Chapter 4

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Ms. Duong walked down the stairs, the boards creaking under her footsteps. She stepped onto the dirt floor, she looked left and right, her frown adding to her already wrinkled face.

Jeen ducked her head down in a split second as Ms. Duong whipped around, looking at the wooden staircase.

She felt sweat beginning to bead on her forehead, and resisted the urge to wipe it away as she held her breath.

Ms. Duong took another long look around the room, mumbled something under her breath and climbed back up the stairs.

Jeen looked up as the old lady walked up, squinting when dust fell into her eyes. She let out the breath she'd been holding following the sound of the basement door being slammed. She crawled through the thick and sticky cobwebs, Bosma behind her, until she was out in the open.

She stood up and a small cellar spinner began to crawl down her face. She held back the instinct to scream as she began to dust and shake out everything that clung to her face and hair. Once she got the webs out of her face she looked around, light poured into the basement from upstairs, casting a cold line of light in Jeen's path.

"Let's get outta here." Bosma said.

Jeen took a shaky breath, trying to calm her nerves, and jogged up the stairs, minding the spots that creaked, and stopped behind Bosma as she pushed the door open a crack. She peered out and looked both ways before she crept out, everything a blur as they ran for the front door.

Once they was far from the orphanage, she walked over to a bench on the sidewalk and began to make a call.

"Who're you calling?" Bosma asked, sitting down.

"Enforcement."
Bosma nodded. "Okay."

"Connect, Enforcement." Jeen said into her connector.

"Please wait a moment please."

A second passed before a robotic voice answered.

"How may Enforcement assist you today?"

"I would like to report a woman for..." Jeen took a moment to think of the right words to describe Ms. Duong's actions. She looked at Bosma, who nodded for her to continue. " - Owning Illegal weapons and suspicious criminal activity?"

There were three beeps before the rot that answered Enforcement calls spoke again.

"I'm sorry we can't assist you in your location. Please inform me if Enforcement can assist you in any other way."

Jeen stared at her connector for a minute.

"Excuse me?" Jeen sputtered. "What do you mean you can't help me? I'm reporting a crime!"

"Please inform me if Enforcement can assist you in any other way."

"I said I would like to report someone for criminal activity!" She said, louder now. She shared a confused look with Bosma.

"Please inform me if Enforcement can assist you in any other way."

Jeen stared at the connector, completely baffled.

She repeated herself again, and again heard the same response. She about to do it again, but Bosma told her there was no point.

Jeen pressed end call before she started to throw insults at the brainless rot.

"This happened to me earlier! Is there some kind of glitch in the system? Enforcement is never unavailable. Something's wrong here." Jeen said, disturbed.

She glared down at her connector.

"Maybe I need a new one."

She was going to continue, but Bosma wasn't listening.

"Bosma," Jeen said, wondering how Bosma could possibly be distracted right now.

Bosma looked over at her - she had the look she always got when she figured something out.

"This has something to do with the Swarm."
"The who?" Jeen said.

"The Swarm. Remember? The people Ms. Duong was selling the weapons to? This has to do with them."

Jeen frowned and opened her mouth, then closed it.

"You're saying that my connector malfunctioning has to do with - The Swarm?" She paused. "That makes no sense. Actually forget I said that - none of this makes sense. We just need to get as far from the orphanage as possible."

Bosma sighed in a frustrated voice and turned towards Jeen, preparing for her explanation.

"Remember how I filmed her exchanging money with that man? Well, she saw me watching the footage - and suddenly she went ballistic. First because she saw I had an illegal ovi-form without her knowing, and second because I apparently filmed something that she'd been trying to hide." She looked at Jeen, her face dead serious. "We didn't just film some random transaction between a saleswoman and a customer, this is something big, and something illegal. Something that she wants no one - I mean no one - to find out about."

Jeen didn't say anything, she wasn't sure what to say. All she knew was this whole thing gave her a bad feeling. An ominous feeling.

"I think - I think that Ms. Duong's scared. I think the Swarm will do something bad if she doesn't give them what they want. That's why she locked me down there. She knew I knew about them - about her. If I tell anyone, and the Swarm finds out, she's in trouble," she paused, her large eyes flickering with fear. "If anyone finds out it was you and me, we're in trouble."

"What do we do?" Jeen asked, looking at Bosma, and feeling scared. Even though nothing had happened yet, she already wanted it all to be over.

"We need to get to an Enforcement station before anyone can find us." Bosma stood up.

But Jeen was still sitting there.

"C'mon, we gotta go."
"I have to get Roman. I'm not supposed leave him home - oh no." Jeen sighed, rubbing her face with her hands.

"What." Bosma asked, her brow furrowed as she stood by the curb.

"My Mom. She didn't come home from work yesterday. I-I was so caught up with Ms. Duong that I forgot I need to call her again."
"Okay, how about you go home, get Roman, look for your mom, and when you get the Enforcement station that's where I'll be. Got it?" Bosma said in her tough voice.

Jeen nodded, shakily.

She felt overloaded. She had so many problems she wanted to solve, that she kept forgetting that things had to be one at a time.

