LOVE BUG

CHAPTER 78: IMPOSSIBLE

He's walking behind though, his presence hovering close, while he still keeps a distance to not arise suspicions, as they pass more and more soldiers, and she soon realizes from where the rumbling she has sensed outside is coming.

The main hallway is teeming with people, even more than when it has been plagued with arrest troops yesterday. She has never witnessed so many soldiers in that place. From the corner Hadi and she are entering, it looks like a beehive, her ears buzzing with the same sounds, and they are careful to not walk too close, knowing how deadly a sting can be.

Her gaze, however, is chasing after each of those uniforms, out of habit, when she is well aware he doesn't wear this color anymore, and when she catches sight of a red keyring hanging from the belt of a gray outfit, her heart still jumps helplessly against her constricted ribcage.

"Seriously?! They're having brunch? I'll never get those people..."

Luckily, Hadi's low mutter pulls her attention before her heart can get carried away and take her legs along, and she is brought back to the present when she follows the direction of his cocked eyebrow. 

Indeed, some waitresses are walking near with trolleys full of food, and a woman, who seems to be their supervisor, giving orders about where and when to take them.

Anastasia doesn't even try to look more closely at what the dishes are, as a sour wave of sickness is already climbing up her throat at the mention of 'leaders' and 'dawn', and although she doesn't dare to open her mouth – because being sick in the middle of this hive would attract too much attention and lose time – she agrees with Hadi. 

"Who can eat while watching... that?" His gaze travels away from the trolley with a quick glance at Anastasia before looking down, and it is probably the first time he is mincing his words.

For all that, the silence following is sharper than any harsh truth, and despite the buzzing going on around and the single crunch resonating in her earpiece, the unsaid words are left hovering like a scary shadow at her heels.

At least, it makes her feet go faster, and in no time, they arrive at the end of the hallway, where they have to part ways.

Hadi goes on the right with a discreet nod as they pass another group of soldiers, and she is left alone. Alone with the dozen people entering the elevator and Andy's directions to Hadi in her earpieces, yet it's only on herself that the next step is relying upon.

There is no one to walk by her side, no one to stop her when she glimpses the same detail again, her heart taking off even faster to the keyring, a blue keyring this time, and if it weren't for the elevator doors closing at the exact same instant that her feet are launching her forward, she would have run headfirst.

She would have lost time and risked the whole plan.

By one split-second, every step could have tumbled down under the impact of her heart against her ribcage.

As she blinks at the metal doors, breathless and stunned, it's like she is coming out of a trance, and she realizes everything that could have and would have happened. All of that because of a little detail that reminds her of Nathaniel.

Has she even seen it? Or has she dreamed it? It makes no sense to see an old-fashioned item like that. Yet she can't help the feeling deep in the knots of her guts that she hasn't imagined it and it isn't meaningless.

Whatever the meaning is, she has to push it back when the doors of the elevator open again. She can't let a vague impression ruin their only concrete plan, so she makes sure to not glance at anyone she passes by, focusing on the way her feet are following.