Chapter Twelve: Eagle

"Eagle! What does that indicate? Why would someone leave a mark of an eagle on a crime scene?" Jace voiced out his thought as he scratched his head.

The green eagle mark created conflict in our minds. With no choice left, everlynka took the evidence so far found and the picture of the scene in case of any clue. They walked deeper but gained nothing hence decided to turn back in case of getting lost. Within 30 mins they reached the front of the forest.

"I can't believe I wasted my sleep time only to come back empty hand. Ahh! This is so annoying. We have to wake up early tomorrow to have breakfast with the master before we are assigned to our tasks," complained Jace.

"What do you mean we came empty hand? What about the clues we found? And about having breakfast with my grandfather, you can choose to miss it but you should know as per the rules, if you miss the breakfast, you will have to perform the tasks assigned on an empty stomach until lunch period," retorted Daniel as he walked towards his apartment, "hasta la vista mis amigos."

Everlynka giggled and walked to her dorm leaving Jace behind, confused. She took a hot steaming shower and she kept thinking about the green eagle mark. After wiping herself dry and putting on her pajamas she took out her phone and tried to analyse the mark. She went on staring at it till she fell asleep.

At 8:00 am, all three gathered at the royal's stay as usual. As the adventure from last night was tiring, Jace had to run in his disheveled state for breakfast. Soon Richard noticed his state and questioned if he had stayed up till late. "Ah! Last night we went on an interesting adventure." Jace explained.

"Adventure? What adventure?" Jace was about to talk about their adventure when everlynka cut him off by stuffing a piece of buttered bread into his mouth. Jace gave him an accusing look while Daniel responded instead, "We brother and sister have not met for long so we had a drink together and talked till late night." "How is that related to the interesting adventure?" "Well, you know how interesting Jace's life is, so we were just talking about those interesting adventures." "That's all?" "Pretty much." The bickering between the grandpa and grandson didn't last long as they all silently eat their breakfast.

While Daniel diverted Master Richard's attention, everlynka threw an icy dagger through her eyes making the confused Jace zip his mouth. "By the way master have you ever seen an eagle sign near a crime scene?" asked everlynka. "An eagle?" hearing that master paused his hand that was moving towards his mouth, "Why do you ask? Have you seen it somewhere?" "Ah! Just asking. I saw it once in California. I tried to figure out why someone would have left it behind. As you know I've always been interested in mysteries. So, I was just trying to break through that mystery." Everlynka nonchalantly answered.

Richard took a piece of napkin and wiped himself clean. He crisscrossed his fingers together as he looked towards everlynka with a look that showed how serious he was. Seeing him like that made everyone put down their fork. "Long time back, there was a case where a whole organization was annihilated. It was once very powerful, untouchable but suddenly things started to change. It started with the deaths of many minor gang members under that organization's death. Then many high-rankers died one by one. Some tried to run foreign but still met the same fate. Lastly came the death of the master of that organization. sigh!" everyone apart from the master and the butler looked at each other. He continued, "All this took place within 3 months."

"But what does that incident have to do with the eagle sign Grandpa?" asked Daniel.

"It has. It was the sign left behind by the executor after every crime he committed. The minor members were annihilated, and the deranged killer left behind a green eagle mark at every scene until all minor members were dead. For high rankers, it was yellow eagle while for the master was red," then he faced everlynka, "You said you saw that mark in California? That's impossible." "Why so?" "Because the killer surrendered after killing the master. It was way 60 years ago. It said that he committed those crimes because he wanted to seek revenge for his dead family. After which he surrendered and died due to some disease. Can I see the mark?"

After rapid movements of fingers over the phone, everlynka handed the phone, "Does it resemble that mark?" "Mmm! Not really. They are different. Looks like graffiti work by kids." "Oh! But can I access that case? It sounds interesting." "It was many years ago so you won't find it on the Internet but fortunately for you, my father kept the records for them. You'll find them in the library." With that, Richard left the dining hall.