Masked

CHAPTER 18 DUPE

I came out of the bathroom few minutes after Jo leaving. I entered my bedroom and searched for him. I went to hallway to find him but the empty walls greeted me. This made me a bit sad. I saw the time. I was freaking late! I kept my feelings aside and got ready into my office outfits. A red formal suit, my favourite that always made me feel confident. I needed it today. It was an important day.

I did a final touch-up to my light makeup, wore my violet necklace, picked up a matching pair of heels and a bag and went straight to hallway. My kitchen was adjacent to the entrance door, so as I was passing I saw something on the counter-top.

I hope you won’t get sore and will be able to walk.

Along with it was my favourite coffee from my favourite place and a blue berry flavoured cup cake with a heart made on it with chocochips toppings. I picked up the coffee glass and took the cupcake, kept that dirty note in my bag and headed to lock my door and to the parking lot, grinning like an i***t the whole time.

NYC’s traffics are always terrible. But at least I got time to eat this lovely looking cupcake. I arrived to my office and found Miss Ava pacing infront of my cabin, hands crossed. This surely means something is off.

“Ma’am where were you! Miss Bridget is already here. You are half hour late.” She whispered shouted on me. Though she’s my secretary, she had always treated me like a younger sister.

“Now I am here. Why is Miss Bridget here?” I asked with confusion, mentally visualising my calendar.

“Ma’am you had a meeting with her today. One week ago YOU asked her to meet and I even made you remember yesterday before going. And I have been calling you since eight in the morning.” She said with a disappointed look on her face.

“Oh. Sorry I was a bit side tracked. I’ll get to her now.” I escaped Miss Ava’s rage and saw Miss Bridget sipping tea in her own cut that she carries around. She’s a little too specific about her tea so she carries her favourite Japanese tea and cup along with her. Her secretary, Jenny was standing just beside her like a statue.

“Hello Miss Bridget. I’m really sorry I was caught in traffic.” I apologised to her and sat on my seat.

“That’s okay darling. Hey! You are glowing. Were you really just stuck in traffic huh?” She said, keeping her empty cup on the table and smiling teasingly. I saw Jenny taking a glimpse of my face after her employer’s comment, but didn’t show any further reaction.

I flustered, unable to reply so I just smiled awkwardly.

“That’s fine. You are young, beautiful and successful. You should date people when you have time.” She understood my hesitation and held my hand across the table.

“No Miss Bridget I’m not really dating anyone. I just had a good night sleep.” I said avoiding eye contact. One thing she is really great at after her investment choices is catching lies. She’s an experienced woman. Though not married, but I’m sure she definitely had broken many hearts in her times.

“Okay, if you say so. Now tell me what do you have in your mind.”

I told her about new business project and our meeting continued for forty-five minutes.

It was already ten-thirty by the time I finished my meeting and some analysis. I was full because of the cupcakes and coffee so I ditched breakfast.

“Miss Ava, do I have any other appointment for today?” I asked miss Ava, who was sitting on her desk just outside my cabin, typing aggressively something on her phone.

“No ma’am nothing important. Are you going somewhere? Want me to drive you?” She asked all sorts of questions, seeing my bag in my hand.

“Yes I have something to take care of. And no, I can drive myself. Thank you.”

I went to straight to the parking lot on the ground floor. Alonso F&B building is a six-storey building, each floor dedicated to different department and products. The top floor is my personal office, where only a handful of people are allowed, that includes our investors, Miss Ava for sure and the department heads. Once is a while I do inspection at every floor, asking employees for suggestions personally or if they are facing any problems.

I was at my destination within five-minutes, thanks to no-traffic today. The name was written in bolds and capitals, THE GARAGE.

Well typically it is X’s office. from the outside, it’s a garage ran by a few men who work in X also. The garage is under John’s name, who is also the owner on papers. No one other than the company members are allowed inside. No one is allowed to bring their personal phones unless its switched off. No one is allowed to even wear any kind of jewellery or ornaments. Only black coloured clothes with white masks are allowed. We don’t show our faces to every employee, only a handful. Just like that, only few people that includes John, Sera, Kevin, Milan, David, Kelvin, Milly and of course Addy knows my face and vice-versa.

According to protocols, I was already dressed in my all black attire that I changed in parking lot bathroom, and my mask was already on. I went inside from the back door and met the security guards. Two six-feet men, also dressed in all black and mask on, greeted me. The back door is opened only with a password that is only known to the members.

As old as the garage looks from outside, its inner secret office is fully equipped with latest technology and the best material. All the walls are soundproofed. One wall that is common to the garage is made up of soundproof tinted glasses, from which one could see outside from inside but the vice versa is not possible. I went straight to the special confidential office, a place accessed to fewer people. Addy was already there, working his fingers on the keyboards like crazy. The was he was facing was half-way covered with screens. I remove my mask seeing no one else was there.

