Samuel had just finished reading his monitoring team's report on the energy spikes and pondered their significance when Maria patched Stephen's call through to him.
"I'm afraid the target has escaped us, Datuk."
The news didn't strike him as a total surprise, suspecting that Syafa and the young man from the hospital she's with would be able to indeed elude his team, using the vast open area to their advantage, before realizing Stephen's choice of word.
"What do you mean, target?"
"The young woman's gone."
"Confirmation?"
"Verbal, Datuk. The hospital exec. Told us she had to leave to sort things out on her own. Your orders now, Datuk?"
"How did she leave the area?"
"In a taxi apparently. We have no idea who the driver was."
"A taxi? Drove right past you, and you didn't notice…"
"…."
"Bring the young man in. Ask nicely and abort if he resists. He's not necessary to us."
He disconnected the call, sat back, his mind thinking of Syafa, how no one had turned up to enquire on her whereabouts unlike the other members of the team. The family members of the others gave up calling the company for updates, dissatisfied with vague responses they keep getting.
Dr Saari's wife had accused him of being obtuse to their suffering in keeping silent over the extended incarceration and whereabouts of their loved ones. He remembered the sharpness in her voice when she issued the company a deadline to arrange for spousal visits of the team members.
She doesn't know I, too, am in a painfully long wait.
One made worse as he knew exactly where Bernice was and had every chance to get her out had it not been for his sense of responsibility towards the team. That and, a gut instinct telling him they were better off in the quiet surroundings of the Bahagia hospital.
There had already been two deaths in Mohir and the young security officer, Sivanathan. Both suspected to have been murdered. Even Mohir, whom he had informed the family as having suffered a heart attack.
"What do you mean induced arrhythmia?" he asked upon reading the coroner's report.
"The deceased was in fine health despite his age, Datuk and there was no sign of latent abnormalities in his cardiovascular system. What we did find were tears in the heart muscles as though the deceased had undergone the extremes of both bradycardia and tachycardia."
"In English, Dr?"
"How do I put it? Imagine a car racing towards the upper end of its rev and then going into emergency braking. Again and again."
"Induced?"
"The resulting damage to his heart muscles could only be done by external inputs, drugs or medication, hypnosis…"
Another murder. Both related. Could these be her doing?