FORTY-ONE

EDEN'S POV

I was very uncomfortable standing in the pharmacy, as I was wondering what was taking so long for the lady to bring my medicine. Part of my mind told me that something was not right. That name Bubbles…what really was that about? At the time that Dylan gave me an explanation, I did not put much consideration to it, but when I revisited that explanation in my mind, I could tell that it was most likely a made up lie. Doctor Bubbles? Which family has a surname like that? It did make sense that Dylan wanted to use an existing name; but then what was with the name? Was it a hint of some sort?

Could there have been anything that I had missed when I scanned through the prescription? It seemed to me like everything was in order. A nurse was passing by and I stopped her, "excuse me, could I possible see doctor Bubbles?"

"Doctor Bubbles? Is that the first name or last name? I don't know anyone by that name.", she frowned.

"How long have you been working here" I asked her.

"Sixteen years now. I know everyone," she smiled.

"Do you know of any doctor Bubbles, in any other hospital, besides this one?" my suspicions were beginning to receive confirmation.

"Never heard of a doctor Bubbles," she smiled at me. "Male or female?" she asked.

I did not bother to respond. Instead, I just whispered a "thanks" and left the counter. Realising that everything was not as it seemed, I walked very fast towards the pharmacy doors. I could feel sweat running down my back, sweat balls forming in my palms. I knew I had overstayed, I was tricked, and I needed to quickly hurry out.

"Your medicine! Are you leaving your medicine?" the security guard at the door grabbed my arm. I tried to shake him off but he was holding me tight. "Why are you leaving your medicine? You paid for it, didn't you!?"

I shook off his hand angrily, and without saying a word I walked away. He pulled me again and handed a pen over to me.

"Take this pen, we're running a promotion where we give every client a pen."

The man literally shoved the pen into my pocket. Once I was outside, I started to run. I ran all the way to the parking, got into my car and drove off. Although I was not certain that someone was following me, I still had no intention of staying at the hospital any longer. The luxury of taking risks was not mine.

Yanking out my phone, I dialed Terror's number. He immediately answered and shouted out in great excitement, "boss! I was just about to call you…"

"Listen, Terror!..." I did not wait for him to say what he wanted to tell me.

"No boss, you listen to me first! I might have some information on who took Evangelista …." He continued happily.

Evangelista! Tempting news. I badly wanted to listen to Terror. Of course I needed to hear about Evangelista, but then, it was neither the right time nor place. I quickly cut off terror with:

"Not now, Terror! There was something wrong with that prescription! The police now know that we have Dylan!! Pack up! Take them to our airport base! Do it now. Leave no traces!"

There was silence from Terror's end. It was after some seconds that he spoke, "what did that bastard write on the prescription?"

"I'm not sure yet, but there was something! Get everyone out of that place! Airport base now, Terror!"

"Yes boss!" Terror ended the call.

The place that we called airport base did not mean that it was at the airport. It was just a name we came up with, for disguise. It was an old building which, some decades ago, was a plant for cement production. Considering that Lakeworld failed totally in the production of such things as cement, concrete and the like, the government ended up resorting to importing them. We had secured a building in that area, and that was where we were headed. The airport base, as we called it, was our strongest base. It was the place where we went to, when the worst came to the worst. We used it at the last minute, not just in any minor cases.

Its biggest advantage was in that, it was in the middle of nowhere. Since no-one maintained it, it stood literally covered by vegetation, and I liked it that way. The building had numerous secret rooms, and we even had our own interrogation rooms there. From the outside, it was hardly noticeable. Neglected, nestled between tall dense vegetation, it was one of the forgotten buildings that no one ever spoke about. There was a basement in that building, and the way we had renovated the place, an outsider would not be able to see that. It was impossible for anyone to pick that there was a basement, worse still a double basement.

I was starting to feel like I would be defeated as I drove towards Yellowleaf university grounds. I felt that the police were closing in on me at a much faster rate than I would have wanted. Each time I looked in the rearview mirror, I did not see any car trailing me, but the feeling still lingered.

Why was I that agitated? Why the fear and anxiety? My heart told me that someone was surely following me. There was no way I could have been wrong. I decided to trust my instinct and drove on.

