8

8

Moscow, 1100 hours

         “Yes, thanks for reporting in, Dimitri.”

         A brown haired man smiled and tapped the screen of his phone, not noticing the curious young man standing behind him, looking at him from his back. He wouldn’t possibly notice the young man until he touched the older man’s back. He quickly turned back and smiled.

         “Hey, Ivan. What’s wrong?”

         “Well…”

         The younger man smiled and looked down, blushing a little. Of course it was nice to be at least, noticed by a senior worker.

         “How’s it going over there?”

         “Not very well, from how Dimitri made it sound,” the old man said. “But whatever, right?”

         The younger man smiled as he nodded slightly. Of course, there was nothing to fear as long as it’s the good ones on the move. The older man smiled and touched his junior’s back.

         “Now, now, anything else you need?”

         “Well, I just got a bit interested…” He gave a smile and looked down, then he saluted politely and walked away.

         Nothing to fear?
         How interesting…

~•~

         London, 0900 hours

         “I got a bit information, but I’m not sure if it’ll be useful…”

         “You’re always so modest,” Julia said as she typed something on the black portable keyboard. Megan was standing behind her, smiling sheepishly. Julia kept typing seriously, as more green screens appeared in front of her, floating, until then she stopped. She turned to one of the screens and pointed it.

         “This one?”

         Megan leaned down, finally – not in interest or whatever, just to verify. She could see a few words with some pictures in the screen her friend pointed, and nodded.

         “Yeah, that one.”

         Julia swiped that screen and it stopped in front of her, then she started reading the information on it. Meanwhile, Megan was walking to the fridge, opening it to take something.

         “Interesting,” Julia said. “I don’t know if it’s the pixel’s fault or not, but I’m certain I saw some cuts.”

         “Cuts?” Such good eyes… “Where? I didn’t even see.”

         “Here, around the neck,” she answered. “It’s visible from the sides.”

         “Are they stitched?”

         “I doubt that,” Julia said. “A bit like a mask… perhaps?”

         Heee… I hope my eyes aren’t playing tricks on me.

~•~

         RIIIIIIING

         “Yes, hello? Oh, someone hacked us… Has Fred got into it?”

         A blonde woman was tying up her hair as the phone next to her was ‘speaking’. It was esplaining the current situation – stronger security has been put and nobody should be able to break it. She brought all her long hair to the back and tied it with a pink hairband. She then turned back to the phone, which was quiet, and sighed.

         “Okay, then. Have a nice day at work.”

         She tapped the screen once and looked at herself again in the mirror. She was wearing an orange jacket and jeans – the normal outfit anyone would wear. She smiled, satisfied with her looks like a woman usually does, then walked away from the window.

         “Now, I’m glad this is my day off. What should I do today…”

         KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

         Open the door, yeah.

         She sighed loudly and walked to the door – who the heck is coming so early in the morning – and opened the door.

         If it’s just an android walking around, asking for donation, I’ll kick him.

         She opened the door, readying her right foot in case it was what she was thinking about – someone from the church – but forced a fake smile anyway, in case it’s not.

         “Good morning, may I…”

         “Morning, Abi.”

         She could feel her throat dried and her heart stopped in that instant.

         Standing in front of her was a man with red hair and round glasses. He was much taller than her – she had to to look up a little to look at his face, and suddenly, her expression changed.

         “Daniel? You’re back…”

         “Hey, of course,” the man said. “I told you I would.”

         “But I thought…”

         “I’m not gonna come back?” He gave a sheepish smile as he pushed his glasses closer to his eyes. “But I’m back now, am I not?”

         She could feel her heart leaped in joy – she could feel tears welled up in her eyes as she moved forward and leaned down to his chest. It felt so warm – she could even hear some heartbeat, confirming that he was alive.

         Is this real?

         If this is, then…

~•~

         “Charles Eddington – 38 years old, French, single.”

         “You sure this is our man, Julia?” a black haired man asked. “I mean, he’s French. We’re not exactly looking for him, right?”

         “What are you talking about? Of course this all is fake, Dave.”

         “…Eh?”

         “Let’s see… This guy wears a mask,” Julia said. “Number one. And then the boss said these people have no name. So this must just be some con stuff.”

         “Tracking him will be difficult, without any help,” Julia said. “Maybe, if we can find some help. Can someone facilitate us, since that’ll be something very good.”

         “You mean a sponsor?”

         “No, I mean facility,” she said. “If we can track him, it’ll be nice.”

         “That’s going to be difficult…”

         “No, no, no, have no worries!”

         They turned and saw a woman with black hair standing behind them, where she wasn’t there before. She was smiling brightly, as if there was nothing to worry when there was quite something to worry…

         “What do you mean? Of course we have to worry!” The man stood up in anger and walked towards her. The blonde woman kept calm, and so did the black-haired woman – maybe there was really nothing to worry.

         “Let her handle that, Dave,” Julia said. “If she said it should be alright, then it should be. Should it not…”

         “Just blame me!” the black haired woman said. “It’ll be fine, so don’t worry about it!”
                                                      ~•~

         The few hours later

         “Night has fallen.”

         A blonde man was sitting on a chair placed on the rooftop of an apartment. He was looking up to the sky, where a bit of the moon has shown itself, not very shiny though, as the clouds were covering its shine. He could see some silhouettes passed by above him very, very quickly. Maybe nocturnal birds, or bats?

         The moon, despite being small, was beautiful that night…

         But even if it was so beautiful, he still couldn’t be that careless. There was someone standing behind him, perhaps he sneaked very silently, but someone could still sense him.

         “Well, what do you want, Kalinka?”

         “…”

         He turned to the shadow standing next to him. The shadow was standing still – whatever it was wearing soething, which waved as the wind blew. He sighed silently, knowing he wouldn’t get any answer, and looked away. However, it wasn’t a sigh of disappointment – he was kind of happy, actually.

         “I think we’ll be working together, now…”

         The shadow still didn’t answer. However, the man smiled discreetly as he stood up.

         “Now, now, I think we should be able to work together perfectly. How about I tell you what we’ll do?”
         The shadow stood still for a while, but then a smile formed on the shadow’s face.

         Surely, it must be something very enjoyable to be done…