It was not very difficult to hack into lunch cube. It was after all
only a place to eat. But even browsing through data did not give me much
of a clue. It was about time to visit the Lunch cube. It closes all
its functions by 2am. So it was a pretty rest less night. The security
at such places is the easiest to break. Nobody gives a damn if a food
joint is robbed. What can they take -a day old food?
The server room wasn’t too hard to crack either. The task I had in mind was an easy one. Trace the table I had been allotted today and then the records of the table until I find the person I saw in the afternoon. It took time….a lot of time. By the time I found the man. I was half asleep.
Shit. The face was unmistakably the same but the records were all blurred. Old data! Who in the world are you, old man? I struck the cabinet next to me with a lot of vigor. An action people like us should always avoid. Who in the world are you?
His name is ’Alex Ross’. A voice came from behind. Even before I could try picking up the heaviest thing near my hand. A barrel was pressing at the back of my head. “No gun? Mr. Johnson, are you joking? Breaking into public property, hacking into public systems and you don’t even have a gun? You are dead Timothy Johnson.”
I had to take a deep breath. There were not too many sentences that I could afford.
“What more do you about Alex Ross, Mr. J P Thompson?”
There was this momentary silence engulfing the room. Then a loud thud followed and I was lying on the floor holding my head.
How do you know my name, scum? His gun was now pressing right under my eyes. How do you know my name?
“I am the one who called you here Thompson. Actually, It was a friend of mine who gave you the call asking you to find me” “don’t worry; you would get your money” Just answer my question.
“Listen her Timothy,” He held me up with my collars. He pulled me close to his eyes. His dark black circles zooming deep into my eyes, “I don’t give a damn about money. Tell me whatever I ask and I probably will not kill you.”
He threw me down on the floor. The barrel was moving as if it had too many parts of me to burst but it could not choose.
“How do you know Ross?”
“Why am I here?”
You are here because you are going to die. His eyes swelled with amusement. He was surly about to press the trigger.
Wait! Wait! I will tell you everything. But first you must help me understand what is going on over here.
JP was studying my face like a camera. Finally, he lowered his gun and put it in his jacket, pulled the chair closest to him.
“His name is Alex Ross, he was former number two of Kapritiaci Colts. But five years back he died here in a freak accident.
-Was he your informant?
JP Thompson looked at me with a cynical smile.
“Now you talking like a newspaper man, You done good homework boy”, “yes, I was able to trap him, was about to turn himself in with a lot of information but just the before he could. As I said, he died. We checked his table, the mechanic, everything but couldn’t find a lead. The table does was tempered but tables don’t talk. He was having lunch and suddenly the table dropped dead to the equator line.
-what was he carrying with him?
“Nothing, he had nothing with him. Except for his gun we found nothing. The operation was closed after his death. A few of my fellow officers also died afterwards. Everybody’s dead for nothing.” He spitted out on the floor, making a puddle of spit on the waxed floor.
You think it is fun, boy? He looked at me with curiosity. What are you doing here asking all these questions?
“I think, I know where all that information that Ross was carrying that day is.”
He looked at me more with suspicion then curiosity. I knew he had his gun close to his hand but now it was visible below his now raised jacket.
“Who are you? Tell me now or tell the heavenly god tomorrow?”
Sensing the seriousness of situation I explained him about today’s happenings and about my ability to see past events.
And I am sure, Ross that very day was carrying the data you were expecting and it is still here in this lunch cube.
He was looking at me with open wide eyes. I don’t believe you.
You will, just give me some space. I was out here looking for something. Click of the keyboard was the only sound that filled the room for next few minutes.
- Got it! These are the location coordinates for the day Ross was killed. Let’s go.
I rushed to pick my coat up
-To where?
To the bottom of the well, I looked his confused face. That is where his nose is.
I asked him to follow me while I switched on my torch and started searching for door. But he took the lead. “Come behind me, I will take you to the bottom. But you better explain everything.”
While on the way, while climbing down the bottom less pit, I tried my best to make sense. My ability, the day that had happened. My logic for this situation “When I pressed that button, since Ross was actually not there, it should have moved down. And at the same time if Ross was there, if, it was his table on the day of incident, which it was, it should have moved away from me towards the top; but it didn’t; it means Ross too had intended to go down instead of going up that very day. He probably had something down here that he wanted to retrieve. But the preprogrammed table did not allow him so. And he died as planned.
I don’t know if JP was listening or not but he kept moving. It took up couple of hours and a few gun shots to reach the bottom of the well and a few more to search for the spot which would have been exact mirror of Ross’s equatorial position.
“Got it! “I screamed. There at the exact position in the centre of the box. There was a small metal pack of cigarettes riveted to the floor. Inside the box were few microchips. JPs Face was worth watching. He was just like a man who had seen a ghost.
