The Guardians of Light

The Assignment

All of us followed Mr. Reynolds with a pinch of nervousness accompanied by anxiety. He took us to a room which looked like a conference room.

Now, this is the kind of room we were picturing ourselves to be inside.

The room had fancy chairs, and every chair had a complimentary table on which a laptop and a notebook were available.

Mr. Reynolds: Everyone, please take a seat. We are about to begin.

We all seated ourselves and were thrilled to see the arrangements.

Mr. Reynolds: I hope you all are comfortable in your positions. For the next 5 minutes, I want your undivided attention to what I am about to demonstrate because this is going to make you an official L1 Protector or send you back to your training. You can pose questions or ask anything in between if you want to. Shall I proceed?

Seema: By all means, Mr. Reynolds.

Mr. Reynolds: Alright. So this is your first assignment. The target's name is  "The Ultimate Thief." You all are tasked with his capture.

Seema: Who came up with that name, Mr. Reynolds?

Mr. Reynolds: Well, he gave it to himself. He had robbed four houses till now and managed to evade from the Protectors successfully. These are the pictures of the residences he robbed so far.

There was a projector which projected images relevantly according to what Mr. Reynolds was saying.

Mr. Reynolds: We understood his pattern of selecting the houses, but there are a plethora of such residences, and we need to narrow it down else it's near to impossible to catch him. We are unable to find out about how he escapes. He just vanishes into the dark night. The case files are already sent to your respective laptops. Your first assignment is the capture of "The Ultimate Thief." The deadline is one week from now. If you need any kind of help from the association, there's a help column in your laptop. Just type it and click send. We'll make it happen if we find it essential. Any doubts? 

Yugi: Where are we supposed to stay, Mr. Reynolds?

Mr. Reynolds: For now, you'll have to stay in your usual rooms provided. Any more?

We nodded left and right signalling no.

Mr. Reynolds: Have a good day, interns. Also, best of luck.

Mr. Reynolds left the room. I wanted to ask him something which I couldn't in front of everyone. So I chased Mr. Reynolds and halted him outside.

' Mr. Bloom, is there any problem? '

' No, Mr. R R, everything's great. I just wanted to ask you something. '

' Shoot. '

' I wanted to know if I could join Evelyn's team. '

' Well, Evelyn's team is full right now. Also, she and her associates are working as Protectors for a long time. They are the one of the most experienced field  Protectors of L1. It would require very exceptional attributes for a candidate to make it to their team. But, they are not so friendly to newcomers. I highly doubt that they'll accept you as one of their own. '

' I can deal with them. So there is a possibility for me to join them, right? '

' Right, Mr. Bloom. '

' Have a good day ahead, Mr. R R. '

I came back to the conference room. Everyone already carried their laptops and were ready to leave the room.

Ryan: Guys, can I have a moment with you all?

Steven: What is it, Ryan?

Ryan: The guy who we need to capture has already committed four robberies and yet is successful in eluding from the L1 Protectors. Therefore this guy is no joke. He is brilliant. I think we all should need to work collectively and hatch a plan to lure him and then capture him. What do you say?

Yugi: Good speech dude. But I have to find out about my skills, my strengths, and my weaknesses. I have to work alone in order to do that. I'm sorry, but I'm out.

Steven: He's right, Ryan. We have to test our abilities individually first. I think I'm going solo too.

Seema: Also, we do not know if they are going to promote us all to L1. It's better to be the sole owner of the credit after the capture of this thief.

Ayami was silent. I hoped she would talk something at least to say no, but she didn't.

Everyone started to leave the room one by one, and Ayami was the last one in the queue. I stepped in her way, obstructing her path.

' We have trained for weeks, Ayami. I didn't even know your name until now. Please talk something. At least say no. '

She looked at me with a serious face, and I felt like I was in deep trouble.

She punched me hard in the stomach, and I moved aside from her way. I could have blocked it, but I wasn't expecting it at all.

I laid on the floor for a while and thought about it.

Lesson 1 = Never let your guard down.

After a while, I got up and walked to my room. My stomach was still hurting a bit. I wanted to sleep for a while but didn't because I had work to do. I have to do a lot of research about the robberies, then devise a plan, and then make sure that the thief land in my trap.

In order to that, I have to know what kind of dwellings fall into his category? What are his escape plans? The only good thing was we know how he looks.