Get Roman - you can't leave him alone. Find Mom. Meet up with Bosma.

She took a deep breath.
"Okay."

Bosma was about to leave when Jeen remembered something.
"Hey, wait a sec."

Bosma turned around, looking impatient.

"Why did you write this? Who's Sam?" Jeen asked, fishing the crumpled letter out of her pocket.

"I wrote it in case you didn't find me, but I didn't get to finish it." She explained.

"Yeah, got that, but who's Sam?"

Bosma looked down at her hands, hesitating before speaking.

"We've known each other since we were eleven. He was in the same orphanage as me - the first orphanage I was in."

Jeen frowned, somewhat offended Bosma had never mentioned this person to her before.

"How come you never told me about him?" She asked.

"I can't tell you much. He made me promise never to mention him to anyone." Bosma said, looking like she wanted to tell Jeen everything, but keeping true to her promise.

"Why?" Jeen asked, somewhat confused.

"He's different. I'm-I'm not exactly sure how to explain it. Saying that he's smart is almost an understatement."

Jeen had a lot of experience with 'different' from Roman.

"He's not exactly someone who abides by laws or restrictions. He managed to get away from an orphanage when he was thirteen. He's been living on his own since. He's said that Wardens are after him, yet for some reason they never bother him or make any public statements about him. He wouldn't tell me why though."

"Public statements? Do you mean Like a bounty or something?" Jeen asked with a frown.

"I think so, but for now we need to leave. I'll tell you more later. I'll be at the station, got it?" She said said as she began to write her address into a transfer caller.

"Got it." Jeen answered, standing to her feet.

A swoosh of wind came out of nowhere.

Bosma got inside a silver transfer, and was gone the next minute. She said goodbye, but Jeen had barely even heard her.

She frowned as the sun came out of behind a cloud, shining in her eyes.

She looked down and took a shaking breath, trying to remain calm. Everything felt surreal. She could feel a headache start to pound in her temple as she stood up. She needed to get to the Enforcement station, but first she had to go home and get Roman. She knew it would be best if they worked this out together. 

      ***

Jeen walked through the door with what felt like the hundredth time in the last two days.

"Roman! Is mom back yet?" She yelled as she stood by the couch, to tense to sit down.

"No, and still no calls either." Roman said as he walked down the stairs. Jeen tapped her fingers against her arm, thinking of what to do. She had to help Bosma in her situation, and she also had to find out where Isabella was.

"Are you okay?" Roman asked as he sat across from her in the yellow armchair. She decided to tell him everything that happened to Bosma. Including their worries about the so called group, 'the Swarm'.

"I think we need to go to the station right now." She said, her stomach turning as she thought about the Swarm.

"Okay. How about we go look for mom - in person - and then we're going to go to the Enforcement station to find help for Bosma." Roman said with the expression he always had when his mind was made up.

It sounded like a good plan to Jeen, maybe a little scary, but good.

"Okay. Let's do this." She said with a nod.

"She always stops for a cup of tea before work right?" Jeen asked as she opened the door.

"Yeah. Usually at that outdoor one near school." Roman said as he messed with the zipper on his blue jacket.

As they made their way towards the tea shop the day began to grow hotter.

Roman wiped sweat from his face as he pushed the decorative gate open, the air was unpleasantly muggy. Jeen couldn't tell which she preferred less: this weather with black storm clouds and smoldering hot, or cold and damp like yesterday and endless downpour. They walked over to the counter. The waiter, Gus, was standing with his back to them as he brewed hot tea, steam pooling into the air and somehow making it seem hotter.
"Um, excuse me..." Jeen said.

He turned around with a smile.

"Hey guys, how are you two today? can I get you something to drink?" He asked with his usual friendly smile.

"No, not today. We were wondering if our Mom came by here earlier today?" Jeen asked as politely as she could, waiting anxiously for her answer. The man looked up like he was trying to remember then his face lit up.

"Yeah, I think she came by yesterday - evening, but not today." He nodded thoughtfully. A feeling of deep anxiety began to form in the pit of Jeen's stomach. She and Roman shared a worried glance.

"Thanks, Gus." Roman said as they began to walk away.

"We should stop by the manufacturing company." Jeen said as she wiped sweat from her upper lip. They walked through the nearly unbearable heat until they came to the end of Blue Shore Avenue, and The Roundabout came into view.

Her stomach rumbled with hunger as she stepped out of the transfer.

She walked forward on the clean sidewalk, the hot air stifling, as she gazed up at a towering silver beauty of a building. She hesitated as she walked up to the glass doors. When she walked in she couldn't help letting out a whistle. Then felt embarrassed when she heard an echo.

Everything was perfect and orderly, and she'd never seen so much marble and granite. There were even pillars in the place too - jade with golden streaks. Between the two pillars was a desk. Behind the desk was a woman wearing a sharp blue jacket with a matching pencil skirt, and brunette hair that was twisted into a perfect updo.

"Hello, may I help you?" Her voice sounded just as animated as her face looked. Jeen walked over to the counter and gave a weak smile.

"Yes, we were just wondering if Isabella Starc came to work yesterday?"

