Chapter 20

“Hey brat, we were in the middle of something.” Called the black-haired guy on my right

This was followed by a set of nods

“Who invited the brat here?”

This time it came out from the blue-haired guy

“I did, got any problem with that.”

Lynne bellowed behind me making the whole room burst into murmurs

A guy in a suit to my right asked me something but it was in Russian which only made me stare at him dumbly, he waited for a response when that didn’t happen he turned to Lynne.

“He asked if you’re the backup from Germany.” She translated before giving me a confused look “Wait you don’t speak Russian?” The flabbergasted look on her face slowly turned to mockery

I shook my head which earned a few groans in the room

“Great, now we have a kid with us who doesn’t understand an ounce of Russian.” The black-haired guy said in English this time “This operation is good as dead.”

“Your operation is doomed from the start, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t.” the comment only made the guy angrier, with arms crossed he slumped down on his seat.

Lynne who was silently chuckling took her seat next to the platinum blonde who was busy typing something on his tablet, just like the other one he too was wearing a suit but in a more pristine look.

“The infamous Midnight has joined our party cue music.” The blue-haired guy clapped in mockery “can a low-level mage keep up with our high ranking party or will she die first like a noob in the upcoming quest.”

“What he means.” The guy in the suit started “our current target is the First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia.” A picture of a guy in a fine suit flashed through the screen, across the room was a projector. He gestured to blue with his laptop to continue “He has a debt towards the organization for months and has no intention to pay it. We have been given an order to dispose of him but our main problem is that his house is heavily guarded with the most cutting-edge security in the country.” He finished as the slides continued.

“You need me because?”

“We need you to sneak in the surveillance room with your experience and size you could easily slip through the guards.” Answered the black-haired guy who I will now call Mr. grumpy

“But that would be hard since our Intel here still doesn’t know which room it is.”

Remarked Lynne from her seat

“So you want me to open all the rooms along the way to find it?” I exclaimed “That’s absurd, from your information alone. The guards rotate every minute it’s already hard as it is.”

“We know noob that’s why Carat called you here.” Blue pointed out “She believes you can hack into their system when I myself can’t.”

Wait Lynne’s code name is Carat, what a strange name to go by. I wonder what happened for her to be called that. Snapping out from my thoughts, I moved to where Blue was taking the laptop for myself. All eyes were on me which only made my insecurities spike up, please stop looking at me I silently prayed. It was like they were waiting for me to screw up just to mock me, the teasing already ringing from the back of my mind. Typing away one last click, different surveillance cams pop up on the screen.

“How in the world did you do that?!” uttered Mr. grumpy in total shock

“Well, you guys did say that the security is hard to hack but never mentioned the workers' phone.” A sigh “It’s a simple problem but you make it too complex.”

“Don’t get cocky Noob.” Asserted Blue stealing the laptop from me with a harsh tug, scrolling through the feed

“There.”

“Do you guys have a blueprint of the house?” I asked,

Mr. grumpy then pulled out blueprints and passed them in my direction

“This is the second floor of the house only twenty guards are stationed there.” The suit guy pointed out “they rotate in every thirty minutes from here and here.”

He pointed at the blueprint and I marked it with an X

“From the feed, the room should be right here.” Circling the room that was a little far from any windows or the stairs, heck the architect really went all out with his work. The room was tricky to go in undetected there were a lot of openings and little to no blind spots, if only there was a…just like that, an idea surfaced. I told them about my plan which earned disapproval from both Mr. grumpy and blue.

“No way am I lending my holy artifact to some low-level slime.” Blue bellowed, slamming his hand down on the table in disdain. This dude is starting to get on my nerves, Ok I know he's a little salty of me because I stole his job but who the hell does he think he is;

A whiney baby that’s for sure.

“Can’t you just spare a drone or two?” I reasoned out calming my soon to be migraine

I never once had I seen anyone turned red until now, Blue was furious like a few steps away from a volcanic explosion. You could clearly see the restrain from lounging and squeezing the living lights out of me, with bailed fist and grit of teeth he summoned all his hate and glared at me like I was the most hated person he ever crossed.

“Do you have any idea how much time and resources, I have put in this project?!” he snarled “Now you’re asking me to use it as a decoy, are you mocking me; Noob?!”

“Listen here you wannabe cosplayer I don’t have much choice on the matter but this is the only outcome that has a 100% certainty rate, it’s either this or say goodbye to your whole operation, ” I growled out sending a piercing glare his way.

“You know she’s got a point, Cerberus.” Blue who is actually Cerberus groaned at him, Nah; I like Blue better.

The scowl on Blue’s face slowly ease away, slumping back at his chair with arms crossed letting out a huff of annoyance. He then turned to give me a stern look “If you bail at the last second, I’m gonna skin you alive till your nothing but slime.”

The threat made me chuckle, a lopsided grin plastered on my face at how common this occurrence was in my life. Blackmail and threats were expected in this line of work. Nobody would take you seriously until you prove your worth, only then would they respect you, it happened so often that it became a normal thing. Looking back to the first time it happened made me laugh, I was so frightened back then like a scared little kitten, it took me a while till I got the hang of things and earn my reputation in the criminal underworld.

“And if I managed to have a successful raid what then?” the question itself made blue rile up again, both fists bailed on top of the table

“Don’t get cocky Noob.”

“I’m wounded.” I exasperated “besides it's only fair to have a reward when there’s a punishment involved.”

His eyebrows furrowed at my statement “Ok then let’s make a deal if you win I’ll give you an ultra-rare gift however if you lose I’m not only going to skin you alive but you’re also going to be my dog.” The smug look on his face was so irritating, oh how I would like to punch that off him later.

“Hey, you two.”

The suit guy warned but we simply ignored him.

“It’s a deal then.” Extending my hand to him, he looks at it only then looks up at me. A grimace, using his thumb and index he grabbed my middle finger and shook it, I facepalmed; this antisocial idiot.

“Who would think I would get the infamous Midnight to be my dog.”

He exclaimed earning a chuckle of approval from Mr. grumpy

“As if.”

The moment I said that the blonde who was busy typing on his tablet throughout the whole ordeal, stood up and without saying a word exited the room. No-one stopped him from doing so, what a strange guy.

“That was Nikolai, he’s the boss secretary and was assigned today to join the meeting for him.”

Carat I mean Lynne explained, she probably saw the confusion on my face. Paying no mind to it, I nodded along. Lynne stood up from her seat and made her way to me.

“Come on let’s patch you up.”