I rested for a while and then meditated to remove all the unnecessary thoughts that were going on in my brain.

I grabbed a coffee and headed to The Knowledge Room.

I sat in a cabin.

' Good Evening. I am Oni-395, how may I assist you today?

' Ah, can you switch yourself with Oni-234? '

' Just a minute. Let me check if Oni-234 is available. '

After five seconds, Oni-395 got redirected to Oni-234.

' Good Evening. Welcome back, Mr. Gloom, I am Oni-234, how may I assist you today? '

' It's good to see and hear you, 234. I want you to access all the case files that you have on " The Ultimate Thief. " '

' You need an L1 clearance to access those files. If you have one, please display it. '

I took out my ID and held it. 234 had scanned it.

' Access granted, Mr. Gloom. Sorry for the inconvenience. It's the protocol. '

' No big deal, 234. '

All the case files popped up. I started looking for the similarities in all the houses he stole. All the houses were exquisite. They all had a swimming pool. That's one material similarity. Coming to the owners, two of them were businessmen, and two of them were doctors. That means the owners mostly spend their time away from their residences that gives him an opportunity to do his work peacefully. The only piece that is missing was his escape route. How is he managing to escape?

To have a better understanding, I decided to visit the houses.

' Thank you, 234. If you find anything that seems related to the case that I overlooked, send it to my ST. That'll be all for now. '

' Sure. I hope I am useful, Mr. Bloom. Farewell. '

I went to Gyro to grab one more coffee before I headed out to the residences. 

It was my first time to step into the city of Orpheus. Till now, all I saw was the headquarters. I didn't get a thought or chance to visit the city. I was so excited because I felt like I am an adventurer who is exploring unknown lands.

I put my first step in the city, and the first ray of sunshine hit me differently. Even though it was evening, the atmosphere looked so bright and cheerful.

I walked on the side of the road as a pedestrian looking at everything. Every small aspect of Orpheus amazed me. I couldn't help but admire its beauty.

No traffic, no pollution, lots of trees and plants. It's like they achieved the means to fight global warming. The streets were so clean that we could sleep on the road itself.

Everything is same as that of the Earth but an improved and updated version. According to the ST, all the looted houses were a few kilometres apart. So, I decided to ride a bicycle to all those places. Being an L1 intern, you have perks of getting a vehicle for investigation purposes. I used my ID and obtained a bicycle.

While I rode the bicycle, the feeble breeze of air, flew past me. It made me recall the time when I drove Mia all the way to my house on the bicycle.

After a while, an unknown strain kicked in, and I drove fast. I reached the first site. I checked the perimeter of the house to look for any blind spots or weak entrances. Everything seemed normal. Also, the street has cameras at the junctions. They were no other ways to leave, he must walk through the junction to escape, but no cameras had captured him. 

It all seemed like a mystery to me. Instead of being stuck here with no leads, I thought it's better to move onto the next site.

I rode away on the bicycle to the next spot. I did a perimeter sweep, and I found nothing suspicious. No tampering with the fences or any of such sorts.

I checked all the houses but couldn't find even a single lead.

After a long pursuit of leads, I got tired and sat on the side of a house. Since everything was so clean, I didn't feel like I was sitting on the road.

An old lady who was walking by, saw me.

' Are you a newcomer? ' She asked.

' Yeah. I am an intern Protector. '

' You look exhausted. Come with me. I'll give you some water. '

' That's very sweet of you. Thank you so much. '

I walked along with her. There wasn't even a single wrapper on the road.

' I'm really surprised to see such clean streets. It's incredible. '

' All thanks to the Sanitation Department. They clean all our streets and drainage and are very effective in the garbage disposal. '

Hearing to the old lady gave me an idea.

" Drainage's. "

I thought, what if the thief is using the underground sewers as an escape route and that's why there is no footage of him in the street cams.

I thanked the old lady for her hospitality and rode off to check the manholes in the areas around the houses. I checked around all the four residences, and there weren't any.

Alas, I am back to square one. 

I decided there is no point waiting there and wasting time. I decided to head back to the HQ and come back again with a fresh mind and perspective.

I laid on my bed, just waiting for sleep to win over me. The ST lit up, but I wasn't in a good mood, so I ignored it.  

Slowly, I tended to sleep.