Ex Officio (#3 EX TRILOGY)

Chapter 2

The man claiming to be Poku ended his second call since the alarming news and called another associate while buttoning up his shirt. "She is in the bathroom changing into new clothes. I did not touch her," he whispered impatiently.

"That's what you told me almost fifteen minutes ago," the other party said. "Is she taking a shower or something? Shouldn't you check on her?"

"TT, stop this. I hate it when you doubt me."

"Should I call you Poku?"

"Yes. You should. My name is Poku."

"Are you sure?"

"TT, I hate doing this!"

"Oh don't mind me. I just wanted to make sure you're still the one we trusted for the job. It's OK. Relax." The associate called TT chuckled.

Poku switched the phone over to the other ear while attempting to tie his shoelaces and shrugged slightly. "It's not your fault," he said. "Oman will get you. You know he will not be happy to see you talking to me about unimportant - "

"It's not unimportant, errm - Poku. I am making sure you are doing just fine."

Poku sighed. "I am fine. Stop doubting me. Didn't you hear me?"

TT paused on the line for a few seconds and finally whispered, "Make sure she is still in there, man."

Poku frowned and turned to stare at the doorknob of the bathroom door. After ten seconds, the knob did not even rattle. He frowned and crept slowly towards it, trying so hard not to make any noise with his feet.

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Akoma sat on the closed toilet seat in the bathroom that looked like its tiles had not been cleaned for years, putting on her new clothes in silence and trying so hard to steady her breath and keep calm. She felt she was experiencing a panic attack after allowing so many thoughts to linger. She had overheard the man who had brought her in shouting to someone on the phone that he was indeed Poku. It seemed quite hard to believe, but she also knew the only way to verify this was to stick around a bit long enough until the true identity of this man would surface. The problem with that plan was that if the revelation ever turned out to be negative, Akoma could get killed even before she could suspect anything.

She sighed deeply and looked up at the doorknob in silence. She listened attentively for evidence that the man called Poku was still occupied with his phone calls but got surprised that her many worries had caused her to miss that exact moment when he stopped talking. She panicked and gulped, looking around her with nothing particular in her mind.

Then came a knock at the door.

Akoma held her breath and shut her eyes. The knock came again. She ran her hand through her short spiky hair out of discomfort and bowed her head. One more knock, no response. Another knock. No response.

"Akoma?" Poku asked. "Akoma? I know you are in there." Akoma snorted with a smirk. That line felt totally overused in all the action flicks she had seen all her life to make her feel intimidated. Certainly, the next thing to follow would be attempts to break down the door. She took a deep breath and braced herself for that. "Akoma! Open the door. Open it now!" Akoma felt her hand along the wall behind her and finally gripped the edge of the ceramic water tank lid, slowly pushing it to ensure that it was easily removable. "OK. I am coming in. You leave me with no choice."

Akoma shrugged, her smirk growing wider. 'The door is yours. If you will break it down just to find me seated on a toilet seat, I'd be pleased to watch that silly shameful look on your face when you realize it was not worth it,' she thought and waited patiently, suddenly taking solace in the cynicism she had quickly adopted to mask her fear.

BAM! Akoma winced slightly with her eyes still shut at Poku's first attempt to ram down the door. There came the second, and then the third, and that was all it took to make Akoma's eyes snap open. She heard the rattle of wood and looked up at the frames of the door to see it giving. She frowned and found herself a firm hold on the tank lid. She readily anticipated the final fall of the door so much that she hardly felt her heart racing in her chest.

"This is your last warning!" Poku shouted, and Akoma hardly felt anything terrifying in that voice because it sounded as harmless as it did when the Poku she knew was a cyborg with believable humanity. She heard his footsteps moving away from the door and then charging towards it finally. Akoma held her breath and added a second hand to her hold to make it firmer. She only believed that what she was intending to do would merely startle or deter him from attempting to harm her in any way. There was no intent to harm or murder unless confronted.

Poku kicked the door open so hard that it got forcibly unhinged at the top, and then slowly, the second hinge also broke off and the door fell flat. Akoma did not let any of these amaze her, but proceeded to swing the tank lid at him. Poku dodged it by leaning backwards with such a sharp reflex that left Akoma gaping instead of thinking of the next swing. The bathroom was quite a small one, and so when Akoma rose to her feet to hold the tank lid out at Poku, they found each other separated by only the fallen door with one end of the lid twelve inches away from Poku's face. Both of them stood watching each other, Akoma feeling like she carried a formidable weapon in her arm, and Poku seemingly cornered with his back pressed against the wall.

"What is the meaning of this?" Poku asked. "I am not here to harm you."

Akoma glanced at the door on the floor and back at Poku. "Interesting way to prove it. Is this house yours?"

Poku blinked. "Something like that."

Akoma shook her head and said, "So will you repair it?"

Poku cocked his head and gave Akoma a look that expressed his disappointment in her choice of matters to be concerned about when other things were at stake. "I don't need to repair it because we are leaving this place ASAP. Come." He held out his hand and nodded at her.

Akoma frowned at his hand and raised the lid above her head. "I hate it when someone knocks me out with some freaky needle, and then I wake up at the worst moment of my life only to be bossed around by another person who looks just like the - um - the cyborg I once loved, and the interesting thing is that he does not get to explain anything! What nonsense is this?! Who on Earth's moon are you? Why do you call yourself Poku? Is it because you look like my Poku?"

Poku shook his head slowly and had this look on his face that suggested exasperation. "Look, I am not a stranger, OK? Trust me. Let's go. Put that thing down."

"I am not going anywhere until you explain to me what is going on! Why is Ender on TV with the Vice President? What is Ex Vivo up to?" She paused and observed a sudden change in the look in Poku's eyes at the mention of Ex Vivo, and then she suspected something. "I know Ex Vivo is not foreign to you. You knew those guards were Boos sent by Felix to kill me back at the guesthouse. You didn't just freak out when you heard the news. You reacted to seeing Ender too. Tell me! Don't lie to me!"

Poku sighed and raised his hands slowly in surrender. "Please. Put that thing down. I will tell you everything you need to know, OK? My name is Poku. The one you were previously associated with - was me - just that it was another form. This is the real me. So I am dead, but technically not dead." As he said these words, he gestured with his hands from left to right. Just then, his phone started to ring and he reached for it in his pocket, but Akoma stomped her foot to stop him. He shrugged pleadingly and slowly took out the phone to answer the call. After about twenty seconds of silence, Akoma observed a sudden look of terror in his eyes before he ended the call. "I wish I could tell you more, but now we have limited time to evacuate this building."

Akoma frowned and lowered the tank lid due to fatigue in her arms. "Why? What's going on?"

"While you slept," Poku replied with a shrug, "I was busily moving you from one hideout to the next trying to escape from those Ex Vivo toys. Now I just got info from T.T. that we might have been followed."

Akoma blinked.