Puerto Leguizamo 4:30 am.
The boat swayed from side to side, there was almost no one awake except the ship's captain and some guard posts.
In front, about 150 meters away, some yellow lights could be seen, it was the control post for the Puerto Leguizamo route, controlled by a supposed state police group, in secret, they had some part-time leaders from the district.
Combat fighters of level IV mostly and one of level III.
They only made sure to check that their cargo didn't have anything peculiar, like contraband or some type of illicit drug. They didn't care about money, contrary to what one might think in an organization, belonging to a district already makes you someone different. The cannon fodder used by the districts were not randomly selected people, they had ways of making them remain faithful to their commitment, if it was found that they were looting, asking fees from boats or any form of extortion that would put them on the map either through news or police investigation, they would have a terrible punishment.
For this reason they gave them salaries commensurate with what they did and some bonuses to make their work worthwhile, not before undergoing rigorous counter-espionage training, this to prevent some type of information about the districts from being stolen.
Unlike another organization where employment is sought through an interview, here they are observed beforehand, they are examined, from their financial history to their family circle, only when they meet the requirements are they sent for evaluation by another section that directs the district, called the general evaluation center, this is divided into different modules where no module can know of the existence of the other, you must not speak of your module or you can be reprimanded.
At the same time to prevent two evaluators from meeting and conspiring to let someone enter an evaluation assuming they manipulated some recruiter to let someone in or vice versa, the evaluation systems are random, only manageable from an analysis center that is also independent and not in the same place as the evaluators or recruiters.
The mechanisms vary between the different districts, but they maintain the same type of cautious strategy, therefore, no spy is able to enter easily.
Promotion systems vary according to the capabilities and desires of whoever requests a promotion evaluation. For those with higher profiles or those who have the right to more information, they also have a protocol, an extreme one in case of betrayal.
During the time the boat approached the river port, the lights of the reflectors were directed at the bow, passing through the starboard to the stern, finally the boat stops.
The level IV guard approaches to supervise the maritime transport papers, the boat was for tourism so they should only have the necessary rations and a little more for the trip.
2 level IVs and the rest common officers, approach the boat and do a quick search. At the bottom, at one of the posts near the lighthouse, is the only level III, for him this is just another job, before being transferred to another point, he just had to wait a few days until the replacements arrived.
"Uaaaah…this is a lot of work, who thinks it's a good idea to keep these work schedules?, if only they would change the departure time…."
He only came in the established route schedules, he would change every week with another partner randomly to watch this point, he only left some level IVs so they would stay to watch when he left.
In that span, inside the rooms, each one held a weapon in bed, pretending to be asleep, the only one not in his room was Rudolf, who was in charge of watching over me at that moment, he was the line of defense for Heiss in the moment everything went to hell.
One by one, he entered the rooms to inspect if there was anything strange.
The doors opened and with a flashlight the interior was lit, the compartments were scanned searching for hidden cargo, they didn't examine people because they weren't really looking for anyone.
So they went to each room, as they passed, the boys and girls were able to breathe with ease, the last room was Heiss's.
"Clanck", the door opened.
At the back was a tall man, brown hair, the lamp was on, at his side was a bucket with water and a wet cloth on his companion's head.
The flashlight illuminated Rudolf's face, making him open his eyes disturbed.
"What's up, who are you?", Rudolf asked, seeming confused by the situation.
"Relax, stay where you are, it's an inspection from the Puerto Leguizamo river port, we're just making sure everything is in order"
"..aah, I see, of course go ahead", putting on a look of understanding, Rudolf let him in.
The subject searched the place, the bucket, under the bed, upon noticing there was nothing he approached to look at the subject in the bed with the towel.
"Is he sick?", he asked upon noticing that Rudolf is there and not in his room, apart from the wet cloth.
"Yes sir, it's my friend, he got sick on the tourist excursion, we believe he just pushed himself too hard and that's why he has a fever"
"I see"
He only accepted the answer, then left without making noise.
Rudolf was able to blow air slowly from his mouth, he set down the weapon he was holding with the thin blanket he was using.
"What a hassle", happened after knowing that he was alone and there were no more guards.
However, some words were heard from the person in the bed.
"So we're friends huh"
He kept his eye open, his unique gray color had returned since he woke from the fever, however, he only kept one open, that helped him not process more than what he saw and keep his mind fresh.
"Shut up", happened immediately upon hearing those words.
Heiss didn't say more and just laughed quietly.
***
Approximately 9 hours ago, in a small cafeteria in an exclusive residents area of Medellín.
"First you ask me to see you, and then you take me out for coffee, why don't you be direct and tell me what you want?"
The young woman's attitude was one of exasperation, first she had been made to wait in the reception for an hour after being summoned, and then she takes her to a cafeteria without saying a single word the whole way.
If it weren't because Heiss was the main topic of conversation, she wouldn't let herself be treated like this.
"Your name is…"
"Ana, Ana Avirama", she answered without letting her continue.
"You cited me here for an issue with Heiss, so be direct and don't waste my time.
Ana was direct, if it wasn't something relevant, she would stand up and leave.
