Chapitre 2: Flashbacks and Investigations
Dr. Ford arrived after a while, with the same old warm smile. I had known Dr. Ford since I was a child. He was the one that treated me when father brought me in.
You see, I am not father's biological child. He found me in an alley way, crying beside my mama's cold, limp body, ready to be killed. I still remember it as if it was yesterday.
'I was probably two years old then, papa and mama had a fight, so ma packed some clothes and took me with her. We were walking when there was a group of four men standing in our way. They pushed us into the alley, where they threatened mama that they would kill me if she didn't give them all the valuables she had. She looked so scared, I was crying loudly, so that man holding me, thrashed me and covered my face with his hand.
I was struggling to breathe. With her trembling hands, she gave away her earrings and her wedding ring.
We weren't rich, we just got by, but ma always looked presentable, so the muggers said she was lying. When she denied, one of them got angry and shot her on her heart. I was dropped down. I scrambled over to ma and nudging her to wake up. Tears streaming down my face, I was waiting for her to wake up. The muggers were laughing and pointed the gun at me.
Just then father came and killed them. He took me from that place and brought me home. When they contacted papa, he said he didn't want me, so father kept me with him. Dr. Ford was father's best friend and my God father. He treated my injuries and I was sent to therapy for a few years.
Father was not married. He said he did not want to deal with relationship drama, but he needed an heir. Many of his men raised objections because I was a girl, but father did not listen to them saying, it didn't matter if the heir was a girl or a boy, as long as they were promising. And that is story of how I came to be Zaphira Corvus.'
Dr. Ford started the check up. When the child was stripped of the dirty garb like cloth, I sucked in a sharp breath. It was worse than I imagined. His body was littered with bruises and welts, and he had a tattoo on his chest that said 'Slave 9650'. Child was a light sleeper. He started squirming as soon as the dress was removed. When he opened his eyes and saw the doctor, he started panicking and looking around.
As his eyes found me, he uttered a cry and ran to my side, hiding into it.
"Hey kiddo, it's ok. That is doctor Ford. He's here to see if you are fine. He won't hurt you. I promise. You see, he's my uncle, and he loves little kids. I think he even brought candy with him. Let him check you up ok?" I tried to coax him into allowing uncle to check him up.
Reluctantly he nodded his head but held onto me. I sighed and took him to the couch and noticed uncle looking at me with a raised brow. I mouthed 'I'll tell you later' to him and signalled him forward.
He approached the couch slowly and knelt down, to make himself smaller, which wasn't hard since he was a short, lean man. Don't let it misguide you though, he can be as kick-ass as any other member of the family.
Giving a warm smile the kid's way, he started talking. "Hello champ! I'm Dr. Ford. Let me do some checking okay? It will take me 10 minutes tops. Then you can be free to do what you want. Deal?"
The kid nodded slowly. He checked his temperature, the bruises and his systems with the steth and gave him an antibiotic injection. After this the child fell asleep again.
" Did you see that tattoo on his chest? I think he was some sort of a slave. Some of the bruises on his back are cuts and are on the verge of an infection but they don't need stitches.He was definitely abused, bruises are consistent with kicks and whipping. All of them were only on his torso and not any other area that wouldn't be covered by his shirt, except those hand prints, which look relatively new." he looked at me questioningly.
That bastard patron! I muttered under my breath and proceeded to tell him the whole situation.
At the end he looked at me as if he was thinking. So I waited for him. He finally said, "are you going to tell your father?"
I nodded, "I hoped to take care of this on my own but, an abused child and a possible slave ring means we need to get a hold of the persons responsible, who knows there might be more. Also, I will be contacting Social services tomorrow morning, so he will get to know it whether I tell him or not. I'd like for him to hear it from me. And I know you are going to blabber this to him anyway. I'll call him first thing tomorrow and then call the services."
He sighed and wrote a prescription for the pain and gave me a salve for the cuts. I thanked him and with one last nod my way, he left with his right hand man, that was outside the door talking to Adrian, following him.
I turned towards Adrian and said, "let's see the footage of the entry way. I'd like to know how a seven year old could enter my club without anyone noticing until it was too late." He nodded and we started watching the footage of the entryway.
I saw the child run from the side and enter the door, while the bouncer manning it, was flirting with a girl. "Idiots!" I muttered and turned to Adrian who seemed just as pissed as me. We would have to have a chat with that guard.
Before that, I wanted to see why the child was running. So I tapped into the camera on the corner and the nearest traffic cam, perks of being good at hacking, and saw the kid running while being followed by another guy. He looked huge almost as big as Adrian. Now that would explain his fear of Adrian, after all he was bigger than the guy running after him, who lost him due to the crowd near the entry way. I was almost glad that the guard was distracted and the child could sneak in.
I needed more info on this guy. Unfortunately for that I would have to hack into the enforcement database. I'm good at hacking guys, but not that good! Luckily I knew a guy who could.
I turned to Adrian, as if he knew what I was suggesting, his face turned even more sour, if that was possible.
"Ask your boy to get me everything he can find on the man and the kid, as soon as possible." Even though he hated involving him in mafia business, he knew only Con, could do that. So he nodded as if in great pain.
Unlike Adrian, Constantine or Con, was a happy go lucky guy, with a mischievous smirk on his face. He was our go to guy in these type of situations, he also happens to be a close friend of Adrian's. Although I suspect they are secretly dating. I still tease him about keeping it a secret, which he answers with a cold glare.
It was already 3 in the morning, by now club would be closed. I just got a mail, stating the delivery of our shipment and the listing of contents, which was consistent with what the night guard sent me.
So typing a confirmatory reply, I shut down the computers.
I was too tired to go home. I usually slept on the couch if I stayed back, but since it was occupied by the little guy, I had a blow-up mattress brought up to my office and put it beside the couch. I was asleep as soon as I hit the bed.
Unfortunately, I couldn't enjoy the much needed rest, due to being woken up by the kid screaming in his sleep. 'This is gonna be a long night', I thought as I got up to wake the child from his nightmare.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone