The killer detective

7 - Meiko Shim's intentions

We got inside the elevator and took off to whatever floor he pressed the button for. He was still grinning, probably happy with posing that question in front of me. Stupid grin. He should work on containing his emotions in front of others more! How can he be a high-commissioned officer if he can't keep a poker face? I'm weird for saying this, but he should learn something from Isaac!

The elevator was filled with just me and him. And it was silent. It wouldn't be too awkward if I was with Isaac and Benuard, but with Meiko, it was completely something else. It was just weird. He was usually chatty. Maybe I should break the ice this time...

"This has to be pretty dire, if you send a pickup for me," I said a bit sarcastically. I usually had to walk all over the place, if I was lucky enough. If not, I had to dash from the spot I was at, hoping that someone would give me a ride.

"Yeah, well... Let's say it's not the best time of the year." Meiko turned his face towards me and unnaturally smirked. His hazel brown eyes, which were mesmerizing to others, felt like they always had hidden ulterior motives in them. I squinted my eyes at him, but he turned back with the elevator's ting and waited for the door to open. No time nor space to get more information out from him. I was following behind him through a maze of offices behind glass walls with blinds down. Some of them had them open, but they were mostly empty with no one sitting there. After I entered his office, which, unlike others, had normal walls, he showed me the chair where I was supposed to sit down. I let the bag fall down next to the chair.

"What is the job this time?" I crossed my legs and leaned back on the backrest. I could finally sit properly. It had been a seriously long day!

"No job." He did the same. No job?

"Then why am I here? Just to kill your time?" I frowned and stared at him. He always made me come to his office for side jobs. If it was an official job, he never bothered and always had it delivered to my office. He would never bother to get me here just for a chat. He preferred bars for that.

"I finished the job you gave me last time. I had hit the guy into his left Achilles heel. It should have been easy for you to capture him later. Don't forget to transfer the points." I finished reporting the situation from the mission. I crossed my arms in front of my chest. I was in the right, they should pay me for the job I had done for them, it wasn't a favor! It was a proper job issued by the military and the Register. He didn't say anything, his facial expression stayed the same.

Meiko was definitely that kind of person, that was hard to guess. With Benuard and Isaac, I knew with just one look or by reading the air. With Meiko, I never knew if he meant business if he had changed his attitude to inviting people to his office for only business and I was there just to entertain his free time. Or if he needed to complain about something unfair that had recently happened to him. But like that, he would have preferred to talk about it over a glass of something stronger in a bar. Not in the rigid office environment, which he wasn't taking seriously at all.

His quite long black hair needed to be cut soon because the bangs were getting into his eyes. His sitting posture was so elegant that you wouldn't ever guess he was a high-ranking military officer. His body didn't give it out as much either. He wasn't your average-looking beefed-up army guy, his body was quite slender, but he had a lot of endurance and strength built in it.

His character was usually quite arrogant and flirty. He seemed nice and kind, dealing mellowly with anyone, but deep down he was this rotten piece of fried chicken someone put into your rice bowl. He was annoying.

Meiko also knew that his pretense friendly-kind-flirty attitude didn't work on me. He usually used it for dealing with others at work. Take the reception employee for example. She basically meant nothing to him, yet he still took his time and effort to be flirty to her to deal with things. On the other hand, with me, he behaved like an old friend, who actually had seniority occupation and had to be treated with respect. 

Meiko was a person, that would hang himself around your neck, would have very close contact with you anytime he found the chance to. Unfortunately, at the same time, I was in no position to overstep my boundaries. And dealing with him every single time cost me a lot of energy at the beginning. But over the time I kind of grew immune to it and had managed to develop a cold shoulder to him. Since we were long-time acquaintances, I knew him quite well and just decided to ignore his behavior.

If you didn't know him, his occupation, and you would only judge him according to his presence, his looks, and behavior, you would think that he was a high-ranking manager in a rich corporation. If not even one of its directors, who would have to be highly popular among the employees. Or that he was a Samaritan from a wealthy family. You could pick one. His behavior just showed that he was nearly never tired, he was always happy to be at work, and he kept motivating his, mostly female, employees to do better. By flirting with them.

"I'll transfer the points when we get him to spill out the things. And if I had enough time, then sure, you could go ahead and entertain me here to kill my boredom at any time. I would actually really appreciate it. You know, there is something about sweaty women in their ACUs." He winked at me and paused. Then he took a deep breath and seriously looked at me. This didn't look like it was going to be something that I could deal with easily.

