It’s still quite early in the morning to be hanging around the hospital, but my father called me to bring his important document that he left it in his working room to his office in the hospital. I don’t have any class today, so I help him up. I ride my car, heading to the hospital as fast as I can because he said this is a very important document and I must get there very quickly.
As I run to my father’s room, I bump into girl accidently. I look at her face I think I’ve ever seen her somewhere but I can’t remember it. She looks very ill, her face looks pale and I see her holding her bloody left arm with her palm. It seems her arm has got cut by something.
“Opss, I’m sorry. Are you okay?” I hold her arm because I’m afraid she will fall faint.
She just bows her head without saying anything, then she lets my hands off from her arms and run. I’m a little confused, but I just ignore it because I don’t even know her. When I reach my father’s office, I knock the door and he opens the door for me.
“Come in, son.” He’s sweating, as if he’s doing an operation.
“Here you go dad! The document you asked me to bring them up.” I say with an officer’s voice-like.
“Thank you, son! I need it for my new experiment.”
“What experiment is it?” I wrinkle my forehead.
“Why are you asking? You’re never interested in this kind of stuff, are you?”
“Well, you right. I’m just curious.” I never heard my dad did any experiment before. All I know he’s just a doctor whom his job is curing a sick person.
“You don’t have to know.” He smiles wisely, “Oh, don’t you have any class to attend?”
“Eee’emm…” I shake my head, “I don’t have any today.”
“Well….” His face indicates that I have to go out of here, “I have to work now—”
“Okay okay… Got it. I’ll leave.” I cut up his sentence because I’ve already known what’s on his mind.
“You are a smart boy!” he messes up my hair with his hand like he usually does.
“Dad, stop it! I’m not a kid anymore.” I’m crying out loud and hit his hand on my head slightly.
“Geez, you’re so loud!” he put his hands on the ears, “Fine! I won’t do it anymore.” He raises his both hands like there is a police wants to shoot him. I giggle.
“Okay, see you at home, dad!” I spruce up my messy hair while walking out the room.
My name is Rendy and I’m just ordinary 23 years old boy who like to live my own life. My father is a chairman of a well-known hospital in Jogjakarta, he is also a doctor, to be more detail, he is an internist, you know, a doctor who has a specialty in internal medicine. Even though my father is a doctor, I don’t want to be like him. I’d rather wallow myself with some electronic stuff than memorizing human’s internal organs or plenty names of such random medicines that I don’t even know how to spell them. So, when I went to college, I chose electrical engineering as my major.
Every doctor who has only child, especially a son, is definitely wants his son to be like him, or at least continuing his job as a doctor. But my father is unlike any other people. He supports my every decision. I remember when I told him that I’d like to study engineering, instead of following his path to be a doctor. I thought he would be mad, but I’m wrong, he just smiled and said “Your life is your own choice. Do everything as you wish as long as you can be responsible with everything you’ve chosen, you know I always trust you.” I feel lucky to be his son. I promised to make him proud of me since then, and I’ll never let him down.
***
It’s already 7.45 and I have a quiz at 8 o’clock, so I ride my car in hurry. No one woke me up this morning. Our housemaid who is usually be my alarm clock can not come because she is ill and my mother is out of country for several days. I woke up at 7.30 this morning. I didn’t have a chance to take a bath, so I just washed my face, brushed my teeth, changes my cloth and sprayed my body with cologne as much as possible. And here I am now, in my car trying to catch my morning class with my messy face.
I park my car in the nearest parking spot to my class. I look at my watch, it’s 8.10, “Gosh, I’m late!” I murmur at my self. I grab my bag on the passenger seat, slam the car door and run to the class. When I reach the class, the quiz is already begun. I ask the question sheet to the lecturer and try to answer all the questions as fast as I can because I only have 5 minutes left.
Class is over. As usual, I and my friends go to the food court, while waiting for the next class. We take a sit on a long table in the corner and order some foods. When we are waiting for the food, I see the girl I met in the hospital yesterday. She looks fine now. I can’t see her wound because she’s wearing a long-sleeves shirt. Suddenly, one of her friend smacks her left arm which is I know it is injured, but she just fine, she doesn’t look like she is injured. What’s wrong with her? I begin to think that something is going wrong, so I ask my friend.
“Hey, do you know her?” I ask Daniel who is sitting right beside me.
“Who?”
“That girl—” I point my finger at her stealthy, so she doesn’t know that I’m talking about her, “the one with a brown long-sleeves shirt.”
“Ah… Raina,” he says with his mouth full of meatball which has just served, “an Information Technology major, what’s wrong? Do you like her?”
“Stupid!” I snap his forehead with my finger.
“Ouch… that’s hurt!” he moans. “She’s cute, every normal man likes her, I suppose!”
