Jackson looks at the screen with a smile on his face.
He sees a ‘beautiful’ picture - A man has complete control over the woman. He is kissing her and his hands are all over her body. But the woman is like a petrified little bird, with no means of escaping from him.
The kiss is a short one. The man licks the blood on his upper lips. He steps back, and points his gun at her temple.
“Bye Lily.” He says in a coarse and excited voice.
Lisa closes her eyes. Her body is shivering. She tightens her fists, and grabs on to the chains…
“Pang!” A clean shot.
Jungkook gives a mocking smile and puts his gun back in his pocket. He turns around, lifts his head and looks into one of the cameras.
Behind him, Jackson can see Lisa’s body. Her whole body is flopping down. There is a blood hole in her left temple. Obviously, the bullet went through her head.
“Oh…” Jackson’s smile deepens. He is so excited his hands is grabbing on to the corner of the table.
Jeykey. There’s no doubt about it.
What a perfect test. What a beautiful death!
Jungkook says with an insolent tone : ”Hey, puppet, where are we meeting?”
He ridicules Jackson by calling him a puppet. It’s his way of telling Jackson he thinks this test is childish and pathetic. But Jackson doesn’t mind at all. He leans back on his chair : “There’s a car in the garage. Drive it out. I have set the destination inside its GPS navigation system.”
“Ok.’ Jungkook puts the cap back on his head, then he lifts his head to look into the camera again : “This woman, leave her here. I’ll come back for her body.”
Jackson laughs : “Ok. Ok. She is all yours.”
Jungkook quickly leaves the undergound warehouse. Jackson sits at the table and looks at the screens. The place is so quiet. There is no sound or movement at all, except for the blood on Lisa’s forehead, dripping down onto the ground. A drop at a time, like a poignant but bright picture.”
Jackson can’t wait for Jungkook to arrive. He has no interest left in Lisa. He switches off the screens and walks out of the study.
—————
Two hours later. In the State hospital.
Lisa slowly opens her eyes.
The first thing she sees is an unfamiliar ceiling. Drapes that are light blue in colour blocks the sun rays from coming through the window. She is lying on a bed. She is wearing a clean set of clothes, with IV drip attached to her.
Beside her bed, a nice looking man wearing hospital clothes is sitting in a wheelchair. He looks thinner than a few weeks ago. And there is IV drip attached to his arms too.
A wave of relief comes over her.
Jimin.
Her head is still heavy, but she slowly sits up. She remembers the horrible underground warehouse where she was kept for the past few weeks, and everything that happened when she was there.
It’s over. It’s finally over.
—————
After the violent kiss, Jungkook moved his lips away. He stared at her, with his face just centimeters away from her.
He didn’t say anything. He put his forefinger over his mouth. It’s a sign to ask her to be quiet.
Her heart was pounding. What was he doing? Wouldn’t Jackson see that?
But then a strange thing happened. She could hear from Jackson’s voice from the loudspeaker. He gave an approving “Oh..” sound.
She was confused. Jungkook then lower his head again, put his hand around her waist and kissed her.
It’s a different kiss from the one he just gave her. There’s still the smell of blood in both their breaths. He gently touched her chin, which was a little bruised from his much rougher squeeze earlier. He kissed her silently, softly, steadily, in a manner that is familiar to her. His hand tightened around her waist, as if he wanted her to merge into his body.
Tears were flowing down her cheeks. Soon, he let go of her. His fingers wiped away her tears gently. Then he moved back a few steps.
Their eyes met. Lisa bit her lower lips to stop herself from making any sound. He took a last look at her, and looked towards the camera : “Hey, Puppet, where are we meeting?”
————-
Soon, Jungkook left her again.
She was still hanging by the chains in the warehouse. But she guessed what just happened. Jungkook must have asked Lucas to change the images which Jackson saw on his screen. Jackson would think that she is dead, and completely believe Jungkook is Jeykey. She thought she was going to die. But once again, it’s only a plan. Jungkook had everything under control!
But she was still worried for him. Jungkook was on his way to see Jackson. Why did he go alone?
After a while, she could hear someone coming into the warehouse. It’s a few FBI agents. They quietly entered the room. Lisa gave them a signal to keep quiet. They then splited themselves into two teams. The first team looked everywhere for video cameras and microphones and made sure they covered them with some sort of metallic cover.
The second team came to Lisa, to free her. Then they put her onto a stretcher.
The whole operation was swift and fast.
Soon, Lisa was carried to ground level. She saw sunlight for the first time in weeks. It was too bright for her. She lifted her hand to block the brightness. Tears flows down her face uncontrollably.
Once she was on the ambulance, one of the female agents assured her : “Miss Lisa, you are safe now.”
Lisa asked immediately : “What about Jungkook? Is he going to see Jackson alone?”
The agent did not answer her. Then the medic came over and started to check her vital signs and examined the wounds on her body. Lisa had a high temperature. She was exhausted from the ordeal, soon she dozed off.
——————-
In the hospital room. Perhaps it’s her movement that woke Jimin, he immediately looks up. They look into each others’ eyes. Perhaps it’s because they both had a near death experience, they just quietly gazes at each other. At this moment, no words are necessary. They smile at one another.
Jimin stretches his arms open, and gives her a hug.
“Where is Jungkook?” Lisa asks him.
Jimin pauses, then he answers : "He’s probably arrived Jackson’s estate by now. That’s his lair.”
Lisa’s eyes widen slightly. She asks : “What is his plan?”
If Jungkook does not have split personality, then all the crisis, betrayal, drama… it’s all part of a trap he’s set for Jackson.
But Jungkook … how did you manage to achieve all that? And what is the next step? What are you planning to do?
