.The Eraser.

onze

                                              -11-

The bright fluorescent light from the overhead bulb illuminated eerily in the center of the room directly on top of the metal table. The light rays did not really reach the corners of the small square space, making the ambience extremely creepy and unsettling. 

Officer Kowalski and officer Love hovered over Atara as they asked her questions concerning her presence in the vault of the bank. She was not really a suspect of the robbery, but it was protocol for police officers not to sideline anyone and therefore after they handcuffed her at the scene of the crime they brought her to the downtown station for questioning; Just to clarify if she was involved with the black jumpsuit men or not. 

'' Why isn't your gun state registered ma'am?'' the chubby officer Love asked as he sat down on the chair after standing for only ten minutes. 

Atara squirmed in her seat due to the uncomfortable metallic structure of a chair keeping her upright. The tall dark haired man stared at Atara with scary accusing eyes and asked impatiently, ''well?'' 

'' I already told you, the gun's not mine. One of the guards gave it to me'', Atara replied exasperatedly. They had asked that same question many times for these past hours, probably thinking that she was lying to them. 

Officer Kowalski exchanged a glance with his sitting colleague and spoke with a cold tone. 

''You say that you attend Walton's college, right?'' Atara nodded feeling a little tired of moving her head up down when they asked the same questions. ''So tell me again what were you doing at that time the bank heist took place?'' 

She exhaled and explained her account again, saying. '' Class trip. The lecturer took us there to understand how a bank handles their own financial affairs while looking after the interest of stake holders". Atara did not bother to detail the whole thing again, because they already knew why she was there that morning. 

'' So you want us to believe that it's just a case of you being 'at the wrong place-at the wrong time'?'', officer Love asked, not hiding the skepticism in his voice.  

''Yes'', came the curt answer from Atara. 

She hoped that her expression was convincing and innocent enough, so that they could just let her go ad she could forget that this ever happened. She wondered then how Louisse, Jean and even her father would react knowing that she had been arrested, because of her carelessness.  

She would never hear the end of it and Atara knew that her mother might as well suspend her from the mission from Walton's college or worse from any other operation for a while to discipline her. She shivered at the thought of that or maybe it was her body just reacting to the dropping temperature in the interrogation room. 

'' What I don't understand is why you took it upon yourself to bring down 'five men', instead of just waiting for the police. Any normal nineteen year old girl would have ran away at the sight of guns and robbers.'', officer Kowalski said with a challenging tone as he casually flipped through the pictures of the crime scene on the metal table in front of them. 

Atara swallowed the saliva buildup in her mouth, the action was a habit out of nervousness and she chose her next words carefully. If she was rush with this, they would definitely catch on and cleverly see that there was something fishy going on.  

It was true that girls her age can't be bothered about saving the day- they would more concerned with their own lives; but what they didn't know was that she was an Eraser, a member of a secret organization that fixes crimes that they couldn't handle.