Unraveling Secrets Of The Devil

Chapter - Three

After going through all the ten files, we realised that there were similarities only in between few cases. A suspicious black SUV was spotted in four cases. The foot prints found in Ms Alonso’s home matched with the ones found in two cases on this list. There were neither any threat calls nor demand for money from the kidnappers in all the cases. So that means there’s a chance that all of them are alive. We have to hasten our investigation before more people are kidnapped. “Sarah, did you guys handle all of these cases?” I asked. “Not all of them Chief, only few. Others were handled by different officers because we didn’t know there could be a link between all of them” she said.

Mason and Stella came back. “Chief only five of them are in Seattle right now and they said they’ll come for interrogation by afternoon. Among the other five, three have agreed to come and meet us tomorrow but the other two are quite busy it seems, so they can only come for a video conference interrogation” Mason said. “Worried about their work more than the life of their loved one huh?” I scoffed. “It seems they have lost hope and moved on with their lives Chief” Stella shook her head in disbelief. I totally agree with her. How can someone be so careless even when there’s a chance of their loved one being alive? As they say, power and money make a person go blind over everything. They are happy without them. “Chief, our guess was right. All the missing people are patients of Dr.Ethan and Dr.Hazel. Few were famous savants and few had kept it confidential like Ms. Alonso” Ansh said as he entered. “Oh, so mainly they are targeting savants, but why?” Mason asked. “There are up to something and we’ll find that out soon”

I thought of taking a break for a while. I was randomly walking through the corridors checking out the rooms casually. Many officers were busy working. I started climbing up the stairs to discover upper floors. I had never been to the last floor. There were two huge rooms which were probably used for interrogation. As I was glancing around I saw a ladder leading to a square opening above. Curiosity is in my blood. I slowly climbed up and entered the last floor. Whoaa. It was an open terrace on top. The cool wind brushed over my face making me feel alive. I glanced around and saw someone standing behind the wall. I slowly tiptoed towards that person to see who it was. Stella!? She quickly wiped her tears and stood still. “Chief, how come you are here?” she asked with a surprised look. “I was just casually checking all the floors and I climbed up the ladder to see what was here. What happened? Are you alright?” I was worried a lot about her but didn’t show it on my face. She just sighed and didn’t reply. “Sometimes it’s better if you say it out rather than keeping it for yourself, even if it’s with a stranger or a new friend” I said and she just nodded.

“Last year on this day I had gone to the outskirts of Seattle on a mission. It was almost midnight when we succeeded and came back. That’s when I got a call from my brother saying that my dad met with a accident in the evening and was admitted in the hospital. By the time I reached the hospital, he had-” she trailed off as tears rolled down her cheeks. I offered her my hankie and patted her consolingly on the shoulder. “I wish I had spoken properly with him in the morning. I ignored his calls because we were planning our mission here. I should have known” she said with a guilty look. “Stella it wasn’t your fault, you didn’t-” she cut me off in the middle. “No, it was my fault. I shouldn’t have ignored his calls. I should have at least-” “Stella.. it wasn’t your fault” I said with a concerned look as I cupped her face. “You didn’t know this would happen. It was your duty to give your best on that mission and you did. Your dad would have been proud of you. We can’t control everything in our life, few things go out of control and we end up losing what we love, But we should just stay strong and go ahead. Got it?” she nodded with a smile and hugged me. “Thank you” she whispered. “You’re welcome” I replied as I gently caressed her loose hair behind. After few seconds we broke our hug and it was kind of awkward. “So, shall we leave?” I asked breaking the silence and she nodded with a smile.

“Chief, we found this paper along with Ms Alonso’s work papers which we got in the cellar. By seeing the handwriting I don’t think it’s hers because hers is completely different” Luna said as she gave me the paper. It was slightly crumpled as if the person used to frequently remove and keep it in his pocket. It was a list of people’s names. As I glanced through the names something caught my eye. Jeanine. Her name was circled with a marker. There were two more names which were circled. Jane and Krunal. These are the last two people to get kidnapped before Ms Alonso. “This should have been slipped from the kidnapper's pocket while k********g her” Stella said and everyone agreed. “So, other people on this list are the next ones. But only their first names are mentioned here” Mason said. “Yeh, because they are smart enough to write only first names so that even if we get this paper somehow, we can’t find and protect them easily” Sarah said. “Mason, call Dr.Ethan and Dr.Hazel to send that list of their savants list. Crosscheck these names with them and see how many names are common” he nodded and left. Ansh entered the room as we were talking. “Chief, a relative of one of the kidnapped ones has come for interrogation” he said. “Oh ok. Let’s go to interrogation room then”

“Hello sir, I’m Austin Sello, husband of Jane” we shook our hands and sat.