I remain silent and eat my food while occasionally look at her. I don’t have any I idea why I get interested with this girl. She is mysterious.
A week later, my mother asks me to bring a lunch for my father at hospital and surprisingly, I see that girl again. She’s sitting alone on the waiting room, busy with her IT book. I decided to embrace her by sitting on the empty seat beside her.
“Hai… you’re a Faculty Engineering student, aren’t you?” I open up a conversation.
She is silent, her face looks unfriendly. I keep babbling, “I’m Rendy, an electrical engineering major. I bumped into you, here, a week ago, it was exactly right here,” I wave my hand in front of the seat I’m sitting now, “Remember?” I stop for a while to hear her response but she doesn’t seem to do it,
“What are you doing here again? How’s your wound? Is it okay now?” I keep asking unstoppable.
She turns her eyes from the book to me, her face looks cold. “Can you please mind your own business?” Her voice is deep and calm. She goes back to her book. I smirk, not expecting that she’s such a cold person.
“Well, I just want to be your friend.” I continue, but she keeps her cold face and remains silent, “Okay, fine. Seems you don’t want to be my friend. Better go now. Bye!”
So I leave her and walk to my father’s room. Thousand questions run over my mind, it’s all about her. Why is she being so mysterious? I feel something wrong about her, something that will bring me to her again.
I walk out from my father’s room after giving my mother’s food to him, but suddenly I feel some trouble with my stomach, so I decided to use this hospital’s toilet before I go back to campus. When I finish with my business, I wash my hand in the sink, but suddenly a fat man with a black mask on his face gets in and points a gun at my head. I’m stupefied.
“Where is the rainbow?” he says rudely while pressing his gun harder on my temple.
“Wh-a-t? Rainbow? In the sky— of course!” I shutter. I don’t have any idea what should I say, so I give him a random answer.
He giggles for a second, “Are you joking around?” then turn his face back into a creepy face, “tell me quickly or I’ll shoot your brain!” he keeps torturing me with his rough voice.
“I don’t understand what you mean! I don’t know anything! Please let me go.” I plead.
“You’re such an intractable kid! Do you want to die in your young age?”
“Please… I don’t know anything..” I almost give up for begging, and suddenly another scary man with a black mask comes in.
“Let’s get out of here! Boss wants us to see him immediately!” his voice seems a little friendlier than the man who is now threatening me with the gun.
“What about this kid?”
“Just leave him alone. I think he doesn’t know anything about it.”
So, the fat man puts his gun in his pocket, grab me on my collar and push me hardly on the floor. Then they leave in hurry.
I sit on the floor, stock still. Can’t believe about what happened to me just before. I try to calm myself down. Breath in… breath out.. that’s all I can do until I feel a little calmer. When I already feel better, I go out from that toilet and go back to campus because I still have a class in the evening. I decided not to tell anyone about it and pretend there was nothing happened.
When I’m about to park my car, I see the same black-masked men I saw in the hospital, but now they are with a person in additional. That person has a long black hair which is ponytailed on the back of his head. I can’t see his face clearly. I think he is their boss because he’s the one who is not wearing a mask and that two masked-men seem respect him so much. They are talking with a girl in front a red sport car. My curiosity has not come to an end. I park my car not far away from where they are, so I can observe their moves comfortably inside my car. I wonder who that girl they are talking to. I keep observing them, then I realize that she is Raina.
It seems they are talking about something important. Then suddenly I see the fat man grab Raina’s hair roughly. She looks moaning in pain. I suppose those people want something from Raina but she doesn’t want to give it. I see the boss keep forcing her with some questions, I have no idea what is that because I can’t hear their voice at all. The boss slaps Raina’s cheek but she won’t seem to against him. I can’t hold it anymore, I can’t see such a wicked man beating a weak girl like her. So I get out the car, run toward them and beat the boss’ cheek with my fist. He moans.
“Bloody hell !! Who is this kid?!” he yells while stroking his cheek with his hand. I think I hit him hard enough.
“Hey, be a man, dude! Aren’t you ashamed playing around with a girl?” I challenge him.
“What? Who do you think you are?” he smirk, “Do you know this kid, Raina?” he turn his question to Raina. She just shakes her head with a plain expression.
“So, what’s your problem, kid?” he asks me again while folding her hand on his chest.
“Let her go! Or I’ll call police!” I don’t have any idea what I’ve said. I’m just saying what’s popping up from my mind.
“What a brave little rascal.” He chuckle, turn his sight to his two fellows, “guys, finish him up!”
The fat man grabs my both hands and pulls them to my back while the friendly-voiced man beat my stomach repeatedly. I can’t do anything because my hands are tied up. I moan in pain but it seems they have not satisfied yet. Then the friendly-voiced man hit my face with his fist until a fresh blood comes out from the left side of my lip. Raina screams,
“Stop it! Leave him alone. Please….” I can see her misty eyes as she beg them to stop beating me. Everybody turns their sight at her,
“I’ll tell you when I’ve found out where is it.” says her in a low tone.
