The Call and the Rules

 

It was a cold evening. Adrian was home, huddled in a blanket on the sofa, watching TV when the telephone rang.

"Hello?"

"Is this Adrian McSkay?" a synthesized voice answered.

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I don't answer to people who use fake voices," he answered, irritated.

"You will once you listen to what I have to say. Twenty-eight million, one hundred and ninety six thousand, five hundred and twenty seven. Eight million, three hundred and ninety six thousand, five hundred and seventy three. Fourteen hundred and thirty. You are a detective. Be on time and you will save lives. If not, ten people die."

"What do you mean?"

"Be on time tomorrow."

Before Adrian could ask anything else, the caller had hung up. Adrian put his receiver down, a frown on his face as he tried to make sense of what the caller had said. He retrieved a pen and paper and jotted down the numbers the caller had given.

28,196,527

8,396,573

1,430

To a novice, the numbers may be meaningless. It was not so with Adrian. He smiled. He knew exactly what they meant.

***

It was half past two in the afternoon the next day. Adrian stood in the middle of a field, staring at the small GPS device in his hand.

28.196527

83.96573

Longitude and latitude.

Entering the co-ordinates online had shown him this location on the map. Of course, he had entered different variations of the same numbers. All of them had pointed to someplace in the middle of the ocean except the place where he now stood. It was only a few hours' drive from his home.

1,430

The number referred to time.

'Be on time,' the caller had said.

Fourteen hundred and thirty hours. It could also be written as 2:30 pm. Well, Adrian was certainly on time. All he had to do now was wait for the caller to show up.

Adrian looked at the clock on his mobile.

14:31

He felt something prick his neck. Before he could reach up with his hands to feel what it was, his head started spinning and he fell down on the grass unconscious.

***

When Adrian woke up, he found himself strapped to a chair by a metal bar.

"You awake mate?" he heard a voice ask.

He looked around wearily and noticed that there were eleven other people in the room he was, strapped to a chair with a metal bar just like he was. There was a table in the middle of the room with a speaker on it. The wire ran down the table and into the walls. A sudden sharp pain in his head forced him to wince and close his eyes.

"Take it easy buddy," another voice said. "The fogginess will wear off in a minute."

"Where am I?" Adrian asked, his eyes still closed.

"Well, I'll be damned if I know," said a female voice. "I don't suppose you received an anonymous call like the rest of us did."

"So you all were shot by a tranquilizer too?"

"Right on old buddy," the second voice said.

First voice: Australian.

Second voice: British.

Third voice: British.

Three foreigners. Adrian wouldn't be surprised if the rest were foreigners too. He opened his eyes slowly and looked around. There were six women and five men. Three of the women were East Asian in appearance, two were Black and one was Caucasian. Of the men, two were Caucasian, one South Asian and two Blacks.

The speaker on the table suddenly crackled to life and a synthesized voice, the same voice that had called him yesterday, began speaking.

"Before we start, let me introduce to everyone in this room. We'll go clockwise.

The lady near the door is Mrs Hwang Nam. The gentleman next to her is Mr Richard Finn. Then, it's Mr Adrian McSkay, Ms Tharonby Huifeyl, Ms Raven Parker, Mr John Hunter, Mr Raj Tripathee, Mr Kel Brady, Mrs Akiko Akiyama, Ms Eun-Kyung Im, Mr Antoine Gustavo and Ms Shanice Miller.

I am sure you're all wondering why I have gathered you here. There are twelve of you. Ten of you are perfectly ordinary people. One of you is a detective. And one is me. The reason you're all here is because I wanted to play a game. You see, I am going to kill all of you. I will start tomorrow and, over the course of next eleven days, kill you one by one with one death per day. There is not much else. Except for the detective. Your job is to find out who I am and save as many of these people as you can. There is only one rule. You, detective, may not reveal your identity to any of the other people. If you do, they will die the following night.

You will soon be released from your chairs. Exiting this room, you will find yourself in a mansion. There is a room designated for each one of you. Make yourself as comfortable as you can because you never know which day might be your last. I should also mention that this mansion lies ten miles away from the nearest civilization so calling for help is useless. All the windows and doors are also tightly locked from the outside so there is no point in trying to escape. Your only hope lies with the detective.

Let the game begin. A game of murder."