Unveiling the Truth

The boys go around digging for information and find some interesting stuff

Zack only got involved in the snow fight for a short while to make himself disappear unnoticed inside the main building. Edward ignored it completely knowing if he got into this fight his job would not be done. And Alex, well, he was ambushed and he suffered greatly for being too stunned. The other men buried him under the pile of snow.

Max was laughing her heart out seeing how much fun others were having. She was happy, as the word was worth. After she finished laughing and burying someone under a barrage of snowballs she helped Alex to get out of the snow. Then they both returned to the dorms and climbed the stairs.

“Um, can I ask you something?” Alex spoke quietly.

“Yeah! Ask away.”

“How many students are here now?”

“Hmm, lemme think… with you here now we’re full, so it makes 64.”

“So, all the rooms are filled?”

“Uh-huh. It was a surprise to get three at once, but it’s fun having you here. I like you. That Zack guy is alright, I guess. But that other…”

“Edward can be rough sometimes…”

“Rough? He’s an idiot!” Max giggled. “He likes to fight. And we can’t do that here. It’s against the rules.”

“But you fought with that man in the training room. And then disobeyed the instructor…”

“That… They always fight with me, so I can. It doesn’t matter, does it now?” Max was clearly evading the topic so Alex decided not to pry any further.

“I suppose…”

They reached their section and Max entered her room. Alex hesitated a bit wondering whether he should come in, because she left the door open, or if he should just do what he was supposed to do and go check things out.

“What you’re standing there for? Come in!” Max made a decision for him.

What Alex saw was a bit unexpected. There was a table with a chair, a wardrobe and the bed with a laptop on it. Just like in his or the others’ rooms. But all over the floor there were empty bullet shells, empty carton boxes from bullets and a lot of gun models. She had every gun for each subject lying carelessly on the ground as if they were just toys. Some of the guns were dissembled. What made Alex wonder was that he could not see any sights or scopes. None of the guns had any, in all honesty, where the sight was supposed to be now was an empty place as if the sight was broken off. And then it clicked �" the day he saw Max’s guns, the thing that was different from usual, it was the sights. Her hand guns had no sights on them. But the boy decided not to dwell on it at the moment and went with the more obvious matter.

“Why so many..?”

“Oh, I am on every subject here. Well, I had to, because I’m here for five years now. And learning the same thing for that long gets annoying, don’t you think so?”

“Five years? I thought it’s possible to graduate in a year.”

“Yeah, usually it is. But I mess up,” she smiled widely as if that was some kind of a high achievement. The smile was forced, ugly even.

Alex wanted to indulge deeper but figured that it would be rude. And he’d rather avoid getting into argument with her right now. When she plopped onto the bed and grabbed her laptop, Alex felt out of place. He couldn’t decide what to do.

“Um, I should go…”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. There’s something I wanted to give you,” she pranced up and opened the wardrobe.

She dug deep inside and finally took out a pair of goggles. They were simple with darkened glass and adjustable string. Max wiped the dust of and extended them to the boy who now looked really lost.

“Thank you…” he said as he took the goggles, but he was not sure for what he was thanking.

“They should help with your nerves. I mean, if you can’t see clearly, you can’t aim, if you’re not able to aim, then you can just shoot away with no regard whether you hit anything or not. Now you need to practice. To get used to the gun, find the same interest with it. You have to know your gun,” she said while smiling widely and sincerely.

“But, what about the points?”

“Don’t worry ‘bout those yet. Your aim was messed up. Because you’re afraid of the gun.”

“I see… Thank you, then.”

Max didn’t reply. She was immersed with the computer and didn’t even notice when Alex quietly left.

Well, the boy had an assignment so he had to leave sooner or later. Alex moved swiftly. He checked most of the room sections and couldn’t find anything suspicious, well more suspicious than Max’s room. He encountered some difficulties by accidentally walking in when someone was inside. But he made an excuse of looking for someone and confusing the rooms. After he was done, he returned to his room and settled on the cozy bed to read a book while waiting for others to be done and report back.

Edward had it a bit tougher. The training rooms were all locked. And he needed to avoid cameras to be able to do his job without interruption. He needed to measure the time while the head were turned to the other side and move quickly. He hated the picking locks work, but he had to. Zack was the authority here. The thing which made Edward furious was that he found nothing connected to the case they’re working on. All he saw in every training room was the targets and locked cabinets with bullet boxes. There was nothing suspicious. Nothing! Not even when he got himself on the roof �" nothing seemed to be out of place. It looked completely ordinary as ordinary shooting training building could be. So the result aggravated him even more. The fsact he had to go back bare handed boiled his blood to breaking point and he really wanted to punch someone in the face. He even had a target for that specific reason. But for now he got around by punching walls and bloodying his own knuckles.

Zack got the most difficult task. He had to sneak around the building where the lecturers and the headmaster could stumble upon him. He checked most of the rooms avoiding offices where people could be, finding nothing valuable for the case. While stumped out of his mind for not getting anywhere Zack discovered a passage to underground storage where he found used targets and stacks of bullets. There also were extra parts for guns and gear such as detached sights, scopes, bullet-proof vests and earmuffs.

