Chapter 2

Seora packed her stuff lightly. Her purse, smartphones and survival kit she had with her. Everything were stuffed into her sling bag. She needs to get out of here.

After listening closely over the door, she switch the lock and step out of her room carefully. To her knowledge, the area should be clear since the special force had just came by. Seora tiptoed while her eyes being wary of her surrounding. There were many doors in this floor and it doesn't seem that people are going to be out any time.

Seora had studied the ship's blueprint since the first day of the trip. She had been roaming around and survey all possible places and understand the ship better. For emergencies like this. Its good to be careful.

She made her way, trying her best to avoid the surveillance camera to her very best. If only she had a crew's uniform, it would be much more easier.

Unbeknownst to her, Hugh was watching over from his room. He was leading Kaysen away from meeting with the special force but he found an appearance of a rat suddenly strolling around the area. He may not know just who this person is but it was easy to search.

With the advance technology of his software, he managed to capture the gist of her face and made a run through over his system. It doesn't took him long to identify her.

As he read her details, his eyes grew larger after every words. He repeating his reading again with the same information before he come to a solid conclusion. He quickly called Nathan through their communication piece.

"Hornet, I told you its dangerous to communicate right now. The special forces might jam your frequency."

"Falcon, I think we have a bigger problem." Hugh's voice seems to give him an idea that he had found another puzzle that was unfit with their other pieces.

"What is it?"

"We have another rat on the ship," The hacker was contemplating to tell what he had just found out. Carefully, he continues. "... one of Lee's."

Nathan's eyes wavered for a second. The tingle he had before suddenly raised to a knot he was not sure how high it is. He scoffed after that.

"Are you sure? How many?"

"Just one. Female." A female?

"Location?"

"Hmm..." Hugh hesitates. "... she's heading to Kaysen's location."

Kaysen who was now with Nicholas by the edge at the back of the ship stared at each other. Of course everyone with the earpiece could listen to the conversation. The seven ear pieces were invented by Hugh to naturally connect them all seven. 

Nicholas who was helping him with putting on his diving gear stopped midway.

"How much long do we have?" He asked. He had notified their underlings to fetch Kaysen at a specific coordinate and at specific time. If late, the possibility to get caught is high. 

"Less than 5 before the special force taking over the whole ship." Hugh replied.

Nathan was thinking. Either to let the special force deal with this new rat or they could take this opportunity. To have a Lee walking into their den recklessly is like shoving a hungry lion with a bloody fresh meat.

"Falcon, your orders?" Nicholas asked at the end of the line.

They might not know how much value this Lee's underling would cost but even the tiniest thing is valuable in their world.

"Tiger, go get this rat." The guy smirked. "...we need it alive, by all means."

/

Kaysen had escaped as plan. Nicholas carefully walked towards the direction Hugh had lead him. His eyes were looking over to the empty corridor. According to the hacker, the rat should be arriving any seconds now.

Like how they had predicted, he saw the figure of a woman with her hair tied up to her back and a cap on her head, walking cautiously. Her eyes scanned everywhere, as if she was looking for any camera surveillance to detect her presence.

"She's unarmed." Nicholas reported after scanning her whole body. She wore a black fit jeans, with a black windbreaker and a small sling back across her chest. No signs of hidden weapon by the looks of it but he still keeps his guard up. He doesn't want to misjudge people even when they appeared harmless.

You can't predict with these Lee's.

He waited for her to walk closer to his hidden spot. Like what he had thought, as the woman step into his sight, Nicholas's hands were fast capturing her into his embrace. Not letting a single chance for her to scream, he wrapped a cloth around her lower part of the face. He made sure the chemical he poured on the cloth was enough to make her unconscious.

When he feels like there was no more struggles from her, he carried her away to their private room. The room where they operate and control the whole cruise. A room that only the seven of them could access. 

"The rat is with me. I'm on my way." Nicholas reported right away.

Luca on the other hand, had sneak into her room just as what Nathan had instructed. The leader hates if there were any trails left behind. So, they need to make sure no evidence was left especially in the presence of the special force.

Walking into the room, he was surprised how clean and tidy it was. He search around the area but nothing had been found significant, other than her stuff on bed. A travel bag. He zipped out and check over the contents. There was nothing. Her clothes and some toiletries. That was it.

Luca examined the room to every corner. He had worse with these Lee's before so in no way these guys won't be subtle about it. He was checking again and finally he found a piece of folded letter. White with no address and even a name. He examined it before pulled out the content and he immediately read the first line.

"Nathan," Luca called out his leader. " I don't think she has any ulterior motives."

"What do you mean, kid?"

Luca folded the letter into two and stuffed them into his back pocket. What he had just read could be a fake but only when it was confirmed, he hold his doubt above him.

"I have something here, but I don't even know how to tell you guys."

The way back to their private room was really hard. Nicholas had a person in his arms and being silent was his top priority. Luca on the other hand was still free but that doesn't mean he could let his guard down. Hugh had them informed for every suspicious movements from the special forces. 

While the two of them carefully plan out their route back, Elliot was keeping his crew and the newly uninvited guest a warm company.

"Mr. Maverick. We are thankful for your cooperation to let us conduct our mission on your ship." The leader of the special force team held a hand forward for a hand shake. Elliot taking his hands into his, shaking back like how he normally does.

