple as that."

"Then why are you here? "

She smiled, much to Shun's surprise. "I wanted to make sure that an innocent person like you wouldn't be forced to confess to a crime that you didn't commit. My name's Alice. I'll be back."

"You're not asking for my name?"

"I can ask you after you get released." After giving Shun a thumbs-up, she left the prison halls.

Shun leaned against the wall and sighed. If she saw the murder happen earlier, maybe she saw how I came here in the first place.

Alice exited the prison hall and went straight home. "Grandfather! Are you here?"

An elderly man gathered some items into a messenger bag and slung it over his shoulder. "Alice, I was just about to find you. Please sit this one out."

"Uh...what are you talking about?"

"I already know that you went to find the young man that was arrested for murder. Although I usually let you help me, I suggest you stay out of this one because you already talked to the suspect."

"Grandfather, isn't that what solving crimes is about? Ask for information, right? I can solve this one on my own."

"Solving a crime requires being bipartisan. Visiting the suspect without my permission already introduces potential bias."

"But—" Her grandfather closed the front doors upon exiting, leaving Alice alone at home. It wasn't his fault at all. I saw the murder with my own eyes. Someone knocked on the main door outside. "Who is it?"

"It's me," Chris replied. "I saw your grandfather leave the house."

"Chris, come in!" As Chris pushed the doors open, Alice ran out to the courtyard to greet her friend. "Thank goodness you're here. We need to find someone."

"Again? You ditched me earlier when you went to the prison hall. Who are you looking for now?"

"That one neighbor who works at the marble mines is responsible. I saw him drop large chunks of marble on the victim from the bridge above."

"Marble mine? You'd better hurry, because the workers might be done with lunch break. But Alice, why so serious about this case?"

The redhead gathered necessary items into her purse and dragged Chris outside before locking the doors. "Because I won't let an innocent person take the fall for someone else's work."

-x-x-x-x-x-

"You're all cleared, although I don't suggest working at your burnt-out excavation."

"Thank you." After the police cleared every archaeological staff member from being a potential suspect, Joe returned to the group of his closest interns. "I know Shun's still missing, but at least the police cleared him as well. I didn't expect the stab victim to die so quickly."

"Are the police going to look for Shun then?" Dan asked. "He's not answering us."

"Unfortunately, a missing-persons report requires the person to be missing for twenty-four hours. Right now, the police are releasing items that we can work on, but the archaeological site is still blocked off because of the sabotage."

"Marucho must be glad to be absent because of surgery..." Ace recalled.

"I'll video-call him right now." Dan took out his phone and called Marucho. "Marucho, what's up? We have important news to tell you."

"I'm still resting in the hospital room," the young blond replied. "What's so urgent?"

Joe grabbed Dan's phone and answered, "An archaeological site that I've been dying to uncover was destroyed by artifact thieves. Now Shun is missing, and the field is blocked off because of damage and a murder."

"Joe, I'm sorry to hear that. I wish I could be with you all right now, but the doctors say that my broken leg needs a few more days to heal."

"Few more days?" Joe returned Dan's phone and placed a hand on Dan's shoulder. "Dan, I'm putting you in charge of the archaeological investigation."

"What? Why me?!"

"As lead archaeologist, I need to assist the police regarding the recent events, so I'll be away often. You know the most about the artifacts that we excavated."

"But Joe, Shun's still missing."

"I know, but those thieves wouldn't steal the metal box for nothing while demanding the phoenix pendant that Shun showed me. We can't find it, but we still need to find out why this is happening."

Dan nodded. "Thanks for believing in me, Joe. Ace, Fabia, and I will start immediately." As the trio made their way to the parking lot, Dan received another call. "Runo, what now?"

"Dan, when are you coming back?"

"What am I supposed to come back for?"

"You've been gone for ages, and I thought you became an artifact yourself."

"Runo, that's not funny. If you don't mind, I need to go because our site blew up, Shun went missing, and a dead body appeared from nowhere. Good—"

"Wait! Shun's missing?!"

