Wild Side [h.s au]

Chapter 10

"Are you saying Hazard attacked you?" I ask.

"Playing dumb, are we?" Ace tells me. "Funny since I remember you as the smart one."

"We never attacked," Tori says coldly. "We had a truce which you broke a few hours ago."

"I broke the truce?" He raises his voice. "Your soldiers came at early dawn and killed almost hundred of my men! They came to my territory and threw bombs at them!" He slams his palm against the table in anger. "But of course, it was me who broke the truce."

"How do you know it was Hazard?" I ask calmly, not wanting to rile him up more.

"Who else wears black uniforms like the ones you three are wearing, hm?"

"But that's impossible, we never attacked!" Louis exclaims. "Whacked shit, that's what this is."

"Wait, you mentioned cameras. Can we have the tape?" I ask. "Or at least watch it? There has to be some kind of misunderstanding here."

"Sure, you can have the tape. And you can also have the promise there won't be any truce this time," Ace warns me, circling around his desk and stopping directly in front of me.  "We're ready to defend ourselves, even attack again. I'm letting you three go so you can give the message to your leader."

"Please don't do anything before we watch the tape and get to the bottom of this," I say. "I promise there's something behind this neither of us knows."

"I give you twenty-four hours before I officially declare a war with Hazard."

. . . .

"I cannot believe this," David says, his eyes trained on the monitors displaying the video from the tape Ace has given us, scenes of soldiers in black uniforms attacking Rogue flashing before our eyes. "How is this possible?"

Dozens of us are gathered in the conference room, trying to figure out this mess.  I can feel H's harsh glare on me from time to time and I just know he's probably thinking of ways to punish me for my disobedience. I'll try to take all the blame, but I'm afraid everyone who's helped me is going down with me.  I'd made sure they all know what are they getting themselves into before doing anything, though.

"Wait!" I suddenly shout. "Pause the tape!" I order Niall, who is sitting in front of the monitors, his finger quickly pressing one of the keys on the keyboard in front of him. "Can you zoom that group of soldiers looking up?"

I wait as he follows my instructions, my widened eyes focused on the monitors. Everyone is silent, unsure whether to look at me or the tape, waiting for the explanation of my sudden outburst. "Do you think you could make the image a bit clearer?"

"Sure, babe."

My teeth pull at my bottom lip as I stare at the screen, watching as the blurry image gradually becomes more clear, allowing me to see the faces properly.  My lips part in shock as I barely find my voice to call my brother. "Alex, come here."  When he stands beside me, I look at him in disbelief. "I need you to tell me if you recognise someone."

He squints his eyes for a few moments before widening them suddenly. "What the-- those sly motherfuckers!"

"Oh, for the love of God, what is it?" H asks, approaching the two of us.

"Both sides are right in this case," I say. "Hazard never attacked Rogue, but at the same time, it did. Those soldiers are wearing your uniforms, but they don't belong to this base. They belong to Vortex."

A few gasps are heard behind me, murmurs filling the room, hushed at first, then gradually becoming louder.   I knew something was off in this case, but I wasn't expecting this. I should have, considering I know what kind of snakes are in Vortex.  Even though Hazard and Vortex are already in war, the battles haven't been that extreme, but this will surely cause more damage between the two sides.