“Boy! You are a marvel.” And he hugged me hard. “This is the find of the decade. We got to get it to the police, right now. General would be amazed at our find.”
“But I didn’t get one thing?” He started the talk himself, why did you call for me. “If you knew this much, why did you call me, you could have done it all by yourself?”
I guess the silence was of no use any more. “Mr. Thompson, the incident in the cube was not the only experience that I had today.” I gulped my words, but I guess it was about time, “You see I had another experience in the morning.” I took my time, “A road accident and it was you got killed in it.”
JP froze on his feet. After a blank of some minutes he turned and looked at me. His face again, or now even more was a sculpture of frozen meat.
You said you could only see past events.
My voice bottomed even more. “Yes, that is what I thought too, but as I was researching for Ross’s accident. Along with all the data, your face also showed up. You were the lead detective of Ross’s accident. And no where in your public records, it was written that you were deceased. I myself was confused so I decided it was better to call you. So, I had Jack call you up.”
His face was more grave then I remembered him from before, “and when do you predict it will happen”
“I don’t know what to make of it all. I have never ever before seen a man dead before he actually is. I don’t know, it could be tomorrow, next week, next year. I don’t know when. He stepped a bit closer to me.”
For the first time, I heard him sigh. A kind of sadness crept through his eyes.
“Boy, you have done enough favors to me for this day. Can you do me one more? I’ll be grateful”
I looked straight into his eyes. He was stiff as a stone. He took my right hand and put the pack of cigarettes on my palms and closed them for me.
“If I die tomorrow, then all my work that I did, all this work you did won’t be worth a dime. Keep it and do with it as you find suitable. I can’t promise you much only that this would be a very good story.”
“Do me this favor, if you happen to be there when I die. Find me a good place under for me to rest”.
-I will, Mr. Thompson.
It was 3′o clock in the morning, and I was standing out Mic’s door, knocking at it repeatedly. He wasn’t happy when he opened the door, “I have something to show you.”
He looked at my with a sleepy face & welcomed me in the door, “better be good”
I showed him the files. Everything the cigarettes box had.
“So all this happened today?” He sure was not looking sleepy anymore.
-Yes. “You want us to go public today?”
You know better Mic.
He looked at me with screening eyes, and then picked up his phone. “Stop the weekly edition, we have to make some important changes; yes! Wait for me, I will be in office within half an hour”
By the time we reached the press, it had already started raining.
I looked at the window and thought about JP Thompson.
“Happy ending! Is this one?”
..end.
The server room wasn’t too hard to crack either. The task I had in mind was an easy one. Trace the table I had been allotted today and then the records of the table until I find the person I saw in the afternoon. It took time….a lot of time. By the time I found the man. I was half asleep.
Shit. The face was unmistakably the same but the records were all blurred. Old data! Who in the world are you, old man? I struck the cabinet next to me with a lot of vigor. An action people like us should always avoid. Who in the world are you?
His name is ’Alex Ross’. A voice came from behind. Even before I could try picking up the heaviest thing near my hand. A barrel was pressing at the back of my head. “No gun? Mr. Johnson, are you joking? Breaking into public property, hacking into public systems and you don’t even have a gun? You are dead Timothy Johnson.”
I had to take a deep breath. There were not too many sentences that I could afford.
“What more do you about Alex Ross, Mr. J P Thompson?”
There was this momentary silence engulfing the room. Then a loud thud followed and I was lying on the floor holding my head.
How do you know my name, scum? His gun was now pressing right under my eyes. How do you know my name?
“I am the one who called you here Thompson. Actually, It was a friend of mine who gave you the call asking you to find me” “don’t worry; you would get your money” Just answer my question.
“Listen her Timothy,” He held me up with my collars. He pulled me close to his eyes. His dark black circles zooming deep into my eyes, “I don’t give a damn about money. Tell me whatever I ask and I probably will not kill you.”
He threw me down on the floor. The barrel was moving as if it had too many parts of me to burst but it could not choose.
“How do you know Ross?”
“Why am I here?”
You are here because you are going to die. His eyes swelled with amusement. He was surly about to press the trigger.
Wait! Wait! I will tell you everything. But first you must help me understand what is going on over here.
JP was studying my face like a camera. Finally, he lowered his gun and put it in his jacket, pulled the chair closest to him.
“His name is Alex Ross, he was former number two of Kapritiaci Colts. But five years back he died here in a freak accident.
-Was he your informant?
JP Thompson looked at me with a cynical smile.
“Now you talking like a newspaper man, You done good homework boy”, “yes, I was able to trap him, was about to turn himself in with a lot of information but just the before he could. As I said, he died. We checked his table, the mechanic, everything but couldn’t find a lead. The table does was tempered but tables don’t talk. He was having lunch and suddenly the table dropped dead to the equator line.
