Operation D.S_Troy ( Destroy)

The article

After work, Yvonne headed over to Mr Herman's. It'd been long since she last visited him. She hadn't informed him and thought to surprise him.
     She rang the doorbell and waited for a reply. She heard footsteps from inside and an eye appeared in the peephole.
              " Sis?"
She sighed. The door unlocked and Jerry greeted her. He was taller than her and their age difference wasn't even noticed. He looked older and was sometimes, mistaken to be her elder brother.
     " Sis! " He hugged her. " You could've called to inform..." She broke the hug and slipped inside. He followed behind her.
     " I came to say hello, Jerry. Not to embrace your weirdness and all."
       " Hey! Am not weird!"
       " Where's Mr Herman?"
" Someone looking for me?" Mr Herman emerged from the living room. " Yvonne?"
     She hugged him and he patted her.
" What a surprise! You could've called."
  " I told her too but she never listens, you know." Jerry said and earned the 'glare' from Yvonne.
    " I thought it's been long and thought to visit."
    " Well, c'mon in. It's your house too." They moved to the parlour and sank into sofas.
   " Get us drinks." Herman said to a servant. " It's good to see you, again, my girl"
   " How have you been?"
        " Never felt better."
  " He's become totally lazy, you know." Jerry cut in.
    " Am not retired for nothing. What am I to do when am retired?"
        They laughed.
  " How's your new post?"
   " Tiresome. The crew are annoying! They made me lunch with them. You can imagine how boring. Everyone's bugging me. That chief is the worst."
     Herman was used to her complaints. She thought get-togethers and picnics and everything that involved togetherness was boring. About chief.
        " What about chief?"
   " The crook's sweet talking me. Does he think am a fool?"
     " You've gotta be careful, dear."
            " I know."
The servant with the drink tray approached and he was holding a mail. He placed the tray on the table and handed the mail to Herman.
    " A mail from the newspaper vendor." He announced and left.
   " You still read the papers?" Yvonne said and snapped open a drink.
       " It keeps me company."
" So tell me sis, any new brother-in-law?" She gave him another ' glare'.
      " Jerry!" Herman called.
    " What? She's gotta move on."
     She threw him a cushion pillow.
" We're not kids anymore, Jerry. Don't make me behave like one. Oh! I forgot, at twenty five, you're still a kid." She threw him another pillow. " Grow up Jerry, grow up."
     Herman and Jerry laughed.
  " Too mean sis, too mean. See why I'd preferred Anna to you."
There was an awkward silence. Yvonne paused in her sipping, Jerry winced. He wished he hadn't said that.
   " Am sorry, I shouldn't have said that..."
    " No offense." Yvonne blurted and looked at him. " Am all grown up. I can handle death."
   He hung his head. They were just having fun. Why had he gone and killed it.
      " Like seriously, am cool with it." Yvonne added. " Anna's dead, so be it. Why the sudden silence? C'mon, cheer up!"
            Jerry smiled.
    " Where were we?" Herman said and threw a pillow on Jerry.
      " Hey!" Jerry threw it in Yvonne.
    " Seriously?" She threw it back at Herman and they continued, laughing and having fun.
Anna was Yvonne's younger sister. She died of a cardiac failure.
    They stopped and laughed. Yvonne held her tummy as she laughed. She loved being here. It always felt like home.
     " That reminds me," Herman said. " The day after next is Anna's death anniversary. We'll need to visit the funeral parlour."
              True!
   " I have a flight to catch tomorrow even though I'd love to attend." Jerry said.
     " And I need to be with Jerry." Herman added.
    " Fine! So I'll go alone?" Yvonne.
     " I guess. Tell lil-sis I said hi."
    " I will." She wished she could tell her in person. She missed her younger sister. After their dad's death, Yvonne had been quite hurt. Then Anna died few years ago. Yvonne was shaken badly. It was part of the reasons she didn't socialize, emotional trauma. Sometimes she wished Anna were alive and they were both tracing their dad's murderers. Sometimes she felt weak and lonely and tired. And as though she should just quit the damn revenge. But when she remembered how far she'd come, she couldn't. But now, she was used to loneliness and all.
