Copy & Paste Pow Chapter 42

Chapter 42: Chapter 42

As Adam walked, a memory surfaced from three years after this point in his previous life.

He had come back from work that evening tired enough to fall straight into his chair. The apartment had been small. His roommate had already been sitting there, half watching the television while eating from a cheap food box. Adam had barely looked at the screen at first.

Then the news changed.

A police officer’s face appeared on the television.

The anchor’s voice was sharp, and the date strip below the screen read June 18.

"Officer Rovan Hale has been accused of murdering environmental activist Eshan Verma and burying his body in Blackroot Forest," the anchor said. "The disappearance, first reported on May 14 three years ago, is now being investigated as a planned killing tied to corruption and illegal development interests."

The report shifted to another screen, with Rovan Hale’s photo on one side and Eshan Verma’s sister, Mira, on the other.

She was crying so badly that her words kept breaking.

"What did my brother do?" she said. "He only wanted to protect the forest and the land for the people who would come after us. He didn’t hurt anyone. He only wanted them to stop."

That was the part Adam remembered first.

Then the rest of it returned with it.

Eshan Verma had not been some famous leader. He had simply found out that a company called Vardel Structures wanted to start a housing project near Blackroot Forest. The owner, had already spent money to clear the path for it. The land was cheap, the expected profit was high, and most of the resistance had looked weak at first.

Then Eshan got involved.

He began protesting, gathering people, filing complaints, and pushing the matter into public view. He talked about tree loss, soil damage, and what that whole project would do to nearby communities in the long run. Slowly, people started listening. Then local offices started asking questions, and the pressure on Vardel Structures began to rise.

Owner backed off in public.

In private, he decided to make an example out of Eshan.

That was where Rovan Hale came in.

Rovan was still a police officer at the time, and he had three others with him. Adam remembered that part clearly because the report had repeated it several times later. There had been four men in total, but Rovan was the center of it. He took the money, arranged the grab, and fired the shot.

Eshan had been taken without an official arrest. There was no paper trail, no open case, and no proper record. He had just disappeared. Later, a fake encounter story had been prepared in case something leaked, but even that had never been filed properly. Instead, they buried Eshan’s body deeper inside Blackroot Forest along with whatever evidence they could hide.

For almost three years, Mira Verma kept searching for him.

She went from office to office, filed reports, begged for access to records, and chased journalists, lawyers, and anyone who might care, but most of them stopped replying after a while, treated her like a nuisance, or told her to move on.

She did not.

That was why the truth finally came out.

One of the other officers broke first.

His name had been Sol. He had not been the one who pulled the trigger, but he had been there, and the guilt had ruined him. He left the force months before the news broke, and when he could not bear it anymore, he went to Mira and told her everything.

After that, the whole thing exploded.

The media picked it up. Rights groups and public voices lined up behind Mira. What had been an old missing-person case turned into a murder case overnight. That was why Rovan Hale’s face had ended up on every screen in the country three years later.

Adam came back to the present so suddenly that he almost stopped in the middle of the road.

His eyes widened.

"Yes," he whispered. "Rovan Hale."

People passed by him without paying attention, but Adam no longer cared about any of them.

Now he remembered enough.

At this point in time, he was still walking around with a badge and a clean face. Mira Verma was still searching without answers. Eshan’s body was still in the forest. Owner and the others still believed the whole thing had been buried with it.

Adam’s breathing slowed.

This was exactly the kind of man he needed.

Not because Rovan was the end of the line, but because he was the first weak joint in it. If Adam bent him the right way, the men above him would start showing themselves too.

Rovan Hale was corrupt and afraid of exposure. He was also important enough to matter and weak enough to break. More than that, he still had official cover. A man like that could be squeezed, threatened, used.

’This is it,’ Adam thought. ’This is the one I can use.’

He lowered his head and brought his hands together for a moment.

"Mira Verma," he said quietly, "forgive me."

His voice slowed after that.

"This truth should have reached you earlier. You should never have had to spend three years searching for your brother like that."

He looked up again.

"But don’t worry, I’ll help you."

By then, the softness in his face was gone.

"Before I hand him over, I’ll make sure he pays for what he did. I won’t let him stay comfortable for even one moment. I’ll drag him through hell so badly that he regrets staying alive."

Adam already knew this would not stop with Rovan alone. Men like Owner only stayed bold because they believed other hands could keep blood off them. If Adam broke the policeman properly, the path above him would start opening too.

The road ahead had not changed.

Adam had.