The Plan

A crowd had started to gather to see what happened, and each time a gasp left the mouths of the newly joined people after seeing the motionless body of Tam.

Mark walked towards the girl and the boy who was here when they first arrived at the scene.

"Did you see what happened?" The old man asked the boy since the girl was still shocked on the ground affected by what she saw.

The boy slowly kept eating his banana, as he turned his head towards Mark.

"Hm? Yes, I did." The boy replied.

Mark waited a few seconds, but the boy said nothing else.

"Will you tell me then?" Mark tried to say without shouting at him.

"Oh, you wanted to learn? Why didn't you say so? It was an ambulance. Quite weird for one to come by like that, ironic too since it just passed over that boy and left without stopping and went that way."

The boy pointed towards the left from where they had just come from.

Mark went to examine the body but didn't touch it as he knew he had to leave it for the experts. But he could tell that the boy had passed away.

He was sure about that because of some panels that had appeared before him, just a bit before they had heard the screams.

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ASSIGNMENT COMPLETED

Target: Overworked High School student

Reward: Truck Upgrade*

*you can pick it in the store

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CHALLENGE COMPLETE

Challenge REMOTE HARVEST completed

Description: Truck someone without even being behind the steering wheel

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CHALLENGE COMPLETE

Challenge CRAFTY completed

Description: Use Truck-kun's illusion ability to hide your tracks

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It was Mark and Truck-kun behind the hit, but Mark tried to look as surprised and as hurt as he could.

The way that he had pulled it off was thanks to an app that he never thought he would have used until today.

One friend of his worked for a big company that operated in automating almost everything, and from time to time, he approached people like Mark, to try some of their projects to get feedback on how easy they were to use. Mark wasn't a technology expert, but it would be easy for almost anyone to do it if he could use it.

The app allowed him to control the steering wheel of his car. He had to put a receiver at his wheel for it to work, otherwise, anyone could control it, leading to some severe accidents. Of course, a receiver could connect only to one device and had heavy security measurements to not allow more.

The app was on Melinda's, which generally was his, but he rarely used it. He enabled the receiver before they left and helped Truck-kun, parked in another spot remotely. He did so while they were at the top of the ferris wheel, which gave him a visual over it. Fortunately, nobody was around to notice a truck with no driver moving.

The new spot was picked so that it would just have a straight line to hit Tam when he passed.

There were some chances of failure like Tam reacting and getting out of the way since Truck-kun could only go forward by himself, but it wasn't the case in the end.

After that, Truck-kun left and Mark asked him if he could command one of those other 'minion' 'drivers so that he could go back to his space.

Those people couldn't help Mark finish an assignment, but they could do so after completing it. Fortunately, helping park Truck-kun wasn't considered important enough for them to be unable to do it.

Mark picked his phone and started dialing a number slowly. He knew this moment would arrive, but he didn't look forward to it.

He called Tam's father.

"Hello? Is that you, Mark?" the voice said when the line connected.

Mark didn't give a response for a few seconds.

"Hello? Are you there? Is there a problem with the…"

"I am sorry," the old man interrupted him.

"Sorry? Sorry for what?… What happened, Mark?"

Mark could tell that a realization came to the man's mind, and he knew that feeling pretty well. He had that moment with his daughter's accident, making the whole situation harder for him to handle, but somehow he kept going.

"There was an accident. Tam is…Tam has passed away." Mark uttered with difficulty.

He knew that telling everything upfront like that wasn't the best approach, but sometimes it was the best to do so. So he was always upfront in situations like that, which had caused him trouble a lot of times.

There was silence on the line, but Mark heard something hitting the ground hard. He waited for a response and heard footsteps and people shouting and getting closer to the phone.

"Is anyone there? Who are you? What did you do?" a female voice said as she picked the phone.

"Is he ok?" Mark asked.

The woman didn't respond for a few seconds.

"He got a pulse. He seems to have passed out. What did you say to him? "

"Make sure he gets to a hospital. Also, my condolences for losing his son." Mark replied.

"Wait. What did…. "

Mark ended the call as he couldn't speak anymore. This whole talk brought terrible memories, as he had been informed of his daughter's accident through the phone, too.

Soon an ambulance came with a police car. The two police officers that had just arrived tried to clear the crowd while the medics examined the body.

"Everyone, if you haven't witnessed how the accident happened, then I have to ask you to leave. Are there any relatives of the victim too? "

Mark walked towards the policeman, who tried to clear the crowd.

"I was with the boy. We aren't blood relatives, but he was the son of a friend of mine. We…" the old man gave him an explanation about who Tam was and why they were here.

Of course, he didn't say that the reason he came here was to give him a pleasant memory before hitting him with his somewhat alive truck.

"Well, Mr. Henderson, I will have to ask you to wait here and join us later in the precinct. Can you point me to the boy and girl that you said witnessed the accident?"

Mark helped the man by giving him the details he needed.

"Do you mind if I go get my truck? I could follow you with it." Mark asked.

"A truck?" the Officer asked feeling doubtful.

Mark expected the confusion, as coming to the park with a truck wasn't so usual, and he didn't mention in his story that he didn't have a car since it wasn't relevant.

"It is my vehicle of work. Well, the only vehicle I have, really. Quite uncomfortable to have, but it helps to pay the bills" Mark explained.

There was some suspicion in the eyes of the policeman, but he said nothing.

"NEWBIE. Join Mr. Henderson on his way towards the vehicle. I will wait here with his granddaughters." The Officer ordered.

Mark said nothing as a response other than turning towards Melinda and Maria.

"I will be back soon," Mark stated.

He noticed that the shock of the sight hadn't left them yet. They were too young to remember the accident, and they actually never witnessed the body of their parents, but they had heard stories, even if Mark tried not to share them.

He started making his way towards where his truck should be, and even if it was just space to the left, it was there. It also faced the other way from how he had parked it before.

Fortunately, there were no security cameras here, as they were pretty far from the park. The parking space was technically not part of the park, and the person who owned it cared little about their security but had cameras on its entrance and some other important spots.

The policeman said nothing since it was the first time it saw the truck and didn't know how or where it was supposed to be.

They both got in it. The policeman sat in the seat next to Mark, and Mark drove back closer to the scene. He didn't plan to escape as this would make him look guilty, and he knew the policeman would let him go after seeing all the pieces of evidence and witnesses.

At least he hoped that would be the case.