Thanks for all of the great reviews so far! I hope y'all enjoy this one as much as the last 3 :)
Chapter 4: They Said
April 11, 2358
Province 6, County 20, Turkey
Streets of Istanbul
Maybeck looked out of the police car window, watching the civilians on the street. Most were scurrying along, trying not to make any trouble. The last thing anyone wanted was to be caught by the police or to make a scene, especially with the rebel threat growing.
Normally while on stake-outs, Maybeck never zoned in on people in general, but this young man was an exception.
He was wearing a pair of jeans, despite the sweltering heat, and a purple t-shirt. He was reading a book, but occasionally looking up, as if waiting for someone. Maybeck could tell the book was just a stall tactic for the kid. On his purple t-shirt was the name of the closest university, right on the edge of the province—on the beach of Yemen, over a day's worth of travel away. Nobody from Istanbul went to the university and returned, which immediately brought on suspicion.
The college student had brown hair and green eyes. He seemed nervous as he sat on the steps of apartment 18F, which sent up red flags in Maybeck's mind. He tapped his foot rapidly on the stone steps, his eyes searching the crowd. The student's eyes locked with Maybeck's and the hair on the back of Maybeck's neck stood up.
Maybeck shook the strange feeling out of his mind. He blinked and the college student was gone.
"So how was your date last night?"
Maybeck snapped out of his thoughts and turned to his partner, Adam Washington.
"Uh…oh...it was...eh," Maybeck shrugged.
Washington, as he preferred to be called, took a sip of his coffee. The morning shift was rough on both of them. "You didn't like her?"
Maybeck shrugged, glancing out the window again. "We just didn't click. That's all."
"Man you're hopeless! I've been trying to hook you up for years and you hate every single girl I find! Soon I'm going to run out of girls to hook you up with! You'll be alone forever!"
Maybeck rolled his eyes and turned to Washington. "When I find the right girl, I'll marry her."
"What kind of girl is the 'right girl?'"
Maybeck closed his eyes and pictured his perfect girl, the one that had been in his dreams for the past few months. "Athletic, sarcastic, beautiful..."
He trailed off, not wanting to get too specific. There was a specific girl that he wanted. In his dreams, she didn't have a name. She had blonde hair and blue eyes and was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He felt as if he knew her, but he couldn't remember how.
"Dude, you've got some weird standards."
"I...I just...haven't found her yet. Maybe she's not in this province." Maybeck hoped that Washington wouldn't notice the emphasis on the word "her." He didn't want to explain the crazy dreams he'd been having since January.
"Dude, you know we can't leave the province without her permission…"
Maybeck scoffed and waved off his comment. "I'm a police officer. I can do what I want."
Before Washington could remind him of the rules and how they needed to be "model citizens" and all of that crap, someone called in on the radio.
"We've got a thief running toward apartment block 18. Anyone nearby?"
"That's us!" Maybeck radioed in, informing the station that they were right at block 18. Washington turned around and saw the thief running toward them with a huge bundle thrown over his shoulder. Washington turned on the siren as Maybeck put the car into drive.
Maybeck revved the engine and pressed the gas pedal so hard he felt he might have broken it. The police car sped off down the street. At the last second, Maybeck pulled the parking brake up and placed his foot on the brake, drifting the police car into the street. The car stopped perpendicular to the flow of traffic, cutting the thief off.
Maybeck propped open his door and held out his gun.
"Police! Stop running!"
The thief ran into the crowd of people frozen on the sidewalks and weaved through them. Maybeck lowered his gun, knowing he couldn't shoot innocent civilians.
"Oh, come on!" Maybeck added a few curse words as he watched the man run away from the police car.
His partner picked up his radio and started yelling into it. "We've got a 5-0-3 in progress in the apartment sector! All nearby and available units requested for action!"
Maybeck burst out of the car, slamming the door shut, and took off running down the street—gun in hand ready to shoot at a moment's notice.
