Hide N Seek

1. New Mission

NIA Headquarters, Bangkok.

"Agent 201 reporting for duty, Sir!" A tan-skinned young man saluted energetically.

"Agent 108 reporting for duty, Sir!" A slightly taller young man saluted with equal energy.

The people in front of them nodded and gestured for them to take a seat. Among the three people who were in the room, other than the two young men, the oldest and seniormost guy motioned to initiate the agenda of the meeting.

Wad adjusted his oversized glasses and stood up. He turned the lights off and the projector screen lit up showing the map of Bangkok city.

Wad was the Head of the Information Department of the NIA special squad which was meant for secret undercover operations. Among the five people attending the meeting, the two young men were agents who took up the mission and went undercover. The old man, Feng, was the superior cum the Head of the team, who wasn't allowed to take up any missions due to the injuries he sustained from the previous mission. Last but not least, the only female in the room, Sarah. She was in charge of connecting the special squad with the rest of the NIA system.

"Today, we have called the two of you here to assign you a new mission, 'together.'" Feng spoke, highlighting the word 'together'.

The two young men who had never met or interacted looked at each other with a judgemental gaze.

"I know what you want to ask, Ryan," Feng said looking at the younger one of the two who seemed to dislike the idea of working together with another person. "But this mission is way too important and dangerous for you to go alone. We have already lost three agents who took up the mission before you."

Ryan gritted his teeth and maintained a straight face.

"Let me introduce you two to each other. Agent 108, this is Agent 201, Ryan Jirayu Panupan, my student and the team leader of Team Tigers." Feng introduced the slightly tanned guy to the taller one and then turned to introduce the taller "This is Key Suthasit Wattanakul, the leader of Team Panthers."

The two men waied at each other rather reluctantly.

"Two of you are really alike." Sarah chuckled earning a stink eye from both the young men.

Wad cleared his throat gaining the attention of the four people in the room. "Now that the introduction part is done, let's get into the details of the case." He pressed the enter key.

The screen showed the photographs of thirteen people.

"The case is a serial murder case. In the span of five years, thirteen people had already died, excluding the officers who were in charge of investigating the case." Wad looked at the three people in front of him. "All the officers involved in the investigation previously, including detectives, coroners, prosecutors and NIA agents died in what seems to be accidents."

"Hence, the higher-ups suspect that this is a case much bigger than just a murder case," Sarah said and nodded at Wad, who changed the screen to a photograph of a young man who seemed to be in his twenties. "This is Liam, the last NIA agent who took up this case. A few days before he died in a mysterious accident, he happened to stumble upon a few shreds of evidence that seemed to be pointing at the involvement of the dark web. He had reported it to us but before he could hand that evidence over to us, he died and the evidence went missing."

"You mean someone is trying to silence anyone who is involved and is trying to hinder the investigation in fear of being discovered for their illegal activities?" Key asked.

"That's our assumption. We can confirm that the person who was behind the serial killing was not the one who murdered the officers. The ones that did that was someone from the victim's side." Sarah's words made the two young men frown.

Wad switched to another photograph. "This is John, the first victim. He was born into a poor family and got rich after marrying a wealthy socialite. He was found dead in one of his resorts, five years ago. Back then, the case was closed as a case of drug overdosage."

The screen changed displaying another two men. "Until these two cases came up. These two cases seemed so similar to John's case and was found dead from 'drug overdosage', making the officers in charge suspect that it was linked to John's case. All three murders took place in a span of six months in a single province. The case got reopened for investigation."

Sarah passed the files containing the case details of the three murders to Ryan and Key. The two young men went through the details.

Wad went on to explain the other murders listed in the file along with the cases of the officers.

"The NIA has been having a hard time solving the case and there is so much pressure from the higher-ups to answer. All the victims are people from the upper circle of Bangkok city. The case is not something that can be left unsolved for long." Sarah concluded.

"But, what made you conclude that all these murders were done by a single person? Other than the fact that all the victims are rich and most of them held powerful positions, I don't see anything in common for all these cases to be concluded to be done by a serial killer." Ryan commented.

"You are right Ryan. Each and every case was done uniquely. The initial few cases had a few similarities but with time, the killer's ways improved and diversified, making it difficult for us to trace down a clear pattern." Sarah acknowledged.

"Yet, we came to the conclusion of them being serial murder cases, because of the way the victims were tortured before they died. Most of them had undergone some or the other kind of torture before being brutally murdered. And mind you, none of them were saints. They were all involved in things like drugs, gambling, assaults etc." Wad said eyeing the thirteen photographs.

"We want the two of you to go undercover and find clues. And we need to be quick. As per our expert's calculations, they had predicted that there might be another murder within this month." Feng said looking at the young men in front of him in a commanding tone.

Just when Feng finished speaking, Wad's communication device rang. Wad attended to it.

"Another murder took place last night," Wad said keeping the device away. "They suspect that it is one of the serial murder cases."

"And that makes fourteen," Sarah said leaning against the backrest of her revolving chair.

"We need to take action quickly." Feng looked at Wad and spoke, "Get all the information you can get about the case and the victim as fast as you can and pass it to these two." He then turned to the two young men "You guys don't have to go to the crime site yourself. It may blow your cover. I will get someone to do the work for you."

The two young men nodded and saluted their superiors.

[A/N: I am borrowing NIA aka National Defense Agency's name just to give you an idea about the set-up. The original NIA has nothing to do with the story. I have no idea how NIA works. So, if I make any mistakes along the story, please don't be offended. Please do leave comments and suggestions along with votes. ]