Chapter 5

Mrs. Wallice was finishing her last duty that evening. She hummed to an old country song she had jammed into recently. Working as the front liners is a tough job but she have always enjoyed them nonetheless. Her shift will end in a few more hours before her partner would take over the counter. She was writing details about a patient when a person in his casual clothes greeted her sight.

"Excuse me." He cleared his throat to get her attention. Mrs. Wallice looked up at him.

"Yes, sir. How can I help you?" She automatically stood up and stop what ever she was doing.

"My friend got admitted into this hospital. Can I know where her room is?" Mrs. Wallice nodded. She sat down on her seat and starts to type something on the computer.

"Her name, sir?"

"Seora Song." Mrs. Wallice type out the patient's name. Her brows perked up when she found her details. "I'm sorry, sir. This patient had requested that only her close family could come."

The man was a little taken aback. He had a very sharp looked, especially those eyes. But when he smiles, those sharp eyes had turn crescent. Mrs. Wallice noticed that he seems to not know about this sort of arrangement. Quick at her service, she immediately continues. "Well, you can give her a call first. Sorry sir, we have procedures to follow." Her voice sounds professional rather than apologetic.

The man only smiles.

Before Mrs. Wallice could say more, the phone by the desk rings and as she was the only one at the counter, she had to attend them.

"Would you excuse me for a minute." She quickly answered the phone call. To her surprised, it was an emergency from a patient down the hall. She had made sure to turn on the sleep mode of the desktop properly before heading to the patient room.

She did not realise that the man had gone from there. His eyes were looking around behind the shades he had just put.

He was about to walk out of the lobby when his eyes caught a sight of someone he was very familiar with. The corner of his mouth curved into a smirk.

A woman in the hospital gown with a man in his white shirt and a pair of blue jeans, walking together towards the lift. Immediately, he took out his smartphone, pretending to take his own picture. 

"What a sight." He mumbles.

\

"Someone asked about Ms. Song?" Elliot questioned the nurse that he had assigned to take care all matters regarding Seora's condition.

"Yes, Professor Maverick. A junior reported it to me. A man, around your age or probably younger."

"That's weird." Elliot furrowed his straight eyebrows. It has been known to everyone in the gang that she has no contacts with any of her known colleagues. Besides, there was no means of communication as Nicholas had taken care of that. He thanked the nurse before letting her leave the room.

After the chaos Nathan had put them due to his stupid act, it was his order to have her warded in the VVIP room. The process was easy since he is the Head of Director and the lead surgeon who personally led her operation, at that. Every little details including all the surgeons and nurses involved in the process, all of them were being careful with their words and actions. 

Elliot had his own trustworthy bunch of medical recruits by his side whom had swear loyalty to his family and him. They had done more than they were supposed to but they were paid more than what they were expected for. In this world, money wasn't enough to buy one's trust. You need to have something on them to keep them on their toes. 

At least The Maverick family still live by the same code.

As he keeps on clicking his pen while his head were thinking through what that nurse had reported to him, Elliot decided to text Hugh with the smartphone from his coat's pocket. Hugh is fast and he could produce result within minutes. Elliot detailed down every thing without leaving crumbs as he made it as simple as he can.

Less than a minute, Hugh is calling him.

"You really want me to crack your system?" 

"Honestly, I hate it but I trust you." Hugh chuckled at that. 

"Give me one hour." Elliot nodded before ending the call and taking another smartphone inside his first drawer. There were several of them but he took one that he always used if anything related to the hospital. He personally called the Head of Security, Mr. Parker. 

"Professor?" That person on the end of the line quickly asked.

"Mr. Parker. How was work? I hope you don't overwork yourself these days. Please have some tofu stew if you could. I heard it took 1 hour to order from here." 

There's a millisecond silence at the end of the line before Mr. Parker continues.

"How generous of you Professor Maverick. I will, I will. I'm doing good. The team is cheerful as always. Thank you for taking care of us despite being busy. "

"Great to hear that. Keep up the good work." 

