"And there. The last crack on the wall is now fixed. Guess I'll move to the ceiling now. Ugh. So boring in here. When is this place closing? People are still talking above me. And they're not even talking about anything interesting. Okay, sir. I don't care about your mother-in-law's near-lethal gas leak. That's the third gas leak I've read about or heard of in the past few days. And what's this Benelux City that those guys talked about up there? I don't remember seeing that name in the map of Northern Europe that was on the wall of Ella's room. Must not be anywhere near then. I mean, I have a map here in the phone. So just type the name and... Woah. That's a city? That's the size of a country but it says it's a city. Anyway, I'm getting distracted now. Those dudes upstairs are still talking. I guess listening to them is more interesting than reading the back of the air freshener bottle for a third time. Should I ask the others how they're doing? I should." 32A though to herself and then sent a message for Toivo.
"It's boring here. Are you two still good?" She typed in her message and waited for a response.
"We're in an indoors parking hall sitting behind a police van. Much warmer here. Only police vehicles here. Must be where they keep them." Toivo's response said.
"Are you sure that's a safe place?" 32A replied with a question.
"Nobody has come here so far."
"You better not get yourself caught. I'd bust you out just to punch you."
"I'd bust myself out and run away from you." Toivo's reply said but before 32A could reply with anything, she raised her head because the heard a sound from the lobby.
It was the sound of a door opening and people walking out. Steps could be heard in the reception area walking towards the exit. 32A heard the exit door of the building open and it became quiet in the reception area. She peeked out of the door and saw that the lights were off. She sent a message to Toivo to let him know that she's heading in now. She hopped over the reception desk and opened the door behind it. Behind the door she saw a staircase leading up and at the top of the staircase another door. She climbed the stairs and opened the door. Behind that door she saw a large room full of office cubicles and at the back wall was the same emblem as the one in the lobby. She was about to take a step inside until she noticed in the corner of her eye a small red light. She turned to look at it and noticed in the corner of the office a security camera. She decided to stick to the wall like glue and slide across the wall to make her way towards the security camera that way. Once she was under the camera, she removed her jacket and threw it over the camera to block its vision.
"I'll just get the jacket back when I leave. Just leaving it on the hook while I'm inside. The way civilized people do." She thought to herself and made her way deeper into the office.
She looked at the drawings of the insides of the first floor and used it to locate the access to the second floor. On the second floor was a similar office space and on the left wall was a door and a window. As 32A walked past that window, she looked inside and saw just a chair with handcuffs in the middle of a room and nothing else. The sight made her feel uneasy so she didn't stay to look at it. From there she went to the third floor where there was yet another office space but at the back of the office space was a door that was supposed to lead to the chief's office.
"That's where all the juicy information is supposed to be. Well, this has been easy." She stated and started marching towards the chief's office with high confidence, a straight back and straight sleeves on her sweatshirt.
Her victory march was however ended suddenly by a faint voice coming from down below.
"Who put this jacket here? Did somebody forget this here? No, why would anyone put it there? Is somebody in here?" A raspy voice from two floors below said.
32A rushed into the chief's office and tried to pull and push the door but it didn't budge.
"No, no, no! Not now! Open!" She whisper-shouted in frustration and fear and then sent a message for Toivo.
"Somebody knows that I'm here. Distract him but don't come in." Her message said.
She hid under a desk until she heard the sound of a window breaking in the same building. An alarm went off and all lights in the building turned on. An unbearable noise filled her ears but she knew that at least now nobody would hear what she was about to do. She unplugged and picked up a desktop computer and threw it through the glass of the chief's office's window. She then opened the door from the inside and got in. Inside the office was a wide wooden work desk with a monitor and some files on it. On the left wall was a pair of moose antlers and a rapier. On the back wall was a wide window. On the right wall was a bulletin board with papers. 32A got behind the desk and dug up the flashdrive from her pocket. She found the button that turns the computer on and then turned the monitor on as well. Once there was light on the monitor, she inserted the flashdrive into the computer as she was instructed and then just copied all the files that she could find into the flashdrive. As she was copying files, she kept glancing out of the chief's office and into the main office to make sure that she was still alone. She looked out of the window and down into the streets as well to see if any reinforcements were coming but what she saw was even more worrying. A limousine between two armored vehicles drove inside a building with a Parking sign outside of it.
