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I was in the spy department and my job was to detect the miscreant while the ‘Force’ department was responsible for apprehending them. We were supplied with a variety of passports so that we could travel to any part of god’s green earth but they were all a result of forgery. I even had safe houses in many nations but still was a permanent resident of 32, Houston Street, New York where I had to maintain a deceptive identity. 

This brings me to the present year 2019. In the past seven years, I had encountered several kinds of thrills but had been a lousy and tedious man since the last month. The real deal was that after unraveling the Santiago case last month I was not assigned any case and was now a victim of boredom. Though I was hearing rumors that a new case was in the market and there was a remote chance that it was going to be allocated to me, I still had to hold tight till the day’s evening.

There was a sudden knock on the door which was making me feel nervous because I was not expecting anyone. I paced towards the door and swung open the door with a strike of my palm. The hallway was deserted and I was astonished as I caught sight of a small letter beneath my feet.

I tore apart the packaging of the letter and read it with my glittery eyes. It said,” Detective Raven Hartley, this letter is to apprise you that the Horsemen have a case for you in London. You are to ensnare a drug paddler on the loose. There have been reports of a large number of deaths due to drug use. These anomalies are largely concentrated at construction sites and some areas in the city and most of these unfortunate events have been happening during dusk. What makes this whole affair a puzzler is that none of the drugs were found in the victim’s homes by cops on scrutiny even though they were found in their blood on post mortem. You as a spy will have to report to the mayor about your daily operations due to our contract with the nation. The Horsemen button that you might press during emergency for help, travel tickets and fake passports are in the envelope. Please hang the letter on the windowsill if you accept the mission. A bullet shot will be fired on the letter to confirm your action. The necessary details will be provided by the mayor on arrival and your remuneration will be transferred to your account on the accomplishment of your mission.”

I felt like I was in seventh heaven. This mission was the key to end my misery and boredom. I sprinted and hung the letter. A rubber bullet was fired that tore the piece of paper into fragments.

I packed my stuff till midnight and took the flight to London the very next day. An English cab was awaiting my arrival at the London airport which straight away took me to the mayor’s office. The mayor’s room was thronged with officials. As soon as the mayor got wind of my arrival from his people, he voided the entire room and then it was just me and him.

“You must be the spy, Raven Hartley, Nice to meet you. I am Jack J. Fisher. I assume you are here to scrutinize the mysterious drug affair in the city,” the Mayor said, gruffly.”A Detective will be working beside you and will be at your disposal. He will report about the daily operations to me at the end of the day. You have a fortnight to solve this case as per our rules. The cab will now drive you to your hotel. You may rest tonight and begin your work at dawn tomorrow.”

I firmly shook his hand and brusquely said,” Sir, I will try my level best to put the narco-terrorist behind the bars” and walked out of the door to the cab. 

The hotel was located in the arteries of suburban London. The next day, I woke up at the break of the day and cherished a hot shower before stepping out of the hotel. The minute I sat in my cab, I was surprised to witness a man sitting beside me smoking a cigar. 

“Morning sir, I am Detective Daniel Walker, the officer the mayor must have talked to you about. I will be working with you on this case and ensuring that you have all the resources at your disposal. So where shall we begin?” The officer asked.

“Morning, we shall begin by conferring with the construction laborers who are involved in this mystery, so take me to the sites where these deaths are concentrated.”

Daniel then guided us to the construction site where the workers had been working day and night. At the site, I got a glimpse of the supervisor who was a sloppy man with a jackfruit like appearance. I went over to talk to him.

“We are from the local police department here to investigate the sudden death of workers due to some drugs. We would like to ask some questions,” I said.

“Sure, but be quick,” The man replied petulantly.

“The workers here work day and night and you always keep an eye on them so you believe any of the ones who unfortunately died were into drugs?”

“Well, I am unaware of that but what I do know is that Jerade Douglas is in town. I even witnessed him in the vicinity of our construction site,” The supervisor said as he grew more irritated.

“And who is Jerade Douglas?” I inquired.

“Sir, he was once the largest drug dealer who made millions of dollars off the youth,” Daniel remarked. “We almost ensnared him but he slipped away at the last moment. Nobody has seen him ever since so maybe he ran out of town. He could be the mastermind behind all these incidents.”

