CHAPTER 7

Harry was standing at the back of the room where all the agents gathered for a briefing, he didn't want to take a seat because he preferred viewing everyone from the back.

"Good morning everyone...." Joshua said standing at the front of the assembly; he was wearing a plain white shirt and a pair of shorts.

"...before we begin I'll like to acknowledge the presence of agent Sarah, she just transferred from the forensics department and wants to get into the action" Sarah rose and gave a slight wave so everyone could see her; she looked like a perfect body double of Lucy except for the fact that she wasn't wearing glasses and was a bit fair in complexion.

"Now I don't have to remind you guys about our guest arriving two days from now and with that in mind the recent murder cases as from now will be treated as an A-class threat.....for those of you who doesn't understand that term just know this, threats are classified from A to C. With C being the likes of armed robberies and A being the likes of mass homicide" Sarah nodded in the affirmative to ascertain that she understood him. Harry on the other end was looking for the nearest bench where he could go sleep on, he was no longer interested in what Joshua had to say.

Suddenly, someone ran through the door by Joshua's left; it was the agent left on the lookout in case of any emergencies

"Sir, we have reports of a lone robbery ongoing at the archive" he said panting heavily.

"The what?" Joshua asked, unsure if the agent knew what he just said.

"The archive, sir"

"Well that's new...alright I need 3 agents to go check out the scene. Any volunteers?"

Sarah raised her arm first then followed by Eddy, after which Harry raised his arm.

"Guess that's it then alright I..." Joshua paused realizing Lucy had her arm up.

"Huh, I said 3, Lucy, you can't tag along"

She got up from her seat

"No offence to my fellow agent but he has no training in any form of hand to hand combat making it more dangerous having him armed and attacking a suspect, I believe I don't have to bring back what took place some few days back sir" Joshua looked at Eddy who got up and angrily left the room, he caught a glimpse of Harry watching him leave and he muttered something to himself that Harry couldn't fathom.

"Well I guess that settles things then" Joshua said with a smile.

As everyone got up to go back to their post, Lucy and Sarah went to get their equipments ready; they both acquired a stun gun and a communicator(a device that once connected to another, establishes an audio feed).

By the time they got down Harry was nowhere to be found and so they left with a bike so as to cut through any traffic. On getting to the scene they saw a mask man coming out with a hostage held at gun point, following him was Harry holding a crossbow. Lucy began wondering how Harry got here

"Put the weapon down!" Harry yelled as Sarah jumped down from the passenger seat and brought out her stun gun. Harry tried to signal her not to shoot.

"You keep following me and this man get his brain blown all over the floor!" the masked man said, his hostage was shaking severely and was sweating profusely; he had the robbers left arm round his throat and the gun on the back of his head.

The masked man had walked backwards all the way to the fallen fence that surrounds the building and was trying to get pass it without tripping on the blocks

"Don't come any closer!" he yelled.

"You have nowhere to go!" Harry said, he had a clear shot but he didn't take it; Harry was a marksman so perfect that he didn't need the crossbow at his eye level to get an accurate aim, he kept the crossbow pointing downwards but his eyes fixed at his target. Lucy was still seating on the bike and the three of them now stood at different angles to the armed man.

Lucy watched as the robber tried to feel the next solid spot with his leg before finally stepping on it, she waited for him to almost trip on a rock and then pulled on the accelerator of the running bike. This caused the robber to point his gun away from his hostage to Lucy and Harry without the slightest hesitation fired at him and the arrow pierced through his right arm. He dropped the gun due to the pain and let out a scream, his hostage had ran off when he loosened his grip. Before he could reach out for the gun with his left hand Harry who had drawn close kicked the gun aside

"Keep your hands where I could see them" Harry said. The man started laughing through the pain; he held up his wounded arm with the other.

"What's so funny?" Harry asked, he noticed Lucy and Sarah drawing closer.

"Death is just a passage" the man replied and tried to reach for his left pocket but Harry fired 3 more arrows into his chest, but that didn't stop him from pulling out the object in his pocket as he lay on his back slowly bleeding to death. Harry dashed forward and quickly kick out the object he had brought out his pocket from his hands, it flew a few feet and landed on the concrete blocks. There was a sudden dash of exploding flame followed Immediately by the loud bang and the sheer force, it took Harry off the ground and he landed on his back. He passed out almost immediately but not before over hearing someone calling for help; he could tell it was Lucy but the voice slowly faded as everything slowly went dark.

Harry was now conscious, but he realized he wasn't on the floor anymore; he was on a bed, he could hear something beeping and he could perceive the scent of methylated spirit. He didn't have to open his eyes to know where he was, but regardless he opened his eyes; he was in a room that occupied almost 50 beds, each one was divided by white curtains so as to give a sense of privacy.

"Oh, good you are up" Harry turned and was staring at Lucy who was seated on a wooden chair, she was holding a book in her hands which Harry didn't bother taking another glance at.

"The doctor said you might not regain consciousness for a few hours but I guess he was wrong"

"What happened?" Harry tried seating up, his head was pounding and he tried to touch his head and realized it had been bandaged.

"The grenade exploded"

"What?" Harry asked unsure if he heard her right.

"The grenade? The one you kicked out the armed bandits hand?....it exploded" Harry seemed to had lost interest at what she was saying as he suddenly began a wild search for his waist bag.

"Where's my bag?" he asked after realizing it wasn't with Lucy either.

"It is probably with the medics that brought you in"

Harry tried standing up but he was dizzy and fell back on the bed, he firmly closed his eyes as the headache worsened.

