Chapter 167: Call from the headquarters

"What is it?" Ponnappan asked.

He was really concerned about the timing that they called him. The one time John was with him was the time that they picked to call him. It made him suspicious in a lot of ways. There are no coincidences—at least, not to this level.

However, it didn't surprise him since it's simple as hell to check upon stuff like this when a person has a mobile phone with him. So, he was pretty sure that the call was actually for John instead.

Although he didn't want John to speak with them since there was a chance of triggering his memories, he was thankful that the headquarters picked the right time, since now he could manipulate them into not talking.

"You see, two of our field agents were on an international duty in your jurisdiction and they found something suspicious." The person on the other side of the call spoke.

"Wait just a minute! So what you mean to say by that is you sent two of your field agents into my jurisdiction without giving me a briefing about it." Ponnappan spoke and he sounded dead serious about it.

"Ah—well, it was an urgent mission. They didn't get enough time to brief you about it." The person answered. The initial fumbling was quickly noted by the commanding officer of the MIB: Snehatheeram base.

"Still doesn't make sense. They might have come by plane, right? That means they had all the time to report it to me." Ponnappan replied.

"They came there in the MIB 6 model car. So it was too quick of a journey." With each passing second, the person on the other side grew more and more frustrated.

"Hmm, even then they would've got enough and more to call me up. I mean, there were two, right? I guess they don't know the reason why we're paired up in two like we do. If one was driving, the other could've called, right?" Ponnappan brought out a valid question.

"Well, they were really engrossed in the work that they actually forgot it." The person replied.

"I guess you guys in the HQ treasure those two very much since you're trying your level best to cover for them. Doesn't matter though. They broke the rules, they gotta suffer the consequences. I'll be filing a complaint to the tribunal and they will give them their appropriate punishments." Ponnappan spoke.

"Please no. Just let it go this one time. We are even willing to give you some compensation!" The person replied hurriedly.

Ponnappan stayed silent for a while before replying. "Compensation, huh…" He mumbled.

"We are willing to give you anything other than some top secret stuff that only the top brass of MIB knows about." The person spoke.

"Nah, don't worry about it. I'm not gonna be an asshole with my compensation." Ponnappan promised.

"I see. So what is it that you want?" The person asked.

"Well, send us some new alien tech for a while. The researchers are quite bored with the stuff that we have in our hands." Ponnappan spoke with Taro in mind for some reason.

"Done. New tech will come by every other week for your researchers to work on." The person promised.

"Great! Now what is the main matter about?" Ponnappan asked.

"Ah, yea! So two of the agents were on their way back from their mission-" The person was trying to complete his sentence when Ponnappan jumped in to interfere with it.

"About the mission… What was it about?" Ponnappan asked.

"That… is strictly confidential." The person replied.

"Well, they would have had to tell me if they did brief it to me. So, why-" This time around, it was the other person's chance to do the same to Ponnappan.

"It was a grade S mission." He spoke.

"Is that so? Then I won't be asking about the details of the mission. Did they succeed though?" Ponnappan asked.

"They successfully completed the task they were asked to do." The person answered.

"Hmm, seems like there was a side mission to it as well, but they didn't complete that one." Ponnappan spoke.

"Is that how you deciphered it? Well, it's your choice to think so." The person replied. Ponnappan could almost visualize the person shrugging at that moment for reasons unknown.

"You can continue with what you were saying, by the way." Ponnappan gave the helm of the conversation to the person and took the back seat.

"Ah, thanks for that. So, on their way back from the mission, they saw an alien." The person spoke.

"... Okay. Any characteristic features?" Ponnappan asked.

"It seems like the alien is fast." The person replied.

"Wait, did they actually see the alien then?" Ponnappan asked again.

"Well, they did once and then it was gone in the next." The person spoke.

"You sure it wasn't a hallucination of sorts?" Ponnappan sighed.

"There were traces of its presence in the area around, so yea." The person answered.

"Hmm, and now they want me to investigate this alien, huh?" Ponnappan asked.

"Precisely." The person replied.

"Hmm, if that's the case, you gotta let me know something about the alien other than the fact that it's fast." Ponnappan spoke.

"We'll send you the coordinates then. Check your phone." The person spoke.

Ponnappan sighed as he looked at the phone. It was exactly as he worried. The place located was #306 and the description about the person was that he was fast. There was just this one person who fit the bill, no matter how much he thought about it.

"Damn it, Taro! What did you do now?" He cursed the Wadorian in his mind before getting back to his senses. "I'll look into it then." Ponnappan replied.

"Great! Thanks, guy!" The person sounded genuinely ecstatic as he said that and hung up the phone.

"I'll have to look into what those bastards are up to when I'm not at home now." The commanding officer mumbled as he looked dejected.

"What happened?" John, who heard the conversation from Ponnappan's point of view, asked.

Suddenly, Ponnappan felt tense. He didn't know what to actually say to the person before him since it could trigger his hidden memories. Ponnappan smiled as he weaved a quick lie in his brain.

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