“Ok, so Austin, when was the last time you spoke with Mrs.Jane?”

“She had called me in the evening saying that she'll be coming home late. I said I’ll pick her up but she denied and said she'll get back alone. The guard at her office saw her leaving but she didn’t come back home. It’s been a month now and still there’s no clue about her” he said with a worried look.

“Don’t worry Mr. Austin, we'll find her soon” he just nodded. “Ok, so from when is she visiting Dr.Hazel?”

“Its almost been six months. She had a serious brain injury when she fell from the stairs at our home. She was admitted in the hospital for few days and she was asked to have regular check-ups”

“And what about the savant syndrome which she got?” he was slightly surprised. “Umm, how did you get to know about that?” he asked. “According to our investigation till now, she has been kidnapped because she is a savant. So we want you to tell everything so that we can save her quickly”

“After that accident, she started feeling strange and weird. She started getting new and best ideas in designing satellites on their mission. She went through her incomplete project files and started getting ideas in making them better. We consulted Dr.Hazel to know the reason for this sudden change and that’s when she mentioned about savant's syndrome. Even though she was lucky to get such a talent by accident, we had to have regular check-ups with Dr.Hazel for few months. So we decided to stay here for a while. We had decided to go back by this time but now she is only not there with me”

“How many people knew that she had this syndrome?”

“Only we both and Dr.Hazel. We didn’t tell it to anyone because that would grab unwanted attention and she would be blamed at her work saying that her talent was by luck. We didn’t want popularity like other savants by giving shows and earning money. So we kept it as a secret” he completed with a sigh. “Ok Mr. Austin, thank you for your cooperation. Don’t worry, we'll do our level best and get Mrs.Jane back as soon as possible” he nodded with a smile and left.

I am feeling like something should connect but I’m not able to get what that is. My gut feeling that I’m missing something . What am I missing? As I was thinking Ansh came and tapped on my shoulder. “Yeah?” I asked completely absent minded. “ Are you ok Chief?” I gave him a confused look. “Yes. I’m alright. What’s the matter?” “Because I called you thrice but you didn’t reply” “Oh! I was just thinking something” “Oh ok. Chief, Mr. Colton Lopez, Mrs. Marlene Lopez’s husband is ready for the video call.”

“Oh ok. Just give me two minutes, I’ll be back.” I said and went upstairs to the terrace. I really needed some fresh air. What was it that I’m missing?? “ Chief, are you ok?” Stella asked from behind. “ Yes” I said without turning back. She came and stood beside me. I didn’t look at her but I could feel that she was staring in the same direction. “ Chief, you know that you can share anything with us right?” she said and she came near to my ear as if to whisper something “ Your secret is safe with us” she whispered in a singing way and I laughed. “ Finally” she said as I stopped laughing and just sighed. “ Nothing Stella, just that my gut feeling is saying that I’m missing something in the two cases but I’m not able to figure it out. It’s just my tendency that I can’t relax when I’m curious” “ Oh . No worries Chief, we’ll figure it out” she said and I felt some sort of comfort in her words. I’ve never felt this with anyone else. “ Yeah. Let’s go down then?” I asked and she nodded. We headed downstairs to talk with Mr. Lopez . Let’s see what he has got to say.

He looked like he was in his early 40s . “ Hello Mr. Lopez” I greeted him . “ Hello Mr. Lee, heard a lot about you. But I was thinking you were there to deal with only Ms. Jeanine's case” he said . Too nosy guy but he seemed a bit suspicious.

“Yes. But since I’m here thought why not solve the other cases as well. So, I see that you are basically from California. Why did you and your wife come here to Seattle ?”

