CHAPTER 6

"How long have you been working here?"

"Four years." The engineer answered.

"Are you working on some shady characters?" I turned my gaze to Hide. Straight to the point?

"We're all good people here." I made my brows intersect, Hide, your brilliant.

"What do you dislike?" Hide asked again, this guy is brilliant, why isn't he the Captain again?

"Well, I hate when dumb people destroy the correct flow of society." He answered.

"Well, I guess there's nothing to ask you more further, and by the way, your chemical lab's security is completely fool proof."

"Well Detective, nothing is completely foolproof." He said and went out.

When the engineer has left the room, and Hide stared at each other for a while and then nodded to each other.

Next, we called the guard.

"How long have you been working here?"

"1 year, Sir." He answered.

"Are you working on any shady characters?"

"I don't know, but the Janitor looks like he's always on the edge."

"What do you dislike about a person?"

"I don't want a self-conceited person. Uhm, what does that do about anything?" He asked confusedly.

"You have good security on this place."

"Thanks for the compliment, Sir."

We called for the supplier next, but he's not present. So we just called for the manager.

"Ma'am, do you work on shady characters in here?"

"I don't know, I usually see people on their good side."

"What do you dislike?"

"Well, I don't like people getting late and being dumb."

"Okay, by the way, can you give me the name of your supplier?"

"Ah, yes sir, His Name is Mark Flores."

"Okay thanks, and, I almost forgot but what's your engineer's name?"

"Oh, he's Mark Rin." She said.

Hide stood up for us to go.

"Thank you for your cooperation," I said.

"Your welcome, I hope you'll solve this case." She said and went back to her office.

"Guys, meet us in the van," I said through the mouthpiece.

"Copy!" The two of them said.

***

"What have you got?" I asked.

"Well, she worked at that gasoline station, we checked the CCTV and this is what we got," Armin said and showed us the footage.

He played the copy of the CCTV and we saw the victim sitting on a chair, suddenly, a large semi-truck stopped by. It's so weird that the truck stayed about 16 minutes and then left, having a full tank only takes 5 minutes or more. A taxi was behind the truck and after the truck leaves, the taxi also left and the victim also vanished, at first I thought that she got into the taxi but the CCTV is only at eye level and no one except for the driver was in the cab.

"Hmmnn, so the truck was the one who abducted the victim," Rize concluded and we all agree, what they did is so obvious.

"How 'bout you guys?" Rize asked.

"We have 2 primary suspects. Mark Rin and Mark Flores." I answered.

"Who are those guys?" She asked again.

"Mark Rin is the engineer and Mark Flores is the supplier. Armin." I said.

"Got it." He said and started to type on his holographic screen 8n front of him, it connected to his nails, the screen and keyboard appear when he starts typing.

"Mark Rin, Half American half Filipino, no criminal records, no family, he has a girlfriend and he's 30 years old. That's all." Armin said. "Mark Flores, Full blood Filipino, he has a wife, no children, no criminal records as well and 35 years old." He added.

"Hmmn, we can't interrogate these two again, they'll have a hint that we're suspecting them. Thus, the lab isn't close now so they can't clean everything by now." Hide said.

"So we're going to spy the chemical lab?" Armin asked.

"Yeah, we should."

***

We went back to the chemical lab and called the manager, janitor at guard again. Without the engineer and supplier knowing that we called them. Then, we injected the Death Tranquilizer into the three of them. I post for the manager, Rize post as the guard, and Hide post as the Janitor.

"Ma'am, here are the reports of the new experiment." Mark Rin said. I was about to say thanks but Armin forbid me to, he said that the manager never say the word thanks to her workers, so I just nodded my head

I went into the office of the manager and immediately read the report Mark Rin gave.

COVID-19 Destruction Chemical (Project of 2020-2021)

Huh, so they're making a cure to this pandemic huh.

The report says that heat could kill the virus, they are trying to build a cure that when you take it, your body will become hot, and the heat of that will flow to your blood and the blood will flow to the lungs, and the heat from the blood which is from the cure, will kill the virus and its heat will last for 20 minutes. For now, they are still trying to discover what chemicals should they combine and use for their experiments.