"Yeah. We have no idea what's going on. Joe needs to assist the police, and Marucho's still hospitalized. I only have Ace and Fabia around to help me."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Not really. It takes too long for you to come here from house. We'll be in touch." Before Runo could say anything else, Dan hung up and sighed. What have I gotten myself into?

-x-x-x-x-x-

To preserve evidence, Michael and other patrol guards set up a large white tent over the body. "There's much blunt force trauma to the head and back, consistent with the body lying in prone position when discovered." He stepped outside and saw the bridge above that connected one elevated road to another. "Something fell from that height and killed the victim, but there's no murder weapon—"

"Let me go!"

"You'd better confess!"

Everyone rushed outside to see Alice dragging a neighbor to the white tent. Michael saw his granddaughter and shouted, "Alice, what is the meaning of this?"

The redhead let go of the angry neighbor and explained. "This person is the real killer. He works at the marble mines, and I saw him throw large chunks of marble on the victim from the bridge above."

"You can't prove that!" the neighbor argued. "Besides, the foreman takes all the marble that we dig out."

"I don't care what you used. I saw you kill the victim. After dropping the chunks of marble on the victim, this descended the bridge and carried the bloody chunks away. I went after him once already, but he ran too far. That was when the raven-haired person appeared from nowhere and screamed about the same dead body."

Everything was silent for a moment, until other neighbors spoke up. "I saw this guy walking around the bridge earlier. He might have done it."

"I see him walk back suspiciously every time he gets off a shift."

"He argued with the victim a few days ago, but wasn't sure about what."

As more neighbors chimed in to blame the neighbor, the doctor silenced the crowd. "I appreciate all of your witness statements, but we need solid evidence. Where is the murder weapon?"

The crowd became silent, but then the neighbor suddenly screamed, "Fine! I did it! It was my fault!"

Everyone gasped in disbelief, even Alice. "What motivated you to kill somebody?"

"We only had a simple argument. I've been stealing small pieces of marble to decorate my residence. The victim lived next to me and complained that my new décor was blocking sunlight from reaching his garden. I wanted to teach him a lesson earlier, but it went too far."

The doctor sighed in response. "Fellow patrol guards, you heard this man's confession. Although I know nothing about the raven-haired man that you arrested earlier, he is definitely innocent."

The group leader immediately discussed with his colleagues. "Since this man already confessed, we should arrest him and release the other person. We'll be back."

Alice cheered unstoppably until her grandfather came closer and cast a shadow over. "Yes, Grandfather?"

"If you told me that you witnessed the murder, I probably wouldn't have asked you to sit this one out. Next time, don't act so fast. You might not always be so lucky."

"Yes, Grandfather. I won't do that again." While her grandfather returned to the tent to clean up, Alice saw the patrol guards escort Shun outside while taking the angry neighbor away. "Remember me? You're free now."

Shun observed the bizarre architecture of the neighborhood to everyone's clothes and hairstyles. "What happened?"

"I found the killer, and he confessed under pressure."

"That's not what I meant. Why are you all wearing these clothes? Why are the buildings so weird?" He took out his phone to check the time, but it only gave incorrect numbers. "Why is there no service? What kind of a movie set is this?"

Alice's expression turned blank after being asked many confusing questions. "What's a movie set?"

Shun didn't know how to answer that. "You're not filming a movie here?"

"What's a movie?"

Where am I? Why is everything different from what I'm used to seeing? Then he remembered the pictures of the metal box on his phone and showed them to Alice. "Do you know what this—"

Suddenly, Alice grabbed his hand that carried the phone and pushed it back toward him. "I know you're confused after being accused of murder. I also know that you're not from here and want to go home. Now that this is over, you can tell me your name now."

The raven-haired youth let go of the redhead's hand. "Shun Kazami."

"I told you that I'd save you, Shun. Before you go home, you should have a good night's sleep. Return in better condition than when you left."

"But where would I go? I don't even know how I came here, or what this place is."

