Infected

26: ☣Guilt☣

SHE was gone. The words kept replaying themselves in Derek's mind as he frantically did a sweep of the entire Nyayo Highrise, all while keeping clear of the police.

He would have spent the entire day looking for Tamana but then there was not much of that. Darkness was already taking over and for the first time, Derek realized he did not even have a place to stay.

He was exhausted, hurt and hungry but nothing at the moment could beat his anger. An anger that was directed at himself for how cruel he had been to Tamana. He could hear himself lashing out at her and then seeing that look on her face. . .

Derek had then dusted himself off, trying his best to clear his mind until he found a hotel room somewhere next to a drycleaners where he paid for one night. A night that would haunt him for eternity such that he could not bring himself to sleep.

Lying on the bed, Derek stared into the ceiling, wishing he could just die. The last time he had ever felt so miserable was on that fateful night when he lost his parents. He envisioned them on their death bed, having done so countless times before.

This time, he had found himself walking into their room, coming to check how they were doing.

"What is it, my boy?" asked his mother. She had always had a way of telling when something was bothering him.

"I messed up, Mom," Derek sobbed, "A friend trusted me and I failed her."

Derek cried into her mother's arms as his father spoke, "Remember what I told you, son. There's always time to make things right, no matter what."

"But. . .but I wasn't able to save you. . ." cried Derek.

"Oh but you did," said his mother, smiling at him, "you made us happy and there's nothing more we could have wished for."

"But you're not here. I've finally found a cure and you're not here! That's not fair . . ."

"We're always here, my beautiful boy," his mother said, "we live in you and you did right by us."

"But I'm still a failure."

"Hey," his father added, "now you listen to me. What happened to us what not your fault. There's nothing you could have done to change that but now you can. Now you have someone that needs your help. Sure, you messed up but like I said, there's always time to make things right."

His father pointed at the Casio™ watch on Derek's wrist that he had given him before his death. His heart then began to lighten, taking in the warmth of his parents.

"Thank you," he muttered, closing his eyes and found himself back in the hotel room.

The following morning found Derek looking out the window, still trying to make out where the assassin could possibly have taken Tamana, doing his best not to think of the worse. He had to believe she was still out there.

Doing another search would not bear any fruit and he did not want to risk wasting anymore time.

His first point of action was to make a call and was just going through his pockets, fishing out what he thought was his phone but turned out to be Tamana's hard drive. That was weird, he paused, he did not recall taking the hard drive with him.

He decided to get a new phone and make a call but first, he had to wash up. His face looked terrible in the mirror as he regarded the four thin scarlet lines across his left cheek; a reward for his brawl against that depraved lunatic. He was surprised that the wounds were still fresh with blood. He found some towels and nursed the wound with water and soap but could still feel a sharp stinging sensation.

After he had cleared out of the hotel room, Derek got himself a phone and immediately dialed a number of which the speaker's voice was unmistakable.

'Bro! Uko wapi?' Jim Kamau asked, 'where are you? I've been calling but I get sent straight to voicemail.'

"She took her," Derek said.

'What?'

"The assassin! She took Tamana!"

'Shit! Where are you now? You still at KEMRI?'

"Not exactly."

"Have you called the police?"

"That's what got us in this mess in the first place. The police can't help us."

'Surely we could call someone. An investigator. Anybody!'

"I'm not sure, Jim. These people. . ." Derek's words trailed off, his attention turning back to the hard drive on the bed as an idea slowly began to form inside his head.

'Hello? You still there?'

"Alright, Jim," Derek said, "I need you to listen to me carefully. . ."

***

Overseas, more calls were being made as Detective Colette Laflamme had just come off the phone, having been unable to reach the witty CIA spook who had told her that he had ran off after a new lead on the WHO case. That had been over twenty hours ago.

Well, perhaps she should have thought better than to entrust the case to the person who had lied to her all that time even if it was in favor of solving the case. Her boss would surely have her neck for that, she thought to herself and was about to try making another call when the phone rang this time.

What came next had the detective leaping out of her chair, grabbing her holster already equipped with her Glock and dashed out of her office.