25/XXV-A. Nothing Ever Can, Nothing Ever Will (Remastered)

“The chief wants to see you in the meeting room.” The first guard that approached the receptionist

“Hmmkay.” Mayer willingly obliged.

She raised her hands signifying surrender and smirked at the two guards as she approached the meeting room with her heels clicking and clocking along the way.

Her confident catwalk towards the door only told Arthur the truth further.

Even if the meeting room was closed off to the outside office, with Arthur’s sense heightened, he could see and hear everything outside.

As the guards opened the door for her, and as Mayer approached the chief at the right side of his table, Arthur came to a strong conclusion of the two scenarios – one was she was a spy or the second one was that it was only a test.

And the further was proving itself with the behaviour of the two in the room.

“How do you find this young man interesting?” The chief ran his right hand across the table to the paper with the pictures.

His eyes appeared to be so calculating in front of the child.

“He’s good, if he wasn’t Edward’s son, I’d think he’s a spy.” Mayer picked up the pictures on the table, and reached out of her pocket a smartphone and handed it to the chief.

Arthur could barely see the screen, but he already had an inkling, from the reflection on the monitor screen at the back of the chief, he read the words, “99.9% match”.

It’s a DNA test.

He knew it was his and Edward’s. How she got the results that fast where a bit mind-boggling to Arthur, but he knew that their fingerprints were left at the museum at the top part of the building.

“Isn’t that interesting?” The chief smirked and cocked-browed, he mumbled under his breath.

He gazed at Arthur up and down from his head to toe, and the color of his eyes told the chief that there was something wrong with the DNA test, or there is a medical condition he’s not aware of.

“You left this with me.” The child pulled a tiny pin from his jacket’s right arm’s side.

Arthur spitefully narrowed his eyes and exuded the same arrogant aura when he entered the room.

“Do be careful with that, boy!” Her snarky response showed her true colors, rather than a warm lady previously, her confident stride, her skirt whips, and the way she combed her hair backwards reflected how feisty and fiery she was.

The child only sighed.

“That’s one of the developed spy tech we have here at the MI-7 – the recorder pin.” The chief introduced himself properly this time, standing up, and offering a handshake to Arthur – the child in the room.

Arthur thought he wanted the recorder pin back, and wanted a handshake, but knowing everything that happened was an insult to his father that worked under Interpol, he didn’t return reached out his hand, rather, he returned the recorder pin, in the chief’s open hand.

“You can have it back.”

The simple gesture amused the chief so much that he started laughing, “Hmhh… hahhahahhaha… hahahhahahah…” as if an evil villain got insulted to his face.

Slapped in the face, he gazed into the child’s eyes sharply and grinned creepily.

“You’re too fascinating, kid. I like you.” He smirked, and smiled as he sat down his chair.

“Now, let’s get back to business.” His smile immediately got wiped off of his face. The striking scar on his face, vertically across his right eye, made it more unbearable to look at in the midst of the seriousness in the room.

“Explain the puzzle.” The chief’s eyes glared in intenseness like a lion roaming quietly to strike its target.

“Alright.” Arthur returned the fierceness with his own filling the room with killing intent coming from the chief and from the child.

Arthur carefully lined up the photos on the table, first, the metros, the Big Ben and London’s eye and lastly, the Chernobyl nuclear site.

“All these have one thing in common.” He lightly tapped each picture and looked right straight to the chief’s eyes.

The busy metros signified people, the Big Ben signified time, the London’s eye signified space, and Chernobyl signified memories.

How can I put this simply?

“These pictures signified something integral to society. The terrorists, not only wanted to disrupt the usual or peaceful way of life, but also the mindset of the people.” He continued, walking towards the edge of the table and lifting it and removing the safety foam at the end of its leg.

Arthur stood up and forced his hand at that edge of the table, and the table became wobbly as one part was removed from the leg.