"We will." The call ended and Mr. Parker immediately jots down the hidden codes that he received. He then passed to his subordinate with a knowing look before the paper were passed across the security team in the room. A rotation of 6 people before the paper finds it way back to Mr. Parker. He lit up his lighter and leaving the paper note to be swallowed by the tiny fire.

After finishing the call, Elliot let out a relieving long sigh. He was busy with work and patients and surgeries that he had to be working his ass off to make sure everything is perfect. Despite that, he was still curious about the appearance of the man who was supposed to know nothing about Seora Song. 

One, to begin with. Elliot was neither presence when they discovered her nor he was there when she had run away from the private lounge. But he remembers how he had to attend her after Nicholas practically begging for him to come there. 

Two, he doesn't understand Nathan's motives. He knew this guy so damn well that he wouldn't dare to do something like that out in the open. He must have reasons but he had been shutting his mouth very well since the incident. If it weren't for the demand of the situation, Nicholas might had kill him on the spot.

Three, Hugh's information on her wasn't enough. She have connections to Nicholas, and she does the same with their permanent enemy, The Lee's. A secretary who works directly with the boss himself. It never strike him that someone like her could be warded in his hospital. An enemy's hospital.

Elliot let out a long grunt before his smartphone vibrated showing the details Hugh had texted him back. He glanced over to the clock by the corner of his desk. He doesn't even notice how long he had been lost in his thoughts. Opening them after key in the usual password, he begin to read the details. 

Before he could finish, Hugh made a call to him.

"I'm reading."

"Good, something doesn't add up here." Hugh continues. "The footages of this person had been circulating around some of other hospitals."

"What?"

"At the same day, and the same time. Look."

Suddenly, Elliot desktop display popped up a window he never knew existed. A collage of footages from several hospitals were on display. The same time, the same day, the same date. Like how Hugh had mentioned.

"The hell is going on?" Elliot watch every one of it. The demeanor and the clothes, including the height were all the same. "Hugh, you better start narrow this down." 

"I am." Hugh sounds like he was annoyed. "I had been dissecting these footages every milliseconds and every pixels. Out of all these, we got about three that were almost similar." He showed to Elliot like how he described it.

"And?"

"From the looks of it, the coming at your hospital might be the real deal. Not to mention, the way he walks look awfully familiar." Hugh's comments are not something to ignore. He's right. Even when Elliot have never directly involved in their underground work, if he could help, he would.

"You know who he is?"

"I do have an idea. But, we still needs Nathan to confirm this."

Elliot sighed another time. That piece of trash. He's been ignoring this friend of his after the stunt he pulled. He was closing his eyes, trying to stop thinking too much. A notification by his desktop popped out. An emergency surgery involved a political figure is about to start in less than an hour.

"Well, good luck at that." Hugh chuckled but Elliot cursed him at that.

"I need to go. Call Nathan for me. He needs to know this more than I do."

They ended the call and Hugh return the authority of the desktop to the owner. The poor surgeon, who lack of sleeps and personal time, slowly begin to check the medical history of the said political person. He needs to prepare and it needs to be perfect. 

No matter what.

\

Two weeks after

Alden keyed in the pass code of the penthouse. He took off his shoes and saw that everyone had gathered in the living room.

"Late again, Alden Quentin." Luca playfully provoked the elder guy and immediately getting a glare from the man.

"Sorry, traffic jam." He sits besides Nicholas.

"So let's start."

Nathan give an approved look towards Hugh before the man begin his slide presentation using their gigantic big ass LCD television.

"Please tell me you at least remember her." Hugh asked them as he shows the face of the person they had to deal with a while ago. Some of them nodded. Well, at least they remembered.

"Last week, we had found out an unknown man appeared by the hospital registration counter asking about our little birdie Song here." Hugh pointed towards the collages of pictures stacking together. 

"What makes it interesting, all these pictures were recorded within the same duration, day and date." 

