I got You

Chapter 3

Tobias

I don’t fly commercially, and I only fly when my job calls for it. This time it is different. I am American, but my roots aren’t. I was adopted as a baby, and that never bothered me until three days ago when I found out I had a brother. That is when he became my next mission. My first ever personal mission since I turned to the US army ten years ago.

Find my brother… Talk to him… Make him trust me, then take him with me. It is just another mission.

“Attention all passengers! We are soon going to land, please fasten your seatbelts and stay seated, the use of the toilet is no longer permitted, thank you!” I heard the stewardess say.

Fifteen minutes later she spoke again, “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Skopje, the local time is five minutes past eight, and the current weather is 23°C. Thank you for flying with International Airlines. We hope you enjoyed your flight, and we hope to see you on board in the near future.” That statement announced my arrival at my mission’s location. I have no other map coordinates except for the name of the city my brother was last seen in. I don’t waste time. I am here to find him and that is what I am going to do.

Four hours later I am already working on it. I am in a grey rented BMW, driving behind a black SUV with tinted windows on a one-way, narrow street in eastern Skopje.

Yes, you guessed right. I am after that car. Who is in that car? I have no f*****g idea. I just know whoever it is, might lead me to my brother’s current location.

How do I know that? I have my way of finding things. I was trained to do so.

I am not surprised when the car I am following makes a stop in front of an old white wooden house. It is a cover. Anyone driving a black SUV with tinted windows operates undercover. I know that much for sure. What I don’t know is what kind of cover they are operating under. I am here, and I am about to find out soon.

I am parked close enough to the house so that I can see everything, but far enough from it for them to not notice me. Just another skill I gained through my experience with the army.

I watch as one man dressed in black exits the black SUV. I watch as he makes his way around the car and towards the trunk. I watch as he opens it, and I expect to see something disturbing coming out of it. But what the man gets out of the trunk is not at all disturbing. It is a white bottle with some kind of liquid inside.

Thanks to the few gadgets I got from a secret agent friend of mine, I am able to see what is written on the bottle. The multipurpose glasses I wear come with a built- in camera that allows me to see from afar. One word can be spotted on the front side of the bottle. That is the word “Бензин(Benzin)”.

“It must be a Macedonian word,” I think. Yes, I am not wrong. Translating software is another built-in feature that comes with these glasses, and I get the word translated in seconds. Gasoline is the translation I get.

Again, I am not surprised. I know what he is up to. Destroy all evidence and that house is no exception. I want to stop him, but I won’t. I want to know what is in there, but I can’t take that risk. I have to keep a low profile for now.

So, I let him light the house on fire. The fact that it is made from wood only makes his job easier. In seconds the house is engulfed by flames.

The man has done his job. As he is standing in front of the house, watching, I see two other men exiting the black SUV to join him. The three of them stand and watch. Watching and laughing sadistically. Now I really wonder what is in that house that watching it burn gives them so much pleasure.

A few minutes later I see the men turn back to their car. They move towards the car’s trunk to get something. Each of them carrying a fire extinguisher in their hands, they are back to extinguish as much of the fire as they can and stop it from spreading.

I guess their job is complete.

Most of the fire is put out, and they are ready to leave. I am ready too. I need to see where they are heading to next.

I start my car, but turn it off that same moment. I think I heard someone scream. I hear it again. I can’t be bothered with this now. I need to see where they are going. I grab the wheel to leave but I can’t. The scream gets louder. Oh…no. No… no… It comes from the house. s**t… s**t, no.

I stay in my car for a few moments longer, struggling with myself. I hold the wheel with my hands so hard that my knuckles start to turn white. I am angry at myself for not starting the engine, and not getting my ass behind that black SUV that is already getting away from me. Whoever is screaming is none of my concern. They are not my mission, and I shouldn’t feel this way for them, but I do. And that drives me crazy.

I leap out of my car and start to run, hoping I am not too late. What have I done? I could have stopped this.

I stumble through the ruins of the house, trying to avoid the remaining fire, no longer hearing the scream.

Fuck!

I search for a little bit more and I suddenly see it. On the ground next to a pile of bricks, there is a human body. There is some fire still raging around it and the air is pretty heavy, but that doesn’t stop me reaching it. My body has been through worse… much worse.

I pick up the body from the ground and hold it close to my chest as I run out. I place it on the grass covering the front yard of the house and I start checking for any vital signs. It is a girl. A pretty young woman in her early twenties, I would say. I check her pulse and I check her body for burns. There is a pulse and there are no burns. Thank God, I think.

I am about to leave and check the house to see if there is someone else when her body shivers. I take her head in my hands and give it a little shake. Her eyes open and I can see they are a nice shade of golden hazel. They are beautiful, just like her. I let go of her head when she starts blinking and her face stiffens. She must be struggling to see.

“Are you alright?” I ask, worried about her. She doesn’t answer. She just stares at me while I impatiently wait for her to answer. Does she speak English? Did she understand what I asked her? A few moments pass, and there is still no answer from her. Is she experiencing post-traumatic stress? I am thinking about the possibility of that being the case for a little, while staring at her, impatiently waiting. Then she slowly nods. Thank God, I think again. She is ok, and she will be better once I take her to a hospital.

After checking the house for the fifth time, and finding no one else there, I head back to the front porch of the house to get her, but she isn’t there. Where did she go? I run to the street to see if I can spot her, but she is gone. Now that surprised me. She seemed pretty weak to walk on her own, yet she somehow managed to do it.

I wonder who she is and why she was in that house as I walk back to my car. I want to make sure she is okay because that is what I do, I fight for and save people. It is what makes me who I am, and that’s why I won’t stop until I find her.