Chapter 8- 5 Minutes to Midnight
The early morning sun was blazing through the quaint apartment window, reflected of the nearby empty mug of coffee and landed on Zamfir's face. Though this was making his deep rest uncomfortable, it was the constant bombardment of a small housefly that brought him to full consciousness. After a brief moment of remembering the events that happened a few hours before, he got up, and made his way down to the basement where he saw his car parked and piece of paper stuck on to the dashboard. It was from Blake, it said Ava and Kensei already gave him the report of what happened, and he will talk with him personally later. After reading the rest of the letter, he burned it with a lighter he had stashed, took a shower, dressed, and drove his way to school. It was ten in the morning by the time he arrived, so he already missed 1st period. When he entered the class room, he was surprised to find Ava at the teacher's desk seemingly correcting papers, while the rest of the class was practically empty
"Where are the others," he asked
"Language teacher is absent, she left me to correct last week's test results, so I sent the rest of the class down to the gym, much easier than letting them stay here disturbing my train of conscience." Just at that very moment a stiff breeze decided to take the pile of papers she had stacked up, for a ride through one of the class windows. Ava let out a big sigh, and dropped her head to the table.
"How amusing, however, before you chase after the New York times, mind explaining to me what happened last night?"
"Well, I wish I could answer that, but I honestly don't know what happened. I was in the room collecting all the video information on the target. When four guys blasted through the door shouting orders I think in a German accent. I killed them before they could get a shot on me, but then recognized one of them to be the usual gun for hire for a local mafia group," she then got up, locked the door, removed a sheet of paper from her bag, and continued in her explanation.
"When I woke up this morning, I went and researched his back ground, and found something interesting will want to hear. Two months ago he was hired by a water distillation plant called WIC, it's a sub company owned by a large conglomerate of banks and other firms centred in Taiwan, their chief CEO ..." she handed Zamfir the piece of paper, and immediately, he recognized the face.
"Mr Zee Ling," Zamfir replied.
"Correct, so after seeing this connection, my theory is that somehow Mr Ling found out about our plans, and sent his men to make sure we find nothing. Only question is, how did he manage to find out about our assignment?"
"Well I think I can answer that for you, last night, another member of the syndicate was there, one who I was hoping not to see anytime soon. Her name is Tatiana, no need to worry you about the last name now. Her specialty is gaining the trust of her target in order to make her certain kill more effective," he slowly got up and handed her a photo of the woman. Even though it was a bit scratched, it was still vivid.
"That picture was taken three years ago on a villa located 10 miles north of Cape Horn, South America. Two days after it was taken, a shady business man who was believed to have been planning some kind of coup, was killed in his home. Multiple gunshot wounds on the body reveal he was probably tortured before his throat slit. After police questioned all the employees there, several of them indicated the man had a personal maid. After months of investigation, the maid was never found, police however found a picture similar to this, that confirmed the maid was Tatiana."
"So your saying, in order to gain Lee's trust, she sell us out to him? Her own organisation?" Ava asked.
"I think again u mean sold us out, and she has been known for doing things her own way, not really a surprise."
When school was over, they got up and realised Kensei had gotten home before them. When he noticed them stand there he pointed to a scrap of paper under the telephone. It has on it that Blake called. Ava looked at, flipper out her cell and dials a number. After talking for a few minutes she turned and around with a confused look on her face.
"Blake said Zing left the country 10 minutes ago on a private plane headed to London. It was strange because he had a meeting scheduled this morning with some members of a partnering agency he was planning to buy out."
"Yeh so what is wrong that you have that strange look on your face," Zamfir asked.
"All the other people who were suppose to be there for the meeting, were all found dead in their homes a few hours ago, one however in particular was different. On the floor next to him he had written on in his blood, 5 minutes to midnight..."