"Please, look for it....my meds are in there" Lucy nodded and got up to go look for it, she dropped the book on the chair as she left. When she had gone Harry stood there listening to the next patient by his side, he heard her talking about her life, something about being too young to die got him interested in what her ailment was. He reminisced about the first month in the hospital, after he had woken up from his coma and realized everything he loved was gone. Stretching his arm he reached for his pendant that was on a table placed close to his bed; his shirt was also on the table. He opened the pendant and stare at the picture. He over heard the woman next door beginning to cry and whimper, he brushed his hair backwards with his left arm although most part of his head was wrapped in plaster after which he got dressed. His thought had began to wander when he heard

"Here you go" he looked up and surprisingly Lucy had resurfaced with his bag. He took the bag from her without a word of thanks and brought out two pills he instantaneously swallowed.

"Shouldn't you wait for a doctor's prescription?" Lucy asked after he had already swallowed the pills.

"I don't have that type of money" He replied angrily and laid back his head

"Where's the culprit now?"

"He's dead, he bleed out before the medics could arrive" Lucy replied.

"For someone who doesn't look violent you sure have a subtlety with dead bodies" Lucy adjusted her glasses then took a deep breath in

"Its part of the job" she replied.

"Does it also come with grenade experience?"

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"I know for sure the reason Sarah isn't here is because she has to report back to the precinct whereas you were left to watch over me, so definitely its either you have had experience with a grenade otherwise that would be an amazing guess as to what happened in the archive" Lucy kept quiet, she knew he was smart but she never expected to have been caught off guard

"OK, fine...I have seen a grenade before because I once applied to become an enforcer"

"Yeah? And how did that turn out" he asked as he sat back up.

"I wasn't accepted" Lucy's faced flushed with anger as she made the statement.

"But I guess you already figured out more about me than that obvious detail" Harry chuckled amidst his stern look, he opened his mouth but kept quiet again as they overheard the woman next door being dragged out of the bed, she kept yelling "don't let them take me"; Harry then realized what she had that was killing her.

"We not so different you know" Harry said after her cries could no longer be heard.

"In what way?" she asked

"We're both the best in our field, the only problem is that while I show off my talents you hide yours and let others take the glory"

"I don't think that's the case" she said

"Really, then tell me why you never reported Eddy for assisting in 2 counts of attempted murder with one being successful?"

"We have no proof to back it up, its just mere talk"

"You know as well as I do that the proof you need is flowing through the veins of our living suspect.... you of all people already know she was drugged that faithful day"

Lucy rubbed her eyes with her thumb and first finger after which she adjusted her glasses

"So what do we do now?"

"First, you have to stop your pretence with me, If something's happening I need to know what" Lucy stared as he spoke

"Fine, no more lies. Anything else?“

Harry got up and stood perfectly the headache seemed to have gone down a great deal

"No, we're good to go" he said.

As he opened the curtain, he turned towards the direction the woman's voice came from; no other patient were in that angle as all the curtains were raised and all the beds empty.

"What's the doctor's charge for this Humpty Dumpty rubbish he got on me" Harry asked Lucy who was behind him.

"Wow, you really are an old timer. Well for your information the government now takes care of all our medical expenses" she began laughing

"Since when?" Harry asked.

"About 4 years now"

"So what, we are just free to leave?" Harry asked.

"Well, you have to first sign some papers" Lucy's laughter had died down but she was still chuckling a bit; her dimples came out more when she did and her dark skin seemed brighter.

On leaving the heavily white curtained room they approached a door way, one guard stood there and was about to stop them from leaving but instantly noticed the uniform on Lucy and allowed them pass.

"Nice fella" Harry muttered as they walked pass.

They took a right turn which led to another passage and taking another left route finally led to the doctor's office. Lucy knocked on the door and from within a voice asked them to come in.

The doctor's office was a cramped up space; there were files that seemed to at first had been piled up in the corner but must have gotten too piled up as the files were arranged in no particular order.

"Good evening doc" Lucy greeted.

"Evening??......hold on, how long was I out?" Harry asked in surprise.

Lucy tried to hold back her laughter as the Doctor summoned to take a seat.

"You look alright" said the Doctor; he seemed to be in his 60's or 70's probably, his well shaved head still betrayed the fact that he was too old to still be working. He had on his white coat and had a type of body language that gave away the fact that he was tired.

"Give me a second to find a form for you" he said as he dropped the X-ray scan he was looking at and began searching round the shelf close to him.

"Ah, here it is" he said, pulling out a piece of paper. He handed it to Harry along with a pen hanging on his coat.

Harry sat down to sign it and saw the logo on it, it wasn't the government but a private organization that was paying the bills.

The logo was that of a knife that was floating in the air and was about being covered by a wave with everything closed up in a circle.

"The Overseer isn't funding this, then who is?" Harry asked as he stared down on the form.

"Noah....Noah Moammi" the doctor replied, Lucy kept quiet realizing the doctor had beating her to the answer.

"Who's that?" Harry asked.

"He's an organizer, he owns three steel company and the gold mine" Lucy hurriedly replied.

Harry signed the document not willing to ask anymore questions.

"Can I have a word alone with you?" the doctor asked as he was about standing up after he was done signing.

Harry looked at Lucy and she nodded and walked out of the room, the doctor waited for the door to be slammed close and waited another 5 seconds before saying anything.

A minute later Harry walked out of the office and saw Lucy who was now lurking in the corridor

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I need to talk with her" he sounded off with a tone that looked sinister rather than assuring.

"With who?"

"Eve....where is she being kept?"

"I don't have that sort of clearance, you would have to speak to the chief about that" he sighed unable or not wanting to argue any longer.

"Am going home" he said.

"Wait, we have to report back to the precinct"

"No you do, I don't. That's why you are here with me" he began walking towards a possible exit. Lucy realized that wasn't the exit but she didn't bother telling him.

"He'll figure that out" she muttered as she made her way for the actual exit.