CHAPTER 10

Harry had gone through different notes on his jotter; he was back at home, close to his bed at the bottom drawer of the cupboard there were more than a dozen notepad all with the same brown cover. There was no way to differentiate one from another but he had it all figured out

"Last week....last week" he muttered as he ran through more pages, then in a frantic search he dropped the jotter and dug through his bag for his android phone, he began scrolling through the data that was on it.

"Bingo..." he said having found what he was looking for, suddenly there was a screeching sound. He knew it was the communicator so he hurriedly turned it off before the signal could get clearer.

"My daily fantasy huh?" he muttered as he screenshot a page off what he was reading, he kept the phone back in his pocket and got dressed he knew he was already late for the dinner and that was Lucy or Joshua trying to connect to him. He wasn't worried, he knew how to fabricate stories and today was no different.

It was already 8:15 so he didn't bother trekking he knew he had to get there and he had to be quick so he waited for a cab. Luckily there was always a cab approaching at this hour of the day so he didn't have to wait long, as the cab drove off he could see a figure hiding in the darkness of the building opposite his, he was still trying to figure out if he was just seeing things when he heard

"Where to, sir?“

"What?" he said in shock.

"Where to?"

Uhh, the green cottage" he replied.

He turned to get another look at the figure but it was now gone.

The cab driver turned up the car stereo, it seems he wanted Harry to hear the song, thinking he was going on a date

"So, is your date an agent too?" asked the cab driver.

Harry looked at the man; he was middle aged, fat and bald, he wore a brown jacket and a baseball hat.

"What makes you think that?" Harry asked.

"Well its almost 8:30, at this hour you guys don't move around with your uniform, unless of course you've got other plans with fellow agents"

"Really now? well I didn't know that" Harry replied.

"You didn't know huh? So am guessing you must be from some other district"

"Yeah"

"Nice,.....which one?"

"Two"

The driver started laughing

"Look pal, I know its non of my business and all but if you don't wanna tell me nothing, you just gotta say you don't wanna and not make up stories"

"And who says am making up stories?"

"Buddy, I used to live in district 2 ain't no body worn a brown suit in about 4 years now"

"Five actually, now they let those trigger happy boys roam the streets"

"Yeah, no shit" he shook his head in a sort of disapproval gesture.

"So huh....seriously where you from?" the cab driver asked.

"I already told you"

"The only living agents from district 2 never actually showed up for work, ever again except...." he looked through his rare view mirror at the face of his passenger.

"Agent Fisher?" he said with a tone of surprise.

Harry looked at him with his usual stern look

"In the flesh"

"No way, I heard you died from surgery complications or something"

"You must be getting your news from the arrows, you should know by now that those bastards fabricates 90% of what they publish"

"So.....so...are you back? Are you here to find Amar....he's hiding here isn't he?"

"First of, it's Amam. Secondly I can't give you that information because it's a matter of national security and thirdly we are here pull over at the next building."

"How much?" Harry asked as he came down.

"Don't bother, pal"

"Thanks"

"Anytime" he replied and sped off.

He was now facing a huge red gate, he thought of trying the buzzer at the left side of the gate but he wasn't sure if anyone would reply so he turned on the communicator and phoned Lucy.

Few minutes later the gate pushed open by itself and Harry walked in. The building was just a bungalow but it was surrounded by so many trees that if one could ignore the high fence it would feel like a building in the woods. As he walked towards the door, it opened and Lucy was standing there

"Where the hell have you been?!" she seemed furious.

"Busy, he simply replied

"Do you think this is a joke we are suppose to be organized and you decide to show up for a dinner almost an hour late"

Harry said nothing, he just walked pass her.

"Where?" He asked when he had gotten into the empty hall that was the room having the entrance door. It had a chandelier light glowing white, there were no fans, the air conditioners regulated the room temperature and Harry could hear music coming from somewhere in the room.

"This way" she sighed and led Harry through the corridors past the kitchen and into the dining room.

They were all seated at a table designs to hold 10 people. Noah sat at the head of the table while his secretary at the other; at Noah's left sat Lucy, Sarah and Eddy who was trying to seat closer to the girl. And on his right was Joshua, and Harry who was still contemplating on seating close enough to hear Joshua nag about coming late.

"Sorry I'm late" he said as he took his seat.

"No problem, Joshua was just telling me about you...well not really telling he was just stalling" Noah said as he chuckled. Harry bent and saw a covered plate,a knife and a fork placed at the right side of the plate and a napkin underneath it, he picked the cutlery and began contemplating which should be in which hand. He looked at Lucy for help but realized she worked perfectly with both hands so it didn't matter which she used to wield a fork.

"Problem with the cutlery?" a voice said, it was Noah's secretary.

Harry turned to look at her and saw something he missed earlier today, she had blue eyes.

"Are....are those..."

"No they are not contact" she replied with a smile.

"You look scared" she said.

"No, not scared just have never seen anyone with blue eyes, I always thought that only the foreigners we saw in movies had that" he said as he pulled open the cover; he had been served rice. He picked up the cutlery again and began guessing which to hold in which hand.