“The first phrase of the riddle went, ‘The past stayed hidden, the present still unknown, and the future holds tomorrow and where I might go.’ This means that this thing will only stay hidden in the past, the present, it’s still happening so it’s unknown, and the future will hold this thing.” He continued as if he already knew the answer to the whole puzzle.

Arthur halted treading and circling the people around the table, glanced at the foam that he gripped in his hand, squeezed it as hard as he can that his hand shook as he did, and opened his hand to let go of his grip.

“The foundation of our beliefs, the reason of our existence, and the cornerstone of our lives - that thing is our memories.” He threw the safety foam on the table in the midst of the pictures.

He returned the sharp gaze to the chief as soon as he threw the foam on the center of the table.

That little presentation got the attention of all of the agents sitting around the table.

“Memories can be manipulated depending on how the person perceives what he receives with his senses.” He continued explaining.

He diverted his gaze, from an intense one to a more serious wistful glances to the monitor.

“What our senses records are sent to our brains to stay forever or for a while, and these records form our beliefs, and our beliefs form our actions. What do you think will happen if those records were forcefully manipulated?” The cameras were still focused on the operation back at Harvard.

In one of the monitors, the Harvard garden and small lake was displayed.

Arthur chuckled as soon as the camera zoomed in on a young man walking slowly on the bridge over the small lake.

The brownish-grey leaves from the nearby dead tree swished towards the youth’s face as the winter wind gushed in.

The man held out his right hand to avoid getting the dust in his eyes, and faced directly at the camera, with his eyes closed.

Arthur’s sudden silence caught the agents’, the chief’s and the receptionist’s attention, that they turned their eyes to the same monitor that he’s looking at.

And to their surprise, Arthur’s face, and the face of the young man in the monitor was the same.

Arthur smirked and giggled a little at their surprised faces. They proved him right, in regards manipulating memories, but this time, it was purely coincidence that Johnny visited the school at the same time the operation was being conducted.

“Am I dreaming? Or are you seeing the same thing that I am seeing?” The child’s giggle crept out the Chief and the agents too much that it felt that something’s crawling from beneath their skins.

“You’re not seeing things, Chief.” Edward pitched in, he noticed that everyone’s getting crept out by the video in the monitor.

“Iris, I want you to approach the man on the bridge at the small lake!” The Chief quickly gave another order just as the team was just finishing wrapping up the interview with Pete.

The Chief darted his sharp gaze from the monitor to Arthur and then to Edward, “What do you mean, I’m not seeing things?”

Edward suppressed his smile and playfully and mockingly informed the people in the room, “That’s my other son, his twin.”

The Chief gritted his teeth, he didn’t want to admit that he’s been under the child’s thumb all along.

He curled his brows, trying to gauged the intention of the child, his intense stares and creepy smirks sent a malicious intent to the angel.

“Confirm with Mister Olsen who borrowed his laptop, is it the brown-eyed kid, or the blue-eyed one?” He gave another order through the communication pod.

The room went silent waiting for the report of the on-site agents, and as they awaited it, Arthur slowly approached the Chief.

The sound of his footsteps echoed in the room that’s already filled with keyboard strokes that reverberated in the room, but he wanted to establish his presence, and dragged his shoes noisily.

“Chief, Mister Olsen confirmed that it was the blue-eyed twin named Nathaniel Joseph, which he strangely calls Arthur, and we have the browned eyed twin here in our custody. What’s your name, kid?” Ebony noticed an increasing number of passerby in the bridge and decided to draw her gun back to its holster.

There was no response on the microphone.

Johnny slowly pulled out his ID card from his wallet and showed it to the agent.

“This one’s name is Nathan Joseph D. Smith.” Agent Iris read the name on the identification card of the young man.

The sunshine struck the laminated plastic that covered the card. She read the details of the card, “UK Immigration Card”.

“What? His name is Nathan, and you-?” The Chief wanted to clarify the name information, he clearly heard Nathan Joseph as well the first time.

“My name is Nathaniel Joseph. My twin’s Nathan Joseph. My friends call me Arthur, and him, Johnny.” His chest puffed as he looked up eye to eye with the Chief.