"Its an honour to have your team on my ship. I was surprised but if there is anything I could help, just let me know." He calmly replied. He wears a general expression on his face. A diplomatic face.

The leader nodded but he refused any sorts of helps other than what he had. Elliot guess that they still have doubts on the ship's crew. Well, if it were him, he would as well. Trust in their world is far more hard to obtain than money.

You can't buy one's trust with numbers.

"Sir, I noticed something is off." One of the special force team, who were assigned to handle the footages of the ship had called in.

"Speak."

"There was a woman we encountered before. We had thought she was one of the passengers for this cruise trip. But, footages showed she had left her room right after we secured her floor."

Elliot looked over to the image of her footage. Likewise, the special forces had requested full access to all information of the people in the cruise ship from him. It was natural for him to allowed them, its just that he worried if they would discovered Hugh's system. That guy is professional but we should always stay guarded. 

The footage they had secured look like how Hugh had described.

"I want you to run a quick analysis on this person."

The leader's order were quick to get a response from his team.

"I already send the details."

The leader take a look at the laptop screen. He showed them to Elliot and the captain of the ship. "Have you noticed this woman?"

The captain take a long look and shook his head. "I couldn't leave my spot for a long time. I haven't encounter anyone like her." Smart man. Elliot mumbled. "I think I did meet her during the first day. I'm not so sure I mean, we have quite a number of people on the ship." 

 A member of his team scrolled the details of the ship's passengers and found no information regarding this person. Elliot may not know what they were deducing from this discovery but it seems helpful to distract the special force attention from the rest of his members.

"Then, that explain only one thing..."

"But sir, there is something strange." His team cut him before he could said anything. All attention went back to the previous guy.

"She had been certified dead in our system."

"WHAT?!"

Impossible. That was what Elliot had thought. What in the world? He knows Hugh and the others were listening to this conversation but how could there be a dead person on this ship? Especially when her death was a month ago.

"Called out the headquarters and email them her details immediately. What the hell is going on here?" The leader sighed again. His team was ordered to capture a group of underground organisation that after considerable amount of research, they had found out that there should be a deal happening in this particular ship.

With the time, and this new found suspect, the deal could be finished or maybe just a decoy. Yet, the leader still let his troops working until they could gain at least something, anything to report back to headquarter.

/

"Dead? This rat?" Alden mumbled after they had tied her up on the chair. They were all listening to the conversation in the main deck. Even with the information Hugh had obtain from his skills, there were some restrictions by the military server (national security server) that he wouldn't delve into for the sake of the whole gang.

"Hugh, are you sure about her being apart of Lee?" Luca asked again.

He had gave Nathan the letter and they all had take turns reading it. A suicide letter to be exact from a person that the national system had recorded her death, a month ago.

"Yes. She worked as Lee's secretary for 8 years and had been seen along side with him to all his meetings, officially and those unofficial." Hugh insisted again what he had reported before.

"It just doesn't make sense."

"Nothing ever make sense, Luca." Alden said.

"We have gone through her footages. She does almost nothing here. Not one bit." The hacker had gathered all the videos she had been appearing into their surveillance camera. Not one bit had shown suspicious move.

"Which doesn't implied her innocence. We can't trust people from there. Low levels or not, Lee's are the last people we could ever trust. She might be unaware, or being used, but it doesn't stop the fact that she did work for that psycho." Everyone turned to Alden. His statement somehow does make sense.

"Alden's got a point. Either she was being used or not, she still is Lee." Nathan chimed in. "And with this, it would be a big help for us."

"No." Nicholas suddenly rise from his seat at the corner. He had been staring into the tab screen in his hand since they had arrived in the room. He wears a serious look on his face.

"What do you mean?" Alden questioning him. He walk closer to his friend. The guy went to the unconscious woman. He pushed away those strands of hair from her face and examined them closer. His breathing hitched on its own as he recalled his past memories.

He knows her.

"I don't know what is going on here, but she's not one of them." Nicholas said in a more strict tone. There was a firmness in the way his tone projected. Nathan watchful eyes went to the woman and back to the guy. His head begin to form a few thoughts.

"The hell?" Hugh almost screamed. "You're joking right?"

"She's a friend of mine," Nicholas continues. "A good one."

The hacker keeps frowning. He tries to think how his member could befriend this person but as he was checking her details again, he noticed a sentence. "You mean, you guys went to the same..."

"High school? Yes." Nicholas turns toward his leader. "Nathan. I know you know she's not like that. That letter. Her being on our ship. Her death record. Nothing of these make sense." Nicholas stands in front of him with a clear eyes. 

Even so, Nathan keep his silence. He sipped another one of his champagne, putting his thoughts into words. There is a side of him that wanted nothing to do with people from the Lee's, but there was apart of him where he could see something useful could be fruited from Lee's secretary. She had been with him from the get go. There should be something valuable this woman could offer to them. 

Nathan knew she has more up her sleeves.

"Let's take her with us first. It's still early to judge someone based on just her credentials. One way communication never works anyway." Nicholas sighed in relief while the rest of the member tensed up.

"Get some rest. Until the special force are done with their work, we should not make any unnecessary movements." The leader leave the room to a more secluded area. He needs to do some thinking.

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yuuki