The runner took off down the street, making a last second turn onto the street between apartment blocks 6 and 7.
Maybeck picked up his speed and raced after him. He knew his partner wasn't far behind, in case something happened.
The thief glanced over his shoulder and started to run harder when he realized the two police officers were gaining speed.
The thief took another hard left and ran down the street behind apartment block 6. Maybeck suddenly realized where he was headed. Nobody took that street except...
"Washington!" Maybeck called back to his partner. "I'm going to cut him off over there," he pointed straight ahead.
Washington nodded and turned down the street after the runner. His head was already beating with sweat, and Maybeck knew he couldn't catch up to the runner.
He would be using that to his advantage.
Maybeck continued to run until he got to the street behind apartment block 12, three blocks directly behind block 6. He turned left and slowed his pace, so that his footsteps wouldn't be heard. He slowed his step to a walk when he got to the end of the street. After this, there was an intersection similar to the one he had just run down.
Actually it was similar to all of the intersections in the apartment sector of the all of the cities across the globe.
Talk about conformity.
He held his gun out in front of him and stepped out into the intersection, this one wasn't nearly as crowded as the last. One person walking by saw Maybeck and ran in the other direction, leaving him alone on the street for as far as he could see.
He took a step in the direction of the street where he had left Washington and the runner. The thief stumbled out into the intersection, but didn't notice Maybeck yet.
The thief doubled over and took a few heavy breaths. He glanced in Maybeck's direction and froze, gripping his bag of stolen goods tighter.
Maybeck noticed the thief's sleeves were rolled up, revealing a tattoo on his arm—the tattoo all rebels in the 6th province got upon initiation.
Maybeck threw up a peace sign, signaling that he was a rebel too. The thief seemed to relax a little. Maybeck took a step closer, his gun still loaded and aimed at the runner—just in case.
The runner returned the peace sign after taking a few breaths and straightened up.
"Can I make it to 5C before your partner shows up?" The runner asked in a whisper.
Maybeck nodded. He lowered his gun to the pavement and fired a shot. He shooed his fellow rebel away, so that he could make it to the rebel base before Washington could see.
He fired another shot, again at the pavement, and took a deep breath. It was getting harder and harder to help out the rebel cause. The idiots kept getting caught, and Maybeck would have to do overtime to make sure they didn't go to jail or get reported.
You'll be a valuable asset to the resistance, they said. This won't be a burden, we'll make sure of it, they said.
Maybeck straightened up when Washington came crashing through into the intersection.
"I heard gun shots, did you get him?"
"I think so. He ran off, but he's probably dead."
Washington continued to catch his breath. Maybeck wanted to laugh at the irony of the situation. Washington was in the same position that the thief had been in only seconds earlier. "Okay, good work Maybeck."
"Thanks," Maybeck clapped him on the back. "Let's head back. I'm hungry."
"Okay," Washington started heading back down the street in which he had just came from. "Should we send a squadron to find the dead man?"
"No," Maybeck tried to act cool. The last thing he wanted was for Washington to get suspicious of him. "He's dead. I shot him in the chest and he stumbled out of the intersection. Don't worry about it."
"Alright man." Washington was still taking heavy breaths. Maybeck wasn't sure how he made it through basic training and the academy. The kid was out of breath just walking up more than two flights of stairs. "Let's go to get some donuts, I'm starving."
Maybeck patted Washington on the back. "Sure thing, but you're buying."
Washington sighed and called off the reinforcements with his radio. They piled into the police car and drove to the closest coffee shop.
While Washington ordered, Maybeck used the restroom. He walked out of the door and took one step into the dining room, crashing into a random civilian. The coffee he had been holding spilled down Maybeck's shirt.
"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry!" The young man stared at Maybeck as if he would melt.
"It's fine," Maybeck mumbled while staring at his shirt. He looked up at who had run into him and his eyes went wide—it was the same college student he had seen earlier.