“Confirm that one.” The Chief knew that Ebony heard everything on the other line.

The Chief shut off the speaker as Agent Iris asked the young man on the bridge.

“Young man, I wanted to confirm something.” Ebony gave back the ID to Johnny and pulled out her notepad and pen.

“If I am Johnny and the one in your custody is Arthur? Is that right?” The Chief was stunned by Johnny’s answer.

He knew what was going on and what to say at the right moment.

It wasn’t planned, but Arthur had to establish his superior strategy to the old geezers inside the room.

He used Telepathy to communicate with Johnny every step of the way.

“YOU-!” The Chief’s reaction and the smirks and sardonic quips of Arthur bid the other agents that they’ve been played with by a twelve-year old kid.

“Shall I go ahead and continue?” The scrawny kid faced the table, no retorts, no rebuts, no resistance, almost every one of them diverted their eyes or bowed down.

“Fine.” The Chief submitted as well.

“The first clue was the sense of sight. They sent their warning using pictures and I believe you only detected the bomb via your satellites, and not through the next city near Chernobyl. Is this correct?” Arthur made his point precisely as he tapped his eyes as an insult to the eye-stricken face of the chief.

“Interesting. Do you think the terrorists have such a simple way of deduction like yours?” The chief returned the insult.

“I believe these strings of events are not threats, but rather warnings.” The friction between the two echoed within the room leaving the rest in silence.

“Warning?” The chief raised his eyebrow, doubting Arthur’s suggestion.

“The metros signified the people, the Big Ben signified the time, the London’s eye signified the space, and the Chernobyl site signified memories or the past.” He clenched his fists in frustration.

“If this was a threat or an act of terrorism, the bomb would be set off where they would flaunt their power, make everyone fear them, and they would declare their own doing publicly.” He continued, trying desperately to convince the chief otherwise of the simple deduction from those pictures itself.

“But… they didn’t.” The chief thought about this as well carefully, but now he’s considering it more closely hearing it from another.

“They didn’t. They’re giving us clue to what will happen next.” Arthur walked past the other heads and directly to the chief’s chair.

“How can you be so sure?” The chief turned his head, speaking directly to the child, as if no one’s around, just him and the kid.

“When the MI-7 released this on their website to challenge the gifted investigators or individuals, another part of the puzzle already happened.” Arthur pulled out his smartphone out of his pocket and showed a website.

“Where did you find evidence of this next part?” The chief quickly grabbed his smartphone and came back to reality where he handed it to the receptionist, his secretary.

“The first part of the puzzle, we saw the Big Ben’s hour hand on the twelve hundred hour, and the minute hand on the fifty-fifth minute, and the London’s eye picturesque view of London had its time set about near dawn. This meant, this was the first warning.” Arthur circled around the meeting table, muttering as if he doesn’t have anyone to hear his thoughts.

“Then, the next clue came about in an audio book, with the Big Ben’s hour hand is the same, but the minute hand is on the fifty-sixth minute, the London’s eye picturesque view is at sunrise. This means this is the second clue.” He continued murmuring to himself, but enough for the whole meeting room to hear it.

Mayer quickly pulled up Rindle’s books with the title, “My Adventures in London”, and even pulled up pirating websites such as the 888Novel and NovelHD for the pirated and unauthorized copies of the audio book.

The audio book sounded like a children’s book, with rhymes, and describing the time a child visited London and his memories with his father whilst visiting.

“Memories… again, huh…” The chief tapped on the table, and resigned slouching in his chair in the midst of the meeting.

“Put the phone in the microphone and speakers.” The chief immediately instructed Mayer to share the information to the table.

The little audio book played creepily in the midst of the terrifying adults in the room.

“I am happy with my London adventure! So is my father, I’m sure! The sunrise is so bright, the same with the city lights. I came here looking for Big Ben, when I realized I’ll be there at ten! I roamed around with a cab, I hope my father won’t be mad! Oh, no! I’m already late! I arrived four minutes before twelve!”