“So I believe we got our first suspect,” I said as we advanced back to the vehicle.

“Daniel, I want all the CCTV departments and cops employed to locate Jerade. I want his location within an hour.”

The detective then phoned some people and his cell rung when we had just ended our luncheon. He hung up the phone in a few seconds and said,” Sir Jerade had just been spotted outside a motel in the suburbs earlier but his location was inside a warehouse in the city some hours ago where he probably stashes all his drugs. I believe we should head to the warehouse. There is a task force on site waiting for our arrival.”

“Signal the task force to breach the warehouse and capture everyone inside. We head for the motel. We will capture him either way.”

“Great idea sir, I will just inform our people that we are headed for the motel.”

“No, no don’t. Our cells could be tapped by Jerade’s guys so just switch off your cell and hand it over to me.I will just send them the signal from my cell to breach the warehouse and switch it off too,” I replied.We drove to the compact motel where Jerade had a room. The motel consisted of a garden and about three tiny rooms. Daniel again received a phone call.

“Jerade was not there in the warehouse but all his drugs were stashed there. Sir, he is inside the motel,” Daniel said.

“We will take him alive. Do not use lethal force unless absolutely necessary,” I commanded while we both stood camouflaged behind the bushes of the garden.

“Sir, I will breach into his room. You guard the exit,” Daniel advised.

“Sure.”

Daniel moved into the building stealthily with a revolver in his hand. I waited for a few moments and then suddenly a monstrous terror seized me as I heard two gunshots. A chill ran down my spine and I scurried to the room. 

I was flabbergasted as I caught sight of the room. A horrendous scene met my eyes. A man’s dead body covered most part of the bed. Blood was oozing out of it which stained the white bedclothes and his eyes gave a lifeless stare. Daniel was lying in one corner of the room and his leg was shot. He needed immediate medical care and was barely clinging to his life.

“Daniel, hold on. There is a medical kit in the car. It will fix you up.”

“The wound is not that deep,” Daniel remarked. “I approached Jerade and commanded him to surrender but he just slid a gun out of his coat and shot my leg so I had to shoot him in self defense.”

I walked to the car and returned with the medical kit. The wounded detective bandaged himself up and said, “We must inspect the room to find proof that links Jerade to the drugs.”

“You can’t walk. I will examine it.”

My eyes scanned the room and suddenly fell on a small box. I pushed the cover and there was a drug sample inside it. This was a clear proof linking Jerade to the drugs. I strode to the car and displayed the drug sample to Daniel. 

“I think our work here is done. We must apprise the mayor that we have unraveled the mystery,” Daniel suggested.

I nodded my head and we set off to the mayor’s office. The mayor admired us for our gallantry and I departed for the airport to catch a flight back to New York. 

It was midnight. I was on my way to the airport and I felt dehydrated so I immobilized the vehicle and stepped out to drink water from a tap nearby. It tasted odd. I poured some of it on the muddy ground. It started to bubble like some acidic substance.

I was dumbfounded at the sight that met my eyes. I had just made a huge discovery. It was all a cover up. The real drugs were being supplied to the city’s drug traffickers during the night by mixing them with water. Hundreds of innocent people like the workers who daily drank this water while working during the dusk were killed in the process.

As a spy, this was the first time i had encountered such strange business.

I dashed to Daniel’s home and narrated the strange incident. He was astounded on hearing my story.

“Daniel, which water plant delivers water to the city?” 

“The startek water plant is the largest that transports water to the entire city. I think ‘ENGLISH WATERS’ owns it,” Daniel replied. “I will just change and we can pay it a visit.”

“Ok, Wheels up in five,” I said.

 I vamoosed to sit in the car and searched for ‘ENGLISH WATERS’ on the internet. There existed no such company but before I could give it a thought I saw a metal rod being whacked on the window. The glass shattered into pieces and I stepped out of the car. The attacker then thrashed me with the rod and I fell on the floor half unconscious. The last thing I witnessed was Daniel coming outside and dragging me to the boot of the car while the attacker stood beside him.

