Chapter 14 (The USB key)

The private investigator Diego had hired to find who it was digging into his rubbish came with news of having a lead on who the culprit was. Diego swore to make whoever it was pay for messing with him and his Enterprise but was disappointed with the lead the private investigator had.

"A high school student? Delta High School? How's this possible?" He asked the private investigator

"Did you not do anything but watch the interview with the late survivor and come here to tell me that a student is trying to ruin me?" He asked

"Well, I ran through the surveillance cameras around the Television station and I found her and her brother Ian West there. They moved in and out of the building" the investigator said

"So?" Diego asked getting bored

"I checked with the security guard at the factory and he said she was at the factory before the blast happened" he said

"And?" Diego asked sitting up

"The night Sheldon Yale, the survivor of the blast died she was at the hospital" he said

"Disguised as a Doctor" he finished showing him pictures of her at the scenes

"This" Diego said pointing to a picture showing Keres and Ian walking out of the TV station

"Was this before the news about the bribery scandal in the school got aired?" He asked

"Yes" he answered

"And immediately after this, Sheldon Yale died?" He asked again pointing to the picture showing Keres placing a lab coat in her bag

"Yes" Stanford said

"But what about the other girl who confessed to the crimes and committed suicide?" Diego asked

"Um, I haven't found out anything about the student yet" Stanford said

"Oh God" Diego said rubbing his bald head

"You haven't found out yet and you came here to tell me that a girl who is nineteen years old is the one who's trying to ruin me?!" He shouted

"Don't underestimate her because of her age. The only thing that seems to be the missing piece of puzzle here is the other student's death and her suicide note" he added

"And I'll will prove it to you that Sally Hall isn't just a normal school girl" he concluded

"Then prove it. But if you don't I'll have you punished for wasting my time" Diego said

"You don't have to worry about that. In the meantime time, why don't you ask your agents to keep an eye on her" Stanford suggested and walked out of the house

The night guard was a stumbling block for Keres and Ian. They knew he was always there but with them not saying a word to each other through the journey to the school they couldn't devise a means to take him out. They stood in front of him watching him sleep like a baby. They could sneak pass him but opening the gate would wake him up and going over the fence was not an option.

"How do we take him out?" Ian asked

"I could knock him out real quick and that's a great option since he's sleeping soundly" she said

"Go for it" he cheered

She tip toed towards the guard and gave him a rabbit punch from behind. He didn't move again but seemed to enjoy his now enlonged sleep.

"You didn't kill him did you?" Ian asked

"So you're saying I now kill everything in sight?" She asked

"Sorry, Let's go" he said opening the gate. They walked into the school building and lit their torch light

"Where do we start looking?" He asked

"Anywhere. Let's start with the Principal's office" she said

"Yep, there's every tendency that the corrupt Principal might just be with it" he agreed

"Let's go" she said and started walking to the Principal's office

"Come on Keres, tell me what you'd use it for when you find it" Ian pressed

"Don't push your luck" she told him and began to rampage through the office

"Fine, if you find it first I'll take it from you and give it to Hunter" he threatened

"Good luck with that. And you better look closely at how this place is arranged because when I'm done disorganizing you'd be the one organizing" she said and threw the contents of a box to the floor

"Son of a....." He muttered

After hours of futile searching they finally gave up

"Darn it, are you guys sure it's in the school? I mean, the janitors may have just swept it away if it lay on the floor" she said

"Mrs. Peters said it's here, let's just trust her words and look around. At least, it's better than not knowing where to start" he said

"Okay, but it's morning already" she said

"It's tomorrow then but let's keep our eyes out for any suspicious movements" he said

"What are you guys doing here?" Nikolay asked walking in

"What?" Keres asked and turned around

"Nikolay" Ian said

"What are you doing?" He asked again

"I lost something here. A USB key" Ian said

Keres kicked him on his leg.

"Are you nuts?" She asked

"Well if he sees it he can give it to us. Trust me, we need to spread out if we want to get the key" he whispered to her

"If you see it can you give it back?" He requested Nikolay

"Sure thing" Nikolay said

"And you. What are you doing here?" Keres asked

"It's 6.30am. I come to school early" Nikolay said

"The school guard's still sleeping" he added

"Yes, we saw. The man's a real sleeper" Keres said laughing nervously

"Ok. You guys would want to go home and shower because we've got school today" he said seeing them looking all messed up