“Hey there.” I greeted him, putting the mask on a table, eyeing the screens as if I’ll understand anything anyways.

“Hii-wait! You are glowing.” He turned towards me, eyeing me from head to toe.

“What do you mean?” I asked, pretending to be confused. I picked up a water bottle and started drinking from it.

“It is a glow that comes after mind boggling orgasm.” Addy being Addy, said word like o****m as if it was a dish.

I choked on my water and coughed a few times.

“Huh?” I was still unable to form words. I knew I couldn’t lie because the person sitting in front of me knew me better that myself.

“Tell me its that tall guy we saw that night, who with his brown eyes was seeing me as if he would kill me if I got even an inch closer to you?” He said all with so much excitement, like he was just talking about visiting an amusement park and not about someone murdering him.

“Adam Casser, I’m your boss here, not your friend. Just get back to work and tell me the updates.” Smart me. I avoided the question without lying.

“Pff. Yes ma’am.” Addy said, focusing again on his world of screens.

“Good.” I replied, feeling a little prouder.

“And ma’am. If you think you could dodge me this easily than you are highly mistaken. Don’t forget I’m your best friend afterall.” Oh that not-so-smiley-smile is an indicator of danger. Maybe it was not that smart of me. Without waiting for any reply he just handed me a paper and returned back to his world. Before I could ask anything there was a knock on the door. John entered. Even though his mask was on, it was easy to recognise him. His six-feet and eight inches made him visible even in a crowd.

“Yes John what’s the update?” John greeted me and stood in front of me.

“Ma’am our team is ready for the operation. Intel and Mr. Adam’s research tells there’s gonna be a lot of men and a lot more drugs.” As always, John said everything on point. I have never seen him smile in all these five years. He always just had a blank look. I once sae a photo of him with his family, his son in his arms, wife standing just nearby and he was smiling ear-to-ear. After seeing that photo I asked him when will his smile return. He simply said that with his family, his smile was also gone. But maybe he’ll fell better the day we catch D and finish the drug market completely. His voice still rings in my mind and keeps me motivated. Many men and women in our organisation are here because they lost their loved ones because of this stupid addiction. Some are here just because they don’t want to loose anyone because of this stupid addiction.

“Okay. So as always, we’ll be dividing ourselves in different teams, and as quietly as possible, we’ll kill those bastards and capture anyone who seems to know information. And by quietly I mean we don’t need anyone of our team members to get hurt. Clear?”

“Yes ma’am.” John nodded and proceeded to leave when Addy finally lifting his head from the screen and suggested something.

“The site is very big. I’ll be operating a drone that will tell what’s happening there live. So keep me connected on the call too.” He said and waited for me approval.

I gave him a nod and a thumbs up. John heard and left without any further delay.

Fifteen minutes after we were all seated in our cars, with our masks and guns to storm the place.

An hour later, we were on the location. It was in the middle of woods, as expected. It looked like an old cowshed. Name of the farm was faded, only a few letters visible that weren’t coherent.

Quietly from all sides we encircled the whole place. We were divided in teams of five, making total five teams. Addy was in the car nearby with one man to watch and take care of him.

“Guys, there are cows inside.” Addy said, with shock in his voice evident.

“What are you saying?” I asked, more confused.

From front and back door, mine and John’s team respectively headed inside first, to confirm what we just heard.

And to our surprise we saw something we could never even imagine. There were cows everywhere! A man and woman, probably in their late 60s were there, cleaning the cows and dirt around them. The man spotted me first.

“Can I help you with anything dear?” He asked from distance.

“Guys, keep your guns in your pockets and head outside this instant.” I ordered them.

“But ma’am what if its just a trap. Let me come with you. And rest of you, be on stand by. Just come inside and attack if you get any order or you feel something is suspicious.”

Everyone agreed and John and I went inside, removing our masks.

“Did you not hear me? Need any help?” the old man asked again. John came with me from the front door and we went near them.

“No sir. We were just roaming here and there and saw your farm. We were just thirty.” I said. The old woman was gone before we went near them. The man had thick beard and thick glasses on. He was wearing plastic gloves and boots.

“Don’t worry you have come to the right place. Let me fetch some for you.” He said and went inside a cabin.

“John they seem normal. I think we should retreat.” I said, facing John who was still eyeing the place like we were in a spider web.

“Something seems off. Let’s check first. Keep your gun in your hand ma’am. I’ll return soon.” He left, without waiting for any response. John was in his late 40s, but for his age we worked and walked like a panther.

