The killer detective

19 - Not according to my wishes

“He can’t be serious! Where is my time to prepare anything? He can’t just tell me to take in the girl and train her right away! On top of that, she’s not even a sniper… Are they short-staffed or something? Maybe not enough children born in that year to fill in the gap?” I was talking to myself while taking the elevator down. The moment the door opened, I saw a girl with a huge bag packed standing on the floor, while she was walking around it. I sighed. This is going to be worse than I thought! I clicked my teeth and took a step out. I passed through the entry gates. I could tell right away that she spotted me. She froze in her pacing there and back and saluted. Great. I just want to kick a bucket right into her face, take it up to Meiko and shred the paper right in front of his face!

“Omita Spiros, lieutenant Serapheim!” She shouted out loud for everyone else around us to hear it. I might shred the paper sooner than I had initially thought. My mouth corners were twitching as I wanted to just shout at her.

“At ease.” I breathed out, still trying to control my emotions from overflowing and making this into an even bigger scene. It would have been fine if I was wearing a military uniform. However, being suspended, I wasn’t allowed to come in that way. And wearing normal clothes… I was just standing out too much if a girl like her called out to me, being dressed in the ACU and having all of her gear right here!

“Omita, there is one thing I have to clarify with you. NEVER call me by my surname. That clear?” I made sure to stress out the important words. Nobody ever called me by my surname unless they wanted to get a flying kick. Or even better, a bullet up in their butt. And I was aiming pretty accurately.

“Yes, ma’am!” She was standing with the hands joined behind her back, looking straight at me. This is going to be a lot of work! I sighed again. It was annoying, such a drag!

“Grab your things. Where are you staying?” I asked her, checking her belongings. It looked like she actually brought completely everything as if she was moving. Her wardrobe had to be quite lonely from being too empty now.

“I was told by lieutenant colonel Shim that you have space at your place, so I can stay there for the time being. The colonel said that it will help with my training!” She stopped picking her backpack up and assumed the reporting position again. I forced out a fake smile. I’m going to kill you, Meiko! My only place of calm and quiet and you want her to stay there?! And where exactly do you think she can fit in?! My place has only one room and then the kitchen joined with a small living room! And I’m not going to sleep on the floor, forget about that, you pig!

“Well, that’s very nice of him but I don't really have space at my place. It’s very small and I have only one bed. There is no way two people can fit on it. You’d have to sleep in the living room but the couch is too small and there is only a little bit of space on the floor. I don’t think it’s going to be a good idea for you to move in with me. You’ll be tired and not able to train properly. Should I tell the lieutenant colonel that they should find you a different place? There are cheap one-room flats where you can stay at.” I was trying to list the options she had, painting my flat as the worst thing she could choose. But she wasn’t really wavering, nor looking like she was considering anything else.

“Okay, give me a while.” I forced another smile, closing my eyes at the same time. I took out my phone and started dialing Meiko’s office. I made sure to walk away from her. She didn’t need to hear our conversation. The phone had been ringing for quite a while, nobody picking up. Meiko, come on! Don’t you dare sleep during your office hours! How dare you not pick up when I’m calling?!

“Lieutenant colonel Shim’s office!” I sighed. It was that witch assistant.

“Is Meiko Shim there?” I sighed, knowing she would most definitely tell me that I should have had an appointment even for calling him. Because he was such an important and busy person!

“Regret to inform you, miss, but lieutenant colonel Shim is not present in his office. You should make an appointment for the calls.” She was ready to hang up. But I wasn’t going to give it to her so easily.

“Well, I had an agreement with him, so you should transfer me to his office. I need to discuss something with him quite urgently.” I stated my side of the bargain. The phone grew quiet for a while before she had opened her mouth to speak again.

“I am afraid I cannot-”

“Who’s calling?” I heard Meiko’s voice in the background. I could hear her covering the microphone part of the phone while talking to him.

“Give it to me.” Someone grabbed the landline phone part.

“What is it, Alth?” He angrily sighed. I could feel he was pretty tired and annoyed.