"Yeah, of course there's school. Sis, let's go shower" Ian said holding her hand

"Sally" Nikolay called

"What?" She asked turning around

"Don't listen to him" Ian said and dragged her out

"That bastard. He never let's me talk" Nikolay said

He walked into the basketball court making up his mind to tell her how he felt towards her. Ian and Keres were back at school determined to find the USB key that day. They walked into the classroom to be greeted by Ray and the others

"Raymond, how's it going?" She asked

"Raymond? You always call me Ray" he said

"Really? I've never" she said

"Very well. How's my fiery ball holding up?" He asked

"Fiery ball? Who's that?" She asked sitting in her desk

"You guys are back early" Nikolay said

"Yes. The church isn't far from here" she said

"I see" Nikolay said

"You called me back earlier. Did you want to tell me something?" She asked

"Yes, I'll tell you later. In the hall room" he said

"Okay, but what do you want to talk about there?" She asked

"You'll find out when we get there" he said and faced the board. With a puzzled look Keres turned around and dropped her bag by the side of the desk and lifted her head to see Legend looking at them

"What?!" She mouthed and she turned away

"What's he going to tell her?" Legend wondered bitting her nails

"Sally, Mrs. Peters wants to see you in the Teachers room. ASAP" Frankie said

"Looks like you're in trouble" she added and walked to her desk

"The nerve of that woman" Keres muttered

"Are you really in trouble with Mrs. Peters? Want me to talk to her?" Nikolay said

"Nah, I'm good" Keres said getting up

"When do you want to talk?" She asked

"During lunch time" he said. She walked into the Teachers room and stood in front of Mrs. Peters desk

"Don't you know it's suspicious the way you keep prying into my affairs?" Keres asked

"Shut up and come with me" Mrs. Peters said dragging her to the basketball court

"What's wrong?" Keres asked. The only time she pulled them into the basketball court was when there was trouble.

"Well, Hunter thinks that because of how careless you've been maybe Diego must have figured out that you are the one who's messing with him and maybe he's already tailing you" Mrs. Peters said

"Well, he'll hit a closure since I took care of everything with Sandra Stewart" Keres said

"Oh, you mean the girl you murdered" Mrs. Peters said

"So?" Keres asked

"He wants Silas and I to keep an eye out for you" Mrs. Peters said

"Poor Silas. He doesn't do anything with his life again except following Hunter's orders"

"I wouldn't keep an eye on me if I were you because you keeping an eye on me could also mean me plucking out your slowly wrinkling eyes and using it as a design on my Gucci" Keres said

"What? Are you threatening me now?" Mrs. Peters asked

"No. I'm just telling you what could happen. It's nice for someone to know the future so when stuff happens he can be like 'Ah, I knew that was going to happen' " Keres said

"Those were Hunter's instructions, Keres" Mrs. Peters said

Fine, keep an eye on me but it would be useless since no one would come get me" she said and walked out of the basketball court. She walked back to the classroom and met everyone whispering about her. They must have thought she was called in for causing trouble again

"Look away dick heads" she swore

"Sally, easy" Ray said

"Why? They're dick heads"

While all these were going on Diego had plans of his own. He had ordered his security agents to have the USB key moved from its location to his hands. He knew the government officials were after it and he wouldn't feel safe without it being in his hands. Manipulating what it held was going to be easy for anyone and with the mysterious person exposing his atrocities to the world he couldn't afford it being far from him.

Nikolay and Keres who he thought was Sally had gone to the hall room as planned to have their discussion even though it didn't digest well with Ian when they had work to do at the school.

"So what the hell do you want to talk to me about?" She asked

"Can't you talk more nicely?" Nikolay asked sitting on a chair in the hall room

"This is me talking nicely. You wouldn't want to see me talking harsh" she said

"What do want to say?" She asked again

"Um, about that day I came to the church....." he started

"God, I knew it was going to be about that" Keres said and made to leave

"No!" Nikolay said getting up and holding her back

"Please just..... just hear me out" he pleaded

"That day when I kissed you" he started again

"Don't you dare remind me about that because I would kill you" she warned

"But you kissed me first, remember? At the cafeteria and part of why I kissed you again was so you'd remember what you did" he said

"Why? You want an apology?" She asked

"No. I want to confess and I just want you to listen" he said

"Confess what? Your sins?" She asked

"If you want to confess I could ring the Priest up" she added

"My feelings" he said. She looked at him puzzled.