Hmmm, what if the victim is a test subject? Then entropy occurred so she died. Huh, that's possible, but if it is so, this lab is very dangerous. What if this lab isn't legal.

I checked all the files and the permit of the lab and there it was, this lab is legal. There's also a possibility that one of the staff here is doing illegal things like the girl victim floating in the river. So many possibilities but only one of them is true, I need to find out more.

"Mr. Greg, did you find something?" I asked Mr. Greg a.k.a Hide.

"Yes ma'am, I will send it to you and Armin." He answered.

After a while, I receive the message from Mr. Greg. It's a machine that is long like about 7 feet tall and it's like a tube and there are traces of liquid in the glass tube, he also sent a picture of the liquid that's in the tube and it has a water-like color, maybe it's just water.

"Is this machine in a secret room or just display in there?" I asked Mr.Greg.

"A secret room, I launched some SBugs to all of the rooms and that's the only suspicious things the SBugs have given to me." He said.

"Guys, that machine is a cryogenic chamber but the fluid inside should not be water-like color, it used to be yellow. Can you get a sample of that liquid?" Armin said to both of us. Wait! When did Armin learn about chemistry? I thought he's a technology specialist? Oh, well, we all know that he's a Mega nerd.

"Mega Nerd!" Clark said, he's the guard, which is Rize. Armin may have aired Rize on the earpiece too.

"Shut up!" Armin nonchalantly said.

"I'm on to getting the sample." Mr. Greg said. Tss, he really can't stand those two! "Got it, I'm sending it to you with an SBug." He said.

After a while, Armin summoned us back to the van for the test of the samples. Clark went back first for he is the guard when the real Clark is back, Mr. Greg went out next, when the real Janitor is back, I went out next, I arrive at the van and get the manager and injected the Wake Serum to her and flashed the MExploit after injecting. We left the chemical lab just a kilometer away. And we examine the sample.

"This is trisodium phosphate, it's a cleaning agent, used to clean machines and stuff," Armin said.

"Isn't that what we found at the body of the victim?" Rize asked.

"Yeah, but as I said its lethality is very low so she might didn't die because of that," I said.

"Or, they have put something in her body that they needed to clean it using the trisodium phosphate. To stall the investigation." Hide said.

"Huh, so much for reading whodunnit books." I teased but he remained cold. Tss

"If your right, then what is it?" Rize and Armin both asked.

"Poison," I answered when I imagined the situation. "They must have poisoned her and they don't want us to find out what's the real cause so....."

"So they cleaned her using the trisodium phosphate. And drowned her into the river." Hide added.

"Hmmn, so I guess this chemical lab or the one or more person in that chemical lab is experimenting with a poison that could never be traced," Armin said.

"And he or she tested it to that woman and he failed so they used trisodium phosphate to clean her up, they threw her into the river for misdirection," Rize said. Huh, I guess we already solved a big part of the puzzle.

"Wait, who's that?" Rize asked and pointed onto someone.

"Veevee, scan him," Armin ordered to our van. "Huh, he's the supplier in that chemical lab." He said after Veevee scanned the guy.

We got confused when he didn't go inside the chemical lab but he went to the back.

"Let's follow him," I said.

We went out of the van, one by one so we won't be noticed. Good thing this chemical lab is mostly made of bricks and not glasses. When we arrived at the back of the building we separated to hide in the trees, we hide from one tree to another as we follow him. I was too focused on following the guy when I bumped into someone, because of shock, I almost fell and I was about to scream when a hand covered my mouth while the other hand grabbed the back of my head then pulled me up and pinned me to the tree. When I saw who it was, it was Hide. Tsk, I'm so clumsy. He leaned his body closer to me and we slowly turn around the tree we were hiding. I removed his hands and that's when I saw the supplier turned to the side so we have to move around.

"Thanks," I said.

"Be more careful next time." He coldly said. When he went to another tree, I saw him holding his chest, huh, he must have been suffocated with the thought of that guy will see us, haha! A cold guy like him also knows how to be nervous huh. Well, that's the first.

