The Call

A few minutes later, a vast map popped on the screen. And almost immediately, Jean's pupils dilated as his expression turned serious.

He brought the cell-phone closer to his face and pried on its contents.

After a few seconds of close observation, Jean managed to spot his location on the vast map displayed on the cell-phone's screen. It was labeled somewhat different from the rest of the locations.

Different from other areas on the map, his current location was marked with a red arrow and it was boldly named "MILEN". It was right in the middle of the map and that's why it didn't take Jean much time for him to notice it.

'Where is this place because I have never heard about it before? Could it be that I am out of Lent?'

Jean mused with a contorted face.

This was the first time he was coming across an area that bore this name. So, this sudden realization perturbed him to some extent.

Basing on his geographical knowledge that he acquired in school and some on his own, Jean was well versed with the territories and areas that lied within Lent – His home country. Albeit it could be considered that there was no way he could be able to master every area within Lent's versatile and complex map, he was still confident with his deduction about the area.

Since his intuition kept confirming the same to him, he didn't want to waste any extra time. So, without a second thought, he quickly scanned his surroundings to ensure there was no prying adversaries around.

He then heaved a heavy sigh but immediately clutched to his chest with a contorted face. The chest aches had been increasing with each passing minute and he had spent more than twenty minutes at this spot and this had made him restless.

He knew at the back of his mind that; the more he remained in the area, the higher the chances of Marr's accomplices getting to him. So, at this moment, his urgency of leaving the area had culminated.

After a few moments of enduring the chest aches that had descended on him, Jean gritted his teeth, lowered his gaze and looked at Marr's body with a grim expression.

It was at this moment that a thought sparked in his head.

'The password. I need to reset it to my own.'

With that thought still lingering in his mind, Jean ignored the searing pain in his chest and slowly lowered himself and crouched next to Marr's body.

Being proficient in operating such modern cell-phones, it didn't take Jean more than five minutes to reset the password of the cell-phone into his own with the aid of Marr's finger prints.

The moment he was done with this, he heaved a sigh and struggled to lift himself up.

At this point, the chest aches had nullified the rest of the body aches to the point that he almost forgot that he had a gruesome scar on his left foot. He only recalled this the moment he made his first step away from the spot he was standing.

He whimpered as he subconsciously lifted his left foot off the ground with a limp. Since he knew his escape time was running out, he exerted himself and started limping towards the forest.

'I don't know if I can make it in time?'

Jean thought with a grim expression.

During this moment, he had a plan of utilizing this little time to call his peers. Since he was suspecting that he was in a different country, he wasn't sure if the call would go through. He was aware of the extra charges that were imposed on international calls, so, he knew the chances of him connecting with his mom or Axel in his country would be slim… though this was only if he was in a different country…

As he was still limping towards the forest, Jean dialed Axel's contact that he knew off head.

This act of his could have looked weird considering that he had his mom's contact off head, too. But the reason to why he preferred to contact Axel first was the fact that he was wary of Axel's safety since they were together when he was kidnapped.

He wanted to confirm if his friend was safe, or him too was in the hands of a different clique of kidnappers since he didn't manage to spot him in the plane that he jumped off from.

Just at that moment, Jean called the number that was now on the screen of the cell-phone. A few seconds later, Jean's eyes widened with bewilderment as he quickly jerked the phone off his ear and thrusted it closer to his face.

'It is going through!'

Jean thought with a surprised expression as he locked his eyes on the screen of the cell-phone.

On one hand, he thought that he was still in Lent since the call connected, but on the other hand, he thought that Marr's phone could have had enough international minutes that's why the call went through without any interruption.

Either of the two could be correct, and at the same time, either of them could be wrong. But Jean didn't waste much time pondering on the matter, as he quickly returned the phone on his ear after noticing Lent's name just below Axel's contact.

At this point, his current location didn't matter that much to him as what mattered was the possibility of him connecting with his countrymen. He knew it was only through this that his escape plan would show some signs of success.

Some minutes later, the phone on the other end was received. Immediately Jean noticed this, he quickly started the conversation.

"Hello, Axel. I am calling to confirm if you are fine?"

With that, the person on the other end remained mute thus prompting Jean to add on.

"Why are you not talking? …okay, let me just go straight to the point…"

Just at that moment, a strange male voice resounded from the other end of the call.

"Who are you and who is Axel?"

Jean was puzzled for a moment as he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Not believing what he was hearing, he quickly removed the cell-phone from his ears and immediately looked at the screen. After confirming that the contact he dialed was Axel's, he grumpily returned the phone on his ears and cleared his throat.

"Who are you?"

"I am asking who are you and you have the guts to return the same question to me…."

This statement from the stranger on the other side of the call drew a clear picture of the kind of person that Jean was dealing with.

'How arrogant! But still, I am the one in need.'

With that thought in mind, Jean swallowed his pride and composed himself.

"I am Jean and I was requesting if I could talk with the owner of the cell-phone you are using."

"Listen, Jean or whatever you call yourself. I don't know the owner of this cell-phone and I am not interested in knowing him either. So, respect yourself and hang this call."

This statement irked Jean's patience but still, he decided to act gently.

"If you don't know the owner of the cell-phone in your possession, how comes you have his cell-phone or did you…"

But before he could complete his next statement, he was cut short by the stranger on the other end of the call.

"The right question to ask would have been 'Axel, how comes a stranger has your cell-phone?' But unfortunately, you won't have the chance to ask the question because Axel isn't around."

This last statement from the unknown stranger on the other end of the call provoked Jean, but since he was eager to get some assistance, he tried to compel the stranger to return the cell-phone to Axel.

"If you don't know Axel, I can assist you in tracing his home, perhaps that way you can take the cell-phone to him, because I know that you might have picked the phone somewhere."

Jean said in a neutral tone as he tried to suppress the pain he was experiencing in his chest.

"So, I have suddenly become your errant boy?"

At this point, Jean felt like giving the stranger on the other end of the cell-phone a dead slap through the line, but it was impossible. He found the stranger cocky the more he conversed with him. And from the look of things, he suspected that the stranger might have snatched the cell-phone from Axel if he didn't pick it.

As if confirming his thought, the stranger resounded once again.

"This cell-phones owner was too careful to leave such an expensive gadget loitering in such busy streets. But he must be lucky that I was the one who came across it. In fact, when you called is when I managed to spot it. And since I am the one with it right now, I promise to keep it safe for him."

With that statement, the stranger disconnected the call from the other end.

Since Jean was a quick-witted individual, he quickly connected the dots and understood what the stranger was alluding to.

'So, this guy picked the cell-phone in the streets! No wonder he said he didn't know Axel. So, this guy is adamant in owning the cell-phone? Should I try to convince him that I can pay him double the price of the cell-phone?'

With that thought in mind, Jean re-dialed Axel's contact and connected the call.

Unlike the first time, this time the call was picked in an instance.

"What is it again?"

"I promise to pay you double the price of that cell-phone if you would be willing to take the cell-phone to its rightful owner right now."

Several seconds passed in tense silence and finally, the stranger replied,

"You think I am a fool to fall for your ploys? Have a nice day."

With that the stranger disconnected the call once again.

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