The murder card

Dear diary, as planned I met up with Ian at the park. Before we headed to his hideout, he again asked me if I was sure. “There is no going back once you go down there.” He tells me. Of course I was sure, but I also understood why he would not believe me. So once again, I was at their hideout, taken to a room, I have not seen before. I didn’t even notice it. the first time, and I would not have noticed it the second time if he hadn’t brought me directly there. As he said, a crucial part of their operation is this room and the person who runs it. So that night, I had the honor to meet a very important man in Ian’s life, named Rei Blackwell. A genius at mind, expert in computer science, the brain of the operation. Thanks to him, everyone here is able to keep of the grid, to remains hidden or thought of as dead. His hair was grey, even though his face was not the face of an older man. First time I ever saw grey hair, as they are very rare these days. His statue was short, with darker skin and long beard. He barely acknowledged my presence. “Addilyn here would like to offer her help.” Ian tells him. Dr. Blackwell immediately stops with whatever he was doing and directs his attention towards us or more precisely, me. He doesn’t show any excitement or any other emotion, he simply looks me from head to toe and asks me one simple, one worded question. “Why?” I tell him the same thing I told Ian, that I could not just do nothing now that I am aware of the situation. “That’s not enough”, he sharply replies with words I was not expecting. I found that odd, I thought he would be happy that his group has a new recruit, but apparently not. He was very skeptical of me and I felt a bit of judgement coming from him, like I was not good enough or perhaps he felt I was not taking this seriously. Only when Ian mentioned I was the one who provided the program of EasyWay store, he softens up. Barely. “This can get dangerous little girl.” He says to me, in a condescending tone, almost as if he knew I hate being called that. He instantly made me feel like an irresponsible little kid, playing with something she should not be playing with. Something that she does not understand. He could not be more wrong. “I am aware of that” I reply, as strongly as I can. “Ian, did you explain to her my role here?” He asks, as we were done talking. “Not yet, I thought you would do it better.” Ian replies. With that, Rei starts explaining what he does, with smugness in his not so deep voice. I tried following his explanation, but to be honest, I did not fully understand what he was telling me, but I think I got the basic concept. However I am not sure if he did that on purpose, trying to make me feel stupid. If I really am on their side, which again I told him I was, EasyWay must not find this out. He will help out with that. To do so, he must overwrite my chip, so they won’t be able to trace me or release the poison in it early. My job will be to act normal at work, as if nothing is going on, to be unsuspicious and cooperative. His task is not complete yet, but he assures me that it will be soon. It’s something he did with others as well. After that, he did not want our company any longer and politely asked for us to leave, so he can work in peace. “Ever need any help, he is the guy to go too. He is like a magician when it comes to computers and technology.” Ian tells me when we leave the room. “Complete opposite of me. Basics I understand, but anything beyond that, is a mystery to me.” I tell him. He smiles and says,” I’m the same way.” Since Rei didn’t mention it, I asked Ian about the data I provided, if they found anything useful on it. “Actually, we did.” He replies. We sit down, somewhere in a corner, where we won’t be bothered and can talk in peace. “Every person who has shopped in EasyWay is in their files. Their basic profile, like their age occupation and items they have purchased.” He tells me, which was no surprise, something I already knew. For more than a century and a half, stores kept information about their buyers. Anyone involved in retail knows this fact. “We also have a list of everyone who has died from Murder cards.” He continues with slightly more interesting fact. “Rei was the one who was able to get the list. We had lots of information to process so at first we hadn’t a clue on where to start. Rei had an interesting idea, so we went with his. We matched files of those who have died with their purchases at EasyWay. It was a long shot, but we did find something interesting. Every last one of them, made the same last purchase, before they died. Got any clue on what they might be?” He asked me. I started to think what I would want as last supper. Sweets mostly, but that was not the answer he was seeking. “Everyone’s last grocery lost contained red meat, beans, raisins, nuts, also fish and turkey.” As I didn’t have any idea why they would make such purchases, I had to ask why. “Think, what do these foods have in common?” He says. At first nothing comes to mind. “Well, except read meat, they are all healthy.” I say. “Right. But red meat also has a benefit. It contains lots of iron.” Before he continues, I interrupt him by saying, “that’s good for blood. All these foods are good for blood!” I say with excitement of figuring it out. He shares my excitement which confirms I was correct. “But why would they buy these products?” I ask the next question on my mind. “Rei found that when one is selected for the Murder card, the chip is programmed to do its last function before their death. It runs a Murder card program which triggers these purchases. Because of this, we are predicting that people who are behind all this, are using their blood. Unfortunately, for now, we do not know what they are using it for.” He concludes. “So if we find the type of blood that these people have we can predict who dies next and maybe even save them.” I say, bursting with energy. “That was our idea as well, but the thing is, they don’t share the same blood type.” That confused me, so I asked, what do these people have in common. Why are they the ones dying. “We don’t know. We can’t find a connection between them, but I am sure there is one.” He says with disappointment. “Does anyone have any theories on this?” I ask. The only thing they know for sure is, that the second chip is involved, but it is still unclear exactly what its purpose is. So no theories are developed for now. “You said that EasyWay does a lot for charity, right?” Ian asks, interrupting my train of thoughts. “Yes, that’s right. The food that doesn’t get sold is given to the poor after the store closes.” I tell him. “Didn’t you know that isn’t true?” He asks. With surprise, I tell him I was unaware of this, so he explains. “They don’t give it to the poor. They only write down that they do but in reality, all that still edible food is thrown away.” I felt horrible when I learned that, and stupid. How could I have missed something like that? I was the manager for a short time, I should have been able to caught this. I felt ashamed that I didn’t. Reasons for hating EasyWay just keep piling up and I’m sure it won’t get any better. It terrifies me to find out why they are killing those innocent people and using their blood, but I can’t be as bad as I imagine it. Or could it?