Chapter 10 (1/2)
Chapter 10: The Pursuers and the Pursued
The 12th day of the fifth month
In the Capital District’s old city center was a small park by the name of Bemarte Park
It was a beautiful spring afternoon A man sat alone on one of the benches
He was in his late forties with cropped blond hair The rey suit with a very loose navy tie
The man munched alone on a sandwich, a poor fit for the at the park with her child had pointedly chosen the furthest possible bench from him to sit at
Upon closer inspection, it e under his left arun concealed under his jacket
“Hht”
The , and tossed it at a garbage can three meters away It landed inside the can
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” a youngerinto the park
The youngera navy suit with a tie He had a slender build with brown hair and grey eyes, almost with the looks of a film star In each hand he carried a paper cup filled with coffee
“You’re late I’ve finished my lunch already”
“Then I suppose you could call this dessert, Inspector”
“Tch You eat up too”
The younger h he was in a rush he was a little slower and calmer than the inspector
The inspector paused between sips of coffee and exhaled
For a ti in the park
“Tell me What made you decide to join the force?”
The youngerfinished his sandwich
“That’s an unexpected question, Inspector”
“I was just curious”
“Well, I just wanted to keep the city safe”
“Don’tand talented, but don’t bother trying to be the hero of the city You’re never gonna wipe every drug cartel off the face of the continent It’s a never-ending battle”
“Oh? That’s not an answer I expected froh the Dezer Pharmaceuticals executive’s fake suicide case and destroyed an entire cartel single-handedly”
“I’ot lucky with the Dezer case The cartel was just small fry, too There’s plenty et to it,” the stoicup
“Of course, Inspector We’ve still got work to do” The younger man stood as well
The ee can missed its mark
“Get that for me”
“Right, sir”
That evening
“Hey there, Meg I never see you going home this early What’s up?”
Lillia spotted Meg ahead of her on the grounds of the 4th Capital Secondary School Meg turned with a s
“Hi Lillia! The newspaper club hasn’t been doing much these days, so I’m pretty much free The chorus club is off today too”
Lillia and Meg walked together conversing in Bezelese
Other students stared curiously at the use of the foreign language
“Really? I’ether for tea and snacks at the newspaper club even if you don’t have much to do?”
“The thing is…we’re under an activity cessation order”
“A what?”
“I don’t know much about the details, but Jenny says we’re on information lockdown”
“Huh?”
“Itthe nus turn out all right Apparently it’s easier for the club right now if only the people directly connected to solving this problem know about it”
“R-right…” Lillia was no stranger to being entrusted with confidential inforuess they don’t want to disrupt your normal life”
“That’s right We’re normal secondary school students, so we should live nor She and Lillia left out the gates
“Look at ‘e without a care in the world Rich kids make me sick”
A h a pair of high-power binoculars
He was on the fifth floor of an apartates and the intersection Beyond the gates he could see the classrooht
Thebrown pants and a leather jacket He was clearly not the type who h the half-openshades
There was no furniture in the room
The unit, forcefully rented two days earlier, only received the barest aht food and bottles of water
The er man ore jeans and a black sweater
The man in the sweater boiled water on a portable stove (instead of the dead built-in stove in the kitchen) and brewed tea “Are you sure the kid’s gone back to ca to his companion
“He never went back ho shi+fts Wanna at least drink tea in peace”
The man in the sweater nodded and picked up his own pair of binoculars froraph on the wall by theframe
The photo depicted Julio Edelmann, topless and face contorted in sobs
The man in the leather jacket sat down on the bare floor and started on his tea “It’s gonna be a battle of attrition, but we just have to find that sorry face and be done with it It’s too bad the car accident plan didn’t work out, but what can you do Once we get the order, we shoot his head off Sauards who happen to be around Make sure they don’t find out ere really after Make it see at random Well, the police will take care of that part for us We just have to ht”
“Sounds easy enough Shoot as o to another country,” the man in the sweater replied, and peered into his binoculars He spotted a ht blue coveralls
The man in the coveralls was in his twenties He had brown hair, a grie toolbox in hand
He stuck out like a sore thuave him less-than-warm looks
The uard Several et hiuard before disappearing inside
The man in the sweater watched it all happen
“A repairman of some kind He just went inside,” he said
“We don’t care who goes inside,” the man in the leather jacket replied dismissively, “all we need to knoho comes out”
“Seron Maxwell! Where do I even start?” scolded the man in blue coveralls “First off—why is this basement room still accessible? Why is Murdoch your advisor? And why do you have to stick your nose in such dangerous business?!”
The rapid-fire questions caator from the Confederation Police
Roxche had multiple police forces Each member state had its own force, as did the Capital District The military also had a military police for internal incidents The Confederation Police, however, had the largest jurisdiction, being in charge of cross-border incidents
The Confederation Police was one of the anizations in Roxche and a source of awe and fear to citizens At tiations to take charge, earning them the enmity of other police forces
The basement room was currently occupied by Hartnett, Mr Murdoch (who had suise of a contractor), Seron, Larry (as celebrating his birthday that day), Jenny, Kurtz, and Edelmann himself
Other than Edel
The room had no s
Three doors led out of the stone-walled rooh, furnished with a s, and the barest essentials The walls were even adorned with several paintings
The 4th Capital Secondary School had originally been built on top of an old building, and the baseotten, under the campus
Mr Murdoch had discovered the base electricity, water heating, and even plu to create himself a small private room
And for about two years until the previous suer brother in this room The incident with the brother hen the newspaper club and Hartnett first became acquainted
Seron answered Hartnett’s questions one by one
“I’ht you in today, but the entrance that had been sealed was the second entrance”
“da about this?”
“Because you never asked Didn’t Mr Murdoch tell you about it during questioning?” Seron played dumb Mr Murdoch looked away The byzantine baseh a storehouse in the old school building Mr Murdoch was the teacher in charge of that storehouse
“Forget questioning, we should have tortured you e had you in custody!” Hartnett hissed at Mr Murdoch
“As for Mr Murdoch’s status as our advisor, Jenny siht man for the job Mr Murdoch…happily accepted our request upon returning to his post”
“You’re threatening teachers now? I don’t believe this…”
“And as for your final question, we stumbled upon this case by pure coincidence But if we hadn’t, SC Edelree?”
Edelmann twitched
“As round his teeth
Edel in the basement room for the last three days He ate and slept there, and Seron had bought him a tracksuit at the ca classes every day and calling hoular intervals from the newspaper club office to tell his parents that he was all right
“I have some questions for you, Edel hilare
“Y-yes, sir”
“You said you never looked inside the packages?”
“No…”
“How big were they? Were they heavy?”