False alarm

"Hey, how you doing, old man? It's me, Fleur, you know, the one you rescued. Remember?"

I raised my hand and hysterically laugh towards Paul, who seems to be aiming his gun behind my spine.

"Cut the crap, princess. Hand over that pendant and I'll let you and your friend live." Paul said in a menacing voice, as he offers me an option. He once more taps the barrel unto my shoulders and began sliding it further upwards across the surface of my neck.

"It's just an ordinary pendant. What more do you possibly want—"

He cuts my sentence off using the click of the safety cap from the revolver on his hand. I could see the spitting image of the man lurking in the shadows at the corner of my eye, slowly moving forward.

Paul had always been a mysterious character in front of our eyes. He has the tenancy to either kill or protect the people he trusts. A true soldier ready to die on the arms of the battlefield. Remarkable as it seems, his characteristics have had brought peril on our side.

"To whom are you working for?" I locked my eyes from the man whose intention's to kill if he must. His eyes are wary, yet confident from the situation, creeping over towards my computer without turning his gaze away from my sight. His cigar's still in place, freshly lit, allowing a small hint of light illuminating the dim room.

"It's not your concern," Paul replies, as he splits his focus towards the article's context and mine. He began reading the remaining lines from the same document but still manages to catch my gaze from time to time, leaving me quarantined from any possible escape.

"Grey Turner…" He murmurs the same name written on the screen. His eyes began to widen, leaving all of us confused from the unexpected events.

"What's wrong?" I asked, curious from his actions.

He wasn't shaking nor panicking from the query. But his facial reaction proves to be strange in particular upon hearing a certain subject in the spur moment.

"Nothing." Eluding the question, Paul momentarily pauses and lowers his gun, allowing myself to either repel him from the chance or patiently communicate with him; thus, I chose the latter.

I took an office wheeled chair beside me and dragged it towards his direction. He abruptly jerks off from my abrupt movements and points out his gun once again.

"No need to do that. And I want you to see this." With a solemn look on my face, I began opening the pendant in my hand and kicked off the holographic scenery inside Paul's ocular senses.

Paul waited persistently on the images swirling around our vicinity, as it forms the actual footage reserved from the necklace.

The only tune left in the room was our tender breaths humming simultaneously. The artificial adjustments of the setting are tremendously breath-taking up until now. The scene where Pura's mother, who is constantly pre-occupied from the work she had been rigorously doing, had been a soothing remedy towards our glimmering hope upon continuing her research.

Paul soon breaks the silence the moment he saw Andrew Turner emerge from the room, smiling towards Claire; gazing right through him.

"Paul?" I managed to catch his attention, but his mind became petrified from the image of the scientist of Dr. Turner.

"I'm good. Never been better." His coarse voice differs from his answer. His hands, which he had been holding with a gun, had also been vividly shaking out of fear.

Alas, I paid it no mind. Although it was clear as day that the person he had been working for must've been Andrew himself, the man in question had still not mentioned his current agenda upon claiming, in a threatening manner, Pura's necklace.

Soon after, the video had ended, and the remnants left from the recording had engraved all of our minds.

"Andrew Turner must have been the one pulling the strings! He's the mastermind for the creation of the virus." I claimed, nearly shouting in the room. Paul's face had grown tremendously pale and soon back out slowly away from the screen.

"Ga-ah" His mind acted as if it was spinning and eventually made him fall on his knees, gasping for air. Grasping for his space. But I soon picked him up and asked Clinton if he can grab a glass of water just beside the entrance door.

"Already have it" A feminine voice joins our fray. The similar uniform worn by the La vie association, the pixie cut neatly aligned parallel from her ears; I wasn't mistaken, it was…

"Venice. Why are you here?" I was flabbergasted from her unusual sight, which made me look upwards in glamour towards the tall and petite image of Venice, Veronica.

"I was trying to stop Paul here and then he…"

"I never wanted you guys to be a part of what was happening behind SPECTRE."

Paul continued, no, he rejected Venice's statement and replaced it from his own.

"Were you brought by Andrew Turner?"

"No. How stupid can that be? Although, I've met Andrew once and his little kid, Grey, I will never be apart from that corrupted organisation"

Paul flashes me a foolish look indicating 'did you not know?', as he crosses his arms, dissatisfied while being greatly amused by my reaction.

God, how stupid can I be?

"So you're saying that you're not part of the spies sent out by Andrew?"

"Yes"

"And you're just here to shift our responsibilities towards the adults, who can handle the situation better than we could?"

"Yes?"

"THEN WHY DON'T YOU SAY SO IN THE FIRST PLACE?!"

I lashed out my anger and began stomping my feat towards the concrete floor. Annoyed by Paul's demeanour, I sat down on my sofa once again and pondered what had happened from before.

"Then why did you have to point out that stupid gun right at me?"

"To be realistic, of course," He replied as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"But what about the pendant? How did you know it was an important item needed by the the…SPECTRE was it?" demented, I shift my gaze towards both Venice and Paul and awaited their answers.

"The government deemed their witless act to be the source of the contamination happening throughout the world. With their last resort exhausted from the countless crisis situating, they had no other choice but to warrant an arrest and force Andrew Turner and the rest of the scientist to cope up a plan against the Ohio-virus" Paul then explained the exploit happening inside the United Nation affairs.

"Then what about the SPECTRE?" I asked, still quite disoriented from the lack of data absorbed.

"The SPECTRE is an anonymous group of scientists that wished to conquer the entire entity of the planet. These include, wealth, power, and people to become the artificial god's reign over the planet. "

Venice hands over the cup to Paul and afterward sits on the nearest couch, not too far away from the people inside the room...

"What are we going to do now?" Clinton asks, still browsing the computer for further allocation of data hidden in the networks.

"What do you mean 'we' "? You guys aren't included." Paul spits his cigar out on the ash bin and retorts to our proposition.

"WE ARE FRIENDS WITH PURA!" I snap back in a frenzied manner. Pura was the one who entrusted us with the necklace. It should have been us who'll be finishing the jobs.

"Do you have any idea about what you're dealing with?" Paul said irritatingly, as he leans forward and deep stare into my eyes. His aura gave off no hints of prudence and iniquity, rather his mien emanates befitting for a king. It was far the most serious gaze I've ever felt since my mum had hurriedly erupted when I had broken her favourite vase right after an accident. Like a snake observing his prey, I was left exhausted throughout the whole day.

"Paul, enough" As if, on cue, Paul's shifts his peer and sips his lukewarm water, and eventually placed it on the ground.

"Venice, what do you think?" He looks at his empty cup of water and waited for an answer.

"I think we can include 2 more guys in my team. After all, Fleur's officially a member, remember?"

Venice perks up the mood and flashes me a smile. She then approaches me and began patting my head.

Her gentle hand came across the tips of my skull and felt a relaxing sensation coming from my mind. I was soon sunken deep in euphoria and had honestly wished for it to never stop.

"Uhm…" Awkwardness soon came into the fray, as I began to softly moan from the excitement perceived by my whole body.

"Sorry about that." Venice quickly pulls out her hand and looks away from embarrassment.

"It's fine, Venice~" I grabbed her hand and placed it back on top of my forehead as I relieved the soft and gentle caress of her fingers.