"We're in Vestroia, a monarchy ruled by King Zenoheld and Prince Hydron. As for shelter, I can ask Grandfather if you can stay with us for a few days."

Vestroia...that's what our latest excavation project focuses on. But Vestroia existed two thousand years ago. Shun put his phone away and replied, "If you can help me return home, then I'll take all chances."

"I don't have any solid ideas yet, but we'll definitely come up with something. Follow me."

Alice skipped down the path home as Shun walked and watched from behind. I don't know why I came here, but at least someone is on my side.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Marucho entered the company lobby and greeted everyone. "Hi everyone. The doctors said that my foot was healing faster than expected, so I'm out of the hospital now!"

"That's great!" Dan jumped out of his chair and his colleague. "Now we have four people to work on the project at hand! Ace and Fabia are still analyzing the metal box. Maybe your fresh eyes will give us something new."

"I'll try." Marucho walked around furniture to the round table where Ace and Fabia were. "I'm back! Tell me what you have so far."

Ace reported his notes first. "I can't find any cracks or hinges on this metal cube box. How does it to open then? We can't use violent methods."

Fabia then slid her notepad across the table to Marucho. "The laser scanner determined that the box is a perfect cube. There are large ornaments that suggest the box should be rested in this upright orientation. The five visible faces all have a rough blurry pattern. There's a small depressed slot in the center of each face. The posterior face has nothing at all."

"Don't forget the weird symbols on the corner of the top face," Ace reminded. "It's definitely not in English."

"I learned so much already..." The blond intern put on a pair of gloves and touched the said symbols. "We can photograph and identify these visuals using our digital database."

"I'll do it!" Dan used his phone to take pictures, then connected his phone to a company laptop. "Which reference library do we use?"

"Start with ancient dictionaries. Then use everything else."

"Got it." The brunette followed Marucho's command and clicked around until potential matches popped up on the screen. "We have something!"

After Dan rearranged some wires, all four interns looked at the images projected on a white board. Marucho walked closer and pushed his glasses. "The closest match suggest that the symbols mean 'infinity' and 'mountain' in ancient Vestroian language."

"Ancient Vestroian?!" the other three interns gasped. "That's from at least two thousand years ago!"

"My point exactly. We found this metal box nearby, so this area must've been a part of Ancient Vestroia. 'Infinity Mountain' was probably around here during Ancient Vestroia. Hopefully, it still exists today."

Dan opened up the browser to pull up online maps. "The only highly-elevated land nearby is an area called Infinite Hills, but it's occupied by many residents now. Marucho, are we really going to explore this place?"

"What else can we do? As Ace noticed, there's no easy way to open the box. No one would engrave symbols into an intricate metal box like this for nothing."

Fabia rotated the laptop toward her and calculated the distance from their work building to Infinite Hills. "Guys, I'm not against investigating, but it's an extremely long drive. I suggest starting tomorrow or on a later date."

Ace pointed to all the other artifacts in the first-floor lobby. "We still have all that to work on, but I want to eat first."

The other three interns sighed as they followed the mint-haired intern outside, although none of them knew that they were being spied on to begin with.

Standing behind an SUV at a far distance from the work building was a woman with short, teal blue hair. "Shadow, did you hear that? They're going to Infinite Hills tomorrow."

"When was this?!" A silver-haired man crouched down behind another vehicle as he watched the interns enter Dan's car. "I couldn't hear anything that they said inside."

A tall blond man walked behind Shadow and slapped the latter on the back. "Clearly, you suck at installing bugs."

"Shut up, Sid."

Another woman with dark blue hair tied into a bun approached the first woman. "I just installed bugs and tracking devices on their vehicles, Mylene. They won't escape our sight when they leave for Infinite Hills."

"Good work, Lena. If only those two worked just as a hard." Mylene switched earpiece frequencies and demanded, "Everyone, we're going back to headquarters right now."

-x-x-x-x-x-

"Thanks for letting him stay here, Grandfather."

