IN THE LINE OF DUTY

IN THE LINE OF DUTY        ©️Sharon.A.

By the time I stepped outside the leaves were on fire,the pungent smell of smoke choked me holding my throat I coughed hard trying to clear my airway,my eyes were already teary,everything seemed to be spinning round and round to infinity.I badly needed water,it would be just a little time before I pass out from the suffocation, stumbling towards the tap in the yard I heard

"Detective Lana come in,detective Lana? Can you hear me? Detective Lana is everything alright?"

But where was my ear piece? What time was it? I let the water run down,letting loose my bun I hurriedly splashed water on my face , breathing in deeply I rushed to pick my ear piece that lay several centimeters away from me, checking my wrist watch it was 12:00 p.m 

" They got away ma'am, please send back up" I reported back 

From the other end I heard the distressed cry of Mrs Smith but what could I do.

It hard been a long thirty six hours of chase after getting the GPS location of where they were hiding Suze.Suze is a little girl fifteen years of age and the only daughter of Mr and Mrs Smith,she went missing two weeks ago after two unknown guests came over to their get-away farm house, as was the order Mrs Smith cordially welcomed them home as it turned out they had been to meet Mr Smith but who knew they were at the farm house? She silently wondered Suze in the waiting for her father to get home decided to give them a tour around their prestigious mansionette that sat proudly at the centre of thirty four hectares piece of land.

She was seen chatting with them as they headed towards the ranch at the far end of the farm house, fifteen minutes later Mrs Smith set out to call them for tea which she had prepared only to find them missing,the farm was quiet and the bubly voice of Suze was nowhere to be heard that's when she freaked out,ran to the house and rang our police line.

"Suze,Suze, Suze is missing,my daughter is missing,she was just here,but...but she's no longer here," she cried

She was so hysteric that getting any other information from her after that was an uphill task,being assigned this case was a slap in the face in the wake of trying to forget Bowy's death;my little nephew,he had been kidnapped just as Suze and in a few weeks of unfruitful search we sat and prayed we would find him,his disappearance had been followed by threat calls and demands for ransom,a hefty two million,for some reason neither could we trace the caller's number not track their GPS location,the signals kept bouncing to absurd places,they did that on purpose to seal off their trails we ran out of time to meet the demand then one morning a phone call came,

"Luvanga police station?"

"Yes how may we help you?"

"There is a body of a young boy dumped near the park, 30° North of Tadville 

On arrival,the most afflictive consternation scene to set my eyes on; it was Bowy's body

At the flash of all that I knew the agony Mr and Mrs Smith must be going through,two weeks already not knowing where she is,what is happening to her,was she safe...Only calls that we couldn't pin point the exact location,all the leads had been fruitless sadly and this last one they intended to wipe us out,the audacity!

Rising from my squat position ,I set my earpiece in place mounted my motorbike ready for our office,go back to the drawing board to search for her again, at the brink of powering it on to start off came a distinct frantic voice crying for help just from the house I exited,Does it mean Zehir's henchman was still here,the fire was hungrily consuming the house and the whole building would tumble any moment

Searching around the house I spotted a fire extinguisher at the far corner,though the fire was ravaging I would try reach whoever maybe some luck was on my side after all.Breaking the door I sprayed my way around following the scream,evading falling wood splinters till I reached him

Grabbed him by the collar and hauled him across in the direction I had come from, hurriedly dived after him before the whole ceiling could come down on us,with one push we both fell outside just as he made for a run I grabbed his heel and we both face palmed the concrete slab,oh great one other scar to my rather beautiful face,the pain could wait,infuriated I roughly pinned him to the wall,

"Who are you?"

"This the same location sent to Mrs Smith ,where is Suze? Who are you working for?"

