บท 26: Found You

" One day closer, One day stronger"

-unknown

Sam Pov

The air felt unsmoked and crisp as it circulated within my system refreshing each and every exhausted cell. The street was stocked with peoples ambling, face glued to the mobile screen and ear stuffed with ear phone and they seemed selfish enough to ignore other breathing soul. I could see children's giggling and chasing around and shouting each time they tag one another. Couples hung around the café drinking coffee ,holding hands and whispering endearment to one another while the girl blushed pinkish for something I couldn't hear.

Dogs ran around sniffing everything around them and the cars busied themselves honking to one another impatiently and queuing and waiting for the traffic signal to turn green. Denmark was no more the silent country that loads of us believed to be. Everything had changed, the once green land had been replaced by various constructive features and the once blue sea had turned stale. And somehow I missed those older Denmark which used to spell natural and unpreserved.

I gazed through the window wondering whether I would be able to see her again, those twinkling eyes which never failed to make me smile and that pinkish cheek which I ached to pinch again. It's been exactly 3 days yet there hasn't been any words of her and I have already deployed majority of my force but everything seems to be in vain. I have also stationed my underground spies but they haven't replied me for the past 14 hours. I have been trying hard to focus but my thoughts keeps on drifting off to her and no matter what I do I can't seems to make me believe that I can find her. And above that, all those report from the company keeps on piling up and emails incoming incessantly.

I was busy reading one of the collaboration with the major weapon company when I heard the sounds of things falling. I hurriedly ran towards the source of the sound when I noticed Jack sweeping his table and madly pouring water on that painting which we worked exceedingly hard to obtain. I went there and push him hard on chests which send him stumbling two step behind as he glared at me and questioned my mentality . He ignored my shouting and went towards the soaked painting. I felt my hope shattered as my eyes landed on the destroyed painting, I curled my fist to punch him that's when he pointed as certainly at the table.

Magic is something which spelled " Nyaff" to my deaf ear. When I was small, my dad would invite famous magician to our mansion and let us enjoy those useless tricks. He would urged me to learn those tricks and I felt disgusted with his magic fetish and it was until now that ticked me magic could be real too. Our eyes landed on that soaked paper as it continued to turn invisible, I ran towards it because I couldn't lose that last string of hope but Jack held my shoulder and prevented me from touching it. I glared at him but he directed my gaze towards the table and asked me to be calm and quite. Like a small kitten I found myself obliging to his command as we waited for something which I believe could never happen.

The golden rim that protected the inner painting started to fade as the greyish linen dominated the whole area. The previous miniature dot that we assumed to be a certain code was no more. Those inky colour that made the dot prominent started to merge together to give a bigger version of dot. It started with the merging of two dots and then continued until it became a gigantic dot. Slowly its colour entered the stage of florescence as it slowly generated variety of colours. The linen piece slowly turned transparent abandoning its dominance to the flowering dot. Soon all the elements affiliated to turn into a breath-taking art.

The girl was just prepossessing as her jet hair ran smoothly from her torso covering her breast mildly enough to entice desire in every man. The fiery veins surrounded the hard silver as it held it firmly and decorated the crown bewitchingly, the veins had the tint of orange colour which gave the viewer the false idea of fire surrounding the veins and it embellish her head enchantingly that there was no word to describe how perfect it looked. Her body was draped in a silky pink cloth that highlighted her alluring curve as she posed gracefully, her left hand placed beneath the chin and her right hand stretched afar which gave the image of her trying to reach something.

On the palm of her right hand, it held the exact miniature photo of her that illuminated the whole art. Her viridescent eyes stare provocatively at me as her reddish lip held seductive smirk which could tick every person. Her rosy background accentuated her being which made the painting more vivid and sentient. I never thought a painting could be this much magnetic and I was glad this painting was the reason that brought us to Denmark.

This trick was just stupefyingly insane, I gave Jack a questioning look which he replied me with a nod as if he sensed my question telepathically. He raised his hand and gestured me to wait as he ran towards his room and came out with his jacket. I stood dumbfounded with his act as he gestured me with his head towards the door. I stood straight there without moving an inch, he grabbed my wrist and dragged me towards my Audi. Once again, I gave him a questioning look and crossed my hand towards my chest and tapped on the land irritatingly. He knew what I wanted as he glared at me and started to explain me those magical things that happened.

