Pete stood in front of a building that looked no less than a plush seven star hotel. There was enough green placed meticulously around the building. A well maintained lawn was studded with water fountains that would be a sight in the night. Only, he had to cross at least five security gates before reaching here. He was sent a limousine to the hotel Kingsway and that was cleared almost at every gate. Two things crossed his mind as he stood there imbibing the surroundings. One, this place had lots of money. Two, it must be a place that was often threatened to be in danger. The second part made him shudder as the reminiscent of his past flashed in front of his eyes. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, took a deep breath and entered the building.

Richard looked at a man of about 50 years, wearing a white formal shirt with suede jacket and crisply ironed brown trousers. His ebony hair was neatly set. He was moderately built, Richard guessed his height would be around 5'10". His eyes looked like they have seen a lot of world and had an unknown pain in them. He stood at the entrance gazing at the building. Richard moved to him as he entered." Dr. Pete Nicoles?" he asked. "Ye-Yeah"." Welcome Dr.Pete. I am Richard Mackenzie, the head of IT wing here. Was the journey comfortable? " he closed the distance between them holding his hand for a hand shake. Pete shook his hand in a formal way "Thank You for all the arrangements. I appreciate it" he replied. "Well ! Boss had been waiting for you. Will you please join him? I am waiting for a colleague of mine, I will come to you guys with him." he asked and added" Please walk down this corridor and take a right, his room is the third one to the left." " Sure" Pete mumbled and took the corridor. He was pleased with this place, it didn't look anything like an office. The interiors were intricately designed and the walls were adorned with replicas of very famous paintings. The colors were soothing to the eyes. However there were surveillance cameras everywhere making him feel, he was being watched. One thing he couldn't understand was, what was Dr.Micheles doing in the Association for National Security? Lost in his thoughts, he reached the room he was directed to. He tapped on the door "Yes, Dr.Pete please come in" said a voice he did not recognize. He entered a room that was very huge. There was a single wooden table on one side of the room. The wood was carved with a detailed floral design. There was a recliner on one side of the table and three chairs on the other. A huge screen was set and the projector was running. There was a cozy couch in another corner.A coffee maker was placed close to it. He noticed a door on one of the walls, that he thought lead to the washroom. It looked like whoever this room belonged to, could be practically living here. Everything seemed good but where was Dr.Micheles?

" Hey Mike! You are finally here" said Richard beaming at his friend. "Rick you Asshole" Mike said. Richard, who was about to engulf Mike in a bear hug stopped awkwardly and raised an eyebrow." You told me to swear after reaching here" Mike grinned finishing the hug. Richard swayed his head chuckling. " So whats going on mate?" Mike asked faking an Australian accent." Banged an Australian chick?Did you?" Richard asked punching his friend in the arm." Rick! my man.Mind your language. We are at the work place" Mike replied mocking a serious tone. " Look who's saying that. Anyways, lets go. Boss has been waiting for quite a while." he said leading Mike to the room." It better be damn important Rick.I had to abort something very important to reach here" he said very seriously." What was it that you were doing so seriously on a vacation" ,he asked sarcasm apparent in his tone." Dude, the most important of all.Something that is important for survival" , Rick looked confused . " Sex ." he said finally giving up on Rick." Too bad you didn't let me 'finish'. Damn that chick was hot." he said goin back to that moment. A smack on his head got him back , while Rick glared at him.

" Hello Dr.Pete, I am Ronald McCarthy, head of the ANS. Please take a seat" he said shaking Pete's hand."Nice meeting you Mr.Ronald" Pete said."Where is Dr.Micheles? I have been told he wanted to meet me." he asked unable to hide his irritation." The old man was silent for a minute like he was contemplating how to tell him what he was about to tell. " Yes, he asked to see you.But-" he stopped mid sentence causing the irritation in Pete increase " But what?" he snapped. " He won't be able to see or talk to you" he finished. Pete stared at his face " What the hell are you talking? Is this some kind of a joke? I need to know what the hell is happening here" he raised his voice as anger engulfed him." Calm down Dr.Pete. Please, let my associates join us I will tell you everything.Please bear with me." he said softly, yet there was a command in his tone that made Pete shiver.

