The Great Pretender

Chapter 33: Location

Vaughn Miguel

"I swear, whenever I get close, they just erase the trail like nothing happened. My hours of effort are gone. Just like that. " Frustrated na sabi ni Kuya Si habang nag-titipa siya sa laptop na nakapatong sa kanyang mga hita. Kasalukuyan kaming narito sa kanyang living room. We had to have a change of scenery because we have been looking and searching for any possible information for the last five days. "I cannot use my company devices because if I am going down, my company cannot go down with me, because there are people working there." Narinig ko pang bulong niya.

For the last three days, Kuya Si has been looking for footage of Kamila. He is also chasing whoever is hiding Kamila, but every-dåmn-time, they just poof away like a magician. I also tried to go on the darkweb to see if Kamila has any signs there but there is nothing.

"Damn ît." Frustrated na sabi ni Kuya Si. He is clearly pissed that some faceless hacker shîts on his skills again and again, and unfortunately again.

Humarap naman akong muli sa moveable whiteboard imbes na i-comfort or i-hug siya. If I try to do that, he will just yell at me, so I might as well do my own thing.

While he does the tech stuff, I do the manual stuff here on this moveable whiteboard that I found in his computer room. He said he always has one in every house, because according to him, he tends to develop ideas better if he writes it down.

That being said, I looked at my drawing of the last known location of Kamila, which is Central Luzon. How did I know?

Well, na-trace ni Kuya Si ang kakarampot na signal na nagmula sa disposable na cellphone na ginamit ni Kamila noong tinawagan niya ako. It was discarded right away kaya hindi exact na lokasyon ang na-trace ni Kuya Si. So, according to him, the call from Kamila pinged around the cell towers in Central Luzon. There are seven provinces, 8,339 miles of land, twelve million people and 118 municipalities in that area.

That's obviously a lot of area, so I had started narrowing it down. Kamila is an American who grew up in the states and is more familiar to western countries, so, there is a high probability that she will not be familiar with the outskirts of the seven provinces, so I crossed it all out.

That still left me with approximately 5,000 miles of land. And so, for the last three days, I have been circling in that area and have been racking my brain kung may nabanggit ba siya sa akin na isa sa mga lugar doon, subalit sa ilang araw na mga lumipas ay wala talaga akong maalala.

Habang nakatayo ako sa harap ng board ay sandali kong ini-stretch ang aking mga braso.

My wounds are healing. Hindi na siya ganoon kasakit at mas maayos ko nang naigagalaw ang aking balikat

Huminga muna ako nang malalim, bago ako humalukipkip at muling tumitig sa board.

I have to go back from the beginning.

"So, Kamila steals from mega-corporations who don't pay taxes or treat their employees right." I murmured to myself. That's what I remembered from her 'profile' sa database. "She also has contingency plans....so that could mean na may safe house siya sa isa sa mga lugar na ito..." I said to myself as I looked at the provinces.

She is an international wanted criminal, so mahihirapan siyang lumabas ng bansa. So, the safest option for her is to stay hidden on Philippine soil, for now.

Pero saan naman siya mags-stay? That's the big question, and it's supposed to be hard, but then again this is not my first rodeo when it comes to looking for someone. I've looked for many bad people in the last few years.....I just have to apply my training but this time, I am looking for a good person and my woman.