"Knife to right" the secretary said.

"Thank you Mrs...."

"Amina"

"Just Amina?" Harry asked.

"Yes" she replied.

Harry began eating and was beginning to think the dinner would go on without any further conversation when Noah said

"Joshua said you are not from this district, that you were transferred here"

"Yes" Harry replied and kept eating, he occasionally turned from left to right trying to watch other people as they ate, he tried avoiding turning right fully because only Amina sat at that edge and he avoided looking straight because Sarah was waiting for him to make eye contact so she could ask about his well-being; He hadn't seen her since the grenade accident and he guessed she would use this opportunity to ask if he is OK.

"So what district are you from?"

"Two"

"There are no agents from district 2" Amina said.

"I know, am the last" he replied.

"I thought the last agent died 2 years ago" Noah said.

Harry dropped the fork and wiped his mouth with the napkin and said

"I thought rich people read actual news other than that shit from arrow" there was a tone of anger in his voice.

"So you are Johnson Fisher?" Amina asked, there was a bit of shock and surprise on her face.

"Yes ma'am" Harry had lost his appetite and was now just playing with the food.

Noah seemed to noticed it and made a gesture to Amina. She stood up and went back into the kitchen.

She came back with a tray, on it were fried chicken laps.

"People like yourselves deserve good food, please dig in" Noah said.

Everyone hurriedly started poking and picking a lap each.

"I can't remember the last time I had meat" Joshua said.

"They have bones, I didn't know they could make bones along with the meat" Harry said.

"They don't" Amina said.

"That means....these were actual cows?" Lucy asked.

"Hens actually, if I was planning to kill a cow then I would have invited more guest" Noah said chuckling.

"This must cost a fortune" Eddy said with his mouth full.

"Not really you just need to know the right people" Noah said.

Harry was eventually able to cut off a piece of meat after a few minutes of battling and he took a bite.

"You like it?" Amina asked. He knew she had been watching his every move but he didn't care.

"Yeah, it's good" he replied and for a second had on a brief smile, Amina returned the smile back and Eddy just watched thinking some sort of connection was growing between the two of them.

"So...Mr. Fisher" Noah abruptly said.

"...has the agency mapped out a suspect from your description of...you know?" Harry noticed Amina hand clutched tighter to the knife but he was curious why he said 'you know' other than just saying the name.

"Description of who?" Harry replied.

"The knife guy" Amina cut in.

"You mean Amam?" Harry asked.

"Yes...yes..that guy."

"Well unfortunately its not that easy, you see I can't remember what happened that day"

"Why not?" Amina asked.

"Doctors called it amnesia or something like that, it affected my memory so I have no recollection of that fateful day."

"Really?" Noah asked, curiously.

"Yeah, infact there's a likely probability of me not remembering this dinner by tomorrow"

"Why still work, why not just retire and go back to your family"

Harry chuckled and then took another piece of meat into his mouth.

"I have nothing to go back to" he said.

The rest of the dinner went on without another word from Harry, Noah changed the topic and started talking about changes he wanted to bring in all the districts and also about his plans on restarting the paper money project. When they were done Noah led them to a room filled with different antiques. He led them to a sword hanging on the wall on a show glass; it was in his sheath and had something engraved in it but it wasn't in English neither were the inscriptions having English alphabets.

"This here is my favorite collection, it was said to belong to a soldier who died on our beaches, they were mounting an attack on the then Congo region. During the encounter they were all overwhelmed by our forces and a shootout commenced until they ran out of ammunition, but this guy here refused to back out he charged on with his sword and still managed to kill 5 men before he was sprayed with bullets" Noah said.

"Poor guy" Sarah said.

"You see the inscriptions? It reads 'death isn't the end to life'. Beautiful right?"

"Death isn't the end to life? What's that suppose to mean?" Eddy asked.

"I don't know, all I know is that now the sword is just a relic, you can't even pull it out the sheath due to the rust that has fused the blade. But my what a beauty" Noah said. He turned back and caught Harry gulping down a pill.

"Are you alright?"

Harry nodded

"Yeah, just a slight headache"

"If you want I could get someone to drive you home" Noah said.

"No, am fine. Don't worry about me"

Noah took his word and continued with the tour after that he and Joshua went aside for a brief discussion.

"Hey, how have you been?" Sarah said instantaneously seizing the moment to talk to him.

Harry nodded slightly, he wasn't interested in having this conversation with her.

"You know we haven't really seen eye to eye since the whole archive incident"

"Yeah, I know" Harry replied in hopes of shutting her up.

"OK......errr...I was wondering if you found out what files the gunman deleted from the archives"

"Pardon?" Harry asked unsure if he got that right.

"I thought Lucy already told you......after interviewing some of the workers it turns out our friend wasn't really stealing information, which of course makes sense...I mean why would someone steal information made available to the general public"

"Doesn't make sense to delete them either because they'll get it back when they update their system with others from the rest district" Harry said.

"Unless of course, the information was related only to this district and other district archives haven't gotten it yet" Harry looked away and at Lucy who was at a corner having an argument with Eddy about the buildings structure.

