The killer detective

20 - A new quest

What the heck is he doing here at this point of the night?! Is he an insane workaholic, coming for people to work at this time? I fully positioned myself in front of the window and opened it. I glanced back to see if Omita woke up, but she was still asleep. Hard as a rock. I looked down at the guy.

“Finally! You have no idea how long I’ve been trying to get you come!” He was shouting for the whole neighborhood to hear. I scoffed. He’s just ridiculous. I don’t have a phone or what?

“I’m coming down. Wait for me.” I muttered only so loud that he would hear it. I closed the window, put a jacket on, slippers, and softly closed the door to my small apartment to not wake the trainee up. I ran the stairs down, the slippers flopping on each stair I put my foot on. Keeping him waiting there wouldn’t be the best idea. I opened the entrance door and ran out. He was waiting there, unbuttoned shirt up to his chest, his hair a mess. He was waiting in front of the luxurious car with a driver inside.

“What is going on?” I asked him, not even bothering to say hi. What stupid person would bother others around 3 in the morning?

“I just thought that we could go for a drink! I’m done working. It’s just too much!” He was behaving like a complete drunk, complaining like a little kid. He was yelling and shouting, thinking it was a normal thing to do at this time of the night. He would definitely not wake up anyone sleeping in the buildings around us.

“Instead of drinking, you should go home, Meiko. I have things to do tomorrow. And stop shouting!” I hissed at him, trying to keep him quiet. I didn’t want my neighbors to complain about my late-night visitors. It wasn’t enough he was awfully annoying in his office, he had to come to annoy me even at night when I was supposed to be sleeping.

“You don’t have to tell me you hate me so much. I know it.” His grimace turned into a bitter smile with pain in his wet eyes.

“What are you talking about. You’re just awfully drunk. You just need to go home and sleep!” I caught him mid-air as he stumbled.

“Let me stay here.” His husky voice was an attempt to coax me into letting him stay at my place, supported with sad puppy eyes that were supposed to make me feel like he had been abandoned.

“No.” Why should I let him stay? He has his own place, he’s drunk and my place is crowded already as it is. I’m not letting him stay. No way.

“Why? It’s so close! I won’t survive until home!” He started raising the decibels of his voice again. I grabbed him better and threw him on my body, so he would shift his weight more on me. I had to get him to the car as soon as I could. No more scenes.

“You will survive. You survived worse, Meiko. I trust you. You can do it!” I was walking with him to the car’s back door. The driver was as kind as to open it for me to throw Meiko on the backseats. I pushed him inside, trying to make sure he wouldn’t come out. He was doing his best to make me not successful in sending him home. This stupid… Idiotic… Fucker! I finally finished stuffing him in the car and slammed the door. The driver locked the doors and started the engine. I took a deep breath. Wrestling with Meiko was seriously tough in such a small space.

“ALTHEAAAAA!” He managed to pull the window down, stick his head out and yell at me as the car was already on the way.

“Seriously.” I exhaled all the air out. He was behaving like such a kid. Similar to when teenagers got secretly drunk and then went all out, having fun and thinking they were cool. Hope I can finally sleep. I checked the time on the watch I was still wearing on my left wrist. I was never taking it off, not even for a shower. I still had time for over an hour of good quality sleep.

The moment I laid down in my bed, I got knocked out by my tiredness. Just closing my eyes was enough to fall into a deep sleep that I didn’t even hear my alarm clock.

“Lieutenant!” Somebody was rocking me from side to side, with an annoying sound in the background. I slowly opened my eyes and yelled out.

“It’s fine! It’s me! Omita Spiros!” I was taking deep breaths to survive the shock I had just gone through. I completely forgot she was staying at my place.

“Omita… Turn… Can you turn the alarm off?” I asked her, my vision still slightly blurred. I rubbed my eyes. The annoying sound finally stopped.

“What time is it?” My voice sounded as if I drank at least five beers last evening at a hard-rock concert, where I would be screaming the song lyrics in the crowd.

“A bit after five in the morning. Should I make you something for breakfast?” She looked all fresh and ready, while I was in complete shambles. I couldn’t tell right from left and everything was just somehow happening around me, while I had no proper sense of myself. That one hour of sleep just wasn’t enough.

“It’s fine. I can grab something on the way to the office.” I mumbled, lying back down, closing my eyes.

“You don’t need to get up right now?”

“I’ll be fine…” I mumbled, drifting off to sleep again. I got woken up by a nice smell of coffee a while later.

“We’ll be late to your office, you have to get up.” The annoying voice was talking to me.

“Fine, fine…” I mumbled, slowly opening my eyes. A mug of coffee was on the table next to my bed, while Omita went out of the room. I sat up, rubbed my eyes, and took a couple of sips of the warm coffee to wake myself up properly. I wobbled to my closet, took out clothes to wear to the office, just some simple jeans, a white T-shirt, and my usual leather jacket.