"Is that where Toivo and Ella are hiding?" 32A wondered and got worried.
She took her burner phone and sent a message to Toivo.
"If you went into a parking hall, you need to get out of there now! Armored cars are coming in there!" She texted him and then took the flashdrive back once there were no more files to copy.
Just as she left the chief's office, she saw on the other side of the main office a security guard who had just walked up the stairs and entered the third floor. They both stared at each other for a moment until 32A made a sudden sprint towards the right, but the security guard moved accordingly and was waiting for 32A to come to him. The security guard then pulled out a stun gun and fired it. 32A saw it in time and crouched. She stayed low and moved behind the cubicles to avoid detection. She couldn't hear the guard's footsteps because of the blaring alarm drowning all noise. She just hoped that she wouldn't meet the guard on her way to the staircase. She however quickly found out that hoping is pointless, as just as she turned a corner, her face hit the guard's leg. She stood up and saw the guard prepare to use the stun gun on her again, but she predicted it and was able to slap it away. She kicked the guard in the shin and ran past him with full speed towards the staircase but just as she was about to reach it, she felt a painful pulse. It was a weak one, but she hadn't felt one in a while now so it came as a surprise and made her stagger. That second of stagger was costly, as she then got a stun gun round in the back and fell down the stairs with her limbs stiff and unable to brace for the fall.
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At the bottom of the stairs 32A was laying in pain with a gash on her forehead, a broken rib and missing teeth. The alarm went quiet and a few seconds later the security guard came running down the stairs. 32A came to her senses just enough to understand what was happening. She tried to stand up but she wasn't quick enough to avoid the guard who grabbed her by both of her arms. She was raised up to her feet, being pushed forward, unable to fight back but still trying. At the bottom floor's lobby were police officer's waiting, some of them in heavy armor.
"Is that the troublemaker?" One of the officer's asked the security guard.
"She was fighting back. Even kicked me in the shin. Write that down on her list of offences." The security guard answered.
"Now what were you doing here, pretty girl?" Another asked 32A directly but she didn't answer anything.
"Well. You'll explain everything at the station." The officer added.
"You got yourself caught at the perfect time actually. A very important person can once again be proud of his hometown's boys." One of the armored officers said.
"Good evening, Mister Defense Minister Granlund. Looks like somebody was trying to cause some trouble just as you arrived. We don't know if her crimes here are related to your arrival but we'll deal with her." An armored officer said to the defense minister who walked into the lobby through the front door while wearing a waistcoat over a purple shirt and looking at 32A judgingly.
Granlund took off his sunglasses came face to face with 32A who now knew who the man was.
"Did you bring me here to see how well you can beat up an unarmed woman?" Granlund asked the officers.
"We wanted to show you how quickly we arrive to the scene and take care of any criminals." One officer proudly replied.
Granlund looked at 32A again. 32A felt pure hate against Granlund for what he plans to do tomorrow but she let that feeling take a backseat for her new idea. She saw that Granlund had a black eye, and by looking at it, she made it heal and go away.
"Nice eye." She commented.
"You dare speak to me like that?" Granlund replied.
"What happened to your black eye, Mister Minister?" One officer asked.
"What do you mean?" Granlund wondered impatiently.
"It's no longer there. It was there when you walked in." The officer said back.
"Hmm. I wonder where it went indeed." 32A said and everybody got confused.
Granlund looked at the glass of the exit door and saw his reflection in it with no black eye.
"Give this woman to me. She's coming with me now." Granlund ordered.
"Uhh... Are you sure, sir? Shouldn't she go through the criminal process?" One officer asked.
"Who here has more authority, me or you? The criminal process is finished and her punishment is being my servant." Granlund demanded.
"How many servants does this guy need?" One officer whispered.
"Who said that?" Granlund asked furiously and everybody was quiet.
"He asked how many servants does this fat bald bastard need to wash his enormous ass." 32A said, figuring she has nothing to lose now.