The supplier stopped at a grassland with some patches of dead grass. From here, I saw him walking towards another man, with a shovel rested on his shoulder. I zoomed my sight using the contact lenses and I saw the face of the guy, he looks familiar, but his not working at the chemical lab., I saw the supplier handed him cash and then they shook hands. The supplier didn't go back the way he used to get here so we just stayed at our hiding place. When the both of them are gone, we went close to where they were and saw freshly dug up soil, we dug it up and saw the victim of today's case, wait. How did they get this in the forensics team? Oh, right, some police are dirty, huh, that's why it's better in SDO. We took a picture of the corpse first and headed for our van. When we arrived at the van, we immediately think of a plan on how do we capture the supplier because they have a connection to the police, it's dangerous to send evidence to them. I am bothered by the face of the man that buried the victim, he looks familiar like I saw him before but I can't remember. Who is he? I think of him for about five minutes or more and then bingo!

"Hey guys, did you remember that guy who has the shovel?" I asked them that made them look at me. "I have seen him before, even the four of you actually, he was the taxi driver who was tailing the truck who abducted the victim. I saw his face because his cab wasn't heavily tinted. And the CCTV is just eye level." I added.

"Hmmn, let's check the footage again," Armin said. After we saw the footage again, my guess was confirmed. Armin looked for where he lives and what's his name. "His name is Robert Salasar. The Lazy have shooted all our actions, so it's enough proof. And also for the Supplier." He added.

We immediately made a move to find the suspects, first, we found Robert, he tried to fight us but we managed to inject the Death Tranquilizer to him. Next, we looked for the Supplier, he's a bit tricky to find because he knows how to hide in shadows. When we saw him, l we cornered him.

"Hands up or you'll regret it," I said. He obediently followed, as he raises his hands, something came out from his sleeves, it was a knife, four knives, I managed to dodge it and so as the three when we looked in his direction, he's gone.

"Where did he go?" I asked.

"I don't know, I didn't see him leave," Rize answered.

"Get your motorcycles, we have to split, I think I have an idea where he is. Armin and I will go north, two of you, east." Hide. Huh! That's was a long statement. Haha!

"Copy." The three of us said.

We grabbed our motorcycles from the back of our van.

If you'll see the van from the outside, it looks like a minivan, but if you'll enter it, it's as big as a big bungalow house. We only have three motorcycles because Rize doesn't know how to drive. We went east as Hide said, within a minute or two, we saw Hide and Armin pointing their guns to the supplier, he grabbed something from his pocket, its a smoke bomb, we turned to the two corners of the two buildings, Rize and I went off of the motorcycle and waited for the supplier to come in our way, and I was right that he'll be running towards this way before he could escape, I shot his legs with my gun, and he dropped to the ground. The two guys catch up and put a handcuff on him. We gave him to the police' custody, along with the evidence. We keep the original copy of the evidence, if ever we give it to the wrong hands

Sigh, it was a long day. I'm so tired. We went to the Atom to pass our reports, I got back to my team and Captain Sota called me.

"Wear this bracelet, it has a relaxing scent in its gems, you look like your always stressed out." He said I sniffed the bracelet it has a very relaxing scent, wow, I think I would always smell this.

"The scent is so good, Your so thoughtful Captain, Thanks! We'll be going." I said and tapped his shoulder.

"Your welcome, I made it myself. Bye!" He said. Well, I'm not surprised, his specialty is about chemicals, he knows how to mix anything, for a good cause only. I went close to my team for us to get home.

"Yeiii! Looks like Captain Sota has something on you!" Rize teased.

"I think he likes you," Armin added.

"Shut up!" I said.

Hide grabbed my hand where the bracelet is and smelled it.

"Smells like poison, take it off." He coldly commented. I raised a brow at him. "Kidding, it's relaxing, you both look good together." He said. Kidding? In a cold way? Wtf??

"Congratulations! You have unlocked an achievement! You now know how to kid!" I said while laughing.

"Yeah, right! Hahaha!" Rize agreed.

"Your improving bro!" Armin teased.

Hide remained cold and walked out.

****

I'm seeing a man, I can't see his face but I can tell that he's smiling at me. Who is he? A loud screech was to be heard, I can feel my body being blown away from the car.

I was breathing heavily as I wake up. Weird dream. What does that mean?