A knock on the door disturbed the silence that prevailed in the room. "Here they are" said Ronald as the two walked in. Mike was too casual for his surroundings, he wore a white t-shirt that had intelligible graffiti on it and a blue torn jeans. Ronald gave a disapproving look as soon as his eyes laid on him." Hey! I flew down in the mid of my vacation, you should be happy I have a decent pair of pants else I would have been here in my boxers" Mike smirked.Ronald ignored Mike's comment "Dr.Pete he is Michael Williamson and this is Richard Mackenzie". he said introducing them like he was showing the most precious jewels in a museum. " This is Dr.Pete Nicoles" he said. They shook their hands smiling awkwardly but the moment didn't last long," One sexy watch that is!" Mike exclaimed pointing to Pete's wrist. He was taken aback" Thanks" he said looking confused. "Please take your seat all of you", the Boss commanded which was instantly obeyed. " Let me sort this first" he said turning to face Mike. " I know you must be upset about your vacation being cut short." he said.Mike waited in anticipation as Ronald continued " Here is the deal. Once this issue is taken care of, you can take the remaining days off and another ten days as bonus." This made Mike and Richard get intrested in whatever was coming next. It was very unusual for their Boss to accept someone's vacation plea, but here he is himself offering one. This had to be important." Now that, your issue is resolved, I need your utmost attention. This is serious. We have a situation."

A picture of a lady in her thirties flashed on the screen. She was in her car and she stared at something ahead of her. Her expression was that of pure terror. Something was strange about the picture." This is the picture of Ms.Allison David Her body was recovered at Gifford-gate from her car on 18/02/2020. This is the picture obtained from the forensics postmortem. She was 2 month pregnant and had a boy friend. Ms Allison informed him, she was going out with her friends and would only return in the evening. He was oblivious to her pregnancy. It was later confirmed from her friends that she had not planned outing with any of them. A patrol grew suspicious of this vehicle standing on that road for quite a long time and upon investigation found her dead." he paused and looked at the three for questions. Having not received any, he further continued. " The cause of death is suspected to be asphyxiation. She does not have medical record of any previous health issues especially related to lungs. The body was recovered at 3'0 clock in the afternoon and the body showed total rigor mortis. Going by that, the death should have occurred 2-6 hrs before. Interestingly, her colleagues testify that she was pretty much alive and healthy at that time. In-fact she only left office at around 1:30 that afternoon. Owing to this, the time of death, the reason that lead to her death have been a mystery since two days"." There are other means to estimate the time of death",Pete and Mike spoke at once."Yes gentlemen, everything has been used and a conclusion couldn't be drawn.Further information on it, you could talk to the forensic department. After a lot of consideration we had contacted Dr.Micheles, who is an expert in Forensic Pathology. This is where you come in Dr.Pete." he said, his focus now on Pete. " Dr.Micheles was equally surprised at this strange case and took up special interest in it. He had been working on it since the last few days." he paused looking grim." We got a call yesterday, it was from Dr.Micheles office informing us that he was in the hospital and wanted to talk to me." Pete gasped at this. " We could reach him just in time before he slipped into coma. He handed over a key and whispered your name before he drifted away.We couldn't get any information as to how and what happened to him.His secretary and colleagues informed that he was totally fine until half an hour before he was found unconscious in his room" He sighed. " Now, why he wanted you here, only you can answer. " he finished." What about the autopsy?"Mike questioned. " We were waiting for Dr.Micheles inputs in what to look for. The body is at the Morgue. Rodriguez has been appointed to conduct the autopsy." Mike nodded. After what felt like a long time in silence, Mike asked " Boss, why did this case come to us? Doesn't look like a security hazard to me!". Ronald flicked the remote and the screen now focused on a piece of paper " This was found on Ms Clara's lap" Ronald said. It read '18,364 to go.Your Time is Up' ,Mike's eyes narrowed at the screen. " What is interesting is that she had been labelled 4." he continued looking at the reactions of his audience. "Where did he label?" Pete asked." There was a piece of paper on the windshield it had number 4 written on it" he said casually. Ronals smiled at him." Yes" he said changing the screen back to the previous picture." Chemical analysis on both the pieces revealed they belong to the same paper. So both of them have been planted by the killer.No finger prints. As you can see they are printed, so no hand writing. The numbers on that piece is why this case is with us" he said looking at Mike. The discussion of other facts carried on for another half hour after which Ronald said " Ok. I think we should start with Dr.Micheles key. He wanted us to get something he has stored in there. Dr.Preeti Gosh, his subordinate has offered to help us. So, Mike will you be on that?" Mike nodded. " Richard, I want you to hit the system and retrieve data about any similar deaths that occurred in last few moths. Look for across the world. We need to know why he claimed this as fourth" Yes Boss" Richard replied. " As for you Dr.Pete, I hope you must have got an idea why he called you here? If not, I request you to consider thinking in his angle. Please feel free to be around and contact us. It was nice meeting you" he extended his hand. " Nice meeting you Sir. If you don't mind, can I accompany Mr.Mike to Micheles lab.I would like to see what the key holds and I know Dr.Preeti personally, she might help me figure out why I am here today." he said looking between Mike and Ronald." Yes, sure. You can go with him". They walked out of the cabin while Mike asked, " This Dr.Preeti, is she hot?" and in return he earned a kick from Richard and a disgusting look from Pete.

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To be continued...