"When exactly did you tell Lucy?" he asked.

"Two days after the incident, why?"

"Nothing" he replied.

Joshua was now approaching with Noah and they were still exchanging pleasantries. Harry guessed from the smile on Joshua's face that he had agreed to have 2 agents patrolling his compound at all times.

"Thank you all for your time and your valuable service to this district" Noah said as they now stood outside the gate. He stepped back in not waiting for a reply and closed the gate.

"Eddy, get Barry and Braun here ASAP" Joshua said.

"Consider it done" Eddy replied; he did a head gesture when talking with Joshua that made him look like a thug taking orders from his boss rather than a officer.

Joshua looked at Harry

"Is your plan still full proof?"

"Am working on it" Harry replied.

"What plan?" Lucy asked.

"You'll see" Harry replied.

Joshua sighed and looked at his watch

"Bloody hell...its already late let's get out of here"

They stepped into a 2016 pathfinder modeled jeep, as usual Joshua was driving. Harry wondered how many cars was in Joshua's possession and how he is able to maintain them all.

"Boss, where were you during the massacre back at district 2" Eddy asked when they had driven past 2 blocks; he sat at the front passenger seat while Harry sat with the girls behind.

"I was on outpost duty, by the time I got the distress signal all hell had broke loose...my...y.....errrr.....my partner submitted his resignation the very next morning, said he stayed awake the whole night writing it...." Joshua chuckled a bit.

"...anyway by the time I was done writing mine the remaining agents had all submitted their resignation letters, no one would take mine rather they promised to promote me and relocate me to another district...new name and everything."

"Why the hell did you choose that?" Eddy asked.

"Because the agents who resigned were being hunted" Harry replied, he had been writing on his jotter the whole time. He had a way of saying things that made him look like he had no human empathy.

"No shit....so that makes you the lucky one" Eddy said, addressing Joshua.

"No, if you looking for the lucky one look behind you. He survived death and now seats comfortably in the midst of two beautiful women" Joshua said jokingly, trying to lighten the atmosphere.

"Boss, that reminds me of something my dad used to say" Eddy said laughing.

"Oh yeah, what's that?" Joshua asked.

"I don't know how he starts it but he'd always end with blest art thou amongst women" everyone started laughing, except for Harry who must have probably missed the punchline. He was busy trying to figure out everyone's state of mind, Joshua and Eddy seems to be living in the moment, he figured the reason Lucy didn't speak was because she was seating next to him and was probably reading what he was writing down, but as for Sarah he couldn't guess until she popped a question

"Does anyone else find it odd that our fairy princess didn't come to say goodbye?"

"What do you expect? she may act all high and mighty among us but we all know she's just another pampered servant" Joshua said.

Eddy shrugged

"I don't know about you boss but I'd give my right arm to pamper that servant....if you know what I mean" he began laughing.

"Oh, shut up you pervert" Lucy said with a light slap to Eddy's back head. There was another moment of laughter which like the first didn't bother Harry and then followed by the awkward silence. Harry was no longer feeling at ease, he no longer felt like riding with them

"Pull over" he said.

"What, why?" Joshua asked.

"Yeah, we're barely anywhere close to your place" Lucy added.

"I just remembered that I have to see someone" he said.

"At this hour?" Eddy asked.

"Yes, any problem?" Harry retorted.

Eddy kept quiet and watched Harry disappeared into the thick dark streets

"Why do I hate this guy so much?" Eddy muttered.

"You'd better be careful how you approach him, he's not one to play games with" Joshua said as he slowly took his leg from the brakes.

Harry had already walked two blocks past where he was dropped off, he saw a working street light up ahead and saw it as an opportunity to write some few things he noticed back at Noah's house. First, he knew part of the house were underground especially the room with all the ancient artifacts, they never got a full tour of the house but he knew they were more rooms than meet the eyes.

He wrote some few words and stopped writing, he only wrote about the building's architecture and nothing more. As he got close to his house he could no longer spot a living being, it was as if everyone had deserted the area.

He got to his door and noticed the door was open, he slowly pushed it open. He was expecting to see his friend in black but when he pushed open the door there was no one in the living room. He quickly reached for the dagger in his waist bag and started searching other parts of the house, he walked as slowly as possible to avoid noise and even took off his shoes to help in the process. On getting to the bedroom he saw that the place had been ransacked. He didn't care what was missing, he ran first to check the cupboard if his jotters were still intact, they weren't. They had all been stolen.

He searched his bag for his communicator, he didn't know what Lucy's or Joshua's access codes were. But he knew that of the agencies emergency.

"1119" he muttered as he dialed it.

"Hello....yeah this is agent Johnson Fisher, am calling from 34 Carpenter's valley, am reporting a burglary.......my house......." He said as the receiver replied.

He listened for a while to the receiver replied.

"For now, all they got away with was my work notes......get some people over here........alright am waiting" he ended the call.

He knew what could happen if the wrong hands got those notes, he had everything written on them.

"Bloody hell" he muttered as he sat on his bed with arms resting on his laps and his head bowed down.