The Detectives' Story

XII

November 9, 2016

0840 Hours

The smell of the fresh air calmed Charlie's busy mind. The sound of a crashing river and the chirps of bugs does wonders for stress. Unfortunately for Charlie, he had a hard time trying to put his brain at ease. He remembered the conversation with his sister vividly. He could hear her words echo in his head.

"I'm gonna do whatever you wanna do big brother. We're in this together."

Charlie shook his head, trying to get his thoughts in coherent sentences. The struggle was the decision of betraying his client, Jir, in order to relieve his own moral compass, or to stick to his oath. To always follow the client, even if it may be wrong. He's never encountered this type of dilemma before, so he was lost in what to do.

Hannah was no help, as she kept telling him that she was on board with whatever. Jir walked in shortly after the discussion, and Charlie couldn't stand being in the same room. He told them he was going to the bathroom.

Charlie never considered himself a Christian. How could he, with his job taking other people's lives from them. In his perspective, violence to that extent can't be simply forgiven. But that doesn't mean there were moments when Charlie was doing his job, and he never thought what was going to happen to him if he died. Most likely go downstairs, if there ever was a God. Like with anyone else though, he felt like he didn't really need something watching over him all the time. He had quite the pride about him, and he never saw it as a flaw. If anything, it helped him do his job better, knowing he was the best bounty hunter around. It caused him to do his best, and then some to keep his reputation going.

That's the reason why Charlie had such a hard time dealing with this problem. Keep his reputation and earning the nice flow of money, or say "screw it all" for some two lousy detectives? The dilemma made Charlie mentally mad. The answer should be obvious, yet he wasn't getting to it fast enough.

"AH!" He yelled, punching the nearest tree to him out of frustration. There was a crack from behind Charlie, and he instinctively took out his gun and pointed it towards the source of the noise. Standing there was Dan. Eyes wide from fear at the gun pointed in his direction. Charlie stood there, not really sure what he was seeing at first. He slowly lowered the gun, and grasped at what was in front of him.

"How did you escape?" Charlie asked. Dan saw Charlie lowering the gun, and relaxed his shoulders a little bit.

"My rope. It was loose, and I left my room without any hassle. There weren't any guards on my way out, and I figured an alarm would sound, but none ever did," Dan explained. Charlie squinted his eyes, and looked over Dan's shoulder to the compound. It was a blocky, gray building made out of concrete. There were only two doors: one in the back, and one in the front.

"Which door did you go through?"

"The one in the back. I tried the front, but I saw some people, so I ran the other way. Luckily I found it relatively fast, and I saw you out here."

"Why did you approach?" Charlie asked. Dan chuckled nervously. He was a little embarrassed by his answer.

"Well. I was... hoping to surprise you and... well..."

"Take me down?" Charlie said. Dan smiled and shrugged innocently.

"What can I say? Gotta try to survive." By this point, Charlie's gun was back in his holster. If he wanted to take Dan down, he could do it by hand easily.

"Why'd you leave your brother behind?"

"Wh- no. No, I didn't... really leave him behind... kind of. Look, I was going to get some help from some friends of ours, and come back to get him out. I don't think I can do that now, but that was the original plan." Charlie huffed. Thinking.