Lion's Den(On Hold)

Chapter-31 Lies

The SIO assigns teams to every superior in the agency. Each team comprised of both field agents and tech agents. The bodies of the field agents belonging to Gabriel's team lay sprawled across the route Derek had been escorted through. They had been either shot or beaten to death. Cars filled with bullet holes were shuffled down the road and light smoke rose through the gap of the hoods from a few of them. It was a gruesome sight but there was no sign of Derek or Diana. The bike Diana drove to the site was also left on the deserted area, a few miles away from the scene.

Gabriel and another superior were on site. He and his team of agents were the ones commissioned with the investigation of the disappearance of the witness. Since there were no traces of Terranova's intrusion, the blame obviously fell on Derek and Diana. Their bodies not being found was fishy enough to draw the possibility of them escaping the court summon.

However, it was unlikely for two police officers to singlehandedly kill so many trained agents of the SIO. The main suspicion was that the twins had an outsider help them. Detailed information was necessary before coming to any conclusions so the agents were inspecting each and every bit for clues.

The cool winds blew slightly tousling his red hair. Nate leant on the car door seemingly uninterested and detached from his surroundings. He and the tech agents were the first on spot and even that was too late, the twins were gone and so were the attackers. Nate knew that it was the Terranova but he had no proof. He regretted letting them go despite the threat. After all, he was the one who illegally forged the contract. The more he thought, the more pathetic he felt.

"I believe we will find their bodies too in a few days."
Nate froze at the words of the tech agent. Gabriel nodded. The other superior had already left after informing about the addition of new field agents into Gabriel's team. Gabriel walked up to Nate who had his head down.

"Now you see the reason why I told you not to get attached to colleagues."
Nate glared at her being unable to return a befitting reply.
"You clearly knew that you needed them to defeat the Terranova. No strings attached Nate. Remember that next time. Take a few days off to clear your head and get back to work."

No official statement was made about the disappearance of the twins leaving the news channels to argue that they could be absconding to avoid the court. They would be soon wanted for the murders of the agents.

It was past midnight when Nate returned to the safe house. He wobbled with a pack of beer bottles and cans in each hand. With only the light from the monitor tracing the room, he continued drinking. His songs playlist was playing louder than usual as though trying to drown the silence.

'Look at this dumbass'
'Hey! Stop drinking too much Nate'
The voices of Derek and Diana rang in his head.
"St-stop" he mumbled groggily.
'Here,eat this instead...'

"Stop!!"
He crashed his bottle to the ground but there was no one around when he looked. The inebriated feeling disappeared into a sober state. Frustrated, Nate sunk into the cushion. The song 'Fairytale' played giving a dreamy melody.

🎶"I am in love with a fairytale
Even though it hurts~
Cos I don't care if I lose my mind
I am already cursed"🎶

The relatable lyrics, sadness and the violin music mixed, relieving some pain in his broken heart. His eyelids became heavy due to exhaustion and he fell asleep.

Every single day that followed, this routine continued and Nate woke up hoping that it was all a bad dream. But slowly, he began to understand that the twins were truly gone and had to reach an acceptance. His life needed to move on. After 3 days, he noticed the mess he made. Bottles strewn, a few broken, food boxes, files and dresses all lay across the floor. His face was withered with a dark beard. With a long broom, he brushed the glass and dust off the floor.

When he got closer to his work desk, his broom accidentally banged onto the leg of the desk. The golden pendrive plopped to the ground bouncing and landing next to his feet. Nate remembered Gabriel's orders on the pendrive.

'Retrieve all the contents without triggering the location tracker and once you erase it, dispose of it completely.'
He had yet to erase the USB so he picked it up and gently wiped off the dust.
"Guess you will never be finding the girl you are looking for."

Loading it back into the system, Nate commenced reset of the device and went back to cleaning. Halfway through the reset, a message popped up. Nate peeked at the monitor to check on it.
'Hidden files found. Would you like to erase them too?'
Nate frowned at the new discovery. He did not expect hidden files to be there in Dominic's device. He decided to check on the contents and inform Gabriel about it after.

After breaking through a couple of high level encryptions, he was able to open it. There was only a single folder in it.
'Weaknesses'
Nate scoffed on seeing that. Dominic sure did like to play with other's weaknesses but still many messed with him. There were almost thousands of subfolders. There were names of people, organizations, gangs and even government officials. It was both a treasure chest and a curse.

"What kind of a fucking lunatic..."
Nate was appalled when he pictured the scene where Dominic handed it over carefree to Diana. He smiled sadly remembering the twins again.
"They would go bat shit crazy if they see this."

As he scrolled through, one folder caught his eye.
'The SIO'
Out of curiosity, he opened to find what kind of weaknesses the SIO would possess. His eyes widened on what he saw.

There were thousands of files to his disbelief. Various cases, murders in particular were filled to the brim. Murders by members of SIO to cover up information leakage, criminals with high intelligence and so much more. All these years, he had been working for the most corrupt organization. He needed to show it to Gabriel and bring out the perpetrators. Before he exited, his eyes caught a file.

'Green Valley Neighborhood'

It was the neighborhood where he lived in, Nate dreaded seeing the name in the files. He hesitantly opened it. Everything went blank when the contents revealed. His eyes moved so rapidly across the familiar names. His entire life was a lie. The papers he forged flashed in front of his eyes. He stayed still, his eyes lusterless. After a long minute, Nate's face darkened. The mouse crunched broke under his hand's grip.

The safehouse went secure that night. One connection was still there with the SIO so that it would keep him out of any suspicions. In the following days, Nate made various calls and plans and set them to work. Making sure they were discreet, he moved at lightning speed.

Everything was prepared in 2 days. He made one final call to an anonymous number publicly through the SIO channel. It would be visible to the agents utilizing the channel. However, they didn't know who Nate called nor could listen into the conversation. Gabriel would be notified of it soon enough and Nate knew that as well, he was waiting. Waiting for her to make her move.