Unexpectedly he threw quite a heavy punch that squarely connected with my left jaw slackening my tight hold on him,falling a meter away from him,for a moment I thought I lost my left set of teeth,well the pain was far from excruciating it was unmeasurable,pointing his pistol at me he spat,

"And what makes you think I will tell you that,just a mere cop,is this a child's play or what ? Sending a woman,you should have known with whom you're dealing with,neither will you rescue Suze nor will you capture Zehir,"

Still calculating how to get up without being shot I," what makes you think I can't take you down?"

"They should have known better than sending a woman after Zehir infact in an hour he will be gone as well as that Suze,our buyer is eagerly waiting to meet her,did I mention she's hell of an intelligent kid,but she's troubled us alot you Know...

He seemed to be lost in his speech,that gave me just the minute I required,mustering my energy I kicked the gun out of his hand in the process drawing my own from it's holster,hit 

"Game changer!" Menacingly moving towards him, intentionally aimed at his things and shot,he fell to the ground writhing in pain

"Where is the girl?" Aiming at his other leg I shot

I had never been this furious before,all I saw in my eyes was Bowy's image,all the frustration let lose I was going to draw information from him whatever it took,

His silence and cries of pain wasn't well received,it only stirred my anger just as I was about to shoot his other leg he screamed out,

"Wait! Wait! Suze is on transit to Tangier in Morocco

"When is the plane leaving ?"

"In...In...In an hour's time"

Just then my phone rang,

"Detective Lana, anything from your side? You're required to report here immediately,"Sergeant Carlo said

"Sir, something has come up ,Zehir is on transit to Tangier Morocco,the plane leaves in an hour's time,the kid is up for trafficking,am headed that way,one casualty over here,need an ambulance and back up,call up the airport agency to suspend the flight for an hour"

"Detective we're on it"

Mounting my bike I sped towards the airport,using the main highway it will take me approximately fourty five minutes due to traffic,no that's way too much time,opting for the subways it would be way risky but what do we do

I kept swerving amidst vehicles,dodging oncoming motorist,each time checking my watch hoping to arrive on time,within thirty five minutes I budged into the airport buzzing with activities like no criminal was seated comfortably somewhere .As if on cue that we had arrived a few suspicious men began running around towards the far end of departures lane

Sergeant Carlos voice boomed through the speaker from the control room,

"Flight QF 2407,suspend clearance,I repeat flight QF 2407suspend departure clearance,let everyone remain calm we'll resume soon,"

A few people mumbled here and there but after a few minutes a deathly silence reigned all over at least it gave us time to walk around

As I neared the front of the line I felt a hand tugging me,looking down there was Suze seating on a coal black suitcase,she looked petrified,as I turned to her a bullet shot rang,something hit me so hard that I fell down,a seering pain shot through my left arm ,touching it ,it was all bloody;I had been shot

The whole places turned into a war zone,with people screaming,crouching down others scampering for safety,Zehir's team unleashed bullets from every corner however Sergeant Carlo and the team opened cover fire that gave me enough time to run,holding Suze's hand I shot forward,

"Just ran and don't stop, we're safe," I shouted over the open fires

The poor child was really shaken it was hard to run fast we managed either way.

"Detective ran," was all I heard from the team that stood 300m away from me ready to receive Suze 

As I crossed the last fifty metres to the police car,a bullet hit me from behind,I felt my whole system shuting down,I hit the ground hard leaving Suze's hand.

"Suze ruuuuuuuun!!!" I urged her on

Falling to the ground,I felt myself slipping into thick darkness,my lids were too heavy to keep awake and I slept off 

When I finally came to,my hand left arm was plastered,my tummy area was bandaged, Sergeant Carlo smiled and said,"Glad you are back it's been two days,you got us worried."

I just smiled,the agony could not let me even move an inch

"And by the way Suze is safe,the family would like to meet you later on,thanks to you Zehir is in custody he will be arraigned in the court of law next Wednesday."

With that he saluted and left.

My heart was Content,I couldn't save Bowy but he'd been avenged finally

~END~