"Hi, I'm Luke Shackleton. A friend of Herman's. I lost his contact number. Can you tell me where he is?" asked Luke politely.

"How should I know?" growled the sour faced old man who had opened the door, "he can go to hell for all I care."

"I gave him my wedding ring and I'm getting married tomorrow. Now Herman isn't home, and I ... " started Luke.

"So?" said the old man rudely and spat on the ground to show his disgust.

"I was wondering ..." Luke started again.

"Get out of my face!" yelled the furious old man and shut the door in his face.

Luke smiled to himself and stepped off the porch. He couldn't decide whether he should break into the house or try the other neighbor. After a few seconds he was walking towards the door to the left of Herman's house. If the neighbour was talkative then he might find out something useful about him.

He crossed his fingers and knocked on the shabby looking door. As soon as the door opened Luke saw a simple but friendly looking girl standing in the doorway. Luke felt sure she would cooperate.

He cleared his throat, "hi, I'm Lu ... ambert. Lambert Hill." He quickly created a fake name. The girl might blabber to someone that he was there asking questions about Herman. "I need to ..."

"Please come in," the girl interrupted him.

He nodded and she smiled and led him to the sitting room. It was very simply furnished. The sofas were worn out and the cushions were patched. Surprisingly, the house was clean and tidy despite the furniture being old and shabby.

Luke continued, "I am getting married tomorrow and I forgot my wedding ring on Herman's study table."

"Oh, that's not good," she said.

"Why?" Luke feigned surprise.

"Three months ago Mr. Bruce told me that he was leaving for a holiday trip," she explained.

"Yes, he told me too. I called him yesterday and he said that he wouldn't mind if I broke into his house for my ring," lied Luke.

"Of course. But first, what would you like to drink, Mr. Hill? Tea, coffee or lemonade?"

"Lemonade please," replied Luke.

The girl went into the kitchen and returned after a few minutes, caring a small tray. She filled two glasses with lemonade and handed him the first one. They were sipping the lemonade in silence when suddenly, something jumped into Luke's lap. He jumped with fright and split some of the lemonade on his shirt front. The girl laughed and leaned over to pick up the furry golden creature.

"Meet my cat, Fuzzy," she said.

Luke couldn't utter a word and she giggled at the astonished look on his face.

"It has a habit of jumping into people's laps," she explained.

Luke smiled stupidly and stroked the cat. He drank the remaining lemonade quickly.

"Thanks for the lemonade, Miss ..." Luke purposely left his sentence unfinished.

"Mrs, Mrs. Erica Trelawny," she said with a laugh.

"Can you tell me how does Herman earn his living, Mrs. Trelawny?" asked Luke.

"I'm afraid not. He never mentioned where he worked," said Erica apologetically.

"I must leave now," said Luke suddenly and got up.

He was disappointed that he had not found anything of importance.

"Don't hurry, Mr. Hill. I want you to meet my husband, Arthur. He'll be home in about fifteen minutes," said Erica.

"I'm sorry. Perhaps another time. Thanks for everything," said Luke.

He stroked Fuzzy again and walked swiftly to the door. He did not want to waste any more time in pointless conversation with Arthur. As soon as he stepped out, he saw an old lady unlock the front door of Herman's house and enter. He followed her into the house at once.

"Excuse me," he said politely.

The old lady did not hear him. She seemed deaf.

"EXCUSE ME!" Luke shouted loudly.

When she didn't look back he realised she was deaf. He placed his hand on her shoulder and got the response he needed. She turned and raised her eyebrows in a questioning way. He pointed to a ring in her finger and then towards himself and then towards the room which looked like a study to him. The old lady nodded and started dusting the walls.

Luke entered the study quickly and pulled open the drawer. He went through all the papers and then arranged them as before. He did not want anyone to know that someone had been snooping through the stuff. There was nothing of importance. He closed the drawer carefully and moved towards the cupboard. He picked the lock very deftly and carefully and opened the cupboard. He saw a neat pile of thin files.

The first one amazed him. It contained the details of all the missions Herman was ever alloted.

The second file impressed him. It contained some hand made sketches of weapons disguised as lipsticks, cigarettes, pens and mobile phones. Luke took out the papers and put them into his pocket.

The third file made him jealous. It contained the record of all the money he had ever received from different organisations, groups, clubs or gangs.

The fourth file had no effect on him. It contained contact numbers of a lot of people.

The fifth file disgusted him. It contained newspaper cuttings of different actors and models.

