Redemption in Revenge

chapter - iv

The walk down to the postal office took no more than five minutes from the motel she was staying at, the place wasn't empty but neither was it crowded, some mix in between when Ezel walked through the door. Her eyes subtly clocked the surveillance cameras in the building, smiling at the receptionist who noticed her and nodded a few times as she motioned towards the lockers to the left.

She eyed the numbers, finding locker 432, she punched in her birth year, 1988, and there was a short beep that followed, the locker opening mechanically with a buzz. There was only a single brown envelope inside, with her initials on it. Ezel felt around the envelope, feeling some flat sheets, papers, or photographs, judging by the dents. Her index edged the flap open, peeking into the envelope to ensure it was safe even though safety was relative these days. She made the quick decision to return to her motel room to further analyze the contents of the envelope.

Ezel collected the envelope and made her way out of the postal office and back to her motel in the next few minutes. Once in her room, she emptied the envelope onto the table, eyes examining the items quickly. Her phone buzzed, thumb swiping to accept the call and putting it on speaker, "Sam," she said, placing the phone down, and picking up the photographs after. She recognized the symbol painted on the shipping compartment, as pictured, "what am I looking at?" she asked after, "You know the symbol, there are four compartments said to arrive in the next 96 hours. Each contains different vices, illegal weapons, drugs, alcohol, and pre-teen children."

She plugged the USB drive into her laptop next, slipping off her coat after, "The Shen clan, is it?" Ezel countered, and there was an affirmative hum that followed, "it's always been them in this part of the world," Sam added. That had been true, it wasn't exactly world news, but many secret services across the globe knew of them and their involvement in different schemes, one way or another. She had had past interactions with members of the clan, though they were much smaller than they were now.

"Why am I seeing this and not the police or the Ministry of Public Security?" It was a good question, the MPS was responsible for ensuring vices like that were taken off the street and that it remained the same way. "Because they cannot be trusted, many of them are on the payroll," Sam replied, which checked out as the Shens were one of the most affluent clans in the underworld. Ezel remained quiet for a few moments as she looked through the files on the USB drive, then spoke up again, "why 96 hours?" she asked, although she had made an assumption, that in cases like this, assumptions could kill. "Because they get sold after that, or traded, depending on the financial and business deals that they make with other clans or members around the region," Sam replied, eliciting a reaction of her brows furrowing in near disgust and anger.

"What do you get out of this?" she countered, the motive was clear, it got some deviants off the streets, but there seemed to be more to this than Sam was letting on, "something important. If you succeed, I'll give you what I have." This was a negotiation, Ezel deduced that Sam, or whoever they were, had an ulterior motive for this supposed operation. The plan was elaborate, and simple enough, but she would need muscle power and recon, it wasn't a one-woman job. However, it could wait once she got on their radar.

"I accept. I need weapons and some muscle, I'm sure you'll provide recon," she mused, her laptop beeped as a notification popped up on the messenger application from a user tagged as 'theGsamaritan,' making her shake her head. Clicking on it, there was an address with a pinned location, "I assume this is yours, Ammo Acquisition," Ezel added again, "of course, I own it, but don't run it. You'll meet Chen, he'll help you out there, but if you need more muscle, you'll have to recruit someone on your own."

The veteran hummed, sending the location to her phone, "Before I go, can you find the whereabouts of Ayaz Kalkan? Continue to keep an eye on him," there was something like a hoot heard, but the distortion made it hard to discern, "your ex? Secret lover? Wait, no, your husband's name is Ozan, so, who is that? Doesn't say anything in your military database," which was an odd thing as the therapy sessions with Dr Kalkan had been mandated by her handler at TAF.

"Did you hack into Turkish military databases?"

"Heck no! It's a part of the data that I hacked from the Shens. I don't want to be a criminal in Turkiye."

Considering her ranking within the TAF's secret intelligence, her database should be confidential or mostly redacted and the entirety of it couldn't be accessed without different authorizations to her military record.

"Is it redacted?"

"A lot of it is, yes. It is a bit outdated, there isn't much after 2017."

Ezel didn't comment further on it, someone within the TAF's secret services had to be the one to send it, someone that had the authorization and access codes, and that wasn't a very long list. The Shens having her military record was a major suspicion, though taking names and pointing fingers without any solid evidence would prove fatal, bringing her more trouble in the long run. She would be able to find out more once she broke into the inner circle of the clan.

"Noted. I'll look into the information you've sent me."

"Pleasure doing business, Miss Aydin."

The line went dead after and she heard a simultaneous beep from a timer that had an LED glow to it as it began counting down from 95 hours. Ezel's mind went back to the fact that someone had given the Shens her military record, for whatever reason, because this meant that there was a mole within the TAF. Somehow, the threads always circled back to the TAF, which has shown some discrepancies since there was a change in the structure of ranking within.

Another message came through on her laptop from Sam which had pictures of Dr Kalkan in Jeju South Korea, where different public surveillance cameras had picked him up. Ezel knew a couple of years ago that her old psychiatrist had been trying to follow her, however, failed at finding any real clues to her whereabouts. If he was tracking her and reached Jeju, he was a few years behind on whatever he had to find her.

Dr. Kalkan felt his phone buzz with a message from a blocked number, which read, 'Those videos are still there, find it in Shanghai,' he typed back a response but got no reply, even after a few hours had passed, leaving him no choice but to find his journey rerouted to Shanghai City. Had the message been from Ezel or someone else, he couldn't find out, not having the skills to dig deeper into the cyberworld.

Maybe Shanghai City held more answers than the questions anyone dared to ask, but to which questions and which answers...

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