"You'll regret saying that." Granlund said to 32A and grabbed her neck.
"I've been here before. You think I'm worried?" 32A weakly said while trying to seem brave despite being worried and scared, especially knowing by her pulses that Toivo had gotten further away.
"Get her to my place. She's my compensation for this waste of time. I was supposed to be home already but you wanted to show me what you did here as if that was going to impress me." Granlund said and turned away to leave through the door.
"Oh, yes! Please leave me alone with this bastard in a room!" 32A sarcastically shouted while being held.
32A was guided out by the officers and outside she ripped her hands free from the officers' grip when they loosened up without the officer noticing. She pulled she flashdrive from her pocket and dropped it on the ground but that was the only thing she managed to do before being grabbed again.
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She was dragged into the nearby parking hall where she looked around to see if she could spot Toivo or Ella, but she couldn't. All the officers left except the two who were dragging her. They pushed her into an elevator with Granlund.
"She's remained quiet for a while now. She's learning." Granlund commented.
"I have nothing to learn from you." 32A said back.
"And you were doing so well." Granlund replied.
The elevator arrived at the top floor at Granlund's private penthouse. The first thing anyone saw upon coming from the elevator was a big room with a U-shaped white sofa in the center of the living room along with a long glass table, wall-sized windows in the opposite side from the elevator and doors leading into different rooms. Granlund was the first one to leave the elevator and come inside the penthouse, and then the officer holding 32A pushed her in.
"You may leave now. I have my own security here. The lady will follow me." Granlund said to the officers and threw his coat on the sofa.
"You arrived late, Mister Minister. Was there some trouble along the way?" A muscular man with long blond hair and a beard in a black shirt and a stun gun on the hip shouted from the corner of the living room where 32A hadn't noticed him.
"The local boys wanted to show me what they had caught right there at the police headquarters. This skinny thief was sneaking in there. Now she works here." Granlund shouted back.
"She looks like a good addition to the roster, Sir." The security guard commented
"Indeed she does. Follow me, woman. Come here!" Granlund shouted and entered a room.
32A looked at the security guard who had his arms crossed and looked like he had no sympathy for anyone. The officer who dragged 32A into the penthouse had already left and went down with the elevator and nobody was standing near 32A anymore. She stood still for a moment and the guard gave her a mean look. 32A made a run for the elevator and mashed the button repeatedly. The button lit up and she heard the sound of the elevator coming up.
"Open already!" She shouted at the button but that didn't make the elevator come faster and soon she was grabbed from behind by the security guard.
"Did she try to escape?" Granlund shouted from a different room.
"She tried, but I got her now!" The guard shouted back.
"Drag her in here!" The voice from the other room commanded and the guard did as told.
"Just doing my job." The guard quietly said to 32A and tossed her into the room where Granlund was waiting.
In the room was a large bed, nightstands, a television attached to a wall, a mirror on the wall, a wardrobe and two more doors. Granlund was inspecting his eye in the mirror.
"Come here, woman." Granlund commanded and the guard pushed 32A to him.
"What happened to my black eye?" Granlund asked demandingly.
"I don't know." 32A answered.
"I think you do know. There's something special about you, isn't there?"
"Maybe something."
"What's your name and where are you from?"
"My name is Disease Carrier and I'm from the most infected part of the no-contact zone." 32A answered and spat at Granlund's face.
The guard pulled out his stun gun but Granlund gestured for him to stop.
"What a stupid name. So you're one of the disease carriers?" Granlund asked and wiped his face with a tissue.
"If that's what you call us." 32A said back.
Granlund smashed a shot glass against a nightstand and took a small shard of glass. He slashed 32A in the cheek with the shard, leaving a long gash.
"Show me that face." Granlund ordered but 32A just held her wound and hid her face.
"I said show it!" Granlund shouted and the guard held his stun gun ready.
32A showed her face where she now had a new cut in addition to the one on her forehead that she didn't heal because she didn't want to let the officers see her ability.
"Heal that wound like you healed my black eye." Granlund commanded.
32A saw no reason to play stupid and so she healed all the wounds on her face, except her broken teeth because she didn't have the missing pieces.
