5

                                                      5
         “May I ask...”
         Julia looked up from her Kindle, to the black haired man sitting in front of her. He looked a bit disappointed, pissed even, as if what he was doing was something he never wanted.
         “Yes?”
         “Why are we looking for this guy at the first place?” he asked as he looked out of the window. And to make things worse, Julia, we're going somewhere totally          foreign. Do you get what I mean?”
         “You mean, why don't Ivan come along too?”
         “...” Not exactly, it seems.
         But the woman smiled, despite getting things not right, and turned to her friend sitting down next to her. She was looking out of the window, a wide, happy smile drawn on her face.
         “Stop complaining now, Dave,” she said as she got back to reading. “Can't you see someone is happy here? Let's not spoil it for anybody here.”
         “...”
         He turned to the black haired woman sitting next to Julia, who was looking out to the clouds, smiling like a kid who has just been given a huge jar of Gummi Bears enough for a year.
         Yeah, the kind of satisfied look was on her face, and it made him feel a bit guilty.
         “Well, whatever...”
         He sighed again loudly and took the white mug in front of him. He glanced at the woman once again, who was still looking out with the smile, then he sighed and sipped from his mug.
         Yeah! That's that, Merlin!
         Finally, finally, I'll get to meet Frederich Fuller!
                                                      ~•~
         London, 1230 hours
         “Can you just wipe that smirk off your face, Meg?”
         “Sorry, Dave, but I'm soooo happy!” a black haired woman answered as she took her black suitcase from the troveyor belt. “You get it, right? Is it wrong to be happy when you're travelling?”
         “...”
         Dave sighed as he zipped his backpack. He then carried it onto his back and took her hand.
         Yeah, we're playing as tourists. Isn't there something worse we can play as?
         “Come on, Julia must be waiting for us.”
         “No, she isn't.”
         “Eh?” He could suddenly feel the cold chill scross his spine, the fear of being left behind. Of course, who wouldn't be afraid, especially when you're visiting a place totally unknown to you for the very, very first time, and was left behind by your only guide.
         “She told us to go shopping.”
         “...What?”
         “You got off the plane first, so she only told me,” she said as she fished for something in her pockets. “ She said she's going to check into the hotel, and we should go shopping first. She's expecting us at the hotel at around lunchtime.”
         “But we don't even know what the shitty hotel is nor where it is!”
         “She said she’ll pick us up, and she even told me where a good department store is!” she said with a smile. The man looked away, seemingly pissed. But, my, men never likes shopping do they? Aside from shopping weapons of course.
         “So now we should go shopping?”
         “Um-hum.”
         “For what?”
         “What we need!” She smiled and squeezed his hand tight, making him feeling a little awkward, as he wasn't that good with women. He's only good with fellow males, he thought.
         So can someone tell me why I'm stuck with two females here...
         “Come on, it's been quite a while since we went somewhere together like this, no? We have to obey Julia at the hotel, now, so let's just enjoy this now!”

         “But I thought you were…”        

         “What?”

         He looked at her for a while, only to notice that she was looking at him with such innocent eyes of a child. He looked at her longer, half hoping that something would change, but of course nothing did. He could do nothing but to sigh, unable to reject a kid’s wish.

         “F… fine, whatever.”

         “Yay!”

         Really, like a kid…

~•~

         “This is your room, Ms. Hopkins.”

         “Thank you, mister.”

         Julia smiled to the concierge and entered her room. The door then closed behind her as she sat down on her bed.

         The room she was granted with wasn’t big, but wasn’t small either. There was only one bed in the room, and a big wardrobe next to the bed. On the wardrobe doors, someone has painted the picture of a woman in black kimono and yellow hairpin. She looked at the woman for a while then she sighed and stood up. She walked to the curtains and yanked them open, letting in the day sunlight. It was such a sunny day so that she even had to shrink her eyes for a few seconds after she opened the thick fabric, so that her pupils could adapt. From the window, she could see the busy streets of London – not very picturesque, especially if there’s a room facing the Westminter Abbey.

         “…”

         She stepped back and looked at the picture of the woman again for a while. Of course nothing has changed – she was still wearing the same black kimono and yellow hairpin. There were a few flowers drawn near the woman for art – different kinds of flowers in different colours.

         …Interesting.

~•~

         83 minutes later

         “Here, what about this one?”

         David couldn’t do anything but let the short-haired woman in front of him put a brown fedora hat on his head. She looked at him for a while, then she took it again.

         “There, looks good on you!” she said with a smile. “Let’s buy this too!”

         “Aren’t we buying a bit too much?”

         “That’s what you think!” Women sure agree differently from men. “What have we bought so far?”

         “A jacket, about four shirts, a scarf, two trousers and two shorts, and for you, and for you, three dresses, two shirts, two trousers, a jacket, and…”

         “It’s sale season, so it’s reasonable to buy a lot, Dave,” a blonde woman suddenly said. “Men never understand this kind of things, do they?”

         “That’s right,” the black haired woman said. “Will you buy something, Julia?”

         “Me? No need,” Julia answered. “I’ve bought my stuff in the hotel.”

         “There’s a shop in the hotel, too?”

         “Yeah,” Julia answered with a smile. “Go shop as much as you want, Meg.”

         “Yay!” Really, like a kid.

         Julia turned to the man, who looked kind of tired, then she smiled and looked away. There, she could see a statue, wearing a black poncho and white trousers. The statue looked arrogant, standing with her hands folded and her eyes looking somewhere afar. Suddenly she felt something in herself woke up.

         “Well, maybe I’m going to buy something too.”

         “Oh, no, don’t start, now, Julia!”

         “Why not, since the boss will be paying for us?”

         “Just don’t!”

~•~

         RIIIIIING

         “Yes, hello?”

         “I spotted something, friend.”

         “Ah, yes, send it to me.”

         “I have.”

         “Already? Okay, thanks, I’ll check it now.”

         Frederich pushed away a screen, and it quickly disappeared after moving for about an inch or two. He then sat down and typed something with some lightning speed, and another green screen appeared right in front of his eye. There was a picture of a black short-haired woman on the screen, taken from the front, back, and the sides. The woman had rather small eyes, hidden behind a pair of square glasses. He quickly felt something snapped inside him, and moved his face forward to see it.

         Wait, this woman…

         Next to the pictures, there were a line of words of information about the woman – her name, birthdate, nationality, and… well, everything you know from a passport.

         And there, it was clearly stated that the woman’s name was Megan Shirley.

         Megan Shirley, Canadian, 32 years old, single.

         But…

         “Well, let’s end it here for now, loser.”

         …Have I seen her before this?