"What the fuck took you so long? I was already on the verge of calling for reinforcement if I didn't get any response from you in like 5 minutes" Mirvena was looking at me with a very obvious expression of relieve on her face. If I hadn't just escaped a near catastrophic situation, I might have burst out in laughter at the expression on her face. It takes quite a lot to get Mirvena visibly shaken like this, even to the point of cussing, she's always very big on being prim and proper with her speech. Our line of work is one that comes with a lot of occupational hazards, but me being in a situation where I can not even as much as send her a reassuring message is definitely a first and if I could, I would reassure her that it would be the last, but we both know that's just deceiving ourselves. The deeper we go in this journey, the more danger we could be putting ourselves in, but I believe we know what we signed up for when we decided to walk down this path.
"Well, I could have used a bit of rescuing but that could have ended up being the most devastating and reckless idea we could have ever come up with", she looks at me incredulously, knowing this is my miserable attempt at trying to ease her tension by making light of the whole situation.
"What exactly happened out there, and don't tell me it's nothing, because I know when something is up with you" I let out a sigh in exasperation, there's no way to wiggle myself out of this one I guess. I slowly recount the ordeals of the night to her, right from the moment I walked into that room up until I was literally saved by the phone call.
"Ummm…that's rather weird", she says after taking a minute to recover her senses from the shock of what I had just gone through. "I know for a fact that I verified every variable and every option before you set out on this mission. Do you think it's really a coincidence that he was there today?"
I ponder over her question because truthfully, I share the same sentiments. It makes absolutely no sense why he would be on this side of the globe today of all days. It felt a bit too coincidental for me to be comfortable with and I couldn't shake off the sinking feeling in my stomach that told me something wasn't right.
"I really can't say for certain Mirv but all I know is I have the files we have been looking for, and we need to get the hell out of here right now!" I scream in fear even as I hear a loud blast in the distance and suddenly, everywhere is bright orange and the air is filled with the acrid smell of ash and smoke. I turn to take a quick glance even as Mirvena is backing the car out of the lot at an insane level of speed. The building I had just walked out of a few minutes earlier is now on fire. Whoever is behind this must know something about my coming, unfortunately for them, they're a little too late. I can't help but softly chuckle to myself even as I lightly caress the documents gently perched on my knees.
"Okay, so now what? You've successfully secured the documents, now what are you going to do next?" I ponder over her question rather deeply. It's true that securing these documents that I risked my life for has been my biggest fixation since the past 6 months. I smile wryly as I remember all the days of sleepless nights and breakdowns over coffee at 3:00am in the morning, just to make sure this mission was very seamless.
"All that hard work, just for me to almost die tonight", I can't stop the bitter tange that settles on my tongue
"Well, our next point of call definitely has to be the big gala that's going to be happening in 2 months". The gala is supposed to be a very big social event that's supposedly for big names in politics and entertainment to "network", but I know better. Based on my years of research and even lore years of experience, I have come to realize that these "galas" are actually auctions. Now you would think that by auctions, they're probably auctioning off very valuable and rare items off to the highest bidder. Unfortunately, this is not the reality. These depraved fuckers use these events to auction off women and children to the highest bidder; even boy children are not spared from their madness. If a "product" as they're often dehumanizing called, is unable to get auctioned off, he or she is sent off to the general sex work headquarters to get a "placement" at the brothels scattered across the nation. Just the thought of it is making my skin crawl.
"Earth to Leilani I turn to see Mirv looking at me with so much concern on her face. She knows more than anyone just how personal this mission is to me.
"I'm sorry, I was lost in thoughts. The gala is still 2 months away so I guess I'd probably use that time to investigate into the reason for the bombing of the headquarters tonight. Might as well try to get to the bottom of Caelum's appearance at the headquarters tonight. Like you said, it seems too much of a coincidence, these two events happening on the very night that I show up at the headquarters and I don't believe in coincidences".