“As you might know she was a savant. Umm.... We came to Seattle last november. Our therapist here died and she was not able to cope up with the stress. So we decided to give it a try at Dr.Ethan’s. It was a good decision actually since she was really happy after getting herself consulted with him and following his advice. The only worst thing that happened was she went missing”

“ Wait! Missing? It is written that she was kidnapped in the FIR”

“ Yes . First she actually went missing. We were heading back from the therapist when I decided that I should surprise her since her birthday was approaching. I left her in the hotel and went to but some decorations, cake and all. But when I came back she was not in the room. I searched for her in the hotel but she was no where to be found . That’s when I filed a missing case first. When I came back to the room and tried calling her again I noticed that her phone was in the room and that too on silent mode. That’s when I got suspicious. She literally used to screw me if I had put my phone on silent . It’s like she hates such people and she always has her phone with herself. One because she didn’t want me to see her phone since she loved taking weird selfies and was embarrassed to show them to me . Second because we didn’t know when she would feel too depressed and have rapid mood swings . She needed to call and talk to someone during that time so she used to keep her phone with her” He said as he sighed.

I know that he’s trying to move on but I don’t think he can do that. He is really desperate to find her. “I can understand your feeling but all I can say right now is that we are working on it and I’m assuring you that we’ll find her. I wanted to know one more thing Mr. Lopez,”

“ Thank you for the assurance , no one really gave me that after her missing. I’ll answer anything you want me to”

I smiled lightly.“ Yeah, so, she was a savant. And I’ve heard that savants have special talents . What was hers?”

“ She was more into automobile industry. She is actually a painter by profession but after the accident which led to this syndrome she started creating engines and designing bikes and cars . She was very much interested in doing this course from the beginning but due to financial issues in her family she never really had a chance to pursue that but after seeing her talent I was really shocked. She joined the car company and started working there creating some new models of bikes and cars”

“ Ok. Thank you for spending your valuable time with us Mr. Lopez”

“ I should be the one thanking you. Thank you” he said and ended the call.

Again, I’m missing something. “ Mason, write down whatever I ask now” I said. “ Yes chief” “ What was Ms. Alonso’s talent?” “ Research” he said as he wrote it down. “ What was Mrs. Jane's talent?” “ Satellite designing” “ What was Mrs. Marlene’s talent?” “ Automobile industry” he said. “Chief, they all are specialized in technological stuff” Ansh said. I was pacing around in the room when Stella brought me a cup of coffee. “ Thanks” I said as I sipped and walking again. Why would they need savants talented in technology? No money, no fame nor revenge. Why?

“ Chief, you need to look at this” Sarah said and I stared at the files she got me . “ When you said that those three were talented in technological stuff , I went through the known savants talents. We basically had five known savants apart from Mrs. Lopez and all of those five are also talented in technological stuff. Like two of them are in research fields of Geomagnetism and Robotics. Three of them in proper tech department of which two are software developers and one is in the department of artificial intelligence designing” She explained. “ What is artificial intelligence?” I asked. “ It’s a kind of stimulation of human intelligence into machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic our actions. Like they speak, learn and plan things just like us . And the worst part is, Mr. Krunal, he was working in artificial super intelligence . That is not yet confirmed that it is possible, but if it is the whole world will be in danger” “ I didn’t understand?” Stella exclaimed.

“ See, artificial super intelligence machines not only mimic and understand human behaviour and intelligence but they can also surpass it and they become self aware. They start thinking on their own . Ok let me give you an example. Imagine a species of animals starts to think beyond its capacity such that it surpasses human intelligence and capabilities. What will happen? They will start claiming power over humans and the world. That is what will happen if artificial super intelligence comes to being. It’s very hazardous” She explained. “ We first need to know what talents and capabilities the other two people had. Ansh, get the meeting ready as soon as possible” I said .

“Umm, Mason we found that there was a suspicious black SUV in four cases right. Get me their numbers and the details of the owners. Check if they are fake or real. Stella, get the CCTV footage results of the four cases. Like till where could they track down the cars , their routes etc” I said and they went . I was pacing around in the room while Sarah was deeply engrossed in her laptop searching the details of those five savants when I noticed a shadow near the door. I don’t know why it didn’t feel familiar but it felt more suspicious. I slowly started walking towards the door when suddenly the shadow started to run off. I ran to the door to find no one . I ran in the direction of the shadow to find nothing. I almost paced through the whole building and then came back to the room . “ What happened Chief? Why did you run away like that?” Sarah asked. “ I felt like someone was standing near the door and listening to the plan . But when I went to check that person ran away and I couldn’t find them” I said . “ Oh.” She sighed and went back to her laptop. Something’s not right. I felt suspicious. More like she was either trying to hide something from me or came to tell something but didn’t want to. I didn’t want to bother the issue more so I just left her .