Tanjelavi

Trinat

Everyone was nervously anticipating the camera footage while it was loading: it slowly traced the two captives while those two were just sitting silently for good ten minutes with Fugue's being still as a weathervane in a windless weather, their head to the ground all the time, and that of the other one looking around from time to time, as if awaiting something or even someone—until that other one just popped up and disappeared without any trace

"Slow up the tape!" determinedly ordered Trinat and didn't even notice everyone's staring at him as well as his saying this in English: all he saw was the screen and absolutely nothing could disturb him from it

The footage was slowed as he ordered, but no one noticed anything odd no matter how many times the tape was replayed again, again, and again as Trinat told to play it frame by frame until there would appear at least something off

The rest of the team was already tired and still saw nothing off about the footage, but Trinat was devouringly observing each frame so much time as he needed, more energetic than ever; everyone started to shift their attention from the screen to their own thoughts and then to Trinat and wondered where he'd got so much dedication from as the frames they'd all already learnt by heart sluggishly were moving on

"Stop here!" jumped Trinat out of his seat and everyone woke up from boredom and looked up at him while he was pointing out to the captive's body being a millimeter lower than a frame before

Trinat stood up and came closer to the screen, staring at it as a math teacher who spotted a pupil's mistake would, and told to move to another frame: the body was a teeny-tiny bit lower down as Trinat had expected

With now a minute long intervals, the frames switched each other and the body was sinking lower and lower until poof! and the captive disappeared yet a millionth time

"Go back to the third-to-last frame", Trinat told the police officer: and there the captive was, with his body over his ankle

"Zoom it in", ordered the police chief, "then move on again to the next one." And the junior officer fulfilled yet another order of his: the captive's finger seemed to sink in their armor, as if pressing something...

"Interesting...,"mused the chief out loud, but still as if to himself. "So they really killed themself—or committed a harakiri so to speak..." Trinat went round the room, aggressively massaging his chin with one hand and pressing his other to his side, "So they didn't want to get caught... To not betray... And not be—"

But his last replica was interrupted by a knock at the door and he, reluctantly and annoyedly, told them to come in, whoever it was

And it was a junior officer who brought Fugue's record with him

.i lo drata plivei cu zvati ma1

doi lo jatna ku no pluvei be fi drata pinfu ve facki2

After a minute's shock, Trinat put himself together and calmly asked
                                                                                                                     .i lo plivei cu se sisku ca ma3

                                                                                       li pavo pi'e vore tcika lo nu ma'a mo'u sisku4

                                                                      .i lo nunmro be lo drata pifnu cu se cmiveigau ca ma5

                                                                                                                                          li pamu pi'e reci6

Trinat was again rubbing his chin violently as he was putting two and two together: the captive wasn't in the Center Database to begin with; Fugue wanted to stay alive and possibly get a chance to travel; they wanted to get under their wing to not get killed and to be deleted from the Database to travel freely; but the data must still be stored somewhere: it was stored in the ankle; how though? That's what he had to find out—in order to find and help his friend... Just wait and see, Trinat was coming for you, Goe! For, not after you... His thoughts got blue as he was giving orders again: to store the record in their local personal database that could be accessed with a police officer license and face only, where all the criminals' records and even their own, police officers', data was stored too, and keep a closer eye on Fugue, and prepare other proofs for the upcoming court: he was going to win that permission to go get the bomb gang whatever it would take him—except for his life: he'd promised Goe at that very day to keep on living if Goe himself lived on... And he was determined to keep his promise. No matter what

1. And where's the other record?
2. No record on the other captive was found, sir
3. And when were you looking for the record?
4. We stopped searching at 2:42 p.m.
5. And when the death of the other captive was registered?
6. At 3:25 p.m.