Chapter 29 SIX: DERIK’S BAD DAY

Lawrence’s door fell open, and the three men entered at once. The room inside was neatly arranged to look like an official business office premises. There were a couple of files arranged on the linoleum and some books lie around the corner.

There was a big drawer just beside where the files were placed, and above it, a big poster taped to the wall; it was a photograph of Lawrence in a cowboy’s hat. On the table, a dozen hard cover notes and some file that had been sorted to their various orders were arranged.

Derik searched the books lying on the table, flipping through each page. Found nothing.

William moved to the big drawer and pulled out the drawer arm. It had a couple of files arranged inside. He moved onto the next; and when he’d found nothing inside, he pushed the drawer in and moved on to the next one to look.

Alex looked over at the posters and ink paintings on the wall. Observed them closely for anything suspicious.

Derik thoroughly searched through the files and books on the table. And when he found nothing that could link Lawrence to Beocraft, he moved on to search the files that were arranged on the ground.

He took out the books and swept through the walls. Nothing. Took a couple of minutes to carefully read the files on Lawrence’s table, searching for anything that could prove Lawrence is a shifter.

All he saw were official records of the various houses Lawrence had visited in search of shifters. Derik was starting to lose faith as he searched the remaining part of the office. Maybe he was wrong—maybe Kevin had been wrong.

“Found anything?” Alex asked him after he had gone through the posters that hung on the wall and had found nothing.

“Nothing.” Derik answered, utterly disappointed.

William finished searching through the drawers and found nothing. “This was a total waste of my time and a clear violation of the president’s privacy.” he grunted.

Derik’s eyes were drawn to a locked door concealed behind transparent drawn curtains at the corner of the room. “We haven’t checked what is in there?” he motioned towards the door.

“Ok, stop! No more of this.” William fumed, stretching forth his hands. “Hand over your badge and your gun to me. As from this very moment, you are relived of your duties here on the taskforce.”

“You are firing me?” his brows furrowed. He couldn’t allow himself to get fired, not while Natasha is still missing. “Sir, give me a chance to make this right. Let’s search that room. We don’t know what could be behind that door.”

“Derik! I said enough!” he barked. “Now hand over your badge and your gun.” William stretched his arm to collect it.

Derik was speechless for a moment. Looked at William with contempt as he took off his badge and gun and placed them on the table before him.

“Go home, get some rest.” William said, scooping the badge and gun from the table. “You need a lot of it.”

The door fell open, and a tall blond woman stood at the entrance. She was on heels and wore glasses that rests on her pointy nose. Her formal dress code complimented her looks as a receptionist.

William looked over at her. “Is there a problem, Miriam?”

“Sir, it’s about the kid you left in the secure interview room. He is gone.” she announced.

“What!” Both Derik and William exclaimed simultaneously.

They all rushed out of the room, heading straight for the interrogation room. And when they’d entered the room, there saw no sign of Kevin. The chair he’d been sitting on was flipped over. They found the chains lying around the chair.

William edged towards the table on which Kevin had rested his arm; his eyes were caught by the text that had been scrawled on the wall.

Happy Deathday.

“Oh, no.” Derik’s shoulder slumped, his eyes widening.

“They have him!”

Derik sat for long in his car, under the scourging heat of the sun. Rested his head against the steering wheel, frustration making his eyes swell. He wondered what he could have done differently to still keep his job and save Kevin from being kidnapped.

Kevin and Natasha had been taken, and it’s only a few hours to Kevin’s birthday. Some part of him felt gladdened for being relieved of his job, but the thought of Natasha being killed and her body dumped on the street bothered him. It wouldn’t be a pretty sight.

Derik knew for sure he had to continue the search despite his badge and gun being confiscated. It will be a lot more difficult for him, especially now he’d been stripped of his badge and authority. He resolved to continue the search anyway, with or without his gun and badge.

But where do I start to look? He sighed heavily.

So far, they’ve been able to spot out three members of Beocraft—Cedric, Jeffrey and Lawrence. The information they had on Cedric had led to a dead end. No one has heard from him or seen him since after Kevin made the discovery of his true identity. It was almost as if Cedric had disappeared from the face of the earth.

Jeffrey could have given them useful information about the masked man, which could have helped them find Natasha and take down this group of killers, but his head was blown off before he could even utter a word about the organization to them.

Right now, Lawrence remains their only lead. But Derik had failed at convincing William that he is a member of Beocraft. He knew Lawrence was hiding something he doesn’t want anybody to know behind that door in his office. Doubtless it was something that could prove his involvement with Beocraft.

Derik drifted from his thoughts when he heard a loud thud at the back of his car. He quickly climbed down to check what it was. The gas leaking from his car left a puzzled expression on his face. The back of the car had squeezed, seemed almost as though a tremendous amount of force had impacted on it.

Then, something fast, almost impossible to the eyes, ran past and scratch his arm. Derik let out a shrill cry, holding down his arm. He glanced at his forearm at the injury. Blood spilled from it.

He turned to look around, his eyes searching around for whatever had scratched his flesh off. There was no one within a mile radius. Then he focused on his arm and it started growing larger as animal furs sprout from his skin, covering his injury. And when his arm returned to normal, the region had been completely healed.

Suddenly an applause, totally unexpected, filled the still air. Derik turned and saw, leaning on a battered wall by the corner, Shady. He blinked in surprise when he saw Shady clapping.

Shady was still wearing the long white garment he had escaped with from the laboratory. It had bloodstains on it. Wore a straight face as he looked on. “Who would have thought the shifter hunter is, indeed, a shifter himself?” he snorted, slightly amused.

With an ungodly speed, he ran to where Derik stood, spread his finger over his face and smashed his head into the car, shattering the glass. Derik fell into his car, broken glasses sliced his forehead, blood spilled. Everything happened faster than his eyes could process.

Shady clutched his neck to drag him out, but Derik struggled against his tight grip, reaching for his gun. Shady pulled him out with an incredible force, then threw him on the asphalt. Derik’s ankle gave out. He was positively awestricken at Shady’s incredible strength.

“What the hell happened to you?” he chocked, shuffling away from him. “How are you so strong?”

“Let’s just say Dr. Frank gave me a new purpose in life.” he looked at Derik with a condescending smile. “He has given me the power to hurt those people that’d made my life miserable. Frank gave me a chance to avenge all the bastards that have wronged me.”

“Frank did this to you?” Derik gawked. “He made you this powerful?” Finally understood where all the strength was coming from. Shady in now a product of a lab experiment—a failed on at that.

“First off, I will start with you, then Frank, then the bastard that’d slaughtered my gang.” Shady muttered, his body growing larger.

Shady’s eyes colour deepened, hairs grew from his skin, long fang protruded from his mouth, and a sharp, pointy tail hung behind his back. Shady became something inhuman, and it scared the hell out of Derik.

The scary beast let out a roar as it launched into the air with such terrifying speed. The surrounding air parted after his feet left the ground. He spun in the air, coming down at Derik. Fast.

Derik’s body suddenly grew larger, and he, too, transformed. Kicked Shady hard in the gut while he was still in mid-air. The impact threw Shady backward. He crashed into Derik’s car, crushing it totally.

Shady quickly got up and snarled, glancing around.

Derik was gone.