The man returned with two bottles of milk.

“Where did your husband go miss?” He asked, handing me a bottle.

“Oh he just got a call so went outside to attend it.” I made up an excuse and took the bottle politely.

“Hmmm. This place doesn’t have that good network. Can I help you with anything else?” The old name asked, with a bottle of milk still in his hand for John.

“No. Thank you so much sir.” I responded. In the mean-time, John was back on his position, next to me.

“Sir can I ask a few questions?” He said. I elbowed him, telling not to.

“Yeah sure. But please have a seat.” The old man replied politely.

“Thank you, sir.” I said after being seated in the same cabin where the old man first went to bring milk for us.

“Are you both cops?” The old man asked, in a calm voice.

Before I could reply, John handed the man a police badge. I knew we keep all kinds of fake documents but the hell he was this prepared.

I eyed him, feeling annoyance and proud at his preparation.

“Yes sir. I’m a cop and my wife here is a house-maker.” John said, taking the badge back.

“Sorry for troubling you sir but my husband could come out of police station but the police station couldn’t come out of him.” I tried to lighten up the mood a bit.

The man laughed a bit. “Don’t worry dear I can understand. Ask me whatever you want to ask officer.”

“What about a bit of introduction first?”

“I am Charlie Huggon. I run this farm with my wife Emily Huggon. It’s a small business, as you can see its countryside, but we get enough for our needs.”

“And where is your wife sir?” John, still not satisfied kept digging.

“She had gone for delivery of the milk. Want me to call her?” Charlie asked, pulling his phone out.

“No thanks-

“Yup sure-

Mine and John’s voice overlapped. Charlie smiled.

“No worries little miss. I’ll just give her a quick call.” Charlie tapped a few buttons on his phone and put it on his ear.

“Hey honey. What time ate you returning. No, there is no problem. We just got two very pleasant guests who would like to meet you. Ya ya okay. I’ll be waiting for you. Bye.”

“Sir how did you two met?” The question came out of my mouth out of curioisity. This time John elbowed me.

Charlie smiled and began his story.

“We met in a party when we were like seventeen. She was drinking alone in a corner and I was partying with my friends. She was looking so beautiful I just couldn’t stop myself from gravitating towards her. I just asked her if she was fine ‘cause she looked a bit sad. She said she was fine and left with her friend. I thought it was end of the story but who knew I would meet her in collage the next year. And the rest is history.”

“Woow. That’s really cute.” I said, smiling, remembering my parents’ story. They were high-school sweet-hearts.

“Thank you. We earned money, got married, travelled a lot and finally thought we should settle down.” He said with nostalgia in his eyes and voice.

“What about children?” John interrupted.

“Emily couldn’t conceive. We wanted kids but thought it was okay to not have them also. So we just moved freely all over the world. We are getting old so we just bought these cows and a few dogs and here, this is our little family now.” He said with a bit sadness in his voice.

By the time he finished telling us the story, which practically only I was listening, we heard a truck stopping on the back side door. The cabin was near the back door so it was easy to spot the truck. A woman, probably Emily walks out and walks towards the cabin.

“Here is my beautiful wife.” Charlie stood up and took Emily’s hand in his hand. She hesitated a bit.

“My wife’s a bit shy.” Charlie said and made Emily sit down on a chair.

“What is happening here dear? Who are they?” Emily asked, gripping Charlie’s hand a bit more tightly, looking terrified by us.

“Ma’am you don’t need to worry. We just stopped by because we were thirty. And Charlie was right.” I said, smiling a bit to make her feel face.

“About what?” She asked, still not relieved.

“That you are really beautiful. He was telling us how you guys met and fall in love.” I said, bending a bit towards her, seeing straight in her eyes.

“Oh he did? Thank you.” She said. But it didn’t look like she was relieved and comfortable.

“Now we’ll leave. Take care Charlie and Emily.” I said standing, gripping John’s hand, gesturing him it was time to leave. He wasn’t ready but still agreed.

“Thank you, little miss. I Hope you two a lovely marriage life.” We waved them goodbye and started walking to our cars.

“Somethings still seems off?” John was still sceptical.

“Like what?” I asked, grabbing the door of the car.

“Like how that woman was on verge of having a mental breakdown.” John said, sitting on the passenger seat. I sat in the back seat, where Addy was seating, his phone in his hand and ear phones on.

“I agree. But maybe she was just scared.”

“Of who?”

“Of us.”

“I think it’s more that it looks like.”

“Maybe. But let’s just first go from here.”

We left that cottage farm and went straight to THE GARAGE. No one talked the whole time. John was in deep thinking, one of our members was driving, Addy was typing aggressively on his phone the whole time, so I just surfed my phone.