        A servant approached with a tray of snacks and they started eating
       " Pass the paper lemmie glance through it. Herman said and received it from Jerry.
  " Why're you both travelling out?" Yvonne asked.
   " I have to attend a program and my sponsor has to be there. Mr Herman's my sponsor so we both have to go."
      Yvonne nodded in agreement. Herman dropped the paper to read it later. Then Yvonne picked it up and got attracted to a headline; Mom kills child for not being the one she wanted.
         She read the heading.
" What a cruel world." Jerry commented." You kill your own child for not being the one you wanted? Like why?"
       She flipped the next page and got uninterested. She dropped the paper and picked it up immediately. She'd seen something! She glanced through the page and saw what she had seen;__ Mr Matthew Arnold...
    One Adam Smith had written an article on the bases of her dad's murder. She went blank with shock and surprise.
      " What's wrong, sis?"
    " After eighteen years, someone just popped up and wrote an article on my dad's case."
       " What does it read?"
   " Late CIA agent, Matthew Arnold, from eighteen years ago, who'd been declared dead after a car crash. His death had been suspicious as he suddenly lost brake and crashed into an incoming truck. If his death wasn't planned, then why had CIA manager, Luke Marlow, suddenly suppressed reporters and questions hovering the case? Rumor has it he had had a fight with the manager just before his death. What could have been the cause for the fight and why was the case suppressed?" She stopped. Finally, after so long, someone had questioned the incident from all these years. But who was this Adam Smith? How come he knew so much?
   " Who's this Adam Smith?" She blurted.
   " Anyone you know of?" Jerry asked Herman who sat thinking vacantly. The name sounded do familiar.
       Adam Smith? Yes!
      " He was a truck driver. " Herman said. " He used to deliver things to the CIA with his truck, then. How come he's saying do much?"
  " He knows something if not a lot about what happened my dad. Was he close to my dad?"
      " I don't think so."
If only she could find this Adam Smith, she would be able to unravel at least half the mystery. She sighed. Finally, she had a little ray of hope.
   " I need to find him!" She blurted
    " How?" Jerry asked. " We don't even know where to start."
" The newspaper publishers! The ones who published the article must have his location." She said.
     " Your friends with the publisher right?" Jerry asked Herman.
    " Yes. The manager and I are friends. I'll refer Yvonne to him then you can ask him whatever you want.
        " So call him!"
    " You need to rest, dear. I'll call him for sure before I leave but you then, go home and have some rest."
       " But..." She sighed. A lot could happen overnight. She wanted to visit the publisher as soon as possible but then she realized she was tired and heeded Herman's advice.
        The next morning found her strolling to 'Good morning' publishing company. The receptionist welcomed her and Les her yo the Manager's office.
       " You must be Yvonne Manchester?" The manager asked. He was in his late fifties. His hair had white and black strands. He wore specs and suspenders. Like? Who wears suspenders nowadays?
       " Yes, sir."
" Please sit." He starred at the red haired girl. " Herman sent you?"
            " Yes." He chuckled.
" He's an old buddy, you know. He suddenly remembered me and I wonder why. Didn't he receive his papers today?"
    " He did. It's not why am here..."
     " Well then send my greetings to him. Tell him we should have tea together one of this days."
  She nodded and wondered if he'd stop beating around the bush.
    " So tell me what brings you here."
     She reached for her bag and brought out yesterday's paper them turned the article page to him.
        " Yes it's ours. Is there a problem with it?"
   " No, not at all. This article, the writer, Adam Smith. You have his contact address or location?"    
      " What would Herman need the fellow for?"
    " It's urgent. We need to trace him." She paused." You see, the article concerns my friend's dad's death from eighteen years ago. He knows something and I need to ask him somethings."
      " Your friend's dad?"
    " Well, um... She's currently in the hospital dieing slowly," she feigned tears. " It's the least I can do for a dieing friend." She wiped her face.