"It's about the weapon storage... I bet you've talked with sergeant major Reed about it. What did he tell you?" He said in a cold business tone. I tensed up and sharpened my senses. This wasn't going to be an easy conversation nor topic to solve.

"Check the CCTV," I answered, trying to show that it had nothing to do with me. I didn't like how this conversation was turning out. It smelled way too fishy. Meiko's usual playful self was now definitely gone. The serious side of him felt lonely, but at the same time weighed down the atmosphere in his office. Meiko ran his hand through his hair from front to back and sighed. He messed up his gel-done hairdo, some strands had come loose and he looked at me again, he even leaned forward: "So you have no idea?"

"What should I know?" I asked him, really not knowing anything about this issue. Yet, he was trying hard to intimidate me by keeping fierce eye contact as much as possible.

"Exactly the information I am trying to find out." He abruptly stood up. Some of the papers on the nearby coffee table fell from the heap he had there. He was stressed out, probably even angry. His real emotions were starting to show. Now that I look at him, he looks quite tired and sleep-deprived. Maybe even has dark circles? Or is it my imagination?

"And if I don't know it? Meiko, don't be stupid. I only arrived today with Isaac." I tried calmly dismissing all of this. I was tired as well!

"THAT'S WHAT I'M TRYING TO FIND OUT! ISAAC IS BEING QUESTIONED BY THE ORGANIZATION'S COURT! SO GIVE ME ANY INFO YOU HAVE." 

My eyes just nearly fell out. Meiko and shouting? This is annoying. I want my bed and sleep. I closed my eyes and massaged them with my fingers. I was probably only seeing things. Maybe even hearing things. I was too tired to be of sound mind and body. I opened my eyes again, ready to answer him.

"But I don't have any! Can you stop shouting?" Gathering the leftovers of my energy, I raised my voice at him. Meiko sighed and fell back into his armchair.

"Anyways, your belongings are confiscated starting now. Orders from above." He sighed again while having his hand's palm on half of his face.

"Wow. Sounds like some serious shit." It still felt like the whole situation had nothing to do with me and everyone was just making routinely sure I wasn't involved. They probably needed a scapegoat, who wasn't too low nor too high in ranks.

"Yeah. You have no idea." He rubbed his palms on his face in a top-down motion.

"What about Benuard?" In the end, he was the guy, who would be the most f****d-up out of all four of us.

"Benuard?"

"Reed," I added his surname. The whole room was covered in silence. None of us dared to move.

"Probably being questioned as well." Meiko was now tired even more than before.

"Why am I in your office then and not at the interrogation grounds?" I should just give my testimony, have late lunch and then head home to sleep...

"Protectionism?" He looked up to me as he said it.

"Yours? No one asked for it." I narrowed my eyes.

"I did." Meiko looked seriously at me. Why would he even try to overuse his hard-earned power for protecting me to not be questioned? I didn't even do anything wrong. I could just go and tell them everything I knew. It wouldn't be a big deal at all.

"Look, I know we used to be close friends and at some point even in the same platoon, but that doesn't mean you should overuse your power to do this." I stood up. I didn't cause this problem, so why would anyone have to do anything about it?

"Where should I ask them to get me there?" I looked at him. Now he looked like a terrified depressed heap in his purple airy-looking armchair.

"You-"

"Colonel Shim, you are requested together with second lieutenant Serapheim at the 18th floor, room 7." A secretary came in without knocking and then just left. What a working morale from her side. I killed the closed door instead of her as she had managed to already leave.

"I hate that name," I mumbled under my nose and prepared to whack the bag on my back.

"Don't forget you are not to take this with you until the order has been withdrawn." Meiko squeezed my shoulder hard.

"You are killing meeeeee." I held his hand trying to get it off my left shoulder. A bruise will start forming soon! Let go you ape!

"Let's go." He still didn't let go but at least loosened up his grip.

________

One floor above us was the room, where who-knows-what was waiting for me. The whole floor was different from the one below. Compared to the yellow-light-lit offices, it felt colder with concrete walls around and just dim white lights. The doors we were passing to get to room 7 all looked very heavy and were made of solid wood painted in dark brown. The air smelled like nothing. The offices were always smelling like freshly printed warm paper with printer ink on them, sometimes like coffee...

Looks like a different planet here.

Meiko stopped in front of the door, which was supposed to be the entry point to the room 7.

"Ready?" He asked me. I only gave him a confused look and waited for him to push the door handle down.