"Woah!" Alden response in shock.

"Yeah, quite shocking but let me get to the point."

Hugh begin to narrow them down like he did with Elliot before he come up with a conclusion that the man was working with The Lee's. He hold his gaze with Nathan and the leader seems to be thinking the same. Despite that, the identity was still remain unknown. 

"So you're saying one of Lee's assholes coming to search for this weak little birdie we finally captured?" Alden wanted answers and Hugh nodded at that but not before Nicholas smack the back of his head.

"He must have an insider if he knew about her being in hospital. I thought she had been declared dead." Elliot said before he goes on.

"No doubt, she's being watched. Whether she realised it or not."

Nicholas crosses his arms together. His mind is playing back his memories in the hospital with Seora. He's not going to lie that he didn't feel the presence of anyone suspicious around them. However, he choose to ignore it. A bad move.

"I tried to find any loopholes but the more I dived deeper, things just have to be more interesting." Hugh clicking to the next slide and now it shows several pictures he managed to obtain.

It was pictures of Seora and The Lee's leader, being together at some private event. And a few other pictures of her, working in the company, and some pictures of her by the man's side at ceremonies and meetings. And there was also her with some of the companies' workers.

"Are you saying that she had been pretending all these while?" Alden raised a question after the whole presentation.

"You could assumed that since she'd been working with him. For quite a time." Hugh continued. "With all these evidences, it's hard to believe she knows nothing about the world we're living in."

"Besides, normal humans should have been freaking out by now." Hugh's comments are sharp but nobody could ever deny that. He does have a point.

Nathan then turned his attention to Nicholas. Although they had finally made peace after the younger came by his office, the tension was still there. Meanwhile everyone seems to be preoccupied with Hugh's results, Nicholas seems to have something on his mind that he didn't speak it out loud.

"Are you not going to say anything, Nicholas?" The guy looked over at the leader with tired eyes. 'He knows something.' The man thought.

"What you want me to say? That she's not harmless like how I suggested?" Some of them shrugged but some of them are not responding. 

"Look, I don't think she knew anything about us. If she did, she would have never been on the cruise. " He explained. Although they had not been on each other's side for many many years, Nicholas at least knew that Seora is not like that.

"Did she said anything about her past?" Alden asked while he fishes out his smartphone from his pocket.

"Not much. Rather, she doesn't want to talk." Nicholas tone changed. "I don't know the real reason behind it but she seems traumatised enough for me." Nicholas pass a look at Elliot.

"I have to agree with Nicho. The reports doesn't show any signs that she's being physically tortured before. She's fine except that ..." Elliot wasn't sure to continue. He gave Nicholas a look and him sighed before giving an approval nod, the surgeon continues.

"Her mental condition. It doesn't seem to be doing well." Elliot feels like he betrayed his oath, the one he took after he graduated med school. "Hugh and I managed to secure her previous medical records from different sources. Everything was scattered like she was testing out all these clinnics."

"Or trying to sporadically spread her whereabout." Luca chimed in. Nicholas gave him a look. 

"And, she seems to be quite addicted to sleeping pills. As a doctor, I must say. You need a lot of courage to take your own life, so that letter Luca found, might as well a genuine one." Luca somehow felt relieved that he seems to be right about it.

Meanwhile, Nicholas feels indifferent. He releases a heavy sigh. He felt bad for what his friend had to go through which made her turned into the current her. He couldn't help other than blaming those Lee's bastards. 

\

After a little rest, Hugh continue leading the meeting. 

"Don't be surprised. I had been going undercover last week to get some of her information from her co-workers. Though that was actually pretty hard. But what I can tell you guys now is, she was in hiding before they discovered she was dead." All attention on Hugh. 

"She's faking her death by making it look like a traffic accident. I talked with a worker at Lee's, and she confirmed her death. The whole company seems to know about it. Its seems she had quite a reputation herself." 

