Hidden Allies

Chapter Three

  Sleep didn't come easy that night for Emma. Not that she wasn't tired. After the FBI agents had left with the officers Emma had turned her attention to the rest of the room. Their search had left the room less tidy than it already had been previously.

  Forging the rest of the days classes Emma decided to take her time cleaning up and also trying to take stock in what had actually been taken away.

  Ariel's laptop and notebooks were obviously gone. So was a spare hard drive and a couple USB drives. There was an album Ariel had in her dresser's top drawer that was missing. Some articles of clothing and two pairs of shoes.

  Emma swore. Did they have to take the album? Her friend was already missing, did they have to take away her memories too.

  She still found it hard to wrap her head around. Was all of this really happening? It was too much for her. Twice during the clean up Emma stopped and cried. She felt overwhelmed by sadness and fear for Ariel, and guilt was like a blanket to cover it all.

  She had known Ariel was in trouble, but did nothing. And now this...

  It was after five by the time Emma had finished cleaning and moping about. She was lying in bed when she sat up suddenly. Maybe she hadn't been able to do anything at the time, but now was certainly different.

  Emma wiped away the tear stains on her face and picked up her phone. She had told agent Soil that Ariel worked at I.E.D., a massive technology development conglomerate that had branches in every major country and city around the world. One of which was just downtown. Emma's mother also worked there. In fact, she was the one who invited Ariel to intern at the company.

  Emma wasn't sure if the police had already stopped off there and spoken with anyone, but she figured that if anyone could help, it would be her mom. Even if it was just a little. And Emma would also feel a bit better having someone to talk to.

  It's not six yet. Emma noted, so her mom would still be working. Although work officially ended at five, Emma's knew her mother to be a workaholic, or maybe just really excited about her career. Her mom would stay back an extra hour or two, putting in all she could on whatever project she was working on at the time. The company had a strict 'No-Cellphone' policy, so Emma would have to call the front desk to talk to her mother.

  She pulled up the number from her phone contacts and waited for a couple seconds before the call got picked up.

"Hi, Francis! It's Emma." Emma said, smiling slightly as she tried to put as much normalcy into her voice. Francis was the afternoon shift security guard.

"Is my mom still in, I need to talk to her. Uh-huh, I can hold a bit." Emma waited and listened as a recorded voice listed off the many of the company's services and some of the achievements attained since it's inception. Emma had heard the same recording enough times over the years to know it word for word. Unconsciously, she had begun to lip sync the voice on the line.

  When Francis came back on, suddenly cutting off the recording, Emma jolted.

"Oh, hi! Yes, I'm here still." Emma said. She listened as Francis spoke, a frown developing on her face. "Oh, ok. Yeah, I know how it is. Same old, same old. Alright. Yeah. Bye." She hung up.

  Her mom couldn't take any calls. She was currently working on a big project and was close to a breakthrough. That's what Francis has told her anyway. Emma sighed. She had half expected it.

  Ever since she was eight, when her father died, her mom had taken up the role as sole provider. Throwing herself whole heartedly at her career had paid off in that she was able to more than take care of Emma's needs. She had also risen from just being an employee to being a valued upper member of the I.E.D.

  Unfortunately, this also created friction in the relationship between Emma and her mom. While she understood her mother's need to work she also wished for the time where the two of them could spend some quality time together.

  Now what? Emma flopped down onto her bed and hugged the pillows. She thought back to her last conversation with Ariel. Maybe her friend did tell her something, but it was subtly hidden in code?

  For close to an hour Emma replayed, arranged and rearranged the conversation in her mind. Singling out letters and trying to see if they matched up to anything.
But nothing came to the forefront.

  Not willing to give up, Emma then turned her thoughts to the picture agent Soil had shown her.

  That man... She was certain it was the same guy she always saw Ari with. The jacket was the same.

  The more Emma thought about it, the more she convinced herself that the strange man had something to with Ariel disappearance. The way he always made himself scarce when Emma showed up to meet Ari seemed a lot more suspicious now in afterthought.

  What was strange now though, was when Emma tried to remember the man's face now, she couldn't. She had obviously been close enough to see his features once or twice before, she knew that much. But when she tried to bring back the image in her mind the only thing that popped up was the pixelated blob. Just like the printed picture agent Soil had shown her.

  It was almost as if the picture she'd seen was a virus transmitted by sight and had now infected her, and it's sole purpose was to erase all memory of the man without trace from her.

  As if I'd let that happen. Emma tightened her jaw in defiance. It didn't matter if she couldn't picture his face. She remembered his jacket, and that stayed with her. She held onto this little piece of memory as she began to formulate a plan to help her friend.

She wasn't even aware as to when she fell asleep.