CHAPTER 7

A good twenty seconds passed by for everyone to digest the statement.

"Blue Pegasus.... " Samantha broke out of it first among them. "Isn't that.... " But her voice was held back again as Atticus left his chair and walked towards the wall which was apparently a chamber behind solid wall.

"Follow me."

Everyone walked behind him as they saw him pressing a certain ordinary brick and the whole wall started turning horizontally around a certain angle.

The chamber opened and they went in, only to be introduced by boards of photographs and notes and red threads.

This is interesting. And complicated.

"You can see a few pictures of men and women in here. They are our own people. Well, they used to be; before they were executed for the offence of betraying the Eirineftis."

A shiver ran down Samantha's spine at the Boss's arrangement of vocabulary. Whoever the poor souls were, they made a big mistake taking a step like that. No one has ever been able to escape that dog's nose of Atticus.

"Hold on a minute... " Christina interrupted, "they were executed?"

"But what did they do?" This came from Larry, her 'blade'mate, that's what they call them.

"Would you like to brief?" Atticus asked Gustavo.

"Yes sir!"

Samantha coldly observed those obsidian orbs that avoided to make any eye contact with hers. She could sense something was up as soon as she had seen the uneven motion in his swagger when he came to court her. Gustavo, who was the leader of the other lower ranked people of The Eirineftis immediately after Atticus, has to deal with every single deed they do - be it a stupid mistake or intentional action. Unlike Samantha, he is good at leadership.

"So, the Blue Pegasus is an underground organization just like us", he met Atticus's gaze and rephrased, "but unlike us, they are involved in organized crime. Drug dealing, human organ trafficking and natural resources smuggling - these are the main three actions they specialize in; leaving other small scale crimes. The organization has a history with us a long time ago, when me and Sam were rookies. This happened before you three were rescued." He pointed at Sumire, Larry and Christina. "So, give or take it's about fifteen years. They have laid low all this time, but when people were about to forget the name Blue Pegasus, they just reappeared out of nowhere." He snapped his finger in the air and sighed.

Moving towards the board, he continued, pointing his knife to the pictures, "These four people, they were guilty with the crime of endangering our organization. Like I said, the Blue Pegasus is active again. Although nobody knows the heads running the group now, the pattern of crimes is the same as fifteen years ago. But this time, they are targeting our people. They are trying to turn them against us by offering money or immunity or anything that may earn their loyalty towards them. And this is harming like a house of cards to the upper level, to us, to the system. Those low lives were responsible for jeopardizing our well built system so they had to be eliminated."

There was a dead silence again.

"But what exactly was their offence?" Samantha couldn't help but ask.

"Selling information."

"Hn, Touche."

Everyone sweatdropped. Only Samantha has the audacity to curse or swear in front of the boss like that.

Gustavo continued, "these people were the reason my last two operations failed; back to back. One of them was directly under my command in the rescue mission. And the other one had informed to enemy about the rendezvous point of meeting. So they... had to be taken care of."

The way his eyes shadowed after that; the way he indirectly avoided admitted that he's freed those souls from earthly endeavors himself didn't escape Samantha's keen observation. Poor guy has always hated meaningless killing; even if it's a collateral damage or selected civilian asset. She knew, no matter how much their feet is stuck inside the pit of darkness, there was still hope for him. Unlike her, he was a good person at heart who has refused to drop off the compassion within him.

Memories flooded through her mind from the time they were being tamed for times like this. Sometimes, during spar trainings, he used to accept defeat intentionally so that Samantha can get the training over with and get some rest for her torn muscles. They practically grew up together and had a deep connection that ran through deeper than the two co-surviver hearts of pain and suffering and empathy.

"Sumire?"

"Yes." The tiny black haired nerd girl stepped forward and dictated, "according to the information we have gathered so far, these are the areas where the crimes are happening." She pointed, "The dots connected forms the main network as we suppose. But this might be even bigger. We have people working for it. Unfortunately there isn't much we can work with.... "

"That's why I have summoned you all." Atticus spoke up, "I need you five, my most deadly weapons, to find out everything about Blue Pegasus so that we can eliminate the pests of the society. People! This is an operation to be carried out very confidentially because of its delicacy. Words can not spread to others as you understand, a single mistake can lead to our own destruction."

"Is there any measure taken to prevent further damage?"

"I have decided to use leverage for the ones prone to betray us. It could be family or money or jobs. Because letting them know about the whole situation might be a back fire to our purpose."

Determination was getting clear in everybody's face.

"We perform within the shadows. We keep the humanity free of filth. We are nameless protectors. If we fail our path, malice will take over the society and people will suffer. We can't let this happen. We can't let them destroy us because people needs us! So, I hereby put my trust in you. Protect yourselves so that you can keep protecting people!"

"Yes sir!" They said in unison as adrenaline rushed through their veins.

Samantha, The Keres, deadliest silent assasin the world has ever seen.

Gustavo, the leader to whom even the most rebellious bow down.

Sumire, the computer brain capable of hacking NASA.

Larry and Christina, the hunter duo of the underworld who leave piles of bodies behind their back.

And Atticus Garfield, the head of The Eirineftis AKA The Peace Makers.

They now have a rough path to walk on until they make the way easier for the world to step on it, even if it costs their everything, even if it costs their lives.

They have to be the ones to protect the upper hand of God blessing to humanity.