"I know that maybe what I'd say to you right now probably won't matter but I'm going to say it anyway" he added

"You brought me out of a cage where I was bound to for a long time and I'll be forever grateful for that" he said

"I don't see any cage" she said looking around

"Just let me finish" he shushed her

"....at first, I was like who's this girl bugging me. I liked the guts you had to talk to me the way you wanted and at that time I wanted to get closer to you and make you a friend" he continued

"But as time passed, I felt more for you. I became attracted to you"

"Like a magnet?" She asked

"Why do people always say that about me? I have to get myself checked in the hospital" she said

"Oh God, can you just shut it for one second?" He asked and she made a face

"Sometimes, I get kind of nervous around you and I now laugh and chat with my classmates like it was something I did before. I never had lunch or attended classes with them but after you came I began to do so" he quoted Legend

"I wanted to say thanks for helping me out in that aspect but the important thing I want to say is that I like you" he dropped the bomb

"I knew it. That's what that whole long talk was about" She said laughing

"I like you so very much and I haven't felt this way in a very long time but for the first time I felt something I couldn't explain. But now I know what it is" he said holding her chin up and staring into her eyes

"I like you. So much" he concluded

"If you really know me, well the true me and the things I've done you would be running away from me and not confessing" she said

"I don't care. I don't give a darn if maybe you could have killed someone or done something worse than that. I don't care. Because I know how I feel" he said.

My dude was just saying that because he didn't know she was a die-hard criminal. One who wanted to squash his Father in her hands.

"Wow, that's nice but I'm sorry I can't reciprocate your feelings" she said

"But Legend might. She likes you" she added

"I don't like Legend, I like you!" he said angrily

"What's going on here?" Legend asked stepping into the hall room

"Great" Keres groaned and walked out

"Do you think our engagement plan was a joke?" Legend asked angrily

"Yes, a very big joke. Good thing you were eavesdropping, at least I won't have to start telling you that I don't want to be with you" he said and began walking out

"Nikolay please" she said grabbing his arms

"Legend for godsake get a grip. What is wrong with you?" He asked

"I really like you" she said sobbing

"But I don't. Can't you just get that? Huh?" He asked and walked away

"What were you and Nikolay talking about?" Ian asked

"Nothing that concerns you" Keres said as they walked into the cafeteria

"Place your bets. The King is here" Henry said taking his seat at the competition table.

"I've never seen that before" she said throwing her milk towards them

"What do you mean? It's Henry, the Champion of the eating contest" Ray said walking pass them

"Look Keres I'm warning you. Don't get too attached to Nikolay because when you find out who he really is you'd be shocked" he said

"Then tell me who he is" she said

"What? Is he Diego's son?" She asked

"Spare me the lecture. What we should be focusing on is finding the USB key and knowing it's contents" she added. A man in a suit bumped into her. One of Diego's agents

"Sorry Miss" he said and walked away. There were some others in suits moving up and down the cafeteria

"What's going on?" Ian asked

"Seems as if they lost something..." She started

"Lost what?" Ian asked

"Keres?" Ian called

"What did you say the USB key looks like?" Keres asked

"What do you mean?" He asked

"The USB key darn it!" She yelled

"It's a USB key like the one we use to save videos on our laptop" he described

"They're going to move it" she said

"What do you mean?" He asked

"I know where the USB key is and Diego's going to move it" she said and raced back to the hall room. She had seen it sticking out of a chair when she and Nikolay were having their discussion.

"Wait up!" Ian called after her

She rushed into the hall room and raised up the chair and sure enough it was there

"Got it" she said and held it in her hands

She dropped the chair and walked towards the door. Three agents saw her hold something in her hands as they walked into the hall room and headed for the chair while she hurried away

"Get her!" One agent said realizing she had the USB key

"Shit!" She said seeing them follow her

"Student!" They called running after her. Some students began to gather around to watch what was going on. Nikolay saw her being chased by his Father's agents. He remembered Legend's threat and thought they were trying to kill her so he'd get engaged with Legend

"Darn it!" Nikolay said and began to chase after them

Keres ran up the stairs of the cafeteria and stood by the railing looking around for Ian

"Over here!" He yelled waving at her by the railing at the other end. The agents were closing up on her and there was no where to run to

"Catch!" She shouted and threw the USB key towards his direction as soon as the agents got to her. Ian caught it real good and began to run

"Darn it" the agents said as they retreated from her and began to chase after Ian. He ran further up the stairs with the agents chasing after him and stood again by the railing while Keres was at the other side with a big gap in between them

"Do it!" She told him

"What the hell?!" Nikolay exclaimed as he knew what they were about to do. Ian waited again for the agents to get closer. They got to him and held him down trying to reach for it. He threw it towards her with his free hand and she reached out to catch it. Nikolay screamed as he watched her reach too far and let go of the railing. She used both hands to catch the USB key without knowing she wasn't holding onto anything and then lost her balance. She tumbled down the railing but quickly used her hand to hold unto the pillar