"You don't seem very worried after he was kidnapped, on one hand it doesn't seem important, but on the other you're here, do you have confidence that he's alive or fear that he knows something?"
Ana's fists tightened slightly.
"I can tell you that he's fine, I think you know there's nothing to worry about, on the other hand…."
She moved towards the briefcase she had at her side, then took out a folder and opened it in front of her.
"Constructoras de Sementó S.A.S, one of the companies your father Obriel runs, one of many infrastructure companies that he keeps in his name. I wonder, what could worry you so much that Heiss would know that would make you come and wait so long?. What information could be so important that you two would meet in a private hotel room?"
Sarcasm was permeated in every one of her questions.
Unexpectedly, Kalika's deep dark green eyes darkened a bit; this didn't go unnoticed by Ana.
"For example, the unexpected information of a civil war"
"…", Ana's gaze became incredibly cold, her honey-colored golden eyes didn't stop looking at her for a second, then she responded.
"And?"
"You know what I mean, once the war starts, foreign investors will withdraw their support, your stocks will fall, the government will become destabilized, it will even collapse. By the time the country recovers, if it recovers, the companies will have gone bankrupt and disappeared, only replaced by the reconstruction of foreign companies that will have the liquidity and power to rebuild the country"
"…", no words came from her mouth, waiting for her to continue.
"That is, unless there's a way out, I don't know if Heiss has the influence, but I'm sure he doesn't have what's necessary to save your father's companies"
"Therefore I wish to help you, I can make sure you keep all your companies active until the final moment of the war, if you can keep some simple…"
Unexpectedly, a small laugh was heard from the girl who covered her mouth, that made Kalika stop talking.
"Have I said something funny, Miss Ana?"
"jeje….I, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be disrespectful, it's just that you seem to not understand much, I worried for nothing"
Kalika's brow furrowed a bit, it wasn't that she didn't expect some tantrum, plea, form of dissuasion or manipulation, she could know people very well; but this is a problem when you haven't met them, the way to dampen is to learn everything about the other person and make different predictions of the different scenarios, this one wasn't in hers, especially the following words she heard.
"Miss Kalika Tanaka, I've always wanted to meet one of the supposed heirs of the Tanaka family, bunch of unscrupulous corrupts, hahaha, do you really think Heiss comes to save my father's companies?"
What Kalika would hear next would plant doubts in the standards of people she had met and manipulated over the years to achieve her goals.
"I'm just like you dummy, I also want the ruin of my family"
Kalika's eyes opened upon hearing her declarations, and for the first time a crimson red color turned in her iris.
"….I see that you also have something special about Heiss, thank goodness I received a warning from him that you would possibly visit me. You see Kalika I didn't sit with my hands crossed either so they could point a gun at me and see him, I see the same thing I see when I'm in the mirror, anger, desire for revenge, does it irritate you when you see yourself in the mirror right?"
"….", she said nothing.
"It's because you also have disgust at not being able to have done something in your past, right?"
Kalika had been able to face many enemies, but none was as strong in his moment as Heiss, at first she had to do something against another company, at the beginning everything was going well, until the men sent by her were eliminated; then she was visited by the same executor of her men in person.
Many things happened, and by mere luck, she was able to get out of that situation alive, because it wasn't the objective. Heiss just had to defend a man by contract, there was nothing about eliminating her assassin.
After that Heiss visited her frequently, the reason was neither logical, he only answered that it was for comfort, that she made him feel at peace.
Many events passed until the moment when the two became friends, in his time Heiss was very shy, almost wasn't sociable, she had the presentiment that he was doing it as a test, almost as if someone was forcing him, later it became natural, and she stopped paying him attention, because deep down she began to believe that he was the only one who could understand something of the hell in which she lived.
Everything changed overnight approximately a year ago, the outings began to be less frequent and his personality seemed to fragment to the point that he rambled speaking, looking to other sides, Ana didn't ask, her reason, her face full of sadness that she tried to hide.
In all those years Ana learned a lot from Heiss, even some advice from one of his close friends who used to visit her before, many of those experiences helped her to be able to fight and defend herself.
For Kalika there was no impenetrable wall, however, for the first time she had to retreat instead of advance. The only one who could be in conditions similar to Kalika was Ana.
"I have informants in many countries, I must say that getting something out without your connections getting involved was torture. But there, at the bottom, I found it, signs of suspicious connections in Southeast Asia, to where you move when no one is watching, a way to achieve control without your family seeing you, impressive, I must say I wouldn't have made it without Heiss's help. Believe me, he's also curious about the person who helped him at the hotel and sent a special force to help him, that was nothing less than spectacular, that's why he used his own contacts to find something about you, and for bad luck I'm very good at tying up loose ends, especially knowing that the heir elections will be next year, won't they, Miss Kalika?"
Kalika was not one to show emotions, but for the first time she felt the urge to eliminate a dangerous enemy, it was like a snake that approached silently without her noticing.
"….I must say you did your homework well, although I would like to ask, how did you arrive at such a conjecture, some simple signs of connections shouldn't tell you anything and even more because I do everything anonymously"
She came to suspect an informant, but that was impossible, since practically no one knew about the coup she was planning. Those connections were a support for when she took power in her family and some at times of fighting, but none knew anything, only her 2 siblings, the Inquisitors of Elend and some European connections placed strategically, but none of them would be useful to betray her, it could even be a danger to them to reveal something.
