“...I’m his brother.”
Jerson just looked at Vishnu’s hand, contemplating whether to accept the handshake or not. He finds it strange. He was sure that Degree set things up. But he couldn’t see through Degree's actions and didn’t guess that Degree plans to set him up to meet the younger de Oliveira. He couldn’t help but groan silently.
“It’s a shame if you won’t accept my hand. My dependents are watching,” Vishnu mumbled. Jerson just stared at Vishnu’s hand as if it would melt any second just by glaring at it.
He doesn’t look like someone who cares about others' opinions, Jerson thought. He looked at Vishnu’s hand again. Should he accept the handshake? It’s just a handshake, after all. It couldn’t harm him. But Jerson felt uncomfortable. Just by seeing Vishnu’s hand, he already felt restless as he is. What more if he clasped his hand at the Prosecutor's hand?
Jerson sighed before extending his hand. It’s just a handshake. He has nothing to lose.
As their hands clasp, Jerson could capture a glimpse of Degree’s smile, and he hates the fact that he appeased the desires of the old geezer. How could he ever forget Degree’s statement about his younger brother when he almost hears him blabber about it every fucking day? Now that he remembers how Degree describes Vishnu, it upset the hell out of him. It irritates him as to how troubled he is. All of it is all Degree’s fault! He shouldn’t have said those things right on his face!
“Jerson Luiselli,” he said and immediately pulled back his hand. It’s not that he didn’t like Vishnu. Clasping his hand with the Prosecutor made him uncomfortable and he didn’t like it.
Ignoring the two, Jerson looked at his IPad and grunted when he spotted some underlings of those pieces of shits before looking at the two de Oliveira standing in front of him.
Jerson observes the people around the area. Although most people roaming around the neighborhood seem normal, there’ll always be some who’ll stand out of the crowd. It didn’t escape Jerson’s eyes.
“Let’s head back first. Some motherfuckers are tagging around to follow this so-called decent Prosecutor,” Jerson said mockingly. Degree heartily laughed at it made Jerson get more exasperated.
“These two are too troublesome for me to handle. I need a fucking break,” Jerson whispered.
Vishnu groans when he hears Jerson’s remarks about him. He could understand that Jerson couldn’t handle Degree, but how and when the hell did he become troublesome to someone? Jerson’s comments are indeed too unusual for that it annoys him after hearing it. He never was the type to be a burden to shoulder. He, in reality, was the one who actually shoulders all the problems. He was the one who’d make a solution to the problem. How could he say such gibberish stints?
Degree couldn’t stop laughing when he saw his younger brother’s annoyed expression. Compared to Jerson, Vishnu could display more emotions when someone gets into his nerve, but that occurs hardly once in a blue moon. He’s happy that he could see that irritated face without putting in too much effort. But Vishnu wasn’t pleased about it.
While the two de Oliveira drives a car, purposely tailing Jerson, who was maneuvering his cruiser, Degree comes up with an idea again. He had been waiting for this to happen. The two significant people in his life had met, and now, Degree couldn’t wait to bond with the two. Although the two of them had forgotten those days, he knows that they still have the heart to face each other. It’s been years. He couldn’t endure the setup anymore.
“I could hear your thoughts from here, Noah,” Vishnu asserted.
“Can you blame me if I am over the moon right now?” Noah brings up a question instead of denying Vishnu’s sentiments. Vishnu couldn’t give a precise answer. Vishnu wants his brother to be happy. Noah (Degree) was enthusiastic about him meeting his only loyal companion. He was proud of having Jerson as his partner that he’ll brag about how outstanding Jerson is. Degree is so proud of his partner.
Vishnu doesn’t have any reason to refute his brother’s enjoyment, but he couldn’t just go with whatever his brother wishes to do. On the spur of the moment, Vishnu imagined Jerson’s proud face and indifferent expression, which made him irked. He silently wishes never to catch a glimpse of the man ever again. He just couldn’t stand him.
“I’ve been telling you. You two were a match made by heaven. You even promised to marry—”
“And there you are again, tale-telling some fiction made by your creative mind,” Vishnu proclaimed, mocking his older brother. “I’ve been asking for an indication to substantiate such a claim. I could not just believe you. I may have forgotten some fragments of my memory, and I have not yet regained such memory. Just because you are my brother and you've told me that what you’re babbling about is the truth does not mean that I will, and I have to believe you. I’ve been straight all my life, Noah. How could I fall to a guy and to someone who doesn’t seem to care?”
“I really hate it when you're being absurd like this. Fictions created by my creative mind? Don’t blame me if you just find yourself falling for the same guy and don’t ask for help if things turn out difficult for you,” Degree said sulkily. How could he not believe me? I am his brother!
