YIE'S HYPOTHESIS (HYPOTHESIS 1)

Yie led the staring contest between him and his Lawyer in the visitation room as both sat waiting on the other to speak.                                                                                                             

“That’s the only way, Lee” the African American lawyer eventually spoke with his eyes blinking multiple times to avoid Yie’s.                                                                                                 

“It’s Yie” Yie corrected.                                                                                                                       

Smirking, the Lawyer shook his head. “Alright Yie…” he said, finding the pronunciation all too difficult as he avoided saying ‘Lee’. “There is no way we can help you without you agreeing to the program” the program revealed.                                                                                               

“There is no way or that is the only way that profits you?” Yie countered, picking his words as he looked deep into the eyes of the Lawyer. They’ll tell you that only when they have something to gain from the other side, he thought.                                                                                        

“Come on, Lee” the lawyer rebuked, shaking his head once he realized he had made the mistake calling ‘Lee’ again.                                                                                                                                   

Frustrated with the notion of having to correct him over and over again, the Asian glared around the empty room before returning to the man. If not for the cuffs on him, he wouldn’t have wasted time hitting the table.                                                                                                  

“You are my lawyer and you still don’t know my name? Whose side are you on?” Yie sparked.                                                                                                                                                    

“We all want what’s in your best interest Lee-Yie” the lawyer said raising his arms to quell the tension. Both being angry at the same time would do nothing to help his case, he thought looking at Yie.                                                                                                                             

Yie doubting the very fact looked at the lawyer again. “Right” he muttered. “So if I don’t sign up to some programme that seems fishy, the government sends me back to my country to face execution. I thought you were all about Truth and Liberty? I speak against the vices that take place in my country and I’m being penalized for it by America who does the same?” Yie chided, releasing an angry smile on his face afterwards.                                                                                  

“You are in here because you committed a crime” the lawyer reminded. “And by the way, America has diplomatic relations to protect her. When your time expires, America is duty bound to send you back to your country…that fate can’t be avoided if you do not agree to the program” the man revealed.                                                                                                                               

“How am I to believe they will hold on to their end of the deal?”                                                       

“You never know…” the lawyer sighed, not willing to make any promises or guaranty hope in the long run. “The way I see it, they have nothing to lose” he plainly put forward. But he does.                                           

“All the more reason not to trust them” Yie laid back, wanting to feel the warmth of the chair he sat on before making a decision.                                                                                                         

The lawyer seeing that solace was surely needed looked at his client then cleared his throat. “I uh, I will leave the papers with you” he said afterwards, arranging his files before leaving behind some papers on the desk in front of Yie. “If you arrive at a decision,” he stressed shrugging his hands before leaving.                                                                                                                       

Yie kept a watchful gaze on the lawyer as he walked away before giving a thought at the papers in front of him and the cuffs on his wrists; between the devil and the demon indeed. Or better still, it was between Frankforthe Prison and execution. Yie glared around again before falling on the desk.

The two detectives; Detective Montgomery and Hopper, monitored Officer Elijah’s eyelids as he stared at them in the interrogation room. Unlike any suspect they encountered and brought for interrogation, this one defended his actions, disapproved the services of a lawyer and even begged to be given another chance to complete the crime he hadn’t the time to finish.                          

They would have called him a crack addict but then no crack addict would bargain for a life sentence with the cops just to go through with his crime.                                                                      

“I-I don’t know why you all are protective of a terrorist” he protested in cuffs. “I know you all want to, guys…just-just…I’ll take the fall…I’ll go to jail, okay” the man persisted. “This guy was responsible for the deaths of countless innocents. American lives, when…you…you”            

If there was anything Officer Elijah regretted, it was not having the guts when he should have to kill the terrorist himself. He had wasted efforts planning on lacing the bastard’s food with toxins when he could have broken into his cell and strangled him. Heck, the time he wasted trying to cut a deal with Roar Shank to do the deal for him in exchange for a jail break could have done the deal. But what did he get in return? Roar Shank getting stabbed in the throat by Bilal with the syringe he gave him, and questions being raised.                                                          

It wasn’t the questions that so much as annoyed him or Roar Shank getting killed; his subconscious was relieved by the notion in the first place, but the one attempt he had that he failed to grasp. Officer Elijah looked at his palms.                                                                                              

For twenty minutes he held the gun. He put bullets into it, made for the prison in the cover of the night. With his palms, he disconnected the circuit board housing the power that covered Level 4 to alarm and disorient the prison guards and to give him 15 minutes extra to pull the trigger.                                             

He had successfully made his way to Level 4; hidden and protected by darkness. For what it was worth, he had taken out the guards stationed at Bilal’s cell but when he reached the very mouth of hell, he paused/ for 5 seconds, he had him but paused. His conscience for a brief moment got in the way, and when he was finally able to get over it, he missed.                                               

Three shots he fired at Bilal, three times he missed, and three times he doomed the fate of his daughter and her unborn kid. It was in those wasted moments it took the guards to catch him. The one crime he could have committed for his family, ruined by his conscience. Now, his daughter had less than 5 minutes to breathe.                                                                          

“We need him to catch the others” informed Special Agent Avery, an FBI agent who walked into the interrogation room bypassing Detectives Montgomery and Hopper. She motioned the 2 detectives to grant her and the suspect some privacy afterwards, to which they obliged without hesitation.                                                                                                                           

“And you think he’ll talk?” Officer Elijah countered. “Come on! My daughter’s life and her unborn child is in danger right now. You can’t be playing politics god damn it” he spat, looking his phone. Time was running out.                                                                                                      

“Calm down Mr. Elijah…we have things under control. We can’t risk going outside protocol and damn countless more lives” the Agent argued.                                                                   

Go outside protocol? Isn’t that what these terrorists do? Go outside protocol to create fear and the security agencies are playing protocol? If he had the gun still with him, he would have shot the woman dead.                                                                                                                                   

“But you will damn the life of my daughter…and her baby?” Officer Elijah interpreted having gotten the picture the FBI woman presented. “I’m not asking you to do it. I am begging you to let me do it. I’ll plead guilty in court. I’ll go to jail” he protested.                                                          

“Think of what we could accomplish if Abu Bilal leads us to his terrorist group; its sponsors and those responsible for the December 26 bombings?” the woman countered.                                   

Seriously? Officer Elijah thought looking at the Agent and the entirety of the interrogation room. He could tell the two detectives were outside watching and listening. “Do you have a family, Madame FBI?” he asked. “A husband…a child, a lesbian lover?” he added, pausing after a text came over his phone.                                                                                                 ‘

Time’s up. Her Oxygen’s expired’ the text came over the phone. Office Elijah touched the phone’s screen to see images pop up. It contained pictures of a woman covered all over in blood. A high res image showed her throat was sliced and her tummy blast open by bullets to it. Officer Elijah rose up from his seat immediately with the handcuffs seeking to pull him back.              

“Oh God!” he mumbled. “No…no…no…” he stuttered uncontrollably, glaring around and nowhere in particular.                                                                                                                                  

“Mr. Elijah?” the Federal agent called hoping to get the man’s attention. A peep at the screen of his phone dissuaded her of her intentions as she turned back to the man.                                   

Her eyes met him in time to see a bullet fly out of his skull and to the wall opposite. Officer Elijah’s body hit the floor momentarily as Agent Avery caught a bullet hole in the wall behind where Elijah once stood.