24 She Got Caught

Maurice cared about his daughter Judy but he did not show it to her, or rather, he did not have enough time to show it to her. He was close to the World Leader and was one of the most trusted Area Leader. And because of this, he was mostly busy handling several government affairs; he would rarely have enough time for his family.

Maurice had everything he could ever ask for, a great career, wealth, power, family, reputation. But he always regretted one thing, which was not being able to take care of his daughter. He knew that his daughter was walking a wrong path but when he tried to do something about it, his daughter was already far from salvation. She stopped letting anyone get close to her and would always push everyone away.

When he heard that his daughter was cruel enough to beat a person unconscious and leave them on the street to die, he could not bear it. He thought that he failed as a parent. He wanted to make up for the past and wanted to try to be a good father but his daughter seemed to be far from his reach. She would barely come home and when she did, she would just lock herself up in her room and would never talk to anyone.

However, for some reason, his daughter was interested in the case he was handling right now and for the first time she tried to reach out to him. His daughter's reaction intrigued him, "Why was she interested in this particular case, so much so that she even lied to me. I know that she was definitely not the one to fly; I can easily recognize my own daughter no matter how blurry the videos are. Besides she is not that gifted in terms of technologies, I know that for sure."

Maurice placed his hand on his chin and went into deep thoughts, "I'm sure she has found something that she wants to protect very badly. Or is it "someone" that she wants to protect?"

His office had big screens and communication devices that were giving him live video feed from the Dead Zone. The military had already geared up by now and were heading towards the cliff in two aircrafts. The aircrafts had four large propellers, and were designed to be stealthy and fast.

Maurice pressed the communication button on his desk and instructed the military "Make sure that you do not hurt that thing, whatever that is. Do not hurt it no matter what. I want it alive and unharmed."

If that thing was important to his daughter then he did not want to get in the bad side of his daughter. He had finally found a rope that could be used to pull his daughter towards him. He did not want to lose it. Earlier he had instructed the military to kill that thing if they found it to be dangerous, but now he wanted to find out more about that creature.

The screen was displaying the images of the Dead Zone as seen from the aircrafts. Both the aircrafts soon reached the cliff and then hovered over for a while. "There is no sign of that creature yet sir", one of the military reported to Maurice.

"It must be in the vicinity, keep looking", Maurice ordered them from the other end.

One of the aircrafts started to lower down and then landed below the cliff while the other one kept on hovering. Five of the specialists got down from the aircraft and started to look around for any signs of the creature.

After walking for some time, one of the militaries spotted something passing swiftly behind a huge tree. He spoke into his comms, "Alert! Something just moved behind the tree at 10 o'clock. I'm heading there now, cover for me. Over!" Then he carefully started to move his steps towards that direction. Others started to encircle that place from all direction.

Maurice was glued to the screen watching the live feed and was hoping that the creature would be caught. The thing started to run faster and the militaries quickly followed it. "Do not hurt it", Maurice reminded them again.

Soon they saw someone that looked like a girl. Then two of the militaries got hold of the girl from either sides and then pushed her down on the ground. "We've got a hold of a suspicious person", one of the militaries announced.

When Maurice saw the video of the girl they caught, he face palmed himself and took a deep breath before asking in a stern voice, "What are you doing there Judy?" All of the militaries had equally puzzled look on their face when they heard Mr. Fortin through their comms. They did not know why the Area Leader knew the name of the person they just caught.

A small camera was attached on the cloth of all the militaries. Judy looked straight into one of that camera and said with a smirk on her face, "Hey dad, finally you caught me. Yay!" When the two of the militaries heard this, they immediately loosened their tight grip on her.

"I asked something Judy. What are you doing there in the Dead Zone?" Maurice raised his voice a little.

Judy still had that smirk on her face. She tilted her head and answered, "Oh! I came back for my propeller boots. But seems like I lost them for good."

Maurice kept quiet for a while. He thought that maybe it would be best to halt the investigation for now. He spoke in a calm and composed voice, "Gentlemen, it seems like it was my mischievous daughter that was seen flying the other day. She might have gotten her hands on some military technologies. I would like you all to stop the investigation and bring my daughter to me."

The militaries had access to such technologies, which helped fighters to fly in an armed suit. Of course, it was kept away from the public and were built and tested in military labs only. The fear of the public when they saw some flying creature was understandable. But when the Area Leader himself told them that his daughter might have gotten that technology, they were bound to believe it because of how powerful he was. He could get his hands on any piece of technology he wanted to unless it was strictly prohibited by the World Leader.

Judy was extremely happy when she heard what her father said. She thought that he believed whatever lies she told him. But she did not know that his father was smarter than that and was just doing this for his daughter's sake. He thought that his daughter's humanity was not all gone and that she could be saved from turning into a monster.

All of the militaries, along with Judy, took off immediately in the aircraft. Before she was caught, Judy was able to search around for a while for Alexis but she did not find any trace of her. She decided to visit Alexis's home to check if she had already returned.