He Was Right There

Before the next right at the traffic signal, Tasha tells the cab driver to re-route to Systema Games HQ. She turns to Ashe and smiled, "I still have the keys of the company car. Never got the chance to give it back after Darren brutally fired me from the post of Secretary."

Ashe curled her fists. Her brother was getting more stupid day by day. "What? Why did he do that?" 

Tasha shook her head and told the truth. She really didn't know. "Maybe it was to protect me, with all the killings going around."

Ashe did a double take again, "What killings?" Tasha widened her eyes and looked at this girl in front of her when she finally remembered. Ashe, Saye and the boys were as if they were from a different world now. Ashe bit her lip, what all had happened while she was gone? 

"Breakfire 2 was released and some of the customers who went to buy—"

Ashe leaned forward and clutched the seats, "Breakfire 2 was released?! When? How even?" She groaned in frustration. She thought being inside the mansion would give her some closure from the stresses of the outside world, but it left her more and more in the dark. No phones, no TV, she never knew they were this important to her living being. 

"Yes," Tasha continued, "And I think it is some secret group called Spiders who is doing this, trying to sabotage Systema Games and tear it down."

"Isn't the government doing a good job at that already?" Ashe rubbed her temple in frustration. What was this group's motive now? Why go to an extent to kill innocent lives? Even Evertech wasn't that ravage. 

Tasha shrugged, "Part of the reason why I cut off all contact and cancelled all my credit cards and SIMS. I can't have the Spiders tracking me. Heck, I don't even know if they are tracking us even now." Tasha's eyes flitted towards the cab driver. He was rambling on about some random topic like all cab drivers too. Tasha and Ashe barely understood a word.

Ashe narrowed her eyes whispered after she caught Tasha's look at the driver, "Yeah, this guy is no Spider. He is too local for that."

Tasha smiled in contempt, "Agreed." 

Soon, they reached the Systema Games building and walked through the entrance. A wave of nostalgia hit them in their face. For Tasha, it was just a few days. But for Ashe, it had been two years. She always refused to come here after her father died. 

But now, looking up at the posh facilities and sparkling metal along the side rails and glowing glass of the office doors, she regretted not being next to something dad was close to too. 

Before tears started forming in her eyes, Ashe signaled Tasha to go get the company car from the parking lot, while Ashe borrows a laptop from the Creative Room. 

15 minutes later, they met at the parking lot in front of a steel, glossy black Mercedes, the company car. 

"Get in already," Tasha smiled as she saw Ashe staring, "We don't want to be late to get to the station." Ashe gulped and recollected herself before getting in with the gadgets she had grabbed from the Creative Room. 

The next second they were on the road, Tasha was speeding by with full speed and before Ashe could blink, they were at the police station. She barely had any time to prepare her plan to extract the boys from their holding cells. 

Shaking, she got out of the car, shivering under the night chill. It was unnaturally cold that night with a cruel wind hitting against their faces. Their eyes landed on the half-lit police station and Ashe edged towards it. Tasha's hand stopped her and eyes of concern fell on the little kid. 

Tasha had risked everything to come out into the open like this. Her heart was racing with the thought that any one of them could be shot down dead by a Spider any moment. The shootings had stopped for a while after they had killed one teenage boy and two other employees…still. The threat was still there. 

And on top of that, she couldn't imagine what Ashe was going through. "You sure you want to do this? If the company falls…your family can just live normal lives. It's not half as bad as losing someone you deeply care about."

Ashe's breath hitched at that sentence. Tasha had a point. Ashe hugged herself against the cold and breathed out a tuft of icy air. "Tasha. When my dad was alive, I was always next to him. I saw him build all this with his hands, his mind. He even skipped sleep for many months for this. He had told me once…that even if he had to sell his heart to save his creations, he would do it. Because they are worth so much to the future." 

Ashe turned around and took Tasha's hand, "We're saving not just my dad's legacy, but also the hope for a future we have never imagined would exist. If Systema Games crumbles now, all that will be gone. And losing Adrien or any of the six, is nothing to me compared to that."

'Liar,' Tasha told Ashe in her mind. And Ashe caught that in her eyes. Liar. Yes, she was a liar. But it doesn't matter. She needed to make sure the future was safe. It was her duty as her father's daughter. He gave so much to her. This is the least she could do. 

But Tasha didn't let her go. "Ashe, if your dad was here, do you think he would have wanted this?"

Ashe smiled and moved Tasha's hand away, "But dad's not here, is he?" 

And with that, she walked inside the police station like nothing could stop her now. The glass door to the station slid open to reveal a white room filled with officers. She went to the main table and asked for the "Robots" because that was the only they would understand. 

The police man stood and up and straightened his dark blue shirt, "Who are you and why do you want to see them?"

"I own Systema Games." 

The man's eyes widened and called out the Chief. A minute later, the tall Chief walked out of the washroom, wiping his pink hands on his pants. When he saw Ashe, he raised his eyebrows, "You! You're the girl who took down that criminal all by yourself."

The normal police man frowned and looked at this frail girl up and down. This girl? Take down a criminal? He looked at the Chief and cocked his head, 'Are you kidding, sir?' he thought.

The Chief laughed and offered Ashe a seat. Tasha stood by the entrance and watched in awe. She never realized all this would go so smoothly. But how to get them out? 

The Chief kicked the normal police man out of his chair and sat on it. "So, Ms Hermann. What brings you here? We never called for a testimony on the Luca Trenner Case." 

Ashe cleared her throat. "Actually. I'm here for the six…robots."

His friendly eyes steeled over and his knuckles tightened around each other, "What about them?" 

"The probation isn't over yet. We still have 9 days left, then why take them in already?" Ashe was trying to play nice for now. She tried to keep herself calm and stop herself from juts running inside the cells to meet them. 

"What's the penalty for breaking temporary probation?" The chief looked up and asked the rest of the policemen. The one nearest to the chief spoke, "An arrest warrant, sir!"

The chief's eyes returned to Ashe, "See that, kid? We're only doing our jobs." 

Tasha sighed and walked forward. The chief's eyes floated up as Tasha's hands slammed down on the table to meet the Chief's surprised eyes. "Doing your jobs? Then were you doing your jobs even during the death of James Hermann? Don't you tell us how you do your jobs," Tasha glanced at his badge with a fire in her eyes, "Mr Carlton. You showed us that well enough two years ago!"

Ashe's jaw dropped as she looked up at Tasha. What was she talking about? Her dad died of cardiac arrest…right? Then what was all this? Was there more that she didn't know?

Ashe grabbed Tasha's arm and whispered from her chair, "Tasha…what are you saying?" she hissed, telling her silently to stop spouting nonsense and let her handle this. Tasha smiled sadly at Ashe, "You don't know do you?"

"Well!" Tasha stood up straight, placing her hands on her hips and shouted to the entire police station who was watching this encounter with a new found interest, "James Hermann, founder of Systema Games was murdered in cold blood!"

I hold in a breath. 

"And!" Tasha turned to point at Chief Carlton, "He was right there, watching it all happen."