Jimin laughs : “It’s a long story. It’s a sophisticated plan. So many people got involved. But it’s worth it. We saved you. Don’t worry, he will be okay. Let me bring you to a place, and you will understand.”
Lisa relaxes a little after hearing what Jimin- said.
Jimin is confined to a wheelchair, but Lisa is okay to walk by herself. One of the agents pushes Jimin’s wheelchair. The three of them goes to Lucas’s hospital room.
The afternoon sun shines through the windows in the corridor. Lisa looks out and sees the sky. She thinks about the underground prison she was trapped for a few weeks. It’s only been a few hours since she is freed. But what a difference.
Jimin takes out a plastic bag from his pocket and passes it to Lisa : “I am returning it to the owner.”
Lisa takes it. She stops walking.
It’s her ‘suicide note’. Jackson sent it to the TV station. Now it’s back in her hands.
She looks at it. It’s been neatly and carefully folded, and well preserved. Someone circled three of the sentences she wrote.
The first line is “…to be someone like my father.”
The second line is “first time we held hands? …You said I was tickling you.”
The last line is : “I’ve met my parent’s expectations. I became someone they wanted me to be.”
Lisa is pleased in her heart. He understood the clues. He deciphered them correctly.
On the day when they received the letter, everyone was very sad and touched. They couldn’t imagine how wretched Jungkook would be reading a letter like that.
But after the initlal shock,Jungkook quickly pointed out the clues Lisa left him :
“Someone like her father - a police. She…” He paused : “that time she tickled me.. we weren’t holding hands. She couldn’t have remembered incorrectly. That’s the Killer Machine case. And lastly, her mother doesn’t want her to become a police. So she is trying to tell us, that Jackson disguised as an officer in the Killer Machine case.”
Then he continues : “He can’t be a sworn officer. I work with all of them very closely. Perhaps a community police , because a lot of community police helped in that particular case…."
He suddenly stops, his eyes widens : “I think I know who he is.”
……..
Now they have a drawing of Jackson.
Lucas almost hacked all the relevant surveillance sites he could in Korea, Hong Kong and the US. He found many footage of him… He frequently attends a university lecture in S city ; he visited a lot of famous tourist attractions in Lisa’s hometown; he lived as a low profile millionaire in Hong Kong. They found records of his properties. He even has a house in the suburb that Lisa and Jungkook lives in. He was so close to them, lurking around in their neighbourhood.
His latest appearance was on the day Jungkook escaped on his way to the hospital. The CCTV from a building a few streets away had images of him walking down a flight of the stairs. He must have a place somewhere inside the building, and used it as a base to monitor Jungkook. From that image, they traced back some earlier CCTV footages, and they were able to find the villa which Lisa is imprisoned, and from there, they also detected the bombs that’s buried underneath the villa.
Jungkook knew Jackson well enough. If the police tried to rescue Lisa forcefully, Jackson would detonate the bomb. Therefore, he decided to stick with the original plan. He would disguise as Jeykey and find Jackson.
………
“Thanks to your letter, we were able to track him down much more quickly than we expected.” Jimin said : “Jungkook kept this letter with him every day. He only passed it to me this morning to safeguard it for him.”
Lisa’s heart hurts when she heard that. She carefully folds the letter and puts it in her pocket.
—————-
‘Lucas’ hospital room is the control centre for this operation. The curtains are closed. Ten or so computers are set up, with technical staff working attentively behind the computer screens. Lucas is the leader for the technical team. There are also a number of FBI agents in the room.
Lisa looks at the first computer screen. There are two pictures on the screen. Each taking half of the screen. The background of both is the same - the warehouse that she was imprisoned. On the left hand side, the warehouse is empty. The chains that once bounded her were cut and hanging down to the ground. On the right hand side, a woman is still in the warehouse. Her left temple has blood hole, the result of a gunshot. And on the floor, there is a pool of blood.
Lisa asks : “This is…”
Lucas hears her voice. He turns around, smiles at Lisa and says : “Samuel did it.”
An Afro-American with a FBI vest that is sitting two seats next to him gives Lisa a victory hand signal.
Lisa fully understands now. They have hacked into Jackson’s system. So what he saw on his screen is not what’s really happening.
Even though she doesn’t know how it could be done, she is amazed by their talents and skills.
Lisa and Jimin sits in front of a different computer screen.
The images show the views through a front windscreen of a car. They can hear the breathing sound of a man. The images show that the man has arrived at an estate in the woods. There is a white mansion inside the estate.
These are images from a pinhole camera attached to Jungkook. Through this camera and a small listening device they’ve put on Jungkook, they are able to see and hear what he is seeing and hearing too.
An agent explains : “Although we have worked out the GPS location of the estate, we believe there are over ten hostages kept in this property.”
“We will need time to come up with a rescue plan, and how to bypass the security system." Another agent continues : “So, we need Justin to distract him to buy us some time. But don’t worry, we have troops scattered around the area, ready to attack if we need to. They only need two minutes to get Justin to safety.”
Lisa nods and looks at the screen again.
Still… he’s put his life on the line again, so he can save the other victims.
Jungkook has entered the estate. He stops the gate. There are several guards with machine guns standing there. Obviously, instructions have been given to them to let Jungkook in. They take a look at him and wave him to continue.
The car drives through the gardens and stops next a flower bed in the middle of the gardens.
Jungkook opens the car door and steps outside. He looks around, and ignores the number of guards that are standing not far from him. They are all armed with guns.
Then, a tall man that is standing at the entrance of the white mansion slowly walks towards him. He is wearing a simple white shirt and trousers. He’s obviously just tidied his appearance. He welcomes Jungkook with a smile.
Jungkook smiles back at him.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”