His Conundrums

Chapter 11

Traces

He woke up in a room that smells like one of the most familiar scents he smelled. He blinked twice and sat up in the bed. He scanned the whole area. There's a window in his right just enough to light up the room, a small lamp on his bedside table, and a wooden cabinet in his left beside the door. The room is small compared to that in his hotel. He can hear cars and other vehicles outside. He can also see the five-story apartment across the street. He was right. It was his room above his infamous coffee shop. He smiled, remembering how he was kidn*pped and expected to bring him to some abandoned warehouse to torture, but that guy seems sweet enough knowing he brought him back to his place.

"Do you like your place that much?" A familiar voice he heard just around the dark corner of the room.

"More than anything in this world," he said, smiling.

"Tell me, Redmund, why you chose to be normal?" He stood up, stepping closer from where he was sitting, revealing himself to the light given by the windows.

"Normal? A person who never experienced rebellion doesn't seem to be normal to me... unlike you," he said, pissing the man who was known to be with a temper.

"Where's the files?" Mario said, pointing his gun to a man who was once his comrade.

"Never point your gun to your comrade, or you'll be considered a traitor, Notcher's principles," he told him. He knew this time would happen sooner or later but never expected it was on his birthday.

"I'm already a traitor from the time I took the money, Redmund," Mario said.

"No. I know you're still a good man, Mario," he said, looking him directly to his eyes.

"Do I look like a good person to you right now? As you said, I'm pointing out my gun." Mario pulled the trigger to make Mr. Lauve afraid, but he failed. It looks like he knew this was coming and prepared to lose his life to a former friend.

"You save my life in a war a lot of times. You saved my coffee shop from closing for having only an espresso in its menu and only have one regular customer." He laughed, remembering his coffee shop below his room.

"Oh! I have a new regular customer this month, which makes them two," he added.

"And you brought me here in my place, a perfect place to die peacefully at this age," Mr. Lauve said.

"Where's the files, Redmund. I don't want to kill you yet. I just want the files," Mario said, lowering his gun and walking around in that small room.

"You know you can't have that for other purposes, Mario," he said.

Mario pointed out his gun again, almost making Mr. Lauve jumped to his bed.

"The files Redmund, I need the files," he said, losing his temper. He can't play for too long being such a good boy. He knows he's a badass.

"You know what will happen if that information leaks, Mario. Even the army didn't know we have a copy. We only have that just in case they'll turn their backs on us during that war..." Mr. Lauve paused for a moment thinking why Mario wants those files.

"...you're not planning to start a war, do you?" Mr. Lauve asked him. Mario smirked at his question and leaned forward to face him.

"I guess age does make you slow, Redmund. You were once one of the most intellectual people in our platoon. Why you only thought about that just now?" Mario said. This time it was him looking at Mr. Lauve's eyes.

Mr. Lauve felt fear run through his spine. He's trying to look for the man he knew before but found a man whom he never met.

-0-0-0-

"Where is he? Where is he? Where is he? Where is he?" Joe said, walking back and forth in front of Sirius and George. He's more frustrated than anyone else in that room. If only he didn't insist on buying a cake and left the old man alone.

"Maybe they brought him to an abandoned warehouse. Usually, that's where gangsters put their hostages," Joe said, talking to himself but loud enough to make them hear.

"Or in a rooftop. Do you know any place which has a nice windy rooftop?" he asked George, but George shakes his head. Of course, he still needs to learn about all the places in that city.

"I don't know where Xi's secret hideout is. Even my rat friends didn't seem to know. Nobody knows actually," he said, still walking back and forth.

"WHERE THE HELL IS HE?!" Joe shouted, which makes George almost popped his heart out and jumped to where he was sitting. Sirius, on the other hand, seems calm and deep with his thoughts.

"They didn't even leave a note!" Joe said, throwing a pillow out of frustration.

"They did," Sirius told him as he walked and searched for the old man's trash bin.

"It seems like they really didn't take him by force," he said while holding two disposable cups with a coffee stain he took from the bin.

Joe took it and examined, and George did the same.

"It was Mr. Lauve's," Joe said at the same time as George. "It was the coffee from Greenville Street." They looked at each other.

"Do you know that place?" Joe asked him.

"Well, I sometimes bought coffee there when I'm around," George told them.

"It looks like they had a little talk before they left, and it is someone close enough with Mr. Lauve to have a coffee," Sirius said.

"Mario Jagneer," Joe said.

"Yep." Sirius approved.

"Just the two of them?" Joe asked.

"Three," George said, pointing out a weak wall that looked like someone rested its back against the wall not too long ago while the two old men were talking. It's impossible for Mario Jagneer to remain standing. Maybe it is someone younger and acquainted with them.

"Merion Jagneer was with them," Joe said.

"You've heard Mr. Lauve's story longer than me, so maybe you knew where he wants to spend his remaining golden time with," Sirius said

"Why? It's the only place he has since he left the army, his coffee shop." Joe told him.