Forgotten Frustration

We took a right turn near the edge and headed towards the east. Again, we ascended a stair and descended to a basement with different colour walls.

I wondered why we ascended to a mini staircase just to descend in the different colour room.

The colour of the basement changed from red to white and now blue. Was that any type of code?

"Why are the colours changing?" I asked indicating towards the corridor with my head.

"It's a personal preference." He said. I doubt it was true.

"Personal preference? Oh, that means white is your preferred colour?" I asked since he seemed more familiar with the white colour room and his mask was also white.

"It's not our preference, it's the preference of our higher official."

I nodded my head in understanding and thought of any potential question.

"Are we inside a cave?" I queried.

"Yes,"

A cave?

Hazael held many mountains, but the capital city had none. The city with the bustling crowd had cut off all its mountains over the years.

If I was kidnapped from the port, brought here in less than 12 hours and they didn't bring me here with an airplane nor a train, but in a car or truck. Where should I be now?

The nearest hill to the Capital City was at Graviele Town. But there was no known cave in that place. Or there might be but it was intentionally hidden?

I spent a whole 6 hours inside the prison and wasted some of my time with Tiger. Now, I was with Eagle and I didn't know what the future held for me.

I subtly looked at the man as my mind became restless with the thought of being killed, or tortured. Or something worse.

I lowered my gaze and saw myself clutching onto his hand and noticed him holding my hand with the same intensity.

And finally, we arrived in the parking lot.

I comfortably went to sit in the back seat but Eagle summoned me to the front.

"Sit here," he said patting the passenger seat. I complied immediately and fastened my seatbelt after being seated.

The car looked very expensive, its interior was made from polished wood; the seat was better than my bed and it had a distinct smell of something sweet, masculine and expensive. I looked around in bewilderment as never in my 25 years of survival had I ever thought a car could look like or feel like this.

In Hazael, 90% of people didn't have cars, only Elites were allowed to have cars.

The law was implemented after the rise of pollution in the nation.

Although it was the Elites causing pollution, Tycoons and Dregs were labelled as the problem.

Therefore, the currentlly Tycoons were allowed cars only for service and emergency purposes, like a truck for firefighters, a van for police departments, etc.

And sadly, Dregs were not even allowed to take a sniff of cars.

"How do you have this car?" I asked curiously. Ironically, I was asking the question to the guy who might be smuggling explosives and drugs in the country in a gazillion quantities. 

Eagle didn't answer immediately, his hand skillfully navigated the steering wheel and eyes focused on the almost invisible road. After a few moments of giving thought to my question, he replied, "In the middle of the Capital City there's an area called Plama, do you what is it?"

I knew but still shook my head in declination. 

(Act the dumbest wherever you can, saves your ass in a lot of situations.)

Seeing my professional act, Eagle was convinced and continued, "It's a colony where all the nobleman resides. There lives a man in a bungalow in that colony known an Mr Doughlar."

Now, I could quite navigate where the story was going. So this was the one...

"He is known for his car collection," he said. "Good for him, I and my hunters stole his newest collection. It's funny how the police are in trouble for that man while you and I are enjoying its ride."

'you and I', This phase felt like a mock of my status, a reminder of how I was 'enjoying' a ride with a criminal, 'enjoying' his nearness and 'enjoying' his presence. And feeling 'safe' with him. Oh god, instead of pretending, I was really becoming a dumbass.

As the reality washed over my face, the then-comfortable car felt a lot uncomfortable at that moment, the overtime we had to work to find this H-108 Asdon branded car with the little wage from the royals and under the candlelight due to electricity cut down, the taunt we had to get from that rich bastard and the stupid 'steal-and-run' case I had to be involved given my other important work.

All the memory kicked in and my mood changed a real quick. 

"Stealing is bad, why do such a thing?" I said concealing my sour mood. 

"Why don't you say this to the Elites, it will save a lot of national problems." he shot an instant reply. 

Fine, I will just look into the dark instead of this narcissistic bastard, it will save a lot of my energy.

I didn't initiate any conversation for the rest of the journey, my anger grew as the minutes passed by as I remembered event after event of my misfortune due to Ghost City. The recent incident was the most embarrassing, and it happened with a white-masked man, identical to Eagle. Or was it him? 

If it was him, I would not mind killing him and myself because....

----

After a few minutes, we reached something Eagle called 'Ghost Court'. Going inside, it looked more like a fancy restaurant to which only Elites have access.

The floor was built with polished marble of light gold colour, and a chandelier hung from the low ceiling illuminated the room with a yellow hue enhancing the room's rich colour.

A round table, made of mahogany wood sat in the middle with a capacity of ten chairs.

Out of the ten chairs, four were occupied by four different masked people; white, blue, black and orange. As Eagle and Tiger had black stripes on their mask, the four people sitting over there didn't have that. The colour on their mask was full and plain, I doubted the mask's colour and its design was related to their status.

Eagle took my hand and sat me in the middle of the white-masked person and himself.

"Who gave you permission to sit with us?" barked the orange-masked man.