"Sally!" Nikolay yelled rushing towards their direction

"Give it Miss" an agent said stretching out his hand

"Let me get up first" she said

"Only after you give it" he said

"Fuck you" she said giving him her middle finger. She turned towards the other part of the railing were Ian was

"Don't" Ian said. He was still held down by the agents. She smiled, let go of the pillar and placed the USB key into her pocket as she fell to the ground

"Sally!" Nikolay yelled reaching out to her

Blood splattered everywhere. On the ground. On the body of students who were down the stairs. On the walls. Everywhere

"Oh my God! Sal!" Ray and Oscar rushed to her side

Her side burst open as a result of the fall. Her insides were all over the floor. Ian pushed the agents aside and began rushing towards her. As she felt life leaving her body she saw Ian rushing towards her screaming her name with panic on his face. She closed her eyes going unconscious. A vivid image of Hazel under the boulder flashed past Nikolay's eyes as he cried holding unto the railing. The agents seeing what had happened took off without bothering to take the USB key

"Oh my God" Legend said with her hands over her mouth as she and Sandra walked slowly towards Keres' body

"Oh my God, is she dead?" Emma asked as she felt herself drawn to tears

"Was it a suicide?" Frankie asked rushing towards her body

"Get back! She needs air!" Mrs. Peters said rushing to Keres

"She's still got a pulse" she said touching her wrist

"What do we do?" Ian asked as he held her head in his hands sobbing

"I'm not just a Biology Teacher and I'm not in Black Cat for nothing. You have no idea what I can do so pull your self together and focus" she said

"Sally" Nikolay called as he raced down the stairs to were students were gathered around the body

"Get back!" Ian yelled at him

"Mrs. Peters, please save her" Nikolay begged sobbing

"Get me some dish gloves, clean knives and alcohol" Mrs. Peters said to the chef in the cafeteria

"This is a school, could they possibly have alcohol?" Legend asked

"What's used to preserve the cake you gluttons eat here every day? I thought you were smart" Mrs. Peters said

"What else do you need?" Ian asked taking the USB key out of Keres' pockets

"Go to the home management department and get me needles and some thread. I'm going to have to stitch her up" she said

"Okay" he said and placed the USB key into his own pocket and went to get what she wanted

"I'll go and see if there'd be any useful equipment in the Biology lab" Ray said and ran off

"I'm coming with you" Oscar said following him

"Why don't we go to the Chemistry lab and see if we can find any bottles and some pipes so she can use them as an oxygen tank" Emma suggested

"Sure" Sandra said as they went out

"I'll call an ambulance" Nikolay said

"The Principal has already called one" Mrs. Peters said as she took the instruments from the chef

"Then why the hell aren't they here yet?!" Nikolay yelled watching Keres lie helpless on the ground. Mrs. Peters performed a minor operation on her and placed the vital organs back in their places before the ambulance got to the school

"The patient has a bloated liver and has had severe bleeding plus she's been unconscious for thirty minutes" Mrs. Peters informed them amid other things. Later at the hospital, Keres was wheeled into the operating room and after some hours she was transferred to the IC unit. The only family she had aside from Hunter was called. The Blueberries.

"Whose blood is that on your shirt?" Perry asked Ian pointing to his blood stained shirt

"Keres'" Ian replied

"Oh my God" Lucia said feeling her legs go weak

"Luciana!" James said holding onto her

"She's fine now, don't worry" Ian said calming them down

"Ah, thank God" Lucia said

"I want to see her" Perry said and walked into the room. Just then, Nikolay walked towards them

"No! No, you don't get to come here" Ian told him blocking his way

"Let me just see how she's doing" Nikolay pleaded

"Why? So you can inform your Father about her condition?" Ian asked

"No, come on what're you saying?" Nikolay said

"You have to get out now" Ian said

"I'm not leaving until I see how how she's doing" Nikolay insisted

"Just let him see her" Lucia told Ian seeing how determined Nikolay was

"So what happened to her twin Hazel can happen to her? No way" Ian said

"Wait, what did you just say? How do you know Hazel?" Nikolay asked

"Get out!" Ian said and pushed Nikolay away before dragging James and Lucia inside the hospital room shutting the door behind him. Nikolay looked inside and saw Keres lying on the bed still unconscious with all sorts of gadgets fixed to her. She looked like she was in pain. He broke down in tears