When I Look Up At The Stars

17 | cetus

"I see," TJ responds stiffly.

All this talk about the Ad Meliora Hotel reminded him of the anxiety and the paranoia he had about returning there- because of its sudden inclusion in the plan altogether.

What TJ says next, only confirms it.

"There was an explosion at Ad Meliora an hour or so ago."

"A what?" Axel's eyes widen in surprise and horror. "What the fuck- anyone hurt?"

While he was concerned about the people who were possibly hurt, he couldn't help but think of what he was doing an hour or so ago.

They were in the air debating whether they'd be returning to the hotel or HQ.

If they had chosen to return to the hotel... things wouldn't have looked good for any of them.

"Seven injured, none dead," TJ says slowly, "It wasn't that big of an explosion, but it was in a closed room. It would have been critically dangerous for anyone in the room, but fortunately, the room was empty."

"A closed room?" Axel's frowns a little at that, "Did you get the room number? See who it was booked under?"

"Yes, that's where you come in," TJ sighs wearily on the line, 

"The room was booked under a Matteo Bernardi."

Axel's breath gets caught in his throat. "What?"

"Yeah," TJ sighs again, "They showed us the camera footage of 'Matteo Bernardi' and I was able to ID you from it. You want to tell me what's up?"

"We stayed the night there, that's all," Axel explains, hating the troubled feeling that had made a reappearance, "to throw people off our tail. Going to the hotel wasn't even a part of the plan initially, but my Boss-"

He pauses.

"Axe?"

His boss.

He wasn't the one who planned anything related to the hotel- being a part of the plan. He wasn't the one who had bags, commodities and weapons packed- already sent to a room that was booked in his alias' name. He wasn't the one who had everything ready.

Corban had done all that.

It didn't sit right with him at the beginning either. Why would he do all that? Was the explosion something to do with him?

"Uh, hello? You there?"

"Yeah," Axel coughs, swallowing, "Sorry, I was just thinking. I- no, TJ I had nothing to do with the explosion. Neither did Stella. You have my word."

"Hmm," he muses from the other end, "Alright. Thanks then, I'll look into it."

"Sure," Axel nods, "Is that all?"

"Yes, that should be it," there's more shuffling on TJ's end, "And oh, before I forget- I just sent this month's files over to you a couple of minutes ago. You should have received them."

A sad smile makes its way onto Axel's face at TJ's words.

"Right... thank you for that," he says slowly, hesitating before he can finally bring himself to ask. "How... How has... he been?"

"He's... been well," he can hear the small smile in TJ's voice when he says that. "Really, he has. The files have all you need about him for this month, anyway."