At the Yellowleaf university, there was a function going on, and there were a lot of cars parked; so I knew that if anyone was tracking me, they would assume that I was at the grounds, and spend a lot of time searching for me among the spectators, while I used that time to run for my life. Immediately after parking my car, I checked around to see if anyone was following or watching me; hopped out of the car and as I ran, I made a call to Toast. He responded and began to talk immediately, before I could say anything.

"Your calls are being recorded somehow, boss. There must be a recording device near you."

"A recording device?" I was shocked.

"Did you leave with anything from the pharmacy?" Toast continued, talking very fast.

"I…I didn't. I left the medicine. They…they gave me a pen." I suddenly remembered.

"Throw it as far away as you can, boss. Was there anything else?" he asked.

"Only the pen," I told him. "I have thrown it away."

"Ok, where are you now?"

"Get a car to pick me up behind the university grounds!"I started to run again.

I restrained myself from running too fast, for fear of attracting attention. I strolled on, yet my heart really wished if only it were possible for me to fly. One of my men came to pick me and as we drove towards our airport base, I remembered that needed to make sure that the warehouse was completely deserted, just to be sure.

"Troy," I spoke to him over the phone.

"We're on it, boss", he was breathing heavily.

"Are you still at the warehouse? Leave now please!"

"We're doing our best!" Troy said. He continued to say something else which I failed to hear. The network decided, at that very moment, to go bad.

"I need to pass through the warehouse!" I ordered the man who was driving me.

"Are you sure we're not being followed, boss?"

"I don't see anyone. I'm sure they tried to follow me, but I lost them!" I assured him.

The car veered with a loud screech, as my driver changed the route, heading towards our warehouse. Within a short time, we were at the warehouse. I checked the rooms to see if there was no trail of evidence left behind. The place was deserted, meaning Terror had already transported the people to the airport base.

I called him again. "Where are you now?" I asked him as soon as the call connected.

"We're still on our way. Boss, let's just kill them and get this over and done with."

I hesitated for a while and then "it's too risky."

The thought of killing that de Milo boy gave me shivers. It felt like killing the president of the country. That is how powerful the de Milo family was. I hated to admit it, but it scared me to think of shooting that boy. I could not bring myself to doing that. Dylan made me feel weak. No one, no one ever, in my entire life, ever made me feel scared, yet he managed to do that. He managed to make me feel scared. I hated him for that.

As if it was not enough that he came from the wealthiest family in Yellowleaf, his maternal grandfather served some terms as a minster in the Lakeworld Government, and even served as a senior member of the presidential advisory team. How on earth could I have killed that stupid boy? Having connections in the police force seemed not to hold water at that time, because I doubted if they were powerful enough to get me off the hook, should I have shot that silly boy dead.

"We should just kill them! Give me a go ahead and I will shoot them right now!" Terror encouraged me.

"Let's meet at the airport base and we'll talk about that." I said.

"And that woman, I want to play with her like a boy playing with a toy. And when I am done, I will rip open that beautiful head of hers."

Terror! He was still thinking about Anisha even under the circumstances? I just shook my head and ended the call.

"It's a pity that we didn't ask for a ransom. Now if they catch us, we'll go with absolutely nothing!" I spoke more to myself than to my driver with me. Since he was not used to me sharing my matters with him, he probably did not know how to respond, so he just shook his head and coughed a little.

The driver informed me that we needed to pick up one of my bodyguards. He was still in the vicinity, and he was calling for someone to take him to the airport base. I used the time to check inside the room again, and there was nothing of interest. When I came out of the warehouse, I bumped into Toast, who was running inside.

"Let's go, boss! It's too dangerous, let's leave now!" he pulled me further outside. If it wasn't for the fact that we were under very difficult situations, I would not have allowed Toast to pull me in such a way. I think he too never thought about issues of respect, for we were all concerned about getting away from the cops. There was no time for courtesy.

"Toast, are you the person we've been waiting for, or there is someone else?" I asked him.

"It's me!" he shouted, and then "Are you sure you're not being tracked?" While he spoke, he took out a sensor and scanned my body. Of course, Toast would do that; he was always on top of his game when it came to trackers and the like.

He scanned me from my feet going upwards, scanned my legs, up to my waist and my stomach and back. I opened my arms wide and he scanned them. Beep beep, the scanner went as he scanned at my elbow. He tried again, and beep beep! The beeps were loud and clear.