THE UNDERCOVER STRIKE

c h a p t e r 5

Words left me. I stared into those bright blue eyes slowly transforming into the waves of guilt and my heart fell silent.
"I knew Vercetti was making that toxin. I knew four people were killed in the lab. I knew it was all wrong but I just...didn't speak. I wanted to make a change. I wanted to talk to him. But he is evil, he is wicked than anyone else. All i could do was..run away, escape..like a coward. But i want to change this.. I feel ashamed. I want to turn this all back and I really don't want the triumph company to end up like RLC. I tried to help Ethan..but it was too late"
he was on the verge of tears. I've never seen such a guilt in a man before.
I held his hand and squeezed it tightly and looked up at his eyes.
"Look we aren't going to end up like them. We make mistakes and learn from them and we will not repeat them. We will never give up and keep fighting until we save Nebraska and get Vercetti arrested and to do this...we really need you." I said.
He nodded and smiled a little. He leaned towards me and we both gazed at each other. The world behind us turned black and white.

A few minutes later, we were all called upon to work inside our office. George came walking towards me. But this time, he wasn't going anywhere I could see. He was coming at me.
"Hi taylor" he said.
His voice perfectly matched his looks. Childish. He looked as if the moment he gets home, he'd have fruit loops and play with legos while watching Tom and Jerry.
"Hi..George" I responded "Is there something you need to ask?"
"No but I came here to tell you something...about the code"
"Well, Do you know about it?" I asked curiously
"No i haven't had it cracked yet but here it is"
He gave me a piece of paper which was crumpled up. I opened it and there were words. Handwritten Words written with perfect black ink. But, it wasn't english or any other language that i know of . I don't really know any other language.
"What language is it?" I asked
"It's Armenian. That's what the problem is. It's a really ancient European language and no linguists of our city know it. I thought you'd be the perfect one to help" George responded and a smile flashed on his face.
"Well..thanks George! I'll find a way" I added.
He went away.
Armenian. I rushed through the office to find Chris. I looked everywhere for him. Just 5 minutes ago he was right here.

I rushed outside the building and found him behind the front door looking through some documents. Again.
"Chris look what I found!"
I said waving the code in my hand. He looked straight at me with soft eyes.
"Okay so George gave me this page-" I begin.
"Wait George??" He asked, grinning.
" Um yeah yep! So he gave me this code and said if we crack it, we can ultimately enter the source room and finally switch down the toxin!" I said.
"Hey what language is it?" He asked staring at the written words.
"i don't know but he said it's Armenian. Hey, we can work together and find out!" I replied.
"Hey i'll text you! Are you free today's evening?"
"See you in the evening" I nodded.

I laid on my bed staring at the ceiling and gulping down the doritos.
I heard a sudden buzz on my phone.
Chris.
Hey! Can you come over at 6 today?
53 ginger rd valley, NE 11604
hope to see you soon!

- I'll be there, Chris.
I replied.
I hopped out of my bed and put on my denim shorts and a cool Star Wars shirt because why not? Well, atleast it's much better than the old- torned PJs i am wearing right now.

it was almost 6:05 now and i called an uber. The car drove past huge buildings and street lights that lead to Chris' home.

It was simple yet exquisite. The two-story high house was perfectly surrounded by a pebbled-fencing around the front yard and the house had a white-marble finishing that indicated how much he loves the idea of attractive homes. I checked myself up and then rang the door bell. Chris opened that in 2 seconds and welcomed me inside. The hallway was flawlessly designed and the walls were covered with black-white wallpapers and some family pictures behind the staircase leading to the first floor. I looked closely to those frames and judging by the pictures of his mother i could tell where his blue eyes and gorgeous face comes from.
"Wow your mom is indeed a beautiful woman."
"well thanks...she really was. yeah!"
"was? oh i'm so sorry! i didn't mean to-"
" oh no it's fine" he said "So this is my room"
He made a small gesture with his hands and opened his bedroom door.
I looked around to see hardwood bedroom floor and plain white curtains. There was a bulletin board with pictures and evidences and a scribbled white board. His room looked like any detective's personal workplace.
"Cool" i whispered.
"Okay so pass me the code"
I handed him the crumpled piece of paper.
He stared at the words very carefully and settled himself down on his desk. He opened out his laptop and started googling the language. He held out his laptop to me.
"Look over here it's all the basic alphabets we need to learn to understand the language"
It was too hard to read.
"well..um..let me read it" i offered.

"reh dza ho zhe"
We both bursted out laughing.
"Oh wait it literally just says the..LOOK AT IT THE FIRST WORD SAYS 'THE' " I blurted out excitedly.
Chris laughed again.
"You're smarter than I thought"
"Look let me figure out the second one! Pass me the code"
I tried to match those written words with the text on the image and looked for the alphabets.
"Does google translator works on this thing?" Chris asked
"I don't know..don't think so..how are we gonna type in?"
"Yeah we have to figure it out ourselves" He said "Oh look the first letter..it says 'un' right? and then look"
"b-akh-ta-vor...bakhtavor? what's that?" I completed.
"Wait let me search it up" said Chris.
"Well here it means 'lucky' and if we join the 'un' it basically forms 'the unlucky' !!"
"THE UNLUCKY? that's it? that's the code?"
We both laughed in confusion.
"What is unlucky?? Think!" I said.
"Uhh..i don't know..the number 13?"
"Hey that's literally my favorite number" I said sharply.
"Hey but it's unlucky to most..What if it's actually 13?"

"uhh 13...George gave me this...Wait a second...wasn't he literally going to the room number A13?"
"A13?? that ghost room?" He chuckled.
"Yes! What if something's in there? Maybe like some secret way to a secret place or something?"
"Be practical taylor" He grinned "This ain't a movie"
"I don't care..Tomorrow we'll go to A13 room to look what's there inside" I said.
"Oh okay! Here grab some!" He offered me m&m's
"I like the yellow ones" I said picking them "Oh wait is that your guitar?" I found an acoustic guitar lying in the corner of his room. Fine wooden guitar.
"Oh yeah- yeah! I started learning it but nah i gave up"

I reached out and started playing it.
"wow you actually play it so well. Where'd you learn it from?"
"um..just you know..I was young like 12 or something and i started writing songs"

"You're very talented , Taylor. I never knew! Can you play me a song?"
"Okay sure! Well this song I wrote recently is about someone..who i like"
I started strumming down the strings gently. I got lost in the melody and I saw him listening to it..I could feel him become enervated to the soft words I whispered. He closed his eyes. The evening was itself soothing and the funny thing about this was that..
He didn't know the song was about him.