Moonlight Symphony

Three

It didn't take long before the command was issued, and a partial SWAT team entered the bank through the backdoor as Mael had suggested. They were under instructions to wait for thirty minutes. In Mael's mind, that was the correct amount of time to serve as a buffer, the SWAT team didn't know why they waited, their commander didn't, and sure as hell Jack didn't.

But they did it nonetheless. They were as silent as the grave, before thirty exact minutes had passed, they were to break one of the windows to signal the main force to swarm the main door, and they did.

They followed it up by a smoke bomb while yelling repeatedly at everyone to get down. They rushed inside and to their surprise all the robbers were focused on them, they returned fire but the SWAT team was well equipped. They managed to shoot down most of them, as the rest were caught by surprise. The main force had broken through, led by Jack himself, they got to safely get to the hostages in time.

Jack secured the last hostage and then turned towards the SWAT team that had broken through the back entrance. All robbers were shot save for one, who was coughing blood at this point. A bullet had punctured his lunges.

Could Mael have thought this far ahead? Did he knew exactly how the robbers would react? Could a person truly mastermind and see the future with as much clarity as he did? Jack would never know, and he knew better than to ask. But nevertheless, if he couldn't get Mael to answer, perhaps the dying culprit would.

"You might have caught us, but you will never catch our boss!” said the dying robber.

“So you admit that you have a boss? Good, how about you tell us exactly where he is?” Mael said as he barged inside, he wiped the sweat that was building up on his forehead.

“Where the hell have you been!” Jack turned around and locked his gaze with Mael.

“It's all the killing, I don't have the stomach for it,” Mael said before he took a sigh. “So, would you mind telling me where your boss is?”

“Go f**k yourselves,” the robber mumbled before he spat blood. He wouldn't even entertain the idea.

Jack placed his gun on the robber's forehead “Tell us where your boss is, and I'll make it quick.”

The robber mumbled for moments, but then coughed as he tried to laugh. “Die a worthless death, you cowards,” those were his last words as he exhaled, and with the last air that came out of his mouth, so did his soul leaving Jack to his imagination.

The same could not be said about Mael though, he appeared unfazed and confident that they would come through. Jack couldn't make if it was arrogance or simply due to Mael's genius intellect. Moments later, the SWAT commander approached them in a hurry. “We found this piece of paper on one of them, see if it helps,” he said as he handed them the paper.

Mael examined the contents of the paper but he only needed a second. Not because of his genius intellect, but the paper had just numbers on them. Zeroes and ones, it didn't make sense at the beginning, but the longer he stared at the numbers, the more they spoke to him.

“They are just rubbish, don't waste your time,” Jack said.

“That's what an ordinary person would say,” Mael replied in a soft tone, it came out unfiltered, almost like it was a reflex. He rolled his eyes towards Jack. “Sorry.”

Jack's mouth painted a thin line. “Dumbass,” he said with his mouth closed.

Mael pretended not to hear that, as he reached into his pockets and took out a pen. He began to circle a few of the numbers on the paper. “Jack, it's an address,” he mumbled as he raised his brows.

“What?”

“The numbers, they're binary . . . if you pay attention, each bit has a corresponding letter in the alphabet . . . I'm sure of it, it's an address.”

Jack reached for his walkie-talkie, to ask for support but Mael grabbed his arm before he could press any button. “Wait! It's the house we visited before! We don't have time, we gotta go right this moment!” Mael said before he grabbed Jack and rushed outside.

“Mael, let's call for backup, it's way too dan—“

“Shut up, please just trust me on this, we don't have time!” Mael cried as they reached a police car parked outside. “I have a bad feeling and we gotta act now, before it's too late,” His voice broke up, sending shivers down Jack's spine.

But Jack pulled. “I'm not doing this anymore,” he said.

“We don't have time—”

“To hell with this, I'm through with this shroud of secrecy, you want me involved, you tell me exactly where we're going, and why we're not calling for backup.”

Mael took a deep breath, he closed his eyes for a moment, but it was a trick to calm his nerves and his heartbeats. “I believe the robbery was a distraction to pull us away from the real danger. If you call for backup, you might tip them off.” He said.

Jack felt a chill run down his spine. Just what was Mael suggesting? “Who's them?”

“You know who, the organization! The ones behind the Moonlight killings, you know I'm right.”

Jack took a deep sigh. “This is the last time,” he mumbled before he got in the car.

Their heart beats never raced faster. All they could think of was the moonlight story and the horrors that followed. They reached the house and saw a figure passed out right next to the doorstep, “Jack, he's all yours!” shouted Mael as he opened the door, and drew his gun upon entering.

He could only lower his guard after he heard the Moonlight Symphony play out loud. As the body of the blond woman was hanging from the ceiling. She was brutally wounded and full of scars made by a sharp object. Mael turned his gaze away after he saw that her left hand had been cut clean.