Chapter 143

143 A Talk, A Suggestion, An Idea

As we walked outside of the room, I suddenly felt a tug on my arm. I turned around, seeing that it was Nikki. “Hey Nikki,” I said, as she smiled at me, her cheeks reddening from embarrassment. She always seemed like such a cool girl when I saw her, but then I saw her blushing when she looked down at me, as if she was trying to hold back laughter.

“I was just wondering if you noticed that September was acting weird,” Nikki said, looking away from me as her blush grew redder as she kept on speaking. “It’s just...I don’t know how to put it.” She took a breath as she glanced up at me and asked, “She’s acting weird right?”

Not gonna lie, September is acting weird. But I’m trying not to laugh because she continues to blush furiously and keeps on talking like she doesn’t notice. “I know exactly what you mean,” I said, laughing softly at her. “I think.”

“Like she seems so adamant on me and you not working with each other and I don’t know why,” Nikki said, shaking her head, “I don’t know why she’s being so weird.”

“Oh yeah, well I’ll tell you something about that,” I said with a grin before I took a breath as I thought about it for a moment. “September has some weird fetish for men who work with women and women who work with men.”

Nikki laughed and shook her head before she responded in a teasing tone of voice, “Oh?”

“I’m joking,” I said, hoping she actually knew I was. Nikki sighed, “But the thing is, she opted to work with you though. You’d think she choose Malachi because of experience but.”

It was so hard not trying to wince, knowing why she was acting this way. I liked September, but Nikki also likes me, and September knows that, which is why she was trying to get us apart. That was just my opinion though.

“Well whatever it is, I don’t know what’s up with her,” Nikki said as she stared at me with her brown eyes. “I don’t know.”

.....

“I don’t know what to say either,” I said, looking at her back. “Maybe she thought it was best for me-oh!-so you know how you said how Malachi has more experience than all of us? Maybe she’s trying to teach me, or sort of show an example of how to actually be a good spy agent.”

“I guess, because I really hope she doesn’t know that I like you,” Nikki said, wiggling her fingers nervously. I winced more knowing that September already knew since we were in that FMA warehouse a few months back. That was somewhat of an experience.

“Here’s the thing okay?” I said. “All you need to do is to try and not act suspicious, then maybe we’ll know.” Nikki nodded, looking around as if September was going to appear suddenly.

“How about we go outside for now?” I nodded, and she smiled as we began walking around the corner and out into the bright sunlight.

The field was filled with people all around, playing soccer or talking on the bleaches, and I just felt sort of sad. Everyone here looks happy and alive, but Greg-he wasn’t in the best of places, and I know I’d be happy if he were here with me now. But there was nothing I could do about it, so I just shrugged it off and continued walking through the field.

But it seemed as if Nikki knew that something was just off with me, because she soon spoke up. “Hey...look, I’m really sorry about this,” she said as she rubbed the back of her head as she walked beside me. “About what?” I asked, as confusion popped onto her face. “I thought, I thought-”

“No it’s not about your situation, but it’s about someone else,” I said with a sigh, “And I think I know what it is.”

Nikki stopped in her tracks as she turned to face me. “What is it?”

I glanced around at everyone else before I began to speak again, feeling the tears beginning to form in my eyes from the sadness. But I kept it back, staying strong and well controlled. “I think you’re a good person, Nikki. And I think you’re a great friend.”

“I don’t understand,” she said, confused as she looked at me. “I’m not doing anything wrong.”

“I’m not saying you are,” I said, “It’s that you’re there for everyone, a good person who assists others.” I’m not sure where I was going with that but, I felt a chill run down my spine as I felt my eyes begin to water from my sadness and pain. “But there’s only one person left in the world like you, and he isn’t himself anymore.”

“Greg?”

I’m not sure how she got it right that easily unless it was a guess, but I nodded my head anyway. She sighed softly, and her face showed sadness as she began to speak again. “I didn’t know him like you did.” I sighed, “He’s off the deep end. Really off.”

Nikki sighed and shook her head, but then she smiled and said, “Yeah he is...he’s still got that part of him though. The part of him that we all loved so much.”

“Yes,” I said with a smile, looking around at all the people who were playing. “It’s just not here right now.”

All of a sudden, I heard footsteps coming from the side as if the person was heading towards us. I looked beside me, seeing Tisiah making his way into my view. “Hey Tisiah,” I greeted, as he sat down beside me.” Tisiah nodded, before he looked at me. “What y’all so sad about?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Nothing, just enjoying the sunlight,” I said. “Just thinking about who may have started this whole operation to kidnap Masaru. Trying to think what clues might be there.”

“Well there isn’t much, there was a woman and a man in there for sure, but I’m not sure exactly who,” Tisiah said. “Maybe we can see if we can find any sort of picture of that woman wearing that?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

I looked back at him, as a thought swept through my mind. “Maybe we can find a picture or something that may show a picture of her in the same sort of clothing.” But then Nikki asked, “With what lead?”

“The warehouse-Charlie-was in Camagüey, correct?” I asked. “So find some information based on that warehouse. Maybe we can see who the new owner is now, or maybe find some leads to it.”

“There’s a problem though,” Tisiah said. “That was for the CSMO, so it would be secret.” I nodded. “So then find the person whose responsible for stuff dealing with warehouses.”

“But who?” Nikki asked.

“Businesses, CEO’s or at least the cabinet of that whole business,” she said. “Maybe there’s a mole in the CSMO. The CSMO owns that warehouse, so we need to find out who is also in charge of those things. Find the BMO agent.”

“Should we tell Mr. Drails?” Nikki asked, and I nodded.

We moved from our seat on the bleachers and moved, walking inside of the building as thoughts ran through my head, trying to come up with a way to get that information from them. There was so much we had to do and so little time. I wasn’t sure how much time we had until they did whatever they planned on doing to Masaru but it seemed like it was bad. So we needed to tell it as quick as we can.

Once we reached there, I knocked on the door to Mr. Drails’ office, as Nikki and Tisiah stood by my side as we waited. It wasn’t long before he answered and we saw him smile when he opened it. “Oh hey guys,” he said in a cheerful tone of voice as he waved at us inside of his office.

“We think we know what or in this case, who to search for,” I said. Mr. Drails’ eyes opened wide. “Continue,” he said. “Now, from what we have thought, the CSMO owns the warehouse that Charlie was found at, and the CSMO has a business director most likely and people who work with that person. Now we have what may be a visual on the owner,” Tisiah said. “We could try and see if there is a mole in the CSMO, and find that BMO agent.”

Mr. Drails leaned back, closing his eyes as he thought for a moment. Then he opened his eyes and smiled. “That is a brilliant idea,” he said. “But then there’s something that makes me think otherwise. Because only one person owned Charlie: Jonathan Ortega.”