"Impressive." Granlund commented.
32A remained quiet.
"Why did you heal my black eye? What did you think you'd get from it?" Granlund asked.
"I don't know. Mostly I thought that you'd let me walk away if I did it for you." 32A told him, not telling him the real reason why she did it.
"Well, that didn't exactly happen." Granlund said and chuckled.
"What do you want from me?" 32A asked.
"You proved that you're special. You could be useful."
"But I'm a so called disease carrier. Are you not worried? I'll get you sick. I'll spit in your whiskey." 32A asked.
"Erik, give us two some privacy." Granlund said to the guard who then left the room and closed the door.
As soon as 32A and Granlund were alone in the room, 32A kicked the minister in the shin, went behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck to choke him. The minister who was taller and larger than 32A kept swinging around but 32A didn't let go of the hold. Unable to scream and with his face turning red, the minister resorted to pulling a switchblade from his pocket and stabbing 32A in the hand with it. 32A let go of the hold and held her hand in pain. Granlund then stabbed her in the gut with the switchblade five times and 32A fell on her hands and knees. Granlund kicked her in the ribs for good measure.
"So this was the real reason you healed my black eye? You wanted to be alone with me to take me out? Stupid whore. Heal yourself and get up. You're not getting away this easily." Granlund said to 32A who was laying in her own blood on the floor.
32A in her barely conscious state understood what she had to do even without being told. She healed her own wounds and injuries and slowly started getting up. 32A was taking longer to get up than Granlund liked so he pulled her by the hair to get her on her feet.
"So you wanted to know why I'm not scared of you disease carriers? Because I know that the whole disease carrier thing is a complete lie. People from your land have been coming here for years and no outbreak has been detected." Granlund answered.
"So why are you telling your lies then?" 32A asked angrily with a weak voice.
"Empty your pockets." Granlund commanded instead of answering the question.
At first 32A didn't comply but then Granlund pulled the switchblade from his pocket again and repeated his command. 32A took the burner phone from her pocket and Granlund immediately took it from her and smashed it on the floor, shattering the screen.
"You are not going to tell these stories to anyone. You came here to work, not interrogate me." Granlund said seriously.
"Work how?" 32A asked.
"You and the other servants will do everything as told. That's all you need to know. Now get out of this room and bring me a drink and a new glass. And clean this trash and this blood off the floor before I step on it." Granlund commanded.
"So do I get a mop and a dustpan or something?" 32A asked with utter defeat in her voice.
"You'll find them in the broom closet."
"And where do I find that?"
"Behind the door that says "Broom closet" on it."
"I see."
"Yes. Now get going, servant." Granlund commanded.
32A sighed and left the room. Inside she was seething and wishing to do to the minister what she really came here to do, but she knew that she was being always watched by either the minister himself or the guard. She walked through the living room and found the broom closet where the words "Broom Closet" were written on cursive letters.
"So now I have to waste my time with this. If I just strangled this guy, this would all be over and his plans would be cancelled. But I can't do that right now. But at some point he has to sleep. And where do I sleep by the way? And where are the other servants that he mentioned? Guess I'll found out. Let's see now. There's the dustpan and a brush. And there's the mop and a bucket. Right then. I hate this so much." 32A thought and picked up the items from the broom closet.
She saw that the guard wasn't in the living room. She quietly walked to the elevator button and saw the lights of the elevator's interior shining through the cracks of the doors. She pressed the button and expected the door to just open but instead words appeared on the LED-screen spelling out: "Show card."
"Show card? What card? Do I need some card to get out of here? These morons probably have those cards. So I'll have to get one." She thought in her head.
"What's taking so long, woman?" Granlund's voice called from the bedroom.
32A boiled inside and walked to the bedroom carrying the cleaning items.
"Took your time. Was it that hard to find?" Granlund asked smugly from his bed, knowing that he's in control here.
32A didn't reply but just cleaned the remains of the broken glass from the floor. She also took the phone with the shattered screen from the floor and slipped it in the pocket of her black jeans.
"There's some dirt on the far corner too over there!" Granlund shouted to 32A and pointed at a corner behind her.
