Remi-niscent

Chapter 49:

Jack's P.O.V

"Jack, from what I have seen of you at work, I have gathered that you have an uncanny ability to piece together information and come to a conclusion, am I correct in saying so?" Looking across at me expectantly, he cocks his head to the side as he awaits my answer.

Somewhat confused as to where this is leading, I shrug and slowly nod my head, "Yeah I suppose so?"

At my confirmation, Wyatt nods in satisfaction, "Good, good, that is exactly what I want to hear. And now that we have that out of the way, let me show you something." He leads me to a small sectioned off area, and ducks through the curtained doorway. 

Following suit I pull back the cloth covering and step inside. The bright floodlights from outside that illuminate up the cavern seem unable to penetrate the thick material separating us from the rest of the room. My eyes take a moment to adjust to the sudden darkness, but a couple of seconds later Wyatt who seems to have crossed the room already flicks a switch to turn on the lights. I blink rapidly to try re-adjust my eyes, this time from the darkness to the light. And when they do, I am stunned into silence. Every inch of the walls is covered in pictures of locations, faces and symbols, each connected by pieces of bright red string.

"Wyatt? What is this?"

"Patience boy, give me a minute to explain." He sends me a wry grin, "This here is highly classified information so I need you not to speak a word of this to anyone apart from any of my direct team that you met back at the base; Your friends if need be can be told too but it does not leave this cavern, you understand?" When I nod mutely, he continues, "Very good, in that case let's get on with it. I'm going to take a calculated guess and say that you've already surmised what it is you're looking at?"

Without waiting for me to reply he keeps speaking, "This here is every single piece of information we have collected on Denyt, his people, location and any other information we have relating to the case. My team and I have gone over every single piece numerous times but have failed to make any new connections or discoveries. We need someone with a fresh outlook to see if there is anything we have missed. It could be the difference between taking Denyt down or not."

I slowly spin in a circle to see if there is anything that immediately jumps out at me that seems out of place, "Wyatt?"

"Hmm? What is it?" He replies while flicking through a stack of papers on the desk.

"This symbol, what does it mean?"

That catches his attention and he raises his head to look at where my finger is pointing to a picture of a man with a strange black ladder like symbol that seems to be tattooed on his neck. Stepping towards me he takes a closer look, "I'm not sure son, maybe it's just a personal tattoo?  However the man in the photo is one of Denyt's inner circle, we caught him a couple of months ago but his team intercepted ours before we were able to bring him back in..."

"No," I mumble to myself, "That's not it. It means something I'm sure of it." My eyes land on another picture, this time one of a group of men standing guard outside what looks like it could be the compound where Denyt is based. "Look here, the guard at the front, on his right hand, do you see it?" I continue pacing around the room, and my fingers automatically move to a file that sticks out from under a couple of rolled up maps. Flipping it open, I find a series of photographs of a man that I haven't seen before. But what intrigues me more is that every single one of the men he is standing with has this strange symbol inked somewhere on their bodies. As I go to pull out another photo, a small note stuck to the back of it makes me halt. 'Vaaleu Agari w/ known inner circle members.'  Vaaleu Agari, where had I heard that name before? I rack my brain trying to think of a reason why this name sounds so familiar to me, it niggles away at me and I start pacing in frustration. "Vaaleu Agari, Vaaleu Agari," I mutter to myself, "Rio gang member? No not gang member, that's not it... Drug cartels? Yes! that's it!" Suddenly everything fits together like a perfect puzzle piece. " Wyatt! I've got something!"