After receiving permission to let her guest stay, Alice returned to Shun, who stood outside the house and stared at everything. "This feels weird."

"It's not your home after all, Shun. Come inside first. It's cold outside."

As Shun entered the front courtyard of the two-story house, he turned on his phone and looked through the all pictures of the metal box that he took before coming here. There's seriously no service at all. "Alice, can you help me with something?"

The redhead returned with a pot of hot tea and teacups. "Ask away."

Shun showed her the image of the weird symbols on the metal box. "Do you know what this says?"

Alice squinted and gasped. "This is Ancient Vestroian. Grandfather has some books on this in the library. Be right back. Drink some tea first."

The raven-haired youth drank his tea and continued looking around. There's no electricity either. Everyone's clothes resemble the paintings discovered from all the previous archaeological sites. Looks like I did travel back in time.

The redhead returned with a book in her hands. "This is the only dictionary that Grandfather has. Let's hope it helps." She flipped through the pages until she identified each symbol and wrote down the translations. "The symbols say, 'Infinity Mountain'. That place is far from here. Do you need to go there?"

"I'm not sure..."

"If you do, then we should depart tomorrow. By the way, what is that?"

"This?" Shun assumed Alice was referring to his phone. She won't understand what it is. "It's nothing. Just—"

"Alice!" called her grandfather from upstairs. "Can you prepare a honey loquat cough syrup? Also, I see Chris walking by. She might be looking for you."

Alice closed the book and stood up. "Shun, I'll be back. I have a friend coming over, but don't mind her."

"Where are you going?"

"I need to make a prescription for one of Grandfather's patients."

As soon as Alice left, Chris entered the living room and saw the unexpected guest before helping herself to tea. "You're a fresh face. Alice doesn't usually invite patients into the house."

"Patient?" He then remembered what Alice said. "Of Dr. Michael? You're mistaken. I'm just a guest. Who are you?"

"I'm Chris, one of Alice's friends. We've known each other for years, but I've never seen her invite a guest into the house before." She set her teacup down and leaned forward, staring at Shun with a deadly gaze. "You're the guy that was wrongly accused of murder."

"So?"

"She insisted that you were innocent and knew who the real killer was. I'm glad that everything came out well in the end."

Alice watched the whole time? "What does that even mean. Who are you people?"

"I'm just a friend. Everyone looks to Dr. Michael when investigating a suspicious situation. He also opens a walk-in clinic and teaches Alice to prepare prescriptions."

Why is a doctor being called to solve crimes? "I'm still lost."

Alice returned to the living room and tapped Shun's shoulder. "I cleaned up the guest room. You can stay there."

"Thanks, Alice."

"And Chris, what's up?"

"Soon's family still has an event going on all day. I came here because I'm bored. I'll leave you and your guest alone now. See you tomorrow."

Shun watched the blonde leave and asked, "What do you do?"

"What do you mean?"

"Chris told me that you help your grandfather prepare prescriptions, yet you and your grandfather also work to find evidence to solve weird incidents."

"Oh, that. Grandfather used to work in both the palace's medical and administrative departments. He retired and came back after obtaining a license to practice medicine in the public. People say he's the least biased and most logical person, so he gets called to give a second opinion on disputes. I just package prescriptions for patients. Resolving disputes isn't my thing."

"You solved my situation, though."

"Because I knew you're innocent. I just really love herbology and learn from Grandfather whenever I can. Anyway, it's getting dark. You should rest, especially after a long day."

"I don't know if I can fall asleep."

"You miss everyone at home, don't you?"

Shun simply stared at the redhead and nodded.

"I knew it the moment I saw you. Rest now so that you'll have energy when we hike up Infinity Mountain tomorrow. I can reheat some soup if you're hungry."

"It's fine. Thanks for everything you've done so far, Alice." Shun stood up and entered the guest room. He stood against the window and held the phoenix pendant up to the moonlight. I wonder what Dan and the others are doing. Maybe I'll find answers tomorrow.