The young man pulled out a napkin from his back pocket and started to clean the stain as well as he could. Maybeck looked him in the eye with a scowl and his mind took him to another place.
Maleficent threw a transfiguration spell. The snake became a harmless length of rope, and she caught it with her free hand.
Tia Dalma strode up behind Maleficent.
"How you feel now, me boy? Eh?" She stuck the doll with a pin.
Maybeck twisted, moving in inhuman ways that seemed sure to break his limbs.
"Stop it!" Storey shouted.
"Now?" Tia Dalma said, delivering more of her voodoo.
Maybeck folded backward, screaming. Storey feared the next pin would break him in half.
"Run out of fire, old lady?" A girl's voice echoed through the cave.
"Charlie?" a tortured Maybeck whispered.
Charlene dropped through a ceiling hole in the next room, sticking a perfect landing. Irate, Maleficent wound up and threw the fireball in Charlene's direction. Charlene cartwheeled. The fireball missed and ricocheted off the cave's ceiling in a shower of sparks.
His vision flashed forward, as if someone hit the fast forward button on a DVD. After a few seconds, his mind hit play.
The kids headed for the street and Maybeck's taxi.
"Where did you come from?" Maybeck asked Charlene. Looking at her, he couldn't help the huge smile breaking out on his face.
"My first cave was no good, but my driver recognized the sketch. Sorry I was late."
"Me too."
Maybeck took a shaky breath and focused back in on the college student in front of him.
"You," Maybeck pointed at him, his finger shaking. "You…I…I know you. You were watching me over by apartment block 18!"
"Here," the young man handed him the rest of the napkins, completely ignoring Maybeck's comment. "Take these. I got some of it out, but you're going to have to wash that shirt to get the stain out completely."
Maybeck eyed him, something about his brown hair and green eyes seemed familiar—a feeling deeper than just seeing the student five minutes ago. He shook the feeling away and hesitantly took the napkins. If he didn't know any better, Maybeck would say that the man had intended on spilling coffee on him.
"Thanks," he grabbed the napkins and felt something much harder in between two of them. Maybeck eyed the young man. "What's this?" He motioned to the black envelope sticking out from in between two napkins.
"It's for you, Maybeck."
"How do you know my name?"
The student froze and for a brief second he looked scared beyond belief. He composed himself and pointed at uniform.
"It's on your uniform."
Maybeck didn't break eye contact with the young man. This guy knows me, but how do I know him? Maybeck took a step closer to the young man and lowered his voice.
"What's in this letter? A bomb?"
The young man threw up his hands, as to say Whoa, bro! "It's just a letter, man. Chill."
"And what's in this letter?"
"That's for you to read and find out. If I told you, there'd be no point in handing you the letter, now would there?"
Maybeck studied him, a gesture in which the young man returned.
"What's your name?"
"You'll see sooner or later. Read it when you're alone." The young man pushed past him and headed out of the coffee shop.
Maybeck stood still and watch him leave. He couldn't help but wonder what had just happened. But the thing that was confusing him the most was the blonde girl who had saved him in that flashback of his. She was the same girl from his dreams the past few months.
Who was she? How did he know her? What was her name? And more importantly, why did he have all of these sudden feelings towards her? How come he felt as if he was in love with her, even though he had never met her before? How come something about her beauty was so breathtaking and heartbreaking at the same time? Did she break his heart?
No, I don't know her...Or do I?
The flashback quote comes from Kingdom Keepers 6: Dark Passage (p. 163-5).
Hmm...so Maybeck is seeing flashbacks too? But not just that...he's starting to remember old feelings for Charlene. Hmm...interesting...
I hope y'all are liking this story as much as me, because I LOVE it. I'll be doing my best to finish "Born For The Sunrise, We'll Survive The Pain" and "Whodunnit" before updating this one again. It's harder for me to update this story as fast as I usually do because I need the books to find the quotes for the flashbacks. Unfortunately I don't have them with me here at all times, but I will do my best!
Please review and enjoy the rest of your week!