Vishnu snorted, “You seriously need a head check-up, Noah. Can’t you tell that I can’t even stand being alone with him? So how could I fall for someone who’s making me uncomfortable?”
“In fact, there are two reasons why people make you uncomfortable. First, they are your enemy. Second, you like them.”
Vishnu gave him a middle finger. Noah just chortled. Don’t come to me crying when you two have misunderstandings just like you did years ago!
•••
Jerson examined every corner he could pass through. He wasn’t sure if the information he collected through scanning the CCTV was accurate enough to save him from all the trouble. He couldn’t afford to lose some of his fingers or get injured before quitting, right? Hospital bills will only add a significant sum of money to his debt which would count as the total amount of his savings. Hospital bills nowadays cost a sum of high capital. He couldn’t afford that big money.
In fact, today was supposedly the day he’ll resign from the kind of job he has and will start to look for an ordinary part-time job that’ll save him from all the trouble. He might get killed even before he found out the reason behind the accident years ago. The accident happened on the exact date but a different year with his parents’ disappearance. The possibility that the two incidents might be connected made Jerson uneasy.
His thought made him sigh. He wanted to blame Degree, but he knows he shouldn’t. It was his fault in the first place for falling for that ridiculous stunt.
[You two go ahead first. I have something to check out.]
After texting, he slid his IPad in his briefcase; Jerson could perceive a suspicious man standing near the steel safety bollard through the door quarter of the car beside him. The man appears to be normal to someone’s eyes, but not to someone like him.
He behaved well as he strolled past the concrete sidewalk. Jerson’s actions prompt the man to caress something in his ear and mumble some words Jerson couldn’t hear before walking out hastily. Jerson shook his head, thinking whether to satisfy the prognosis of the fools or just end the game they set up to avoid wasting so much time.
Ambush, Jerson grinned. They’re planning for an ambush, and Jerson already foresaw this.
Jerson could tell that they had come up with this kind of resort to deal with him. They had planned to corner him alone; outnumber him so they’d be able to kill the motherfucker who gave them so much trouble and gain the money in exchange for his head. It’s like hitting two birds with one stone.
What a bunch of dupes. The other party’s dumb prosecutions compelled Jerson to smirk. The situation is very unfortunate for the other party. The way they operate such things amasses significant loopholes. Jerson is adequate at dotting such keyholes and uses it to his advantage. That’s how he works, and this is one of many reasons why Degree couldn’t let Jerson go. Jerson was way too good to be taken for granted. Such great talent shouldn’t go to waste.
Jerson halted and deliberately groped his jacket, looking for something advantageous while wearing his sophisticated face. He knows he couldn’t fight such men who have large-caliber weapons in their hands.
How could they play games like this? Such coward asses actually have the guts to stand before me. Cute.
Jerson picked the black button in his pocket. From the look at it, it looks like a simple U.S.B., but that isn’t just as simple as it appears to be. His technology-genius friend, Alec, made this black button. The simple button could regulate anything connected to electricity. The chips inside were made to ignite electricity from naturally existing fluxes such as wind and heat near the fuel sources. It only made it easier given the fact that machines and cars already had stored energy. If his excellent friend made this a success, he’d probably hug the man for saving his ass today.
Hearing those silent footsteps that were subsiding within the gloomy air, Jerson continued walking. He only stopped when he was already in the middle. He could feel the presence of the men who were after him. He closed his eyes before pressing the button.
I might say that I do come off to be in an action movie. The antagonist was me, but the protagonist would be the one who’ll end up dead; Jerson smirked.
The very moment he opened his eyes, the alarms from different kinds of engines disturbed the stillness of the parking lot. The disturbance caught the men off-guard. While their guard is down, Jerson gets the smoke bomb stored in his briefcase and throws it at the oblivious men. He then hastily walked towards the guy who had been tailing him and dragged him out of the chaos.
When they were far enough, Jerson banged the man at the concrete wall making the man moan in pain. Seeing the fear on the man’s face, Jerson snorted. Am I scary? With a look like this?
“How could your boss trust the likes of you who were too lenient to execute such flawed plans?” he asks while groping the man’s suit. When he found what he was looking for, he slid it into his briefcase. It’s just a simple symbol of some sort that’ll lead him to his parents' whereabouts. He’d been obtaining it for decades and got various collections, but none of those were the same as the tattoo he got.
“I’ll let you go for now. If I caught you the second time around, I’d pull the trigger of my pistol with the muzzle pointing at your skull.”
Jerson fixed himself before looking at the time. It’d been 20 minutes. It took a lot longer than expected.
“Tell your boss about my regards, yeah? Tell him I can’t wait to see his shortness stand in front of me without quivering because of fear.”