“Ready to go?” I asked Omita after I finished my morning hygiene and walked out of the office. She looked like she had been waiting for me for at least two hours.

“By the way… Don’t you have a bit better clothes, more civilian-looking? We’re not going back to the army camp for now. I will be going to Meiko’s office in the afternoon. He has some important things to do in the morning.” I was trying to talk to her while putting my boots on. Yeah, right. Important things… Sleeping his hangover off. I sighed remembering the scene Meiko gave me during the night, not letting me sleep. Omita just shrugged. Apparently, she didn’t care much about the things she was wearing. Her khaki army T-shirt and camouflage pants together with the army-approved boots were screaming right into one’s face.

Meiko

I woke up with an awful headache. All the fragments of my memory from the night were slowly coming back to me. This is going to haunt me for a few days… And Althea is going to enjoy roasting me for it.

“Aaaargh! How can I be so stupid!” I yelled, making my headache even worse. I caught my forehead with my hand, closing my eyes. My huge bed covered with white bedsheets was empty, like always. It sometimes made me think about the use of having such a big and luxurious place when I was living there only by myself. I didn’t really have friends to bring here. Moreover, the only person I was quite close to, one of the best snipers, Althea, didn’t really care about me. In fact, she probably hated me for no reason.

“Your breakfast is ready, sir. I made you some hangover drink as well.” The only living person in this place, apart from me, was the person who was in charge of making me breakfast and cleaning. She didn’t have much work to do, anyway. I didn’t live in the place and I usually ate at the army camp anyway.

“Thank you. You can go home for the day.” I nearly whispered as I thought that my head was about to break into thousands of pieces. Just how much did I drink yesterday? I slowly got out of bed, noticing I took my clothes off, and went to bed COMPLETELY naked.

“Good thing a girl didn’t come with me. That would be a serious pain in the ass…” I mumbled while getting into the shower, hoping the water would wake me up. It was well after 11 in the morning already.

Althea

“Okay, so now you have free time, I need to drop by Meiko’s office. You can go to the city, shop, go out with your friends… Anything you want. It takes a while until you manage to understand how the system itself works for the paperwork. So don’t sweat it too much, it will get easier the more you practice. We might be able to take a few quests tomorrow if the higher-ups are fine with it.” I told Omita after we finished checking some of the papers that were on my desk. Good thing was that they weren’t top secret. If they were, she wouldn’t be able to learn anything at all.

“Need more coffee, lieutenant?” Omita inquired. It seemed like she didn’t want to leave my side for some reason. Does she like Meiko? Or is she connected to him somehow? I raised my eyebrow, trying to figure out her intentions.

“I’m fine, thanks. Grab lunch for yourself as well, don’t starve.” I reminded her before I headed out of the office, shutting down my computer as well.

“Roger that!” She saluted me while I was leaving. I hid my eyes in the palm of my right hand. This was just too embarrassing. We weren’t in the army camp, she was supposed to behave like any other person she would meet on the street. I still have a lot of basics to teach her…

Getting into Meiko’s office, I brought two cups of coffee. His favorite Americano, and just a light caramel latté for myself. I smiled at the secretary, who wasn’t happy anytime she saw me. I think she even hated me to the core of her bones.

“Hello, little ladybug! How was your sleep!” I entered Meiko’s office with a happy exclamation. His killing gaze from up the hoard of papers was enough of an answer to me.

“Got you your coffee, sir.” I placed it right in front of him. He grabbed it and gulped down half at once.

“Thanks.” Meiko seemed a bit happier but his mood could still swallow up a whole swamp and he’d still be the same.

“Any news?” I asked him, sitting at the edge of his desk. He laid back on his chair, closing his eyes.

“Yeah. You have to find it somewhere there, though…” His voice sounded like he was calling me from the ether world. I took a sip of my latté and took a few steps to another bunch of papers, which was lying on the floor.

“Oh, looks like we got a mission!” I brightened up. I wanted to do something else but paperwork with the girl. There wasn’t much to show her in the office.

“But it’s in the Ruinees territory…” I mumbled, being completely disheartened.

“Meiko, you can’t be serious about this! How am I supposed to take a complete newbie to Ruinees' place?!” I turned around, yelling at him.

“Shhh… It’s just a very easy thing to do. Don’t worry, she’s not completely useless. Why else do you think we placed her under you. Just go. Your equipment will be returned to you for the quest. Also, your suspension will be lifted if you perform well.” He was speaking so silently I nearly didn’t even catch what he was actually saying.

“Great.” I retorted. So now I have to go to Ruinees territory again, not to mention I was nearly killed last time! They seriously have no brains in this building!