After a while, I regained consciousness and perceived that I was still in the boot of the car while the engine was still running. Suddenly, the vehicle halted so I made an effort to push open the boot. When it was unbolted, I slightly opened it to get a good look outside. The car was immobilized at a traffic light so I used the opportunity and slipped out of the boot. I darted on the road to a cigar shop and went up to the man at the counter.

“Excuse me, Could you just tell me where the mayor’s house is?” I inquired.

“Just go down the street. It’s a block away,” the man replied.

I hastened out of the store and sprinted to the mayor’s house. As soon as I rang the bell, the mayor’s secretary showed up. With a slight push to the secretary, I hurried inside the mayor’s room

Sir, it was a cover up. Daniel is the real malefactor. The drugs were in the water,” I spoke abruptly.

“Just relax and sit down on the couch. I will bring you some water and then fill me in on your story,” The mayor said.

I sat down on the couch and the mayor entered the room with a glass of water. He then slid his hand inside his pocket and dragged out a pistol. He pointed the pistol towards me and said, “You are a great spy but you really thought you could break loose without a hitch?”

Daniel then entered the room waving his revolver.

“I knew that if you would break loose then this was the first place you would visit,” Daniel said. “ Look, we gave you a chance to get out of this mystery but you were hell bent on finding the true sinner so now face the consequences. One more thing, the water plant here is run by the mayor.” 

“You two were behind this all the time. I had to report to you daily so you would stay ahead of me and you are the one who planted Jerade Douglas! Aren’t you?” I asked.

“Well he owed me big time because I assisted him to slip away last time,” The mayor remarked. “I planned that I would let you tail him for the 15 days you had but you turned out to be an astute spy so Daniel had to shoot himself and sacrifice Jerade’s life to let you believe that you had solved the case.”

“End of discussion. It’s time for you to take a nap,” Daniel cried and then main lined a drug into me. I lost consciousness within a few seconds but before that I discreetly pressed the horsemen button in my pocket.

This time I woke up inside a small cabin in the woods. It was all black outside the window and the door was barred. It suddenly started pouring heavily. The poisonous drug they injected in my body was weakening me. While I was ravenous and thirsty and there was no escape route, I pondered if the Horsemen were tracing my current location because of the button I pressed. 

I mumbled to myself dizzily, “The rain is relentless.”

As I heard the drops thrumming on the metal roof and running down the broken pipe into the mud, I moistened my cracked lips with my tongue and wondered if they’ll bring me food and water. I wondered if they were coming at all.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. It grew more intense as I tried to peep outside through the window.  The person then knocked down the lock with a small branch of tree and flung open the door.

“I am horseman Benjamin Smith here from the ‘Force’ department for your assistance,” The man said. “The horsemen sent me to extricate you and apprehend the malefactor. I brought the basic supplies like food and water and I will work beside you till the end of the case so fill me in on the latest details.”

I guzzled the food and water and explained the recent incidents to Benjamin. We set off to apprehend the mayor and Daniel and take them into the Horsemen’s custody.

We sat in Benjamin’s jeep and he guided us out of the woods unscathed. I thought how the spy department is the brain and force department is the muscle of our organisation.

“So, what’s the plan?” I asked.

“I got a plan. Let’s give the mayor a dose of his own medicine. My contacts informed me that Daniel and mayor are alone inside the house.” Benjamin replied. “The mayor knows that you are a spy but he does never encountered me so we use that to our advantage. I’ll go in as a plumber to check the water tank and dissolve some sedative drug in it due to which they will be rendered unconscious with a sip of water. You then enter through the back door and drag them out to the jeep. We’ll vanish into thin air while the city would be seethed with turmoil after they realize the mayor has been kidnapped.”

“What about the proof?”

“The second you pushed the button, it went to recording mode so we have their confession that we will divulge publicly.”

We proceeded according to the stratagem and I infiltrated through the back door an hour after Benjamin had blended the sedative into the water.

I perceived the mayor and Daniel unconscious on the couch. I dragged the bodies out and tossed them into the boot and picked up Benjamin at the rendezvous point.

When the malefactors regained their consciousness, they were staggered and overwhelmed with sorrow as they discovered themselves handcuffed in a metallic room consisting of no one but an inquisitor that was me – THE SPY RAVEN HARTLEY.