"Okay, let me get this straight. First, she works with our enemy. Then, she did a lot of fuck up things and so she resigned. The boss got mad and tried to kill her but she fake her death and got the whole company mourning for her, then she suddenly wanted to go for suicide but lucky not so lucky bumped into our friend here during the worst timing possible, and got shot by Nathan. And now are you trying to imply that she's a threat to us? Thus she needs to be eliminate? Is that what this meeting is?" Alden, who had been trying to sum up everything that this meeting had offered, looking at his members. They all become silence, as if slowly swallowing the thoughts into their guts.

"That's quite a summary Alden, but nothing is sure yet." Hugh said. His eyes went to Nathan before the guy turns his attention to the only person who had said nothing from the very beginning.

"Ideas?"

Kaysen who finally flicking his eyes opened, looking over to the leader. He knew better than anyone how detrimental to have to deal with someone like this person. But, he also knew that they won't making him wasting his evening to just listen to craps.

"She sounds useful." Kaysen is a man of few words but its always straightforward.

Nicholas suddenly stands up. He was furious. "Are you suggesting we used her and then what, killed her after get what you want? No. Over my dead body." 

Alden grab his hand, forcing him to sit down. "Nicho, we haven't had a clue about him for like months. Kaysen do have a point."

Trying to keep his mind on the topic, Nicholas looked at him in the eye. "So? There are plenty of ways to get one. I'm not letting you guys put her into anymore risk. My answer stays no."

Alden sighed.

"I do have some thoughts." Nathan cleared his throat, which makes everyone eyes looked over to him. "This woman is probably the strongest key we had ever hold onto in taking those Lee's down. She have something we wanted and we could provide something she needed." His eyes travels to Nicholas. He knows the younger knew what he meant. 

"I hate to bring unnecessary attention to our organisation, but let's be real Nicholas. She's not like any normal civilian." Nathan wasn't a talker but once he talks, his words are as clear a crystals.

"Said the man who shot the hell out of her?" Nicholas can't let her enter their world and became devils like them. As devilish as he may seems to be, he still has a heart. He wanted to protect her from facing another dead end.

Nathan gives his brother, his one one of his rarest soft looks.

"I don't do things without a reason."

He knew Taehyung cares deeply for this woman. He's not stupid to put two and two together. But he can't jeopardise the whole gang just for some feelings. They are talking about their business. They need to get practical.

"I don't think we or even her, have any choices." Kaysen said. "From what I think, we're not loosing anything, nor is she." Hugh flicked his fingers together. Agreeing with the elder.

"It sounds like a win win situation." Luca said it out loud.

Nathan give Nicholas a look. " You can't denied that she is important source for us, Nicho."

Finally, the man straighten his back before he stared each and everyone of his members, deep into their retinas.

"Only for Lee, nothing else." His eyes had become dark and serious. Alden could see Nicholas was being protective over the woman. Luca observed him as he notice how Nicholas was actually not playing this time around. 

"You have my words, Nicho." Nathan extend his arms as Nicholas pulled it to himself, sealing a bro-hug they shared among them. 

Nathan, despite his stoic demeanor, he has always been wised with his words. The only reason as to why they all agree to come together as a group. They have trust in him.

Before the meeting could end peacefully, Elliot's smartphone suddenly rang out loud. He pulled the device out from his briefcase and it was none other than the one he used to call Mr. Parker with it.

"Professor, I'm sorry to disturb you but we have a problem." Elliot and Hugh shares a look before the hacker turn on his tablet to figure out what was going on. He managed to overwrite the hospital's system like he did and he gain full access to the security footages.

 "Wait, Ms. Song, where is she?" 

Hugh tried to search for her after he displayed the screen on the television. Luca was fast to find it.

"The last footage showed her presence in the garden. We think she's in her room." Hugh said. "Supposedly."

Elliot immediately dialed the nurse in charged for the VVIP ward.

"Guys, we have a problem." Hugh broke the chaos to a silence.

"That man's there."