The receptionists face remained exactly the same as she answered her, and at this moment Jeen realized that the woman wasn't real, she was just an automaton.

"Yes, she came and left as her usual work shift. She works on the third floor with Mr. Haydens. Let me know if there's anything else I can help you with." Jeen thought for a minute.

"Thanks. Would it be too much trouble to speak with Mr. Haydens?" Jeen asked nervously.

The woman smiled a little too widely.

"I'm sorry. Our employees do not take social calls while on a workshift. It's our policy. Now we are a home production company so if you are interested in making an arrangement I can notify our business manager."

"Uh... I don-" Jeen began to say, but Roman's quick thinking intervened.

He reached forward and slammed the automatons head into the desk, her eyes going blank and her body twitching.

Jeen screamed at Roman almost immediately.

"What are you doing? There's security cameras in here! Do you want to be arrested? "

"Let's get to the third floor quick."

"Oh? How do you plan on not getting caught by security?".

"Like I said, let's be fast." He answered, jogging up the set of stairs.

Jeen followed, looking around nervously as they ran down the hall, stopping at the golden elevator.

The doors closed as Jeen pressed a button with the little three on it.

The doors opened and they stepped out of the elevator and into a bustling office. They stopped short but it was too late to turn back.

There were at least fifty desks with one person at each. Some had their eyes glued to holograms of houses, tweaking each little green windowsill with a touch of their finger. Others tapped away at transparent touch-screens. Then there were the people who worked these little rectangle devices with rounded edges, a green keyboard, and small screen with only numbers typed away. Jeen swallowed a large wad of saliva and took a quick glance at Roman the same time he looked over at her. She looked around the room; on both sides of the office were the glass walls that belonged to other offices. Jeen made her way very slowly to one side of the room. She noticed plaques with names etched in them above each door.

She nudged Roman and whispered "Look for Mr. Haydens's or mom's office. I think they share."

He nodded and they began to search as discreetly as they could. After a few minutes of walking on the sidelines they came across an office with a golden plaque like the rest with a name that was very familiar: Mrs.Starc. Roman and Jeen shared an anxious look before they gazed into the office. It was surprisingly messy; or at least the desk was. It was scattered with blueprints, pencils, erasers, and measurers. Hunched over the table was a man with his back to them, his face hidden.

She rapped lightly on the door.

He didn't look up immediately, but after a couple seconds he looked up suddenly and his expression looked surprised.

He was most likely in his mid forties and was slightly out of shape, but looked very sharp in his clothing, as most of the people in this office did.

He came to the door and pulled it open.

" - Can I help you?" His voice sceptical.

"We're wondering if you've seen our mom - I mean Mrs. Starc - today?" Jeen quickly corrected.

Mr. Hayden's face paled, but quickly regained a calm expression.

"No, I have not. Which puts me on a tight schedule. Please come in." He opened the door for them and moved aside for them to come inside.

They took the two chairs offered to them as Mr. Haydens sat at a chair behind his two person desk. He seemed to be nervously sweating, yet the office was air conditioned.

"No, I have not seen your mother all day, I even tried to contact her. Nothing. Perhaps you can explain what's keeping him? I have to submit these blueprints by the end of the day." He sounded much more irritated than concerned.

Jeen couldn't help narrowing her eyes when she caught the slight nervous undertone.

"Well- er- we were hoping you would know where she was." Roman said.

This made Mr. Haydens expression change from annoyance to confusion.

"So... You mean to tell me you don't know where she is?" He asked, his hands waving with motion while he talked. Jeen shook her head sadly as Roman mumbled "'Fraid not."

"Do you know where she went when she left her work shift yesterday?" Jeen asked, still a look of suspicion as she watched Mr. Hayden's.

"Home I assumed." He said while shaking his head.

"But I tell you what. If she doesn't show by five o'clock, I'll call for an investigation. How's that sound to you?" He proposed, looking between them with a raised eyebrow. "Sounds good." Roman said.

Jeen could tell by the tone of his voice that he thought something was up as well.

"Well ,you kids should be getting home now. It's getting late." He said.

"Yes - of course. Thank you for your help." Jeen said as they stood.

What Jeen wanted to say was 'thanks, you were no help at all'.

"Well off you go then."

Mr. Haydens opened the door for them and they shuffled out. Jeen and Roman slowly walked past all the desks again, none of the people occupying them giving a bit of notice.

As the two of them walked they wore the same expression, and could almost tell what the other was thinking.

They were both unsatisfied, and disappointed as they walked into the elevator.

"Well he was completely useless." Roman said.

Jeen almost laughed but didn't feel it was the right time to laugh. So instead she just agreed.

"Was it just me, or did he seem like he was nervous or something?" She said, looking at Roman, scoping out his expression.

"No, I noticed too. Weird." He said quietly.

"Yeah - weird. Let's just get out of here before security gets here." Jeen said with her eyebrows knitted together.

Weird was the only word she could think of at the moment. Everything was too much at the moment to call it anything else. 

        (I can't stop editing these chapter lol, it's exhausting. If you liked it give a vote, thank uuu<3) 

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