CHAPTER 12

Dear diary,

        I bought a new brand of body wash today! It smells nicer than the previous one and also a good smoothening capacity. While rubbing my body today, I observed my scars that spread like spider web throughout my skin. I don't know whether I should remorse or be proud of them.

       Love, Sam.

----------

"Come on Gus, come on, pick up the phone!"

Samantha roamed back and forth on the cold wooden floor of the basement of her house while dialing his number for the umpteenth time; getting straight to voice mail. She already has left 23 messages while looking at the TV that still was broadcasting the organ robbery news.

Times like these are not good for anybody to keep their reaches off. It wasn't that Samantha was worried or imagining her friend lying knocked out somewhere; she just wanted him to pick that God damned phone up and talk to her.

"Ughh! Stupid motherfucker!"

Angrily she threw her phone on the couch, faintly thinking about contacting Sumire for a second then dropped the idea and took out the city map she has been brooding on since that day of the meeting.

"Hospital, hospital, hospital....  Where the fuck is it!"

Her fingers tracing the lines pointed out three locations where the hospitals should be only to find out that they were way off the line where the wires of the trafficking network should be.

"This is no time to be angry.... Just calm your balls down." She said to herself.

The piece of paper that drew the invisible lines on the surface of earth suddenly seemed meaningless to her. For one last time, Samantha moved her eyes across the alluded map before tearing it away in pieces when the phone vibrated, pushing the dripping slumber away from her clouded mind.

"Where the fuck have you been!"

"Lo siento Sam, estaba en una reunión!"

"Enciende el telivisor, Gus! Son noticias del hospital!"

"Espera un minuto."

Samantha impatiently heard the annoying sound of earphones being plugged on and waited for what it felt like eternity for Gustavo to exclaim monotonously.

"Holy Shit! It's already in the news!"

"Did you hear the names?"

"Yeah, Centinal Hills, Sunrise, Dignity Health, Summerlin, Mountain View, my god Sam, there is no end to it!.... "

"I know, I have checked the map and it's no use. I mean, I'm not even sure about it anymore. I don't think that there is any pattern at all to begin with!"

"Okay just calm down for now, I think we have a lead. It's pretty late today. Let's just call it a night and tomorrow we'll make a plan."

"Whatever."

Talking about sleep or rest always annoys Samantha.

"And I'll inform this to Sumire. She can help us with the hospital records."

"You know what I'm thinking?"

Radio silence from the other side.

"Tomorrow we're gonna hear that drops of inflammable material has been discovered trailing down the gas station and disappeared into some Amazon forest!" She mocked like the news reporting channel girl, "Who knows!"

----------

"I am a bad omen."

The three of them sat by the table and glued their eyes on the TV screen.

"Dios mió!"

It was nine forty three in the evening and Samantha was rubbing her sleepy eyes with Gustavo and Sumire there with her, trying to fight it off with ton loads of caffeine. Since adrenaline was not a random happening, she was trying to figure out how she would wipe out the entire gathering of the coffee house within thirty seconds and how much blood that would produce; but was being rudely interrupted by Gustavo's plan of action and Sumire's owl like eyes admiring his act of breathing.

'Ohh ride me, Leader-Sama! I'll be carrying your babies!' She said inside her head, innocently looking at them with sheepy expression.

Is Gus really that clueless?

"Where are you?" He snapped his finger in front of her face.

"That part where you were planning to steal some sedatives from the pharmacy in case someone needs to be put to sleep."

"Good. It looked like.... "

"I'm a multitasker you son of a bitch!"

"No cussing!" Sumire chirped out.

"So like I said.... " He went on.

Samantha was thinking if it was a good idea to jump in action like that at all. Only yesterday they learned about the organ trafficking news and the next day they were heating up. She wondered if this was a reckless decision stupid enough to alert the enemies in advance. There is a chance that there wouldn't be any weird activities in hospitals today for they need a day or two to cover up their asses, or at least up to the time when the news gets cold. But the ship has sailed and they were not going back without a clue. Last night after they hung up, Gustavo had instructed his guys to keep watch over the health centres and inform about anything spooky. So far, the Central Hills opposite to where they were sitting has been the least spooky one; but it's just the way the world works; the cleaner, the spookier.

According to Gus's plan, which turned out to be a good one, they would enter the hospital as normal people pretending to be sick enough for the doctors to keep them admitted for the night at least; but that's only two of them. Sumire would find a place to hide and help them with disabling the CCTVs; before that providing them with the information of patients who are in coma. As soon as the light dims inside they would jump out of their hospital beds and look for patients Or bodies that bear scars in skeptical places on them.

Everything was going smoothly with coffee and hoodies and being invisible until the news channel spreaded the abomination.

Awesome, another pain in the ass.

The Ravan looking guy who seemingly works as a supplier of the gas station was being questioned by the police. He shouted over and over again that he had seen the tank filling upto the exact amount it should be with and refused to admit if anything had happened on the road.

Unless he's the one involved in all that.

Samantha looked away and stared at the hospital. So many ugly memories were there just to float up and eat her head away, only if she lets them. Pain is not something she wasn't friends with, but at the early ages when it was not something she now gains as the prize of her hard work; took a huge toll on her. Now she wouldn't even flinch if a whip lashes on her bare skin but whenever she remembers the days from the past spent in hell, it becomes difficult to supress the shuddering.

Past is past, present is present.

So she focused on the present.

But isn't the present is the consequence of past?

"Here." Gustavo took out a small pouch filled in white powder and placed another two vials on the table.

"Lily of the Valley. Good choice!"

They both took a pinch of that poison as Sumire stared in cringe. Soon enough it will kick in and a severe stomach pain would start, allowing them an excuse to start the investigation.

"When was the last time we had to do something this crazy?" Samantha asked, tucking the antidote vial inside her bra.

"You played dead once to lure the biker goons. And I had to..... "

"Slash my arms to make it look real. Hn, that was a real mess!" She said with a smirk.

"O my god! You guys are really crazy!" Sumire exclaimed.

"Welcome to the club." Gustavo started the sentence with a smile but ended with a supressed groan.

"Here goes nothing." Samantha wiped the sweat from her forhead and gave him a fist bump. "Get ready Mousey, we've g- ah! Got robbers to catch!'