Without saying anything, 32A turned around, facing away from the minister, slouched her back and started wiping dirt off the floor that she could have swore wasn't there before.
"That's right. Get real low and do it properly. Take your time too. That's what I like to see." Granlund said from his bed.
32A realised what was up and straightened her back, turned around and prepared to throw the long brush at Granlund like a throwing axe, but she stopped herself when the guard in the corner gave her a threatening look.
"What were you trying to do? Now get me that drink and don't take a week this time." Granlund commanded and the guard kept looking at 32A threateningly.
"What kind of a drink?" 32A asked.
"I need a glass for this!" Granlund answered and raised the whiskey bottle that he keeps on his nightstand.
32A once again left and walked across the living room and entered through an open doorframe to a very professional looking kitchen with three long rows of low cupboards, one in the middle and one on both ends of the room as well as a stove and a fridge in between some of the cupboards, and a door in the back of the room.
"If this guy makes me cook, I'll just hand him a raw egg and say "There" because how am I supposed to know how to cook when I've spent the last ten years eating nothing but ready made poison from the supermarkets? Now where does this guy keep the glasses? I wonder if I can steal some food when this guy goes to sleep. I'm dying of hunger here. There's a glass. Better be big enough for the fatass." 32A thought and picked a glass from a cupboard.
She walked back to the bedroom and casually tossed the glass to Granlund's bed where it landed on his lap. He threw it back with full force straight at 32A's nose, making it bleed. The glass fell on the floor and cracked.
"Get a new one. You broke that one. And you better hand it to me politely this time." Granlund commanded.
32A picked up the cracked glass from the floor and left the room. Outside the room she just fixed the crack, healed her nose and returned to the bedroom. She politely handed the glass to Granlund with absolute disdain in her eyes.
"Now pour the drink. And you better not spill it on these expensive sheets." The minister demanded.
32A picked up the whiskey bottle from the nightstand and started filling the glass that the minister was holding, but as she was pouring, she felt a painful pulse and her hand shook, causing her to spill the drink.
"You worthless idiot! You did that on purpose!" Granlund shouted and sprung up from the bed and grabbed 32A by the neck.
He snatched the bottle from her hand and poured whiskey on her face, burning her eyes. He then he dragged her out of the bedroom and the guard followed.
"I didn't do it on purpose. It's a thing that happens to me." 32A explained annoyedly.
"You've been showing some bad attitude this entire time and now you say that you did that on accident? Erik, open the window." Granlund said with anger.
32A kicked the minister in the shin and broke free but with her bad eyes she walked right into the guard who slammed her head against a wall hard. The guard held her still while the minister opened the wall-sized window himself and the room instantly became cold.
"Are you sure about this, Sir? That's a bit far." The guard asked his boss.
"I'm sick of her attitude. Now hand her to me or you're fired." The minister ordered.
The guard did as told and handed 32A to Granlund who took her by the collar of her sweatshirt and dangled her on the edge.
"If I let go of you right now, you will fall all the way down and be nothing more than a wet stain on the pavement. Understand that? And you know what will happen to me? Nothing. I'll just send one text message and that wet stain will be scraped off the pavement as if it was never even there, and I'll continue my night. Do you understand?" Granlund threatened.
"I understand." 32A said with genuine fear in her voice as she was breathing heavily.
She then felt another painful pulse and Granlund saw her entire body twitch. He understood that maybe 32A was telling the truth after all. He pulled her away from the edge and pushed her into the living room where she hugged the floor.
"Close the window, Erik. And you, woman. Go clean your blood off my floor. Then go clean my sheets in the downstairs laundry room and bring me clean ones." Granlund commanded.
Erik closed the window and 32A stood up, still shaken by what just happened. She rubbed her burning eyes with her sleeve but it didn't help much. She then walked to the bedroom, took the bucket to the kitchen where she filled it with water, and then mopped the bedroom's floor. Then she removed the expensive bedsheet that had a whiskey stain now.
"Where's the laundry room?" She asked the guard while walking out of the bedroom with the sheets rolled up into a ball in her arms.
"Walk through the door in the back of the kitchen and from there go down one floor and it's there." The guard explained.
