The little bird

"Thank you." Ambrogio smiled as he caught the earpiece with relative ease. "Hello there, Mr. Mastermind." He spoke as he placed it over his ear.

"I got a name. It's Addison." He replied.

"Hello, Addison. As you know I'm…"

"Ambrogio, right."

"Yea, you're really interesting. You knew—you were the only one who knew that I was keeping an eye on her. I heard you talking about the little bird. Impressive!" Ambrogio talked about 'the little bird'. A term that had made Tanya quite angry in the past few days.

"Well, what can I say? The kid is not stealthy enough." Addison said as he glared at the kid who sat on the tree by the window for seven days straight.

"Damn, I should've sent Wardlow instead. You know, he's kinda like my swiftest and stealthiest guy and also my butler." Ambrogio regretted his choice.

"You should have." Addison seemed to agree.

"Now, the question is why. Why did you send those two even though it was a trap?" Ambrogio asked.

"Why don't you ask them? Right… They are not there, are they?" Addison asked. 'The little bird' saw the sinister smile on Addison's face and got the chills.

"Brilliant plan! But you do know that I am fast, right? I can still catch up with them if I want to." Ambrogio said.

"Then why not? Why aren't you chasing after them? As a matter of fact, you have your swiftest guy with you, right? I know you noticed them escape as they did so. Then why didn't you send him while distracting me? And you did know that I was aware of your spy. Then why did you follow up with your plan? Why didn't you change it?" Addison asked his share of questions.

"Haha!" Ambrogio laughed out loud, clapping. "Bravo, bravo! You really are a mastermind, Addison. So, many questions. You really cornered me there. But I just got one answer. I really like this cat and mouse chase. I never had this much fun before!" He laughed a bit more.

"Fun, huh?" Addison quietly mumbled. He was reminded of a quite similar answer he received a few days ago.

"Yea. Now that I've given those two a head start, it's my turn to chase, huh?" Ambrogio asked as he revved himself on.

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While Ambrogio was preparing for the chase, Zinbad and Tanya were having the run of their life. "Goddammit! Why do we have to run? I'm so tired. I never wanna run ever again." Zinbad totally hated it as he started panting around. "Why didn't we booked a cab beforehand so that we could escape in times like these?" He cried.

"We didn't do that because it wasn't supposed to go this way. We were supposed to move stealthily—STEALTHILY! And who do you think ruined the one good plan we had by running around and screaming like a little child? Oh, I know—you!" Tanya screamed, yet calmed herself down in a bit since a calamity grade danger was following them.

"Yea, I'm sorry." Zinbad apologized.

"You were this close to getting killed, you dimwit! And now we are being chased by a maniac who was going to do that to you. Whatever the case is, we have no choice but to run." Tanya scolded. Yet again she calmed down, since, you know… Ambrogio. She took a deep breath and spoke. "So, is it just me, or do I hear someone complaining?"

"No. No one is complaining." He felt that a calm Tanya is even more lethal than a furious one and sew his mouth shut.

"Good. And we've thankfully reached our destination without any hiccups." She said as she looked back and saw that Zinbad was already down. "I'll go ring the doorbell."

"Hey, don't you think this run we had was too smooth? Like the guy is too fast for our own good, but he is nowhere to be seen." Zinbad raised his concern.

"What can I say? I guess luck's on our side!" Tanya brushed his concerns off like it was nothing.

"Well, I guess that's that." Zinbad quickly agreed with her.

Addison, who was patiently waiting for the conversation to end, greeted them inside. "I see that you've come safely. Get in."

#

Inside the crib, Tanya was in a hurry to get all the info. "So, Ambrogio?"

"Okay, sit. I'll talk about his history in detail." Addison said as he himself took a seat.

"Wait, before you do that, tell me how you knew that he'd resurface within a week." She requested humbly. "And no more of that little bird bullshit. I'm fed up with that."

"Fine." Addison agreed. He stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, before looking at it with displeasure and got back to the point. "See, from the moment you stepped in, there has been someone watching over this place for almost a week now."

"Who is it?" She asked.

"It's a little kid. He's been sitting on that tree by the window for seven days straight. Quite the determination." He said as he waved towards the tree. "I tried telling that to you without alarming him, you know?"

"So he's the little bird?" Somehow, she felt stupid for not realizing soon enough.

"Basically, yes." He replied.

"But, what's the connection with this and Ambrogio resurfacing?" She asked. She seemed like she was in a hurry for no reason.

"Well, if he placed someone to spy on you, that does mean that you're an important commodity for him. That's why I was sure that he wasn't gonna kill you but I wasn't so sure in Zinbad's case." He put forth his assumption.

"Again, I understand that. But what's up with one week's promise?" She asked yet again. She was on a roll with all those questions in her mind.

"Well, I kinda knew from day one about what we were dealing with," Addison said, as he rubbed his nose.

"What? Why didn't you? How?" Tanya was genuinely surprised as she heard the revelation.

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