“Ok, then. I’ll have to come back here when no people are around…” Zack said to himself, leaving the building and running into the Professor.

“Oh, what a surprise,” Professor exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

“I forgot my pen in the auditorium,” he said. “It’s the only one I have so I needed to get it.”

“I see. Yes, our tools are very important, whatever they might be. So, how was the first day?”

“It was interesting. Well, maybe the theory part was a bit too long, but overall it was alright.”

“Too long, you say? How was Six doing?”

“…” Zack couldn’t think of the purpose of this question. “Alright, I guess...”

“Was she late?”

“Yes…”

“Oh, that girl. Never on time. She’s a real trouble maker,” the Professor smirked and then left.

Zack couldn’t help but wonder why the Professor was so fixated on Max. Whatever it was, it was not important right now.

The guys met up in Zack’s room again to discuss their discoveries. After all of them spoke and shared their experiences, they found out that nothing suspicious actually was going on in here. This made them edgy and Edward started to lose his patience completely.

“There’s nothing wrong here. Well, besides that maniac with a creepy smile,” said Edward.

“I don’t think she is as bad as you think of her,” Alex replied. “She helped me a lot today.”

“So what?”

“Okay, guys, enough. I might have found something, but it’s not for sure. There might be something in that storage room I just told you about.”

“So, we go tonight?”

“I think it would be a good idea to check the headmaster’s office, too,” offered Alex. “For some reason I can’t get the idea of these permissions to shoot outside out of my head.”

“Yeah, I was thinking the same. We get on to it at midnight. Be ready.”

Five minutes before midnight the three of them were ready. They exited their rooms separately leaving short gaps between. When they reached the storage room, everything was clear. The night guard was sleeping in his booth and the cameras were disconnected and tampered with by Alex. Apparently this was his purpose of being here, he just thought either one of the other two could have done the same thing. But the order was given and he had no choice but to comply.

The boys searched the room thoroughly but didn’t find anything that would give the lead to the person or group that they were sent here to investigate. There was nothing suspicious, just ammunition for classes and some old gear as well as loads of used target sheets.

When they reached the headmaster’s office, they were about to give up and not even check it, but Zack and his professional rules were strict so they had to check the office. Also his gut feeling was kicking in and telling him to check every possible place, so they did that. Alex removed the alarm off the door and opened it. The three of them entered and found it as usual, just dark. Even though the office had large windows, the night was lightless, the moon was blocked by thick snow clouds.

They searched through all the files they could lay their hands on and found nothing suspicious, only profiles of students, bills of purchases and other checks and forms. Account books were all perfectly maintained. No off counter bills or submissions were among those account books so the illegal business suspicion was cleared off.

“Hey, this drawer is locked,” said Zack, trying to open the drawer of the main desk.

“Let me…” Edward picked the lock of it.

The drawer was empty. Well, almost empty. There was a family photo. To much of their surprise they recognized one face, except the face they knew now was a bit more mature and always smiling. The face in the photo had no smile on the lips, just brightly radiant eyes.

“Why would he have her photo?”

“Hey, wait. Look closer,” Edward said and moved the flashlight onto the photo.

The faces of four people were crossed with red marker, and other two were crossed with a pencil. Only a girl and a dog had their faces clear. Zack turned the photo over.

“Lionheartd family’s Christmas celebration.

2007 -12- 25”

“So it’s like five years ago?”

“Well, almost six,” Alex fixed and added, “a year or so before the tragedy.”

“What tragedy?”

Alex looked at Edward in surprise. He didn’t mean to say it out loud. Edward, and now Zack were gazing at him in anticipation for his explanation.

“The faces are crossed out, because they all have passed away. And the dog, too. But I guess whoever did this, never considered the dog…”

“Wait, what?”

“Max told me that her family was murdered in a gang raid. I just assumed that her grandparents are deceased also.”

“And when were you planning on telling us this?” Zack asked.

“I never thought this would be of any importance to the case. Well, not until now. This makes a lot of sense, I suppose.”

“You mean to say, professor is getting revenge on her family killers?” mused Edward.

“That might be the case. Since all the killings been done to the underground organizations which made it to the legal business, by face. And all of them have some kind of connection to each other.”

“So, we got our killer?” Zack ended with the conclusion.

“I suppose, we do.”

“Ok, let’s get out of here. Alex, get in touch with the commander and ask to get us the arrest warrant.”

They came back to the rooms and Alex did as he was told. Zack and Edward did some marking on findings they did today and started to get to the arrest plan. Alex came back with a sour look on his face.

“Commander said that he cannot get us a warrant until we are completely sure of the perpetrators identity. He said he will try to get one, but as things are uncertain, he cannot promise us anything.”

“Well, damn it all,” Edward kicked a table.

“Hey. Until we get what we need, we have to wait patiently then,” Zack released a tired sigh. “Ok, I think we’re all tired so let’s just go to sleep. Thanks, Alex.”

The boy nodded and left the room. Edward was about to say something, but Alex disappeared faster than he could open his mouth.

“That’s odd…” he said and left Zack’s room.