Deepening cracks
Heat dragged his bag to his room lazily. He threw it on the bed and threw himself next then shut his eyes.
****
"Heat. Heat, Heat!"
He jerked off his bed and saw Dan standing in his room.
"Oi, what's the problem?" he asked as he rubbed his eyes.
"You didn't cook any food for us."
"What? It's evening already?"
"No, but some guy is here looking for you. He says it's 'amen emergency'. I don't know what that means but I know you won't come early."
"Oh crap. I'm becoming irresponsible. I hate being a teenager. I don't even have parents to disrespect," Heat said, walking out of the room.
"What are we going to do for dinner?"
"Oi, I'm thinking."
He came to a quick pause in the living room.
"Heat, look!" Debbie leaped off the couch and pointed to Riza.
"Heya Heat," she said with a smile. "I was passing by so I wanted to thank you again."
"Next time you thank me, I'm gonna pray the car hits you out of the blue," Heat replied.
Riza chuckled. "Does God listen to agnostics?"
"Only one way to find out."
Meanwhile, Dan had run to play with Riza's two younger siblings; Eli and Hannah.
They were about the same age as Heat's younger siblings and had brown hair, unlike Riza's.
Heat put on a pair of sneakers and went to the door.
"Heat," Dan called him.
"What now?"
"Supper?"
"I'm still thinking."
"What's wrong?" Riza asked.
"Heat wants us to starve to death."
"Dan, shut it."
Riza chuckled. "Let's watch our words." She paused momentarily. "Actually, I can take care of that for you."
"Oi Riza, are you sure?"
"Yeah, it's no problem. Consider this my final thank you."
"Ok then, thank you…a ton." Heat was caught off-guard by her offer. "Anyway, don't give them what they want or else you're gonna stay in the kitchen forever. Just a word of advice."
Heat walked out to meet a man wearing a long black coat standing in the compound.
"I hope you were not disturbed by me," he said.
"Define disturbed, Rayn; and don't go about mentioning amen to my kid siblings as you please. The boy is an evil one, and a genius at that."
"I'll be more careful next time."
"Anyway, why did you interrupt my false joy?"
"You were asleep?"
"Yes, I was."
"Your mission has escaped."
"You mean the amaroq dude? How is that possible? I thought Ur-tir'ak was the HQ?"
"It is, but not a prison. He escaped while he was being transferred."
Rayn approached him with a round device in his palm.
"No, not the teleportation forehead thing again."
"I have to. It would send you to where the Tracking Division last saw him."
"I don't care. I'll walk. I like to live healthy."
Rayn picked a stone and threw it at Heat, who turned in anger. The moment he turned, Rayn placed the device on his forehead.
���Summer hut in Togo!"
He leaned on the tree and rubbed his forehead. Heat looked around, he saw nothing to help him start his mission, but he heard two dogs barking.
He sighed. "Great."
Heat went towards the noise. When he arrived, he saw two boys a couple of years younger than him, sitting beside a tree. One was white with long blonde hair and distinctive brown eyes. The other was black with short dark hair and eyes.
"What were you two doing?"
"Heat Fury, right?" One of them asked.
"Don't be an idiot, Jake. Who else has white hair with snake-like eyes?" the darker skinned boy said.
"Jared, the question was rhetorical," Jake replied.
"That must be your lamest excuse ever."
Heat stood there, watching the two of them argue.
"Anyway, I'm Jared and this is my sidekick, Jake. Supido asked us to point out to you where your journey is supposed to begin." Jared stretched his hand out to Heat.
Heat shook it but still could not detect what he felt odd about the two boys.
"How old are you guys? Like fourteen?" he asked.
Heat observed them and saw that they looked opposite; Jared was black, had dark short hair and black eyes, while Jake was white, had long blonde hair and bright brown eyes.
"Yep," they answered together.
"Are you brothers?"
"Adopted, not blood," they answered together again.
Heat found that difficult to believe, not that they were, but they weren't. Even though they had different features, somehow, they looked alike and behaved the same.
"Just kidding," they said in unison.
"Black dad, coyote," Jake said.
"White mom, wolf," Jared added.
"That still doesn't make sense."
"I'm Jake, and he's my sidekick. By the way, you retard, its captain Supido to us."
"Oh, I forgot, I'm still not used to it," Jared said, scratching his head.
"What are these two idiots blabbing about?" Heat whispered to himself.
"You know we can hear you right?" Jake asked.
"I uh, I really don't care."
"No time to make new friends, Jake. Heat, we're standing on the exact location where we last detected the human dog."
"He was able to conceal his spa well enough to hide from us from this point on. But we believe this was a rendezvous point."
"Does that mean I don't have any leads from here on?"
"Not exactly, you see…"
"Even though he disappeared, the person he met here…"
"Wasn't so careful."
"We scouted the area and found a few footprints two kilometers north and thirty degrees west bearing from here."
"Thanks to the ground perception you snake amen have, there should be no problem starting your journey from there."
Heat turned to look in that direction. "Well thanks."
"No problem, Tracking Division for ya!" Jake and Jared said together and transported away.