Chapter 62: "True Glimpses"

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First draft: October 12, 2021

"So?! How did it --!"

"Back to your work station, junior!" Salma cut him mid-sentence. "I don't want a word of nonsense from you, you hear me?"

Jason stilled, then hastened to explain.

"I saw him coming and I thought ya'll needed privacy –"

"I said not a word, Stark," Salma said, her tone soft but cold, disinterested and done. She shrugged. "I don't want to hear it. Not interested in deserters. That's it."

Jason's mouth stayed agape. He looked genuinely stumped.

"Alright, that was harsh," Salma reconsidered, sighing.  "But I'm kind of annoyed with you right now, and if you insist on it, I'd say harsher things. So why don't you just - just stick your cushions firmly fixed on that stool in your work station till I've cooled off, cool?

Jason swallowed nervously, still looking quite uncomfortable. His eyes glanced at his stool and back at her.

"Cool." Salma concluded with a shrug.

She gave him her back and started working on issuing another clearance from the Green Coats. She had to visit the hospital in an hour. After Ghamey's arrest and the subsequent terms of his release, the security around her had relaxed considerably, but in some situation, she still had to follow the protocol.

Salma could feel Jason throwing her side glances as she waited for clearance and an escort's availability. Spogmae had supposedly come back to the US and was back on duty, shadowing Salma wherever she went but Salma was not sure if it would be her or Burak Kaka that would shadow her on her way to the hospital.

Salma saw Jason turn to her in her periphery. He opened his mouth but then second-guessed what he was going to say and lost heart. Salma almost laughed when Jason stared at the papers in front of him, frowning. This was a more familiar Jason, compared to the annoying one she had to endure a few hours ago. That one was kind of an intrusive pest. Salma was almost unnerved by how he kept teasing her over her and Zayn's relation. Jason threw her another scared glance out of the corner of his eye before he started writing notes.

Aww! Salma pressed her lips together to prevent a giggle.

She did not want to give him a tough time for booking himself and leaving her in the lot, but she was sort of annoyed and she knew if he talked to her while she was still upset, she would probably say something harsh and regret it.

Salma was updating the information requested by the security protocol when a piece of balled-up paper bounced on the table in front of her. Raising a brow at it, Salma turned to Jason but he quickly turned back to the stack of papers in front of him, growing quite red in the face.

She saw a sad smiley face scrolled on the balled note.

"What is this now?" Salma asked.

Jason threw her a quick glance before resuming his downcast stare at the papers.

"Words," he mumbled.

"Who would've guessed?" Salma said, unballing the piece of paper.

Salma thought she almost saw the hyper-Jason making an appearance but she was sure she had imagined the ghost of an amused smile playing on his lips, when he cowered over himself in embarrassment.

"I'm not angry anymore," Salma said. "You want to explain why you did me dirty like that?"

Jason got even redder in the face.

"I had too much coffee," he mumbled.

Salma blinked. He had what?

"Pardon?"

"I think?" Jason said, unsure. He turned to her, looking troubled. "It must be because I was high on caffeine."

"You're going to blame coffee for chickening out when the going got tough?"

"No, for --" As if realizing what she'd said, he had another dose of embarrassment turn him red in the face. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

"You're not sorry for chickening out?" Salma realized.

"I am!" Jason cried. "But also like . . . for everything else too."

Salma smiled. She was not the only one having noticed his drastic change in behavior.

"Must be the coffee," she muttered.

"I'm sorry," he repeated. "Like I know that there is a certain protocol and I overstepped many lines. I'm not supposed to misbehave with the Queen of Sthooriya."

Salma froze. The reassurance that she was about to utter to make him feel better got stuck in her throat.

"I'm a what?" she asked, her voice almost a whisper.

"Um, Queen of Sthooriya," he said, looking slight nervous and confused.

Salma felt a cold chill running down her spine. A sane voice in her head told her to tone it down. She was probably overstretching his words.

"Who told you that?!" she cried.

"You're not?" Jason asked. The unease displayed on his face told her he had started to realize something was off.

"No!"

"Not even like the future Queen?"

