The small, untidy room lay in soft darkness, enveloped in the stifling warmth of the previous summer day and only illuminated by the restless flickering of the TV that was running. The muffled voices emanating from him were drowned out again and again by the purring rattle of the fan, which tried in vain to send a cool breeze through the room. The window to the street, which was now deserted at that time, was open.
Without emotion, a pair of hazel eyes watched the countless successive commercials that darted across the screen in garish colors, and the man belonging to the eyes yawned heartily as he slumped lower on his leather sofa. He was tired and his skull protested with unspeakable pain against the summer humidity and the more than unsatisfactory work that he had been allowed to do in the past few weeks. He was so fed up with this whole wretched monkey dance!
With his eyes closed, he continued to listen to the reserved voice of the newscaster announcing the late-night news, and was already threatening to cave in over the monotonous litany of current affairs when he got up from his sofa with a surprised exclamation and, with his eyes wide open, the TV report pursued.In one fell swoop, headache and tiredness were forgotten. Instead, his body trembled with the pounding rhythm of his accelerated heartbeat.
There were only a few isolated pictures and a rather meager report that was brought as a brand new report at the end of the broadcast. But they were completely sufficient.
An American Navy warship, a Class C cruiser that had been lost for a little over a month, had unexpectedly reappeared. But in a place where such a ship was less likely: in the heart of Tennessee, a few kilometers from the gates of Nashville and countless miles from the nearest coastline.
When and under what circumstances it got there was still unknown. But the fact was that it had surfaced again and the way it was filmed by a helicopter in the corn field, it looked more like a burned-out wreck.
A joyous glow drove the dull veil from the eyes and a mischievous grin stole onto the unshaven face.He had to go there. No question. Nothing would stop him from flying to Tennessee now that he had found out about this. Not even this foolish forced transfer to another department. Basically they were only temporarily seconded anyway ... In any case, he decided to change this into one.
He grabbed his cell phone and while he was watching the last pictures of the report, he dialed.