“Okay then. But don’t forget—” the boss put his finger tip on her chin and push it up. “I’ll always keep my eyes on you. If you dare to betray me, you know what will be happened!” he pushes her chin and looks straight to her face with a creepy stare. Then he heads up into the red sport car behind him, followed by his fellows. Leaving me alone with Raina.
She looks at me for some seconds and suddenly slaps my left cheek. I shock but I can’t say anything, “What did you do?” she yells, “Don’t you know that you’ve just drag yourself into a terrible danger?”
“Can you just— be a little gentle?” I wipe the blood that comes out from my lip, “that’s hurt!”
“Where is your car?” I points to the place where my car is parked. She grabs my hand and pulls me towards my car.
“Get in!” she pushes me to get in the car she trots to the other side of the car, open the car door and sits on the passenger seat besides me. She takes out a medicine box inside her bag, grabs some cotton out of the box and pours it with alcohol.
“Wow, you bring that everywhere?” I’m amazed.
“Shut your mouth!” she makes me startled. I begin to afraid with her. She touches my cheek with her hand and wipes the wound on my lip with the cotton. I wince in pain, but she keeps going.
“Who are you?” I ask her while he cures my wound.
“How’s your stomach? Is it hurt?” she changes the subject, still busy curing my wound.
“I’m fine. You’re not answering my question.”
“Okay, that’s it. There’s just a little bruised on the edge of your lip, I’ve put some salve on it. It will be healed for about 3 days, I suppose.” She puts the medicine box back to her bag, still not answering my question. “I better go now. Bye!”
When she’s about to open the door, I grab her hand and lock the door, “Tell me who are you exactly?” I look straight to her eyes.
“You don’t need to know.” She looks back at my eyes, trying to relinquish her hand from mine. “Let me go!”
“I met those guys in the hospital this afternoon!” I tighten my grip on her. She looks shocked. “And they ask me about ‘rainbow’. I think you know about it.”
“Gosh!” she hit her lap with her own hand, “They must’ve seen you talked to me in the hospital, and they must’ve thought that you are my ally.” She looks afraid, then takes a breath for a second, “Okay, I’ll tell you, but promise me you won’t tell anyone about it.”
“Cross my heart!” I make a cross sign on my chest, let go of my hand and smile in satisfaction.
She sigh, “Well, I’m a spy.” Those words have successfully made me die standing.
“You— what?!” I don’t have any idea what should I do next. I’m speechless.
“I know you’ll be surprised. I must not tell it to anyone but you’ve got involve this far, so I think you should know about it.”
“And who are those men?” I ask without hearing her further explanation.
“They are wicked people. They have an evil plan to control the world—” I’m silent, let her to continue her story, but she suddenly stop and looking at me in a confuse face. Maybe I’m showing a weird expression when I’m listening her.
“What are you looking at? Go on.. I’m listening.”
“Okay..” she’s sighing again, “There’s a doctor who is doing an experiment. This doctor is trying to make a virus which can control people’s mind and the code name for this virus is ‘rainbow’—”
“Code name?” I cut up her explanation.
“A name given to a secret object, to make other people has no idea what thing we are talking about.” She knows that I don’t understand that term, so she explains it.
“What a cool name for such a dangerous thing.” I whisper at myself.
“What?”
“No, nothing— and how about those creepy men?”
“Those evil men knew about that experiment, so they are trying to look for the location where that virus is made, they want to take it and control the world.”
“And you help them to get it?” I’m questioning her cynically.
“I don’t have a choice,” her expression’s changed. She looks sad, “They would kill my mother if I don’t help ‘em”
“So, what will you do?”
“I don’t know. This virus may not fall into their hand. I’ve found the location of that virus but I don’t know where is it hid.”
“Where is the location?”
“In the hospital where we met before.”
“That’s my father’s hospital!” I yell, and suddenly I remember about my father, “a week ago, when I was in his room, he said he is doing an experiment—“ I’m gobsmacked, “could it be!”
“We need to get there to save the virus immediately! You’re father might be in danger too!”
So, I turn on my car engine and heading to hospital as fast as I can. On my way to the hospital, I take a chance to ask Raina’s condition.
“By the way, how’s your arm?”
“What happened to my arm?” she asks me back.
“Wasn’t it injured?” I set an astonished expression.
“Injured?” she chuckles, “it was acting— you need a reason to be in the hospital, don’t you?”
“What?” I’m surprised, “Wooooaaa…. You are indeed a spy!” I clap my hands, “that was so real!” I keep praising her skill and she’s just laughing.
(To be continued….)