The sixth file excited him. It contained names and codes that he used with different people and the social and political statuses of these people, along with the details as to why and how they were being blackmailed by him. He took out the papers and pocketed them with an evil grin.

The seventh file stirred up a mixture of emotions in him. He was glad when he found out the background of Herman's latest mission. Then he was a bit disappointed when he saw that it had no information about his latest whereabouts. Then he became angry when he realised that Alexandra had taken advantage of the fact that he knew nothing about Herman's mission. She had promised him such a small amount of money for such an important piece of information. He would get even with her for that. But first, he had to find Herman's latest whereabouts.

He was stuffing the papers in his pocket when he heard someone say, "excuse me! What do you think you are doing?"

Luke jumped up with fright and turned around, astonished.

"I ... You can speak?" he asked, surprised.

"I'm deaf so I can't hear what you are saying but somehow explain what you are doing," she said sternly.

Luke couldn't decide whether to run or to lie. He decided to fool her. If he ran then she might call the police and then the police might leave someone to keep watch on the house and then he won't be able to sneak back if he needed to.

He pointed towards himself, pointed towards the papers and then pointed towards himself again.

"You are saying that these papers are yours," she said, walking towards him.

He nodded vigorously and moved towards the door. She blocked his path and stretched out her hand for the papers. He hesitated and then gave them to her. He was ready to snatch them out of her hands and run if she understood something. She looked at the papers and smiled at him. She handed them back and gestured to him that she couldn't read.

He smiled back, waved his hand as if he was saying goodbye and walked out of the room very swiftly. The old lady shrugged and turned back to work.

Luke went to his house and studied the papers again and again. He wanted a clue of some sort to track down Herman's latest whereabouts. He also wanted to have his revenge. It was very difficult to formulate a plan with such a little amount of information. He decided to sleep on it.

Early in the morning he had his breakfast and was going through the morning paper when he got hold of the clue. There was an ordinary photograph of a school match. Beneath it was a paragraph, barely more than ten lines.

The paragraph said:

"The Eagles" against "The Mighty Mimbas"
for a best of five series. The first two matches
were won easily by "The Mighty Mimbas".
"The Eagles" swooped and snatched the other
two. The final was surprisingly won by "The
Eagles". Rumors are heard black magic was
used and the boy who kicked the last goal was
the magician. (As if!) I interviewed him myself
along with the coach and I have never met a
more innocent boy. The coach of the losing
team could not be interviewed as he was most
fairly replaced after the last match.

Something clicked in Luke's mind. Herman's file. The file in which he had kept the records of all the payments. There was a small amount of money he had received from the school mentioned in the paper. The one that had lost.

Luke remembered it because it had seemed very unlikely that Herman had anything to do with a school. Also, the amount of money was too small to appeal Herman, or anyone else for that matter. He felt sure that Herman had something to do with the coach. Or maybe, he was the coach himself. He decided to pay a visit to the school.

The visit to the school was a big success. He got it confirmed that Herman was the coach, under quite a common name of William Smith. Luke got the principal to provide him all the details about his three months job. The principal told him that he left on his own will. He emptied the quarter where he lived and collected his money and left without any reason. The principal personally thought that he could not face the fact that they lost. Luke also heard some flying rumors about the last goal. It was impossible to miss the gossip.

Luke called Alexandra and informed her about Herman's coach business. (He never cheated his clients.)

He also visited the winning school as a journalist. He heard the story about the extraordinary boy and his amazing goal. He asked to meet him but he was absent from school. He found out all the details there were about the boy. He felt sure he was one of the five teenagers Alexandra was looking for.

Luke started planning his next move. First, he wanted to get hold of the boy, Wilfrid Thomas, before Alexandra heard about him. Secondly, he would make her pay for cheating him.

"Alexandra won't know what hit her," he thought cunningly.

Little did he know, Wilfrid not only possessed supernatural powers, but was greatly able to use them for defense as well as offense.

Author's note :

Hey guys! I'm back and here's another chapter. Hope you like it. My exams are over and now there only entrance test to cope with, which is also a very big deal. I'll update very frequently after the exam. I promise.

Not only this novel but also the other two, "One day in prison" and "The twist in life". Check them out too, if you haven't already. I'm also starting two more novels. One is a murder mystery and it's title is, "A million dollar quest" the other is "High school rocks!"

Please comment and vote and follow.

I'm grateful to each and everyone of you who vote or express their views. I'm even grateful to the silent readers. But please vote so that I feel that I'm being encouraged to write and not to stop.

Thank you and have a brilliant day.

Bye!