Without thanking him 32A walked into the kitchen and from there to the staircase and the laundry room.
"At least I know how to wash laundry. But what's this machine. Does this guy have one of those machines that washes laundry itself. Well, this should be easy then." 32A said to herself.
She had never used a washing machine because in her old house they didn't have one. They had a wash bucket that everybody took weekly turns with to clean the entire house's laundry. She looked at the washing machine where the hole was on the top. She dunked the ball of bedsheets into the hole and then grabbed a hose that was hanging on the wall. She opened the faucet and poured water from the hose into the washing machine.
"I guess this is how you use this thing. At least that makes sense." She said while waiting for the machine to fill up.
Once there was a pool of water where the bedsheets were floating in, she opened a bottle of laundry detergent and poured some of it into the hole and then started looking at the buttons. She pressed a few of the buttons and then closed the lid and waited to hear any kinds of sounds. The machine started making sounds which 32A saw as a good sign.
"Such an easy job and Mister Minister can't even do that himself." She bitterly said and sat down on a plastic chair.
She then took the broken phone from her pocket and looked at the cracked screen.
"I still have this. I need to tell Toivo what happened and where he can find the flashdrive." She said and repaired the cracked screen by focusing on it.
She tried turning the phone on but the screen remained dark.
"What's the problem? I should be able to repair things that are broken from the inside. Ugh. Do I have to do this the normal way?" She said and opened the back of the phone by removing the cover.
She saw that the battery of the phone was slightly off position and she pushed it back in place and then turned on the phone, and there was light on the screen. When the phone was working, 32A sent a message to Toivo's burner phone.
"I was caught. I'm now in Granlund's personal penthouse working as a servant. Come get me out of here! Also I dropped the flashdrive on the steps of the police headquarters. Go get it." Her message read.
She desperately waited for a response but when she didn't get one, she stood up and stepped out of the laundry room. In the staircase were more steps that led down. She took a set of steps down and checked the floor below. There was another door with the word "Quarters" written on it in cursive. She tried to open the door but it wouldn't open. She saw a card reader on the door and figured what the issue was. She noticed more stairs going down but before she could go down, she heard a shout from above.
"Get some new sheets here already!" The minister's voice shouted.
32A ran up the stairs and returned to the penthouse and to Granlund's bedroom.
"Where do I find the sheets?" She asked and tried to show respect this time.
"In the clothes room right there." Granlund answered and pointed to a door on the right side of the bedroom.
32A entered the clothes room wondering why the minister couldn't do this himself. In the clothes room an entire side of the room was reserverd for suits hanging from clothes hangers and the other side of the room was reserved for shoes. 32A found a clean bedsheet from a top shelf above the suits and returned to the bedroom. She tossed the blanket from the bed to the floor with permission and then put the sheets in place.
"Excellent. That was the last thing I needed tonight. You may go deal with the dirty sheets and then Erik will let you enter your quarters." Granlund said.
32A was about to leave the bedroom until Granlund's voice stopped her.
"Actually wait! There's one more thing I might still want tonight." Granlund said eerily.
32A froze in place and feared what he might suggest.
"Actually... Not in the mood. Not tonight. You may go." Granlund said and 32A left the room.
"What was he suggesting?" 32A asked Erik disgustedly.
"Do I need to spell it out for you? Just do the rest of your work and get to the quarters." Erik replied and walked with 32A down the stairs.
Erik waited outside the laundry room while 32A took the soaked sheets from the machine and hung them up on a clothesline that was in the room. After that she was led to the quarters where Erik opened the door with a card, confirming 32A's theory. In the quarters were six bunks with clean white sheets and thin blankets and a wardrobe. The walls were white and the room was lit with a ceiling lamp.
"You'll be staying in this room for a long time, so get used to it." Erik said and shut the door behind 32A, leaving her alone in the room.
"Weren't there supposed to be other servants? Where are they?" 32A wondered alone in the room and sat down on one of the bunks.
"And I am not staying in this place for a long time. I'll be busted out of here and if not, I'll just do what Ilona did and escape. Then we'll expose that bastard and make him explain everything to the people he has lied to and the people he's done wrong to."
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