With A Ghost

22. Unexpected Developments

Victor

"There's no way I want to join the Academy! You guys are always disappearing and doing weird stuff. I don't want to end up in jail. It's impossible. I'm not joining. Leave me alone!"

I had known Derrick to be a good guy. I never held a grudge against him for his decision. But now, I had my doubts about him. Ever since we found out about his job at the warehouse, I've been thinking about what we may have done to him that made him scheme against us like this.

"It's a trap," I said, "We're not going to fall for it."
Mr. Blackbourne, Luke and I were in Derrick's house, listening to Derrick retell the whole episode of how he came to find out that Danielle's missing, while searching the place for bugs. You can never be too careful.
"I swear to God, I am not making this up," Derrick protested, "Danielle really wasn't in on this. Yeah, that guy wants you guys. The goal was to hand you to him. But Danielle wasn't involved!"

Right. How crazy was it that our team member's ex-girlfriend's brother was trying to kidnap us? He might not like his sister that much, but she was still his sister. Blood is a powerful thing. You may not like your blood kin, you may even hate him, or her, but a part of you will always be attached no matter how distant you are. One may deny it, or be unaware of it, but there's a kind of unconditional love you'll always have buried deep inside yourself solely because of shared blood.

I wished it wasn't true.

I eyed him suspiciously. I didn't find it completely possible to trust him. A hostage being involved changes our plans. Our priority would be to save the hostage instead of capturing the mastermind behind all of this.

"Show us the text," Mr. Blackbourne said.

Derrick grabbed the phone from the table, and held it out for Mr. Blackbourne, who in turn raised an eyebrow.
"I am not worried about whether you change or delete anything in your phone. You could have accomplished that before we arrived," he said, not taking the phone, "I request you to open that particular message, Mr. Derrick."

The ever-cautious Mr. Blackbourne. A few scenarios could be associated with this. What if he took the phone and it was set up to delete the message as soon as you tried to open it? It would have been an accident that Mr. Blackbourne caused, not Derrick. As a result, the message would be gone and Derrick could not have been blamed.

"Here," Derrick said, having done what Mr. Blackbourne demanded, who read the message out loud.

"You have failed. If you want your sister back, get the Academy boys to the abandoned school again. Call me immediately this time. Don't make a stupid mistake like Greg," Mr. Blackbourne read it out loud and clear, "And there's a number here too. Why would he send you this?"

"He always leaves a number for me to text or call. It's different every single time," Derrick answered.

Luke took out his phone, answering a call. Derrick gave him a weird look. He's been studying Luke for a long time, but he never said anything.
"Cupcake?"
I knew it was Sang who called. So he calls her Cupcake? How close are they? I don't get the sibling vibe from them. On the other hand, Sang mentioned she doesn't have a boyfriend... I don't want to admit how relieved I was to hear that.
"That... sounds bad. Alright."
Luke lowered his phone, letting out a sigh, and turned to Mr. Blackbourne.
"Sang was going through Jade's phone. She found a pretty recent message. It looks like Jade's brother has been kidnapped."