"NO!" Salma cried, panicking. Salma felt more chills running down her back. He almost confirmed that he knew.

"Oh," Jason said, frowning as he thought about it. "But aren't you like from a Royal family and therefore, the future –"

"No, I'm not!" Salma denied. "We're not the royals of Sthooriya!" How could Jason know? Who told him? Did he know she was Sulaiman's grand daughter? How? Was Toryal –"Who even told you I'm a Sthoorey?" Salma asked.

Jason snapped out of his train of thoughts upon her question.

"Literally everyone knows you're a Sthoorey," he said, like it was common information.

Salma swallowed her nerves.

"Alright, that makes sense," she tried to sound casual. "So who told you I'm – an important person in Sthooriya?" she asked, avoiding the word royal like a plague.

"That? I don't really know," Jason replied. "You're just really regal so I said it. I meant it in general."

Salma blinked. Did he? But he couldn't have. He basically said she was the future Queen and from a Royal family.

"In general?" Salma echoed.

"Yeah." Jason shrugged. "Like the Queen. You can't touch her till she extends a hand or something, and also, there's a lot of rules so I said Queen of Sthooriya."

Did she over-stretch his words?

"But are you guys from a royal family?" Jason asked. "You denied it so vehemently it almost made me wonder --"

"Of course not, Jason!" Salma rolled her eyes. "Do you reckon someone of blue blood would be sitting in entomology lab III, just counting seconds before Mrs. Coles kicks her out?"

Yes, she had definitely stretched his words earlier. Salma shook her head, disappointed at herself.

"I wouldn't think so, no." Jason nodded before turning her, leaning in secretively. "But think about it, isn't this the perfect place to hide in? In plain sight?"

"Amidst thousands of dried out bugs?" Salma eye him flatly.

"No, here in the university!" Jason said. "Imagine if we actually knew a royal and we didn't even know they were royal!"

"Can't be me," Salma said, turning back to her phone.

"It would be such a shocker, won't it?!" Jason continued whispering excitedly. "Imagine you knowing me and then you some day found out I'm this unknown heir to the British crown!"

"Unknown heir to the British crown?" Salma repeated. "Can such a thing exist?! They literally breathe their first in front of the paps' cameras!"

"Yes, but that's why it has to be unknown heir to the –"

"Jason, are you trying to tell me something?" Salma eyed him with mock shrewdness. "Claiming to be Queen Lizzy's grandson?" Salma gasped. "Oh my God! Don't tell me Lady Diana was your mother!"

Jason sighed.

"No she wasn't." He moved away.

"Prince Charles can't be your father –"

"He's not!" Jason shook his head in amusement.

"Come on, I'm trying to work out what's going on," Salma replied. "You suddenly started jumping up and down like an overenergized bunny, then you show some killer hacker skills neatly breaking into Zayn's car, now you're suggesting royalty hiding in the lab I'm in. What's your deal?"

"There's no deal," he replied, with his head in his hands, groaning and going quite red again. "I should not drink so much coffee."

"How much did you have exactly?"

"Five."

"FIVE?!"

"Shh!"

"Five?" Salma whispered.

"I didn't sleep much last night so I though coffee would help when Mrs. Coles asked if I could give her a hand."

Salma released a breath.

"If you don't mind me asking, what kept you up at night?" Salma asked. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, of course," Jason quickly reassured her. "Just Louisa's problem."

Salma felt her heart sinking a tad when she saw him puff his cheeks and release a breath. His head still resting in his hands.

"She called you?" Salma asked.

"No," Jason replied. "I was trying to make sense of the encryption."

Salma blinked, frowning in confusion.

"You're doing the hacking yourself?"

"What? No, I was just reviewing what was already done," Jason said. "I like tech but I'm not good with it. We've managed to get into their servers but when I tell you we've opened a can of worms, you better believe me that it's a can of worms."

"What happened?" Salma asked, worried. "What did you find?"

"There's a lot of dark, underworld sort of business going on," Jason said. "I'm not sure yet because there's tons of information on those servers so we're just trying to wade through an ocean-like swamp to find the videos and do what needs doing. However, the swamp, it's not water and dirt. It's drugs, and human trafficking and all kinds of gut-wrenching business. I'm not even sure if we can make much of a difference if we get Lou's videos encrypted. Man's dirty!"