"Well, that's simple, the information that the districts have on everyone is not as light as you think. They are like rats that have eyes in every corner of the world, and Heiss has eyes all over Asia. As you say, it wasn't easy to see the signs, it was all random numbers and data, but I'm also aware that your sister is right here in Colombia, and she transports different types of military weapons"
"….", her face changed slightly at those words.
"I see you realized, those weapons movements leave a trail, even if they're illegal, many of those materials are quantified when exported and wow do you need a lot for the weaponry you need, there are other factors, but they are more algorithmic patterns that allowed me to realize each peculiar part"
His words left her in shock, she had never seen anyone with such a large dimensional analysis, it was nothing less than a genius. She knew that without the data collected by the district's people and the traces left by her sister, it would not be possible to track something to her. Nothing further from the truth, Ana was like a computer that analyzed any data that crossed her path, and those micro traces had exposed her.
"Besides there's one more factor, and this is public, I know that you and two of your siblings are adopted, minuscule, but with more meaning, since there's not the slightest information on earth about your biological parents, it's as if you came from the street. The thing is that you were adopted at 3 years old, I suppose the adoption place won't have records of you because you were never in adoption….you were kidnapped from your dead parents or maybe bought or who knows what low thing the Tanaka family did"
"¡TAP!", at that point Kalika's hands were on the table, trying to hold back the anger that was visible in her crimson eyes.
Ana paid her no attention and continued.
"..I know they could have created a false adoption record, because the district has data on children illegally adopted from the supposed organization, these details were harder to get without alerting the district reviewing their databases…. Another favor from Heiss. In any case it was more fun to see how you thought I wanted to save my family, Heiss wasn't helping me save it, I was helping him"
The anger was present, but she held it back by analyzing that she still didn't know what the girl wanted from her, or what she planned to do anyway.
"Help him with what?", Kalika asked upon noticing that she had been wrong, believing the opposite.
"I'm getting there, let me finish, continuing…", a slight smile drew on her lips.
"You had good reasoning Kalika, especially because in this file you take into account my banking and company movements, as if I were trying to adjust the company's budget and lower costs to the minimum, also selling exclusive projects at astronomical values, because with that liquidity she will save the company in the future, a cover if you could say. You wrongly assumed that I told my father, nevertheless, it's all the opposite, I would only speak with some partners to approve the sale of the projects in exchange for some dividends. When everything fell, I would be the only one with liquidity, I simply disappear with all the funds and let my father's shitty companies fall on their own"
"If there's one thing I detest, it's the putrid filth that this country is mired in, and my father is at the center of many of those projects. I don't want to be a hero or anything like that because I know the solution is not in this country's corrupt justice, it's only in what I, and only I can do, because I only trust myself to do it, that's why I'm fed up with people like you who try to get an advantage from the slightest information just because they think they can have it!"
"…", she couldn't deny or refute any of those statements because they were true, she wanted trump cards to be able to confront Heiss.
"You love him, don't you?"
"…"
"ANSWER!", an angry scream, came from Ana's voice.
The few people in the cafeteria turned to look at them, shocked and scared by the commotion.
"Yes", was her answer.
Ana's hands tightened against the table, after 30 seconds they relaxed.
"You asked why I helped him, I helped him get caught….I helped Heiss be captured by the traffickers, in order for him to be eliminated and be free, because of that…."
Kalika's regretful gaze was against the table, she couldn't lift it because she realized she had offended someone who also wanted to be free, Ana, Heiss, both wanted to be free.
Her thoughts were confused, she had conflicting opinions about what she should do, because to reach her goal she had to do whatever was necessary, but that was the phrase that displeased her the most, because it was her who also wanted to be free, and if she didn't care about others it didn't mean she would like to take freedom away from other people, not in a way that they were aware.
That's why it affected her so much the tears that were falling from Ana's face, because she was taking freedom away from her and Heiss with her own selfishness, with her threat to her, with her desire to have Heiss for her plan.
Her gaze was looking at the table for 20 seconds until some words flowed from Ana's lips.
"That's why I helped her...and for something more"
Kalika's eyes, a pristine blue color looked at her, it was a slight hint of shame and sadness.
'Did I deviate as a person by thinking only of myself?'
She set aside those words and listened to Ana.
"I don't want someone so selfish near Heiss, but after talking on the phone, he refused to let me go without telling you the following"
"Message reproduction: 'In a few days the two of us will meet, here I will know what you want me for, and you will know what I need you for, if you are willing to do something to cooperate then prove it. Ana will pass you a folder, I want you to collect all the information about the person in that file, from his past to what he's doing now. If you really love me, you must prove that you are trustworthy, so only then can you have me in front of you, if not say goodbye to a possible alliance between the two of us', end of message"
Kalika didn't have to think about it much, she nodded slightly and took the folder.
"Who do I need to find?"
Ana's eyelids closed, then she passed her hand over her eyes, trying to clean the tears.
"His name is Jouska"