Not me - A spin-off
🎨 Yok's Tapestry 🖌️
Life's Tapestry: A collection of memories, experiences, and emotions that shape our identity and define who we are. Some of these moments are etched in our hearts forever, while others fade away...
The location had been confirmed and to be honest it wasn't a surprise. We should've guessed this is where it would be. It was that obvious. The location was none other than Tawi's home.
Rather what had been Tawi's home until he got arrested. That place had been thoroughly searched at the time and had been emptied of everything, right down to the toilet paper in the bathrooms. Nothing was left untouched and yet whatever Danai and his team was looking for, they thought it was right there.
This is what baffled us. The place was cleared, how could something still be hidden there. When Sean, White and myself met with the task team Sammy's connection had formed, we pondered this very question. What was hidden there?
"Remember the last location, had an underground lair we never imagined." "True. If Tawi favoured that kinda thing he may have done it here too." "I think we should also bear in mind the guys we identified at the last location. They feature in here somewhere." " You all have valid points." "It was the safe cracker, a black hat hacker, a security expert and a munitions guy. "
The discussion went on for hours. Ultimately a plan was formed based on the four characters and their occupations. Danai would've gathered them for a reason. When the five left their hideout we used a drone to follow them at a discreet distance. They headed straight for Tawi's house.
Already we had placed teams watching from various spots around that location, all hidden in plain sight. They were disguised as telephone repairman, electricians and joggers. They were all reporting in as Danai and his team passed their different areas.
Once they entered the house, our team sprang into action. White, myself and Sean were asked to hang back as we weren't part of any official law enforcement agency and as civilians it may complicate a court case later on.
We could only follow on the radio as orders were barked and the men moved in. We heard a loud explosion then. Everyone froze, not knowing where it came from. The team held positions for a couple of minutes. Through the headphones we could hear a drill being operated. Our team started moving again.
From where we were waiting we speculated that this may be what that munitions expert was called in for. Therefore the safe cracker and security expert must be to open a kind of safe or something similar. The hacker though still had us scratching our collective heads.
It wasn't long before we heard screaming and gunshots. Something was definitely going down. Within minutes, that felt like hours, came the notification through the headphones that everything was over. Our team was securing the site so we'd be able to access it within minutes.
What passed was the longest minutes I had ever waited for anything. Was I finally coming face to face with Danai? At this point I just wanted it to be over. Could Finn and I finally have a chance at building our future? We waited....
Finally we got the all clear. The team leader led us through what had been Tawi's house. We moved slowly through the front areas noting that very little had been disturbed. Painstakingly slow we made our way through the house. It was eerily quiet.
ROL had once been in this house. Thinking of how that ended brings a pain in my heart that I hadn't expected after all this time. The night I ended up shot and arrested. The memories are still so vivid. White's touch on my arm brings me back to the present. He simply nods, thereby asking if I was okay. I nod back. I'm fine.
Through huge sliding doors at the back, pass the pool and finally the pool house. Immediately behind the pool house is a super high fence, at least three bricks thick. Originally we had wondered why the need for such a thick wall, but since the property bordering it was completely covered in huge mangled trees, we assumed it must be for security.
We couldn't see much through the trees and looked no further assuming that Tawi's property ended at the wall. This is where we had been wrong. The property was registered to Tawi's sister. Problem is he never had a sister, so either the sister is fake or Tawi made her disappear. Either way, because of her name , this property had previously gone unnoticed.
We made our way through the pool house and one single flight of stairs down. A short tunnel and a massive hole in the wall, that very thick wall we had noticed before. We discovered the remnants of a door, assuming then that must've been what they blew up.
One the other side of the hole we followed a flight of stairs upward this time. We emerged on the other side of the fence and found to our surprise, the line of thick mangled trees were only three meters deep. Then in an opening sat a simple house, no windows and one door only , to be used as entrance and exit.
The team leader informed us that this house was one giant safe, now empty. Three members of Danai's team lie dead .... Danai and one other had got away.... They had found something interesting the leader informed us. We're asked to follow him.
Inside this space a steel safe is built in. The doors here has also been blown away. Inside on a small round table we find the watch. What was inscribed inside were Tawi's safe co-ordinates. Danai was really guilty then. "Why had they blown up the door if the had the coordinates?" I ask a little too loud. They didn't have it for the big doors, the blew those up, the needed it for the smaller door set inside. Finally the mystery of the watch is solved.
I wonder if the mystery of Danai will ever be solved. I didn't need to wonder long. Inside the safe we found a cabinet and inside the cabinet on a shelf stood six urns. Six urns containing the ashes of six men.
A huge engraving on the wall above reads as follows: "Here lies the remains of six men that thought they could best me, but they lied. Here I keep their ashes to remind myself I burned them. If I face another obstacle, I'll burn it too. You fools will never have a proper burial. In death I will own you like I couldn't when you were alive. You are mine. Here lies * Rutger * Navarit * Thames * Off-road * Bullets * Danai All dead. I defeated you. You're all dead because I beat you. I, Tawi won."
My knees gave way beneath me at that moment. I sat down with such force I might have injured my spine. Could Danai be dead? Is that what this says? It can't be right. Who had we been following if not Danai? Who had I been seeing if not Danai. I couldn't make sense of anything. Danai dead. I wasn't sure if I wanted him to be dead or on the run once again, this time with Tawi's money.
Sean and White were similarly shocked. None of us spoke. This couldn't be possible. Isn't possible. Danai dead? It can't be.
We are informed by the team leader that inside each urn are small bone fragments and broken teeth. They would run DNA tests. The sample is small, but it might be possible. If it is Danai we will know soon.
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