the final mission

05

THREE YEARS SINCE THE DEVASTATING FIRE THAT CLAIMED FIVE HUNDRED LIVES

Kai huffed and slammed the newspaper on his office desk. He was tired of reading that same headline over and over again. He stood up and stretched his legs, shaking the tiredness out of his bones. He had pulled an all nighter for the third time this week, trying to finish his work up. He still had a lot to catch up on.

"Good morning sunshine!" Kai groaned at the disturbance outside of his door. If the childlike man knocked any louder, Kai's migraine would increase tenfold.

"Brody, you have two seconds to leave before I pound your head in."

"If that's what it takes to get you out your office, then deal!" Kai stalked towards the door and was about to give Brody the beating of his life. He stopped when he saw the breakfast tray that Brody held. Both of the men knew that it was a peace offering.

Kai grabbed the food and planned on closing the door behind him, but Brody and the two men behind him pranced in as if they owned the place. They sat down in the many couches spread around the room. They stared at Kai with wide eyes, waiting for him to snap. He never held in his attitude for long.

"Kai, so we were thinking -" Brody began, a hopeful smile on his face.

"No."

"But-"

"No."

Brody huffed and crossed his arms across his chest, acting like the baby he was. Kai knew by then to never fall for anything that comes out of his mouth. He didn't have time to waste on the trivial matters that most people his age got the luxury of enjoying.

"They've opened the investigation back up." Cale muttered, hesitantly taking a glance at Kai. Kai furrowed his eyebrows and clenched his mouth while he heavily breathed through his nose. His fists were shaking to the point of them turning maroon.

"Why? It's been three years. Why reopen closed doors? Finding the culprit is a bit difficult when only one person made it out alive." Kai snickered at the thought of the police thinking they could actually be helpful. They never had been helpful to him, and he believed that they never would be.

"Kai, why don't we do it ourselves?" Kai was quick to interject, but Diego held up a finger. "I get it, all of your family died. Remember Kai, we all used to have families, too. But nowadays, we're your family and you're ours. We're here to help you." Kai wasn't a man of many emotions, but gratitude oozed out of him as he sighed and gave the three boys a tentative nod.

"This is the only thing I have from that night," Kai pulled out the empty lipstick container from his bottom desk drawer, "I'm not sure it could be of much help, though." Cale gently took it from him and inspected the tube. He had a sneaking suspicion that Kai cleaned it every once in awhile due to its shiny appearance.

"Diego, can you get on your computer and look for stores that sell this brand? The batch number is still on the bottom." Diego was right on it, searching for the brand and everything about it. Kai was grateful for his three friends. They had carried him through rough times and asked for nothing in return. Providing them with jobs was the least he could do.

All of them had gone to college early and had graduated several months earlier. They shoved as many credit hours as they could into each semester as well as going to college over the summer. Together, the four had taken up Kai's family's "company," which turned out to be more of a gang, and brought it to an all time high.

"Found it! It's produced and sold in Russia." Cale, Diego, and Brody smiled at each other, already excited at the prospect.

"You know what that means boys." Brody said, his volume raising in excitement. "Adventure!"