-what was he carrying with him?
“Nothing, he had nothing with him. Except for his gun we found nothing. The operation was closed after his death. A few of my fellow officers also died afterwards. Everybody’s dead for nothing.” He spitted out on the floor, making a puddle of spit on the waxed floor.
You think it is fun, boy? He looked at me with curiosity. What are you doing here asking all these questions?
“I think, I know where all that information that Ross was carrying that day is.”
He looked at me more with suspicion then curiosity. I knew he had his gun close to his hand but now it was visible below his now raised jacket.
“Who are you? Tell me now or tell the heavenly god tomorrow?”
Sensing the seriousness of situation I explained him about today’s happenings and about my ability to see past events.
And I am sure, Ross that very day was carrying the data you were expecting and it is still here in this lunch cube.
He was looking at me with open wide eyes. I don’t believe you.
You will, just give me some space. I was out here looking for something. Click of the keyboard was the only sound that filled the room for next few minutes.
- Got it! These are the location coordinates for the day Ross was killed. Let’s go.
I rushed to pick my coat up
-To where?
To the bottom of the well, I looked his confused face. That is where his nose is.
I asked him to follow me while I switched on my torch and started searching for door. But he took the lead. “Come behind me, I will take you to the bottom. But you better explain everything.”
While on the way, while climbing down the bottom less pit, I tried my best to make sense. My ability, the day that had happened. My logic for this situation “When I pressed that button, since Ross was actually not there, it should have moved down. And at the same time if Ross was there, if, it was his table on the day of incident, which it was, it should have moved away from me towards the top; but it didn’t; it means Ross too had intended to go down instead of going up that very day. He probably had something down here that he wanted to retrieve. But the preprogrammed table did not allow him so. And he died as planned.
I don’t know if JP was listening or not but he kept moving. It took up couple of hours and a few gun shots to reach the bottom of the well and a few more to search for the spot which would have been exact mirror of Ross’s equatorial position.
“Got it! “I screamed. There at the exact position in the centre of the box. There was a small metal pack of cigarettes riveted to the floor. Inside the box were few microchips. JPs Face was worth watching. He was just like a man who had seen a ghost.
“Boy! You are a marvel.” And he hugged me hard. “This is the find of the decade. We got to get it to the police, right now. General would be amazed at our find.”
“But I didn’t get one thing?” He started the talk himself, why did you call for me. “If you knew this much, why did you call me, you could have done it all by yourself?”
I guess the silence was of no use any more. “Mr. Thompson, the incident in the cube was not the only experience that I had today.” I gulped my words, but I guess it was about time, “You see I had another experience in the morning.” I took my time, “A road accident and it was you got killed in it.”
JP froze on his feet. After a blank of some minutes he turned and looked at me. His face again, or now even more was a sculpture of frozen meat.
You said you could only see past events.
My voice bottomed even more. “Yes, that is what I thought too, but as I was researching for Ross’s accident. Along with all the data, your face also showed up. You were the lead detective of Ross’s accident. And no where in your public records, it was written that you were deceased. I myself was confused so I decided it was better to call you. So, I had Jack call you up.”
His face was more grave then I remembered him from before, “and when do you predict it will happen”
“I don’t know what to make of it all. I have never ever before seen a man dead before he actually is. I don’t know, it could be tomorrow, next week, next year. I don’t know when. He stepped a bit closer to me.”
For the first time, I heard him sigh. A kind of sadness crept through his eyes.
“Boy, you have done enough favors to me for this day. Can you do me one more? I’ll be grateful”
I looked straight into his eyes. He was stiff as a stone. He took my right hand and put the pack of cigarettes on my palms and closed them for me.
“If I die tomorrow, then all my work that I did, all this work you did won’t be worth a dime. Keep it and do with it as you find suitable. I can’t promise you much only that this would be a very good story.”
“Do me this favor, if you happen to be there when I die. Find me a good place under for me to rest”.
-I will, Mr. Thompson.
It was 3′o clock in the morning, and I was standing out Mic’s door, knocking at it repeatedly. He wasn’t happy when he opened the door, “I have something to show you.”
He looked at my with a sleepy face & welcomed me in the door, “better be good”
I showed him the files. Everything the cigarettes box had.
“So all this happened today?” He sure was not looking sleepy anymore.
-Yes. “You want us to go public today?”
You know better Mic.
He looked at me with screening eyes, and then picked up his phone. “Stop the weekly edition, we have to make some important changes; yes! Wait for me, I will be in office within half an hour”
By the time we reached the press, it had already started raining.
I looked at the window and thought about JP Thompson.
“Happy ending! Is this one?”
..end.