   " Oh sorry dear. Lemmie see what I can do. Herman's a friend, I can do this least then." She wanted to roll her eyes. This man spoke too much and off point.
   He brought out a ledger and read through for a while.
        " Say Adam Smith?"
             " Yeah."
        " Take these down."
   
      ......
She slipped away from the company and stood under a shed. She leaned on the wall and dialed the number she had just received.
   It rang but there was no reply. After the fifth ring, she gave up. Why wasn't he picking her calls? Then she peered at the address in her hand. They were two. It meant one was the real one while the other was just an alibi. But which one was real?
    " Excuse me!" She beckoned on a passerby. " Do you perhaps know of kettlebell estate?"
    " Oh there? It's not really far from here." She made to leave
    " And please, what of wood land?"
      " It's a tenant apartment around countryside. It's quite far."
           " Thanks." Wood land was his real address!
   She flagged a cab and headed for woodland. It meant she was literally leaving town. It was a give hour journey and it was already past noon. She countryside wasn't far from the woods. She met a herd of dairy farmers. She enquired of woodland from them. She was given directions. And it took another thirty minutes to get there.
     It was a three storey apartment with cemented ground. It was void of humans but the atmosphere told that people lived there. She walked to the first and knocked,waiting for a reply.
           No reply.
She knocked again and a short plumpy guy opened up. He starred at her lustfully.
      " Hello beautiful." His breath smelled of alcohol.
      " Am looking for Mr Adam smith's apartment."
        " You a lawyer?"
   " No I have some business with him.".
     " The second floor. The door to your right."
           " Thanks."
   " Hope you can console his woman. He hasn't been home for two days. She's worried ."
        Really? She ascended the steps and heard the dude call after her.
     " Tell me before you leave, beautiful." She rolled her eyes.
    She got to the second floor and knocked on the right door. She knocked again after no reply at first. She'd knocked about four times before the door opened slightly and a ten-year-old girl popped her head out.
      " Hello dear. Is your dad back?"
    The girl didn't reply and just shut the door. Yvonne could hear her from inside talking to someone.
       " They're asking of dad." The door opened again and a woman stepped out. She looked swollen from crying.
     " I should be asking you that. Where's my husband?" The lady said.
      " What?" The lady teared up.
   " He left two days ago to go publish that article and hasn't returned since then. What have you scoundrels done to him."
     " You're mistaken about me, lady. Am here to help..."
    " Help with what? Assassin my kids and I. They'd threatened him enough. We even had to move here to hide." She sobbed harder. " He said guilt was eating him up and decided to publish that article. Oh why had he?"
     " Listen ma'am, am here to help. His article was about my dad and am here to find out more from him." The lady paused.
      " Are you..."
    " Am Yvonne by name and your husband's article struck me. He knows something about my late dad and I need to find out more."
     " Then sorry dear. Go ask the CIA what they did with him."
     " What's his connection with the CIA?"
    " I don't know. He never really told me anything. He used to work as a delivery guy then he quit after receiving a huge sum of money. Another sum came and we had to move here. I don't understand anything. He doesn't tell me anything. He just said guilt was eating him up. What guilt? Then he left after writing an article and hasn't come home since then." She knelt before Yvonne but Yvonne pulled her up.
       " Please don't..."
   " Help me find him. Help me find my husband. I don't know what they've done him. We have just three kids. The eldest is just ten. They can't do without their dad. Please!"
    Her words had Yvonne. She'd been there. She'd also lost her dad at ten. But that was her, she wouldn't let these poor kids go through the same fate as she. 
        " I will. I'll try find your husband. I'll try my utmost best. I promise."
     " I promise my kids and I would be ever grateful."
  Yvonne didn't even know where to start to find Adam or how to even go about it.
      " Has he phoned you since then?"
     " He stopped picking after some time."
       " His last call, what did he say?"
   The lady wiped her face. Maybe this young lady would help her find her husband. She wanted to put her hopes on Yvonne.