Salma stayed frozen to a still. The severity of what she had just found out had totally knocked her out cold.

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Salma asked, a tad upset they were doing stupid things like shopping a shirt of Zayn instead of something so important.

"I thought I'd tell you but then I just thought, what can you do?" He smiled miserably. "I'd get it off my chest but then you'd just get miserable realizing what she's up against."

Salma quickly looked away. Of course she could not tell him that she would try to get the Green Coats on the case to find out what they could about said servers.

"Why don't you go to the police with this information?"

Jason scoffed, looking away.

"You think they don't know?" he asked. "It's literally suicide. When someone's gotten their hands this deep in filth and are walking free like they've never even hurt a fly, they've usually got the cops, the judiciary and the government with them – or at least some people in every department. Give information to the wrong person and they wipe you off this planet before someone honest gets alerted."

Salma said nothing. Jason was right. If what he said was true, they had to tread carefully. She felt really bad for the junior carrying so much weight, and suffering all alone, unsure what to do. She also felt a bit unnerved with his foolproof acting. He had been so bubbly the entire time that had he not told her, Salma would never guess something was eating at him on the inside.

"Try Alex, maybe?" Salma suggested. Although she did not really trust the agent very much anymore, Salma was certain she was hard on drug lords. Alex would not take it lightly and pursue the case – especially if she knew it could endanger Zayn's life since Derek was also known to be Zayn's rival.

Hold on! Salma straightened up when she thought of something. Could it be that Alex suspects Derek and therefore has Zayn installed as an informant in the same circles that Derek is in?

"Oh snap!" Salma whispered.

"What? What're you thinking?" Jason asked.

"Huh?" Salma broke out of her rapidly progressing train of thoughts. If on a true track, that train was mind-blowing and she was totally getting blown off several tracks. "I – I was just saying Alex seems like a good option. You should have totally approached her earlier."

"That is kind of the plan," Jason said. "But we first gotto filter through the files, get some serious, tangible evidence on our hands, after getting Louisa's videos out of the way, of course. But there's also this legality issue. Hacking isn't legal, strictly speaking. Could be me serving jail time instead of them."

"Makes sense." Salma nodded. "And you couldn't approach the agent after you broke into Zayn's car. Tell me where'd you learn that? And that device you used? You developed it?"

Jason scratched his neck, looking embarrassed.

"I'm not a criminal," he muttered. "I've only used it to break into my car and a few others – with their consent!" he quickly added. "mostly, but anyway, like I said I like tech. I picked a thing or two from this person who's like an expert."

"Your mentor?" Salma suggested. "And you don't want to say who he is."

Jason shrugged.

"You didn't tell Zayn it was I who broke into his car."

"If you wanted bragging rights, I can undo that wrong," Salma offered.

"No, no! I'm really happy with the secrecy! Don't want him on my tail. Thank you!"

Salma's phone beeped. She reached for it to see a security clearance issued for her trip to the hospital.

"Alright then, I'll keep your secrets," Salma said, picking up her phone. "I've gotto go. Thank you for your help today, Jason." She picked up her bag and flowers. "And also, don't worry, I'm quite sure we'll work out a way to help Louisa."

"Thanks!" Jason smiled tiredly.

"Lastly, try to get some rest. Coffee is obviously not doing you any good."

Jason laughed.

"Of course," he agreed. "I'm just going to submit this list then I will. Thank you, Sally."

"Don't mention it." Waving at him, Salma turned around.

She took in a deep breath and got a huge puff of a sweet fragrance fill her nostrils. Her eyes fell on the flowers she was holding. She sighed. Even the drug in it could not soothe her growing nerves. Although she had been taking care to avoid all the trigger events when she visited the hospital, it was still daunting. She looked at the blooming bunch in her hands miserably as she got out of the building.

Should I buy flowers for them?

Author's Note:

Where's she going? 0.0

An update will be up soon if I manage to get the next one done tonight, Inshaa'Allah! Let's hope I will find the time and energy for it.

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Lots of Love

J.