Chapter 88: ONLY HE KNEW

Olivia.

I was striding along, looking in all directions. Frank and I were first. Every agent behind us was as well trained as the two of us. They all knew what they had to do.

The closer we got to the ship, the more we found a dead body or someone seriously injured. Our guys checked every man we came across. It only took a wave of the hand for the boys to understand each one, which way to go.

Slowly, we spread out and covered the entire area. Luckily for us, the area in front of the boat was clear. We went into the boat carefully. It was deathly quiet, dangerous, I might say. With a gun in hand, we moved forward slowly but surely. We each took the other side so that we covered the entire ship. You could still hear a rasping shot that made my heart skip a beat, thinking of Frank and the rest of the boys. Unfortunately, all the madness that had been going on between the two clans had ended as ugly as could be. Many innocent young boys had lost their lives to the ambitions of tycoons who couldn’t get enough of wealth.

My heart vibrated with joy every time I heard a boy say that his area was free. I advanced to the luxury cabin of the ship and Frank walked to the top deck. It was far too quiet. I was hoping to find the two wounded and not dead. I wanted to see Kevin and his clan’s crime-filled era finally come to an end.

I walked into the booth to find only Luke and a half-naked lady. The woman was tucked into a corner, shaking like a wart, and Luke was lying on the ground. The rest of the room appeared to be clean.

“Stay still. You’ll be safe now. I’m Agent Olivia and I’m going to help you.” I picked up the girl and headed for the exit. Only when I was at the cabin door, I heard a gunshot from behind me. The bullet landed in my leg and an unbearable pain seared me to the ground. “Run!” I shouted to the girl with me.

She looked behind me in the cabin to see who had fired the shot. It was dark and difficult to see. I realized, however, that Luke’s body was only lying on the ground. That’s when I realized I had made a mistake that could cost me my life. Luke was wounded and not dead, as I thought. I saw him approaching with his gun pointed at me. I could see he was hurt because he was moving so slowly.

“You thought you’d get me in your filthy, stinking clutches? You’ll put Luke up like a trophy in the display case and then you’ll be praised and rewarded. WRONG! You’ve earned nothing, bitches. Kevin is dead, so you lost a trophy, and you will lose another.”

“Luke! I...” Before I could finish, I saw him shoot himself and fall to the ground. The pain was getting more acute. The blood flowed like a spring. From behind came Frank and two other boys.

“Are you all right?” Frank asked me in fright. “Your leg’s hurt!” He quickly tore off a piece of his shirt and tied it over the profusely bleeding wound. “Send the paramedics over here. Olivia’s hurt!” he shouted as his lungs held him.

“Kevin?... Did you find him?”

“The guys are still looking for him, but he’s nowhere to be found.”

“Luke’s dead. I’m sorry!” came a boy’s voice from behind.

“Can you help me up, please? We’ll go look for him together.”

The perimeter in front of the boat was full of paramedics, firefighters, and other teams of agents coming to our aid. The entire harbor was being searched, not a corner left unchecked.

“Excluded. You need to be taken care of. I promise I won’t leave until I find him.”

“Luke said he was dead.”

“Then we have to find the body somewhere. We’ll search the sea, too.”

Paramedics with a stretcher were coming towards us. Frank picked me up and put me on the stretcher. Although I wanted to stay strong, the pain in my leg reminded me I needed help. When I got off the boat, a boy came over and handed me a burnt man’s wallet. As soon as I took it in my hand, I recognized him.

An icy shiver ran through my whole body. I hoped my feelings weren’t true. I opened it to see if I could decipher any of the papers inside. A piece of paper read Kevin Parker’s name. An emptiness settled in my stomach, quickly turning to disappointment. It was Kevin’s wallet, burned. I couldn’t believe it. I was right. My feelings weren’t wrong. It hurt that I’d missed the opportunity to shout the pain I’d caused Emily’s Mike to his face. I wanted him alive and handcuffed in front of me, but it wasn’t to be.

“Can we see him? The body? Where did you find him?”

“The body is next to the truck that blew up. It was full of crates of weapons. Only a few crates on top were auto parts.”

“You did an excellent job. You caught the biggest arms deal ever. Congratulations!” the voice of the chief agent in charge of Europe is heard.

“If we had captured the two bosses, it would have been great, but .... is my fault.”

“Olivia dear. Your work was amazing. You didn’t kill them. You have nothing to feel bad about. It was their problem. It’s a common occurrence among underworld clans.”

“We have to get it. She’s losing a lot of blood,” said one paramedic.

I watched all the chaos I was leaving behind as paramedics hoisted the stretcher into the rescue. My thoughts were racing to everything I had left unresolved at the scene. The personnel on the rescue kept milling around me as the driver drove away. The sirens of the rescue were blaring. I had so many questions that should have been answered by searching the area. But God thought it best to get me away from there. Why, only he knew.