"A beautiful face doesn't earn you praise," the captain barked greedily eyeing me from top to bottom. "Talent does."
In the captain's ward, two sets of squadron stood with their head looking down in failure to catch the criminal but I was the only one getting insulted for all.
"But I am in no surprise, women are useless anyways." He remarked harshly and shifted his gaze from me to June.
The whole department knew that the captain hated me because I was the daughter of the commander, his enemy. 5 years ago, he was chosen to be the commander but instead, my father got promoted for his remarkable performance in stopping another genocide attack by another mafia group.
Hence, he took revenge on me in every possible way. But today he dragged June along with me and I would not slide that remark as I usually do.
"Captain Haze, it is not us being a woman, but it is you treating us like a woman, not giving us proper training for being a woman and now complaining to us for being a woman, is a problem." I replied lifting my head with no guilt.
"How dare you talk back to me after failing a mission,"
"I dare to talk back with my mouth!"
"Don't you dare think I will allow you to be a brat just because your father is a commander--You are suspended for two weeks, now you are allowed to Get Out of my Sight!" My eardrum nearly fell to his scream, but I skillfully faked a smile, nodded my head and got out of the room.
The afternoon sun was still basking the colony when I got out of the station. I didn't know how to inform my father about my suspension.
The moment I was deep in thought, a man in a cycle approached me.
My white shirt was brimming with black dirt when I met Gale in the middle of the road.
"What happened to you?" He asked looking at my dirty hair and my stinking body.
I told him the whole story starting from Unhole's murder to falling in a sewage gutter and added how I got suspended.
"If you were present, we might have caught him," I said and expected Gale to reply enthusiastically but he just nodded his head hesitantly.
I ignored his gesture and questioned, "Where are you going?"
"To the station. Since I left before the morning shift ended, I will be doing the night shift."
The night shift started at 1800 hours. I looked at my watch and saw the minute clock hand near 1600 hours, more than 2 hours were left. Since he would be busy tonight, why don't we?
"Gale, you still have 2 hours left, why don't we give a quick visit to the port?" I said.
"You are suspended for 2 weeks, we can visit it on another day."
"I am not going on an actual date but to investigate! Orqle was murdered today, don't you think it's connected?"
"But my shift-"
"You agreed to be my slave," I need to remind him of our terms of agreement again and again.
He took a deep breath, showed an expression of annoyance and replied, "Finee milady, I will take you there."
"You will be needing to change your track since both of us need to change our outfit,"
"I am not letting you sit on my cycle with sewage dirt unless you pay for my water bill," he said with disgust.
"Sure, write me a credit bill and I will send the money in the next month," I said getting in the back of his seat and he rode us to our respective homes.
After reaching home, I took a quick bath and told Gale to change into some civil dress.
I opened my wardrobe and all of my clothes looked a drab for a date. With no choice in my hands, I went to Saily, "I am going on a date, do you have any dress that could fit me?"
"Dress for a date?" Saily asked in surprise, "With whom?"
"Gale," I replied shortly.
"I knew you liked him!" she said confidently and sat me in front of her salon. "Let me groom my little girl for her first date."
Although I was 20 years old, she would still refer to me as a little girl.
"Who proposed first?" she asked slapping the sponge of powder in my face.
"Actually no one did, the context is Gale drops me on cycle every day so I thought of treating him a good meal in a restaurant out of courtesy, so it is actually an unromantic date."
"Oh, really?" Saily said in disappointment. "So sad, I planned your marriage by the end of this year and getting all your father's property signed under my name."
"Hey Mrs Bright, I will get you behind the bar if you say this again," I said smiling through my teeth. She smiled too.
She went towards her closet and took out a beautiful red dress from it. She gave the dress to me and said, "If Gale doesn't like you now, he will surely fall in love with you adorn in this dress."
------
I stood on the porch waiting for Gale for 15 minutes.
"Venesa!" I heard Gale calling me from his bicycle from the low cliff. A few moments later he arrived in front of my porch and pressed his brake.
An evening wind blew through the street swaying my red dress. The involuntary action caught Gale's attention before he said looking stunned, " You look gorgeous,"
"What did you say?" It was rare to hear Gale compliment.
"Do you really think it's a good idea?" Instead of replying to my former question, he asked me the same question almost five times at the office. Cheap tactic to change track.
But both of us knew I would not change my mind. Choosing not to reply to his already asked question, I silently sat on his bicycle and went off to the harbour while the dusking sun fell its last gleam on my face.
It took less than 30 min to reach the port with Gale's speed.
He parked the bicycle near a seafood restaurant and I went to the port directly.
"At least pretend to be on a date," he said and tugged me into the restaurant.
"What do you mean?"
"Don't act in an obvious manner. Confuse the people around you, even when they don't care."
I nodded my head taking notes. He was senior to me after all, even though I act recklessly around Gale, he was seven years older than me.
We sat at a booth and I pretended to look around the menu. The dishes were more expensive than my life...
All I could afford was water.
I looked at Gale but found him sharing my horror looking at the price of the dish.
"Can you give us a moment please?" I asked.
"Sure." The waitress smiled and went away.
"I can afford the water at best," I said. "Seems like today's your first day as a secret agent."
"Seriously, I never thought a seafood restaurant, near the ocean would be so expensive." he replied. "Should we leave the place before--"
"Ma'am, may I know your order?" shit, she heard us, probably.
"No. 16." I blurted out in a rush.
"Great choice ma'am, and sir?"
"Just water."
"That would be 110 koins, and you will need to pay before ordering."
---
Who cares about prestige when the topic revolves around the hard earn money?
It was Gale who came out of the restaurant as soon as he heard the price. Next, it was me who followed him like a good little girl.
Not the waitress's fault, Gale was the one who got into Elites restaurant accidentally.
"That was a close call of losing 70% of my income in one day," I said in horror and slapped Gale's arm for the embarrassment.
Since we have wasted enough time, now the clock has clicked to enter the port.
"I will wait here, you may proceed," Gale said as he sat himself on the tax-free bench.
"Why?"
"We are officially not allowed to investigate in the port, I will not take the risk of marking my police identity with red marks."
"Fine, fuck you. I will go in myself."
I expected somebody to check on my illegal entry, but there was no one. The action speaks of the security protection at the port.
It took me quite a time to find the terminal area. There were many people checking their cargo. I decided to find the cargo office to see the records of things bought.
But at that fine moment, I heard a confidential conversation, "The guns are safely hidden in the packets of rice."
He was talking very loud, as if, he wanted other people to know what he was doing. That's one of the weaknesses of criminal, they want praise for their creativity and get caught.
"Who are you?"
huh!
I looked around and saw an orange-masked man standing very close to me.
"I-I am"
"Cut the crap."
Before I could attack him, he grabbed and choked my neck and the next second injected something into my arm as if he knew someone would come.
It didn't even take 15 sec before all my senses were lost and I was kidnapped by Ghost City. My dreamland.