“Why does she have to stay at my place? There are other places where she can stay!” I tried sounding convincing, but the result was more like I was just complaining.

“Because it has been decided like that. And it’s going to be better for her studying as well! End of discussion.” He slammed the phone back into the base, giving a long beeeeep to the call before it ended. I looked at Omita. She was still patiently waiting, not moving from the spot. This is so annoying!

“Okay, get your stuff, we’re going,” I told her when I came close enough, so I didn’t have to yell. Even though I just wanted to walk out on her, not having to deal with her at all. She picked her belongings up and we walked out of the base, finally.

At least she wasn’t trying to keep up a boring conversation. She was silent the whole time, so I didn’t have to try and pay attention to anything. We got off the bus in front of my place. I checked her expression as she might have thought I was living in quite a luxury building somewhere in the city center given the job I was doing. But she didn’t budge.

“Well, welcome home for the time being.” I sighed, letting her in the tiny apartment I was renting. She got in and put down her backpack with a thud!

“There is a small kitchen connected to the living room, the bathroom and toilet is right here and the room next to the living room is my bedroom. As I said, there isn’t really much space, so you will have to probably sleep on the floor while I try to get you a place somewhere nearby.” I gave her a quick tour, not bothering with explaining any details. She was old enough to figure things out by herself. It was already evening and I wanted to sleep early. I needed enough rest to get ready for her training and dragging her with me for any jobs I might have since I had one more mouth to feed now.

“I’ll go shower first. Feel free to get anything that is in the fridge and kitchen. I am going to sleep early today, we have to wake up at five tomorrow. So get ready for that.” I started lecturing her, even though it wasn’t really my intention. But it came out that way. She only nodded and brought her backpack into the living room. She started unpacking things while I went to my bedroom to grab my sleeping clothes to have a shower.

Meiko

I yawned and stretched my back on the chair with my arms up high. It was already past midnight and I still wasn’t done with the paperwork. But I had other things that I needed to do, which were more important than going through papers and signing them. I walked towards the windows to see outside. I haven’t stepped out of this building for a few days. I felt like a rat in sewage. There wasn’t anything to do, but to crawl under the higher-ups, while hoping for a better life. I hit the glass with my fist. I hated it here.

I sighed. The night was falling harder than anything else on everything around me. Just a few more hours. I checked the Rolex on my left wrist. It was ticking every second, as my life was slowly slipping away with every tick. The whole building was mostly empty, only a few people were still inside, probably dealing with some paperwork as well. My assistant already went home, I was alone on this floor. The offices were dark, quiet, and empty.

I walked inside of the elevator and pressed the button to go to the ground floor.

“Going out?” The night security guard asked me when I was leaving the reception. I only waved at him. I didn’t feel like talking to anyone at this point of the night. I took a deep breath outside. The air was finally not so dry from AC, it was humid and cool. If I was a smoker, I would have happily lit my cigarette and took a deep breath in. But I wasn’t. I had a long life ahead. I had things to accomplish within this short life span. A car stopped in front of me. My ride was here. I got inside the Mercedes with leather seats.

“Where to, sir?” The driver asked me. I unbuttoned my jacket and bent my head backward.

“Home,” I replied in a hoarse voice. I had had enough work for the past few days.

Althea

I was lying down on my bed with the window wide open to cool the air inside of the bedroom. Omita was sound asleep in the living room, while I was still wide awake. Somehow I couldn’t sleep.

Guess I’ll go get something to drink. It might help. My bare feet touched the wooden floor. I silently walked to the fridge, taking a big step over Omita’s body in the other room. I swallowed a few sips and closed my eyes. I heard a weird sound and it wasn’t coming from a sleeping person. It repeated itself again. And again.

Someone is throwing stones at my window? I couldn’t believe it. But coming there would be dangerous as I could become a target at any point. The only option was to crawl and peek through the window from the side. What an adventure at this point of the night. I sighed, put the glass down, and quickly assumed the position next to the window, peeking down.