“This was yesterday’s post.”

I have no time to be dilly dallying here. I need to convince them ASAP about this one. I need that position inside. Arthur thoughts roamed just around the corner.

“How did you even get this publication?” The secretary bombed Arthur with questions that only a spy can answer. “How did you know this was the second puzzle?”

Arthur stayed eerily silent for a little while, and read the second part of the puzzle aloud.

“The silence mocks the weak, the rocking strikes the meek. The waves come and go, and the pitches high and low. It meant that the second clue consisted of the sense of hearing – an audio file.” He stood still, his eyes, uncaring, apathetic, and unmoving.

The chief can only assume that Arthur has been bombarded with unnecessary questions that he found it a waste of time.

“Let’s say, you have this right, then, the first one was a visual bomb, this second one?” The chief drove right into the most important question.

“It would be an audio disruption.” Arthur answered him simply.

“Where would it go off?” The chief simply asked.

“In the metros, tomorrow at 11:56 in the morning.” He quickly replied, knowing it’ll stand suspicious.

“How did you know?” His next question didn’t rattle Arthur, didn’t move him, but rather he knew that it would be the next puzzle they wish to solve.

Arthur simply brushed the question and changed the subject, “The next one would be the sense of smell.”

“Chief, there’s no telling that this kid is their spy. He knew too much.” A superintendent voiced all of their concerns.

“Chief, my kid is not a spy. He… he wouldn’t do that, he’s just… he’s a genius one. You can test his intelligence quotient, for all I care, to prove that he’s not a spy.” Edward desperately convinced the people in the meeting table.

“Whether he’s not a spy or he’s just a genius one will be decided by us, not by you, not by him.” Another superintendent spoke in the dark.

“Kid… no, Arthur.” The chief showed acknowledgment of the kid’s deduction prowess.

“Yes?” He turned his head, only looking to the one with the highest position.

“You answered the first part of the puzzle anonymously, why did you change your mind now?” The chief asked as if believing everything that Arthur had said about the puzzle.

“Because I need your power.” He straightforwardly answered. He didn’t think about the consequences nor the implications of his statement, he simply wanted to be honest to this man.

“Pffft—hahahahhahahahahhaha… Interesting kid.” The chief laughed again, grinned, and put his hands on the slit on his eyes and continued, “I’ve never met such an honest man. Do you fear no death?”

“I only fear God.” Arthur’s words rocked the whole room as everyone thought that Edward was an atheist.

“I will arrange an I.Q. Test, and… I will make sure to send people in the metros to look for the audio disruption. Since you’ve deduced the two parts of the puzzle so far, tell me, have you looked at the bigger picture?” Bigger picture – this is where the difference between a kid and an investigator comes in.

“Yes.” The chief’s eyes widened, Arthur’s answer was not what he was quite expecting, but nevertheless, he got the reply he wanted to hear in behalf of the safety of the British people.

“What is it?”

“The means would be a hallucinogen that alters the memories of the victim, the when and the where would be depending on the next set of clues. Depending also on the next set of clues, I will be able to get the how, as to why… I’m still undecided whether I should tell this in this meeting room with all of these people.” The kid has rather unique outtake on investigative work.

“Good. I’ll arrange another meeting in a few days. Look out for the next clue. If you successfully identified the next one, and your I.Q. is proven, I’ll give you a team to assist you further.” The chief smirked, he wanted to know Arthur’s process of deduction, he wanted to keep him in the building, 24-7, and with close supervision.

“I already have a team on my own, besides, it would be most suspicious that one of the brightest student in Harvard will take an absent leave amongst these chaos.” His hidden agenda was wide open to the kid, but Arthur didn’t want to be locked in a cage, he’s more productive outside, with his wings spread out.

“Fine. I just need results. Once everything is over, I’ll grant you the power you need.” The chief bargained aimlessly, but it’s a win-win situation since Arthur will be working closely with the chief making sure that security in and out of England are maintained smoothly.