16 Chapter 16: Joint Forces

*** At the hospital ***

Erick stayed overnight at the hospital to accompany the woman he saved. She didn't wake up yet because of the anesthesia.

He already called police officer Kim to ask for his men to be on guard while he was at the office. He already explained the situation with Officer Kim.

Someone was targeting her, that's why she needed protection.

Two men in uniform arrived at the hospital and proceeded towards Elle's private room where Erick was waiting. "Chief Inspector Lee, we are the one sent by Officer Kim to be on guard today."

Erick nodded at both of them "Thank you. I need to report at the office right now but I can't leave her alone. I didn't know what happened to her. If she wakes up please contact me as soon as possible."

"Copy that, Inspector Lee. We will do our best to protect her."

"Dr. Gomez will personally come here to monitor her condition. Don't let other people enter this room aside from him." Erick warned them to be cautious.

The two officers understood what he meant and nodded. Now he could leave at ease knowing that there would be people protecting her while he was not around.

He then left the hospital and went to their office. There were still a lot of things to do with their current case.

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Meanwhile, at Elle's Residence...someone was puzzled why she hadn't returned yet. It was none other than Charles. He felt uneasy as time went by.

Elle hadn't contacted him yet. He couldn't contact their client also. Something was not right.

"Elle where are you? What happened to the mission? Why aren't you back yet? Grrrr...."

He kept walking back and forth inside the living room looking at the wall clock hanging on the wall.

He kept on dialing Elle's number but it was now unattended. Yesterday night, Elle had called him but he was not able to answer.

He was sound asleep and he didn't notice that his phone was ringing.

"Don't worry Charles if something happened to her. It's her own fault. She was the one who insisted to do the mission alone," Charles mumbled as he consoled himself.

"Argh!!! This is making me crazy. How can I explain this to Master Phantom? Huhuhu. Elle is already an adult and a skilled killer why did he let me babysit this devil."

Charles felt helpless as he recalled that Phantom gave him a responsibility to take care and assist her.

"Next time I will not listen to her!!!! I told her that something was suspicious about the mission but she didn't listen to me. She never listens to me...grrrrrrh! That ungrateful and selfish devil!"

Charles felt annoyed but worried at the same time.

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At XXX Crime Investigation Office

Alpha Cinco Task Force and Special Task Force Eagle were having a meeting regarding the progress of Blake-Arison Murder Case which involves the Mysterious Assassin Catseye.

The magnificent five were present and five members also from Special Task Force Eagle were there headed by their Team Captain Jason Smith.

This was really a rare event, two specialized team joint forces together to catch one killer, a professional assassin.

Just like Alpha Cinco Task Force, Special Task Force Eagle was an elite team composed of Team Captain, profiler, programmer, agents, and investigators.

But unlike Alpha Cinco which was handling different types of cases, their team was specialized in tracking down and catching professional killers and assassins.

And Catseye was the assassin that really gave this team a very hard time.

Captain Jason Smith was already in his mid 40's but he was the veteran and respected by all. He had a good reputation in this field.

In his team, he has Jane 28 years old "the programmer", Carl 30 years old "the profiler", Marie 27 years old "the agent spy", Allen 29 years old "the investigator".

They were at the conference hall exchanging information and planning together to solve the case and to catch Catseye.

However before they could catch Catseye, they should uncover her true identity first. Knowing your enemy was the best strategy but they didn't know from where to start.

"This is the only information that we have about Catseye," Jason said after presenting to the group all the murder cases that involve Catseye, her various strategies in the killing, her weapons, her signature trademark and it all ended there, no further clue nor lead about her identity.

"The card... killer's signature trademark. Could this mean he or she loves cats?" Rose broke the silence.

"It literally means, we could say that he or she might be taking care of cats as his or her pets. That is one of the possibilities that we can relate to his or her personal life but we can't be sure. We don't know his or her way of thinking", Carl answered her.

"If we look at its symbolism Cats is a spirited animal, they are considered self-assured, independent, wise, patient, creative, and also unpredictable. These traits are suitable to describe this Assassin." Erick also shared his thoughts about this.

The people inside the room nodded in agreement. Erick had a point, why they didn't think about it. They all stared at Erick, as expected to this famous detective chief inspector.

His deductive and inductive thinking abilities were superb.

"You are right. Cats, especially black cats, symbolize bad luck and impending misfortune." Jason added.

"How about the symbol eye? What does it mean?" April voiced out her question.

"Eye can represent clairvoyance, omniscience, or a gateway into the soul. It can be an indicator of good, evil, intelligence, light, vigilance, moral conscience, truth, protection, wisdom, knowledge, secrecy, and mystery." Erick answered.

"Oh! However, if we talk about Catseye's characters, then it only represents evil, vigilance, secrecy, and mystery!" Bryan gasped and said matter-of-factly

Jason chuckled "Haha, we are really facing a very difficult and very challenging person this time. Catseye is not only a ruthless, vicious, and devilish assassin who loves killing but he or she is also an intelligent, self-assured, unpredictable, and dangerous one. We must not underestimate that person."

"Cheer up guys! We can do it together. Let's trust our own capabilities. I believe in you. We will be able to catch Catseye."

Erick smiled and encouraged them as he could see the faces of their team members who looked very concerned and demotivated.

After hearing that, they felt assured and now they were motivated to work and so determined to catch Catseye thanks to Erick's words of encouragement.