What if...? || Markhyuck

-21-

[may 2020]

[donghyuck]

Steven and I sat in the car for four hours and watched the bar where Carl was. In recent days, we had the opportunity to see a man several times with our own eyes but we decided not to make sudden movements. As the basis of our activities in the first two upcoming weeks, we found photos and fragmentary tracking of the route, which he followed every day. The trail always broke about in the same place but we had to be extremely careful. If we lost sight of him, we could never find this man again and many months of hard work would have been in vain.

"Do you have any photos from the inside?" asked Steven.

"I still haven't received them," I replied. "But I'm refreshing my mail, maybe something will fall into it soon."

We've talked less and less recently. The exchange was more about casual information on a topic. We felt a lot of pressure in advance because Marco called several times a day to learn literally about every little detail of our day. His bloodlust for Carl was indescribable. I already felt sorry for the man, even though we didn't even have him in our hands. Perez no longer wanted to pull any information from him, listen to any apologies or explanations. He wanted moans of pain and begging for pity that he would never receive.

I felt sorry for Carl and at the same time wondered if I would ever end up the same way he did if Marco finally found a way to get rid of me. In all this sick situation, I started to accelerate the moment of catching this man myself and I wanted to bring him to the end as soon as possible. First of all, I was afraid that Marco might come up with the fact that I was sitting everything on and that I had long known where Carl was, I just needed time to bite into the foundations of the mafia. Secondly, I was hoping that all Perez's anger would pass on to Carl and I would have a moment to take a breath and build another plan to escape from imminent death. After all, Marco apparently completely forgot that there are so many more people like Carl in the company. Many more refugees waiting for a convenient moment to finally get rid of him. 

I just needed him to realise that. 

Realise that I'm not the biggest death threat for him at all.

Steven's phone vibrations broke the silence in the car. When the dark-haired looked at the display, he sighed heavily, so I didn't even need explanations about who was srambling for his attention. Our boss's name hung in the air.

"Yeah?" he answered slowly, trying not to sound too nervous or tired of these constant calls.

"You must get back to New York as soon as possible," said Perez, bringing us both to life. I sat next to him, so the content of the whole conversation was no secret to me. "You are very needed here now."

"Even if I leave at the moment, I'll still be in the evening. It is, however, six hours away. "

"I know, that's why I'm calling right now because you must be here before five," he said frantically, just like not him. Steven gave me an astonished look that I immediately returned.

"What happened so suddenly?" he asked, still keeping eye contact with me.

"You'll see there" we only heard brief information, after which Marco hung up. For a moment in the car it got quiet again because we were not able to put this tangle of thoughts into one meaningful whole.

"What do you think this is about?" I finally asked. I would be lying saying that a million questions and fears did not just explode in my head. For Marco there was no other priority than Carl. Steven's return to New York postopned and delayed everything. If the company suddenly did not start burning and wasn't attacked by an alien mafia, I couldn't indicate another reason.