He explained me that the indispensable act of these magic trick was the combination of the golden rim and the linen cloth that already contain traces of the image. It felt really weird listening to those chemistry lecture because he said something about how the iron rod was covered with copper sulphide which on combination with water gets diluted and enters the linen to make it transparent.

Not only that, those dots already contain shades of colours so on being in contact with water it gets soaked and starts to move through the already traced picture to give the result that we have seen.

The night was slow and inactive with homeless people sleeping along the sideways and the road deprived from all the brightness it had in the early morning. Contradicting to the surrounding, we were geared up and we had tons of plan formulated to get inside the museum illegally. With two flashlight in our hand, we sneak through the back gate as majority of the time the back door remains open due to negligence from the guard. Although it's been a while sneaking around, It felt enthralling. My blood brewed with delirium when we successfully jumped over the wall and entered through the back door.

The main room at the most can be described as magnificent, four pillar erected at each corner with three sets of stair, one placed centrally and two adjacent to one another. The stair all wounded to the top level of the building. The building contained five level, where the first level was dedicated for the archaeology department. Remains of dinosaur and old age stone was sited and it was really an eye opening. The second level reeked of music where different musical instrument which I never knew existed was placed symmetrically along the wall with their tag intact. The third floor was the place where we were to be heading, the whitish wall complemented alluringly the painting from different parts of the world. It was indeed a big question mark on how the painter did an amazing job giving life to those painting. The fourth and fifth level was closed and it felt confidential and I guessed it should be the managing office of the this museum where the important files might be stored.

Without further delay we sprinted off to the third floor, we tip topped larghetto when we felt the presence of the guard near us, It was fun playing cat and mouse with the guards. The third floor was massive and we had three hours before the rise of dawn. He decided to go separate way and whoever managed to find it was to connect through the walkie talkie. I decided to go through the left side while Jack the right. It was all energetic mood and excitement while my feet moved much faster, I eyed every painting on my way but I couldn't see the one I wanted to see.

We were busy trying to find the painting that we failed to notice the fleeting time, I was right in front of the last painting when Jack spoke through the walkie talkie. We couldn't lose any more time and I sprinted towards his direction, he was at the other end of the floor gazing at the impressive painting that stood 5 feet and 9 inch beguiling in front of us. It was exactly the bigger picture of the miniature painting that laid in Jack's hand.

Underneath its glory, a quote read " A ministering angel shall my sister be," and just a centimetre above " Ophelia" it was named and serendipitously it was the name of my late aunt. I turned to see Jack's reaction and to my amazement he was already inside the railing and touching the painting gingerly, his gaze was soft and sparkled with tears as he managed to not let it down. His face held that content and jocular expression as he continued to stare the painting intently. I really wanted to give him some space but we were out of time. I softly padded his shoulder and handed him the miniature painting.

Everything was identical except for the print on her stretched right hand, we slowly and prudently placed the painting on the right hand and waited for the next episode. The painting slowly drifted towards the right giving us the view of a small safe box. The safe box was securely intact on the wall and it was quite dubious because not many could create a safe box in this public museum.

The safe box was locked which served us another road block in this mission. I sighed deeply reminiscing how close we were to the hint yet far away. I went near to it and studied the safe box, it was small and it needed finger print of someone to open the box. I accessed the surrounding but I couldn't find anything suspicious that would serve as an indication of the password. We had only fifteen minutes in our hands and we had to do everything at the pace of cheetah. I went towards the painting once again and looked it carefully, everything looked okay without any cynical.

But those quote kept ramming my mind, I turned towards Jack and he was looking at the quote too. Our eyes meet and his eyes glisten monumentally with tears, I felt whammy inside because I haven't seen many man cry in front of me and I didn't know what to do. I walked silently towards him and held his shoulder and embraced him in a warm hug. I warily patted his shoulder as he shuddered violently, he was crying loudly or in better term wailing. I held him a distance a part and told him to relax and luckily he was sane to know our situation. He broke away from my hand and headed towards the safe and pressed his index finger on it. I was astonished with his act, although I suspected him to be my cousin but there was no concrete evidence to it. Until the safe opened with a bip that's when I knew we shared the same blood.

I couldn't describe how much delighted I was but I couldn't waste any more time blabbering on my happiness because we had only 5 minutes left. We took what was inside the safe and exited the museum. While we were out of the museum I was sure I saw a content smile on Jack face after a long time.