Chapter 19
The Proposal
Heston was alone in the office inside the intelligence agency, examining the report. The papers were scattered on the table. He took out the aspirin pills and put them in his mouth. Heston glimpsed at the bottle of whiskey on the floor. The surface of the water danced inside.
Heston gulped the whiskey and slid it into his stomach. The burning sensation trickled down inside his throat. He could hear the propeller blades rotating from the distance. Heston rubbed his tiresome eyes, yawning and stretching. He got up and went toward the window to get some fresh air. There was a good portion of bird feces dried up on the window.
Heston saw from the report that now everyone is heading toward the Island of Riddles.
‘Men have an innate desire to dominate,’ he thought.
Currently President in Basileus Republic set up the puppet ruler in Cassandra, restructured the political parties and set up the voting system to spread democracy. But Heston knew it wouldn’t last long. But he wasn’t too pessimistic about it. Now that Veron Komer is toppled off by Nina Polchinski, various warlords will be pretty much discouraged to rise into the power.
“Lot of parties existed before the civil war, guessing Veron outgunned everyone,” he thought. “Now that they’ve heard that we have lost track of Nina Polchinski, not confirming death, they will be too shit scared to rule Cassandra.”
He had to deal with the nuclear waste management as it was too dangerous to dump it on the Island of Riddles anymore. Many governments seemed be interested in the island after they have gathered the intelligence regarding Ricky. They addressed to the public that their national security is at stake and they will take a necessary precaution in the island. They were still talking whether to deploy the troops or not, but he knew that they have already sent a spies in the area. He knew there are many lurking secrets inside the island, concerning the power grasping the Cassandra.
“Those refugees in the island are those who try to hide from the Assassins’ Chamber…” murmured Heston, pouring whiskey to his glass. “The Assassins’ Chamber is the secret organization that contributed to the so-called ‘order’ in Cassandra. They are known for killing the party leaders that opposes Veron Komer.”
Heston determined to deploy agents and drones to the island to check for any abnormality. It would be necessary, now that Veron is gone, those refugees in the shelter will try to come to rule Cassandra again. Although the question was how will they get their army?
Suddenly, he heard the creaking sound. He froze, looked around, and stared at the dark corner of the room. He blinked but saw nothing. The scent of an alcohol loomed inside his mouth. He sensed a slow creaking again; he felt a chill and the sweat immersed from his back.
He looked around the room quietly, but there was no one there; he slowly pulled the desk drawer to take out his gun. But as he put a hand inside the drawer, it suddenly jerked and closed, which caught his hand. Horrified, he shouted in panic, however only the muffed sound came out.
Slowly from the dark, the silhouette appeared. It was a woman. Shortly, many others surrounding him also come into view. Heston, flabbergasted, merely stared at them. The one who was grabbing his mouth let him go. Her hand was dripping with liquid as Heston slobbered all over. She rubbed her hand on her pants with disgust.
“Who… who who…” muttered Heston, realizing that all the members who just came out from nowhere were all women.
“Shh…” said one of the women, aiming the pistol on his forehead. She put away her foot from the drawer. Heston gasped and pulled his hand out from it, rubbing his hand in pain.
“Such a useful tool that Polchinski uses, quite a dangerous thing,” grinned one of the women, tapping the cloaking device which was attached on her shoulder.
“Hello Heston,” smiled the other women, taking off her headgear. “Sorry to bother you in this late hour, we’ve been too excited about the tour. It’s been a while I visited Basileus Republic.”
“He is about to wet himself,” giggled one of them, and others cackled. Heston, with a shock and amazement, looked around this strange group of ladies. They were all wearing a black uniform with the cloaking devices attached. Some were carrying a sniper rifle, but most of them were lightly armed.
“What… what do you want?” said Heston.
“Name’s Lucy. I’m here to make a proposal,” said Lucy, pulling out the cigarette from her pocket and pressing it between her upper and lower teeth. She flicked the lighter and ignited it.
“P… Proposal?” muttered Heston.
Lucy gestured to one of her underlings and she handed Lucy the package. She glimpsed at it and threw it on the desk. “We would like to work together on catching Nina Polchinski,”
“Is that cocaine?” said Heston, shocked.
“What do you think?” smiled Lucy. One of the members went to the window and closed it and blinded it with curtains.
“Are… are you insane? In the agency? How… how am I going to sell this? Even bring this out of here?” Heston stuttered.
“I think you know,” said Lucy, cackling.
Heston felt the surge of blood running through his head, angry. The members were gazing at him as if they are looking at a puppy.
“What makes you think I am going to let you get away with this?” said Heston, trying to sound brave than he is. “Are you cartel? Terrorist? Even if you kill me, we will track you down!”
At this, they burst into laughter.
“See? See? I told you,” some of them giggled, poking other one with her shoulder as if she won the bet. Lucy stepped on the Heston’s lap with her boot and pushed the pistol at Heston’s throat, smiling shrewdly. Heston’s heart was about to burst. Others giggled.
“You can’t track us down, Heston,” said Lucy. “You’ve been on our asses for years but with no results.”
Lucy grabbed the cigarette and rubbed the glowing butt on Heston’s chest. He screamed in pain. Lucy knocked him over to the desk and grabbed his mouth. The whiskey bottle dropped from the desk and crashed it on the floor.
Other members didn’t even flinch, they stood like statues. The whizzing sound came from the one of the members. She moved her walky-talky near her mouth and merely whispered “we are under control, out.” And then she observed Lucy and Heston. ‘They are on the hallway too,’ Heston thought.
“Shh…” said Lucy, rather charmingly. She swung the cigarette near his eyes and threw it on the desk. “Here’s my saliva for you to look at, it’s not too hard to find out my name on your list. We’ll going to have a problem if you think this is just a bad dream.”
“Who… are you?” muttered Heston.
“We are from Cassandra,” said Lucy, chuckling. “We are the Assassins’ Chamber.”
Heston fell into a silence, gulping.
“If you do what we say, we’ll reward you. If not, let’s see whether you can handle it,” said Lucy, smiling, standing up. “Come to this place, tomorrow at 21:00.”
She dropped the piece of paper next to Heston’s face and walked backward, putting on her headgear. They activated the cloaking device. Next moment they all disappeared.
“W… wait! Wait!” shouted Heston, but there was no response.