Orabella stood in the security room, her arms folded as she watched the agents do their job at finding the root of the security breach. Her eyes darted back and forth nervously, the worry of even more people finding out what she was up to had her on edge. She could feel beads of sweat gathering at the sides of her forehead, so she kept on top of wiping them away. She didn't want to give another set of agents a reason to distrust her and go rogue.
Her phone pinged, signifying that she had a text message. She walked to the back of the room and opened the text, her eyes reading over it with an ever-growing heavy heart.
Hello, il mio amore. Will you be visiting your father with me for his birthday?
The text was from her mother and she felt a whirlwind of emotions flood over her, specifically regret, sadness and anger. Anger at herself and at the vicious men who took the purity of her childhood away from her for many years.
She could still remember her last moments with her father, regretting each second that she had pushed him away. She wished she could turn back time and just let him be there for her after the traumatic years she was forced to endure, away from her loving parents.
Orabella longed to be OK and to have healed from it all and to have moved on, but after she was taken from her home, it forever scarred her. And those scars would never heal. And now the only thing she had was the determination to make her country a safer place.
Her eyes glazed over the text once more, not knowing exactly how to reply. Before she could think about a moment longer, a tap on the shoulder sucked her back into reality.
A man with a large build and big, broad shoulders stood before her; he was stood straight, his burly face tilted almost upwards, showing off a large scar running up his cheek and over past his eyebrow. Orabella instantly recognised the man as Jovanni, the leader of the Special Defence Unit. He was a man of duty and authority and had much experience after serving two tours with the Italian military.
"Jovanni," Orabella greeted, staring at him with intrigued eyes, "is everything alright?"
"Me and my unit found the reason behind the security breach, ma'am," he said. His voice was deep and masculine.
Orabella closed in on him, her eyes growing wide. "Who?"
"It was Mia Di Marco, ma'am," Jovanni revealed to her. Orabella almost felt herself stumbling backwards in shock. She had the small suspicion that Mia knew more than she was letting on, but given their history, she never thought it would've been Mia conspiring against her.
"And that's not all. There was another woman with her. We ran her face on the computer, but nothing came up. This woman is a ghost."
A heavy breath escaped Orabella's lips, her face scrunching up in hurt and anger. "Bring her in. And find this ghost. Now."
Jovanni nodded and stormed out of the room, signalling from his still recovering team to follow him as they trooped down the corridor.
Orabella leaned against the door frame, covering her mouth with her palm as she breathed. She was doing this for the good of their country and she never intended on things getting messy. Especially involving someone she thought she could trust. But after Mia's stunt, this really changed everything for Orabella. She blew out of the dim security room and started pulling together ideas on how best to deal with the hand she was dealt.
*
The blonde-haired mysterious woman pulled her car up in the back alley of Mia's neighbourhood, coming to a stop when she reached Mia's back garden. She shut the engine off, not bothering to pull the keys out. She didn't waste time in opening the door and walking straight for Mia's home.
"Excuse me," Mia shouted after her, throwing her own door open and began to run after her. "Who are you? And why were at the DIS?"
"I'll answer any questions once we get inside," the woman said coldly, heading straight for the door, shoving past the wilting flowers.
Mia aggressively pushed past her before slamming her fist down onto the door, blocking the woman from getting inside.
"Would you really like to do this now, agente Di Marco?" the woman spat, clearly annoyed at Mia's ways of getting any sort of answer.
"I'm not letting a stranger into my home without nothing to go on," Mia said, her own voice was just as annoyed and impatient.
The woman scoffed, smacking her lips together. "My name is Daniela. I work for the Centre for Interforce Intelligence agency."
Mia didn't know whether to believe anything the woman said. The only real thing she had to go on was the fact that whoever she was, she had saved Mia's life twice.
Reluctantly, Mia moved to the side, allowing Daniela to make her way inside Mia's home. Mia followed, not hesitating to lock the door and close the blinds. She was on high alert after having dealt with the SDU. And now she was also 100% sure that Orabella would have been informed of Mia's work against the DIS.
Lorenzo jumped up from his computer, the look of worry easing up into relief once he saw that his friend seemed fine. He raced over to her, blowing past Daniela who walked over to the opposite end of the room and glanced out of the window discreetly, her eyes darting up and down the street.
"Mia, you're OK!" Lorenzo said with a smile, rubbing his hand against her shoulder. "Who's this?" he then added, nodding over to Daniela who turned back around to face them.
"My name is agent Daniela Goretti. I work at the Centre for Interforce Intelligence and I was sent here to find out what information Orabella Freda had retrieved from Siberia," Daniela explained, her voice oozing authority and self-confidence. It was something Mia would normally find admirable, but she was still on the fence about Daniela.
"Why would the CII send an agent down here all because of a retrieval mission? It seems highly unorthodox," Mia pointed out, her eyes narrowing at Daniela, watching her closely and carefully.
"Because the CII is formed largely by military intelligence and our job is to monitor any sort of weaponry threat that is retrieved. And Orabella withheld certain information, hence why I was sent down here."
"Do you know why my brother is on some sort of list?" Lorenzo burst out, unable to control himself. Mia recognised his face; desperation. She wanted to find his brother and get to the bottom of the conspiracy but asking every person they meet wasn't going to get them anywhere.
"If I knew that, I wouldn't have been sent down here in the first place. I'm as much as in the dark as you, il mio amico," Daniela reassured, stepping forward to make the atmosphere less tense and thick than it already is.
"There was nothing on Orabella's computer that said anything about your brother, Lorenzo," Mia said, rubbing his back, "but I did find something else that could lead us to him."
Lorenzo threw his head back to her, his eyes wild with hope and a hint of excitement. "What? Mia, what did you find?"
Daniela's interest also peaked as she came closer to the two.
"There's an abandoned city called Craco. It's a few hours drive and on a redacted document I found, that is the location where something called Project Vindicta is taking place," Mia told them.
"What's Project Vindicta?" Daniela asked, hungry for more answers. But to her dismay, Mia just shook her head.
"Everything else was redacted. But my best guess is that whatever is going on within the DIS, we'll find it out at Craco," Mia said.
Lorenzo nodded, trying to maintain the bubbles of excitement rising through his chest. He had never been fully on a mission with Mia and now he was about to embark on one of the most dangerous one's he'd heard of.
But before any of them could say or do anything, the harsh deafening sounds of gunfire took them by surprise as things around them exploded into pieces, bullets flying in every direction. The three dropped to the ground within seconds, covering their heads as the bullets continued to bounce off the walls, shattering glass, destroying wood and tearing up furniture as the lethal metal objects ripped through anything they touched.
Mia signalled for them both to follow her as she dashed over to the backdoor, narrowly missing another set of vicious bullets that seemed to chase after her until the hit into her fridge, one of them bouncing off of it and landing on the table with a hard thud.
Daniela forced Lorenzo in front of her and together they both ran over to the door, Lorenzo throwing his arms up in terror as he let out a cry of panic. Mia kicked open the back door, allowing Lorenzo and Daniela to make their escape to Daniela's car.
Mia took one more glance back into her house before she heard the dreadful grunts of someone kicking at the heavy duty locked front door. Not wanting to be around when they got inside, Mia sprinted across the grass and launched herself over the fence. She slid across the bonnet, ignoring the awful screeching sound that was made when her shoes scrapped off the metal.
She then jumped into the car and Daniela didn't bother waiting for Mia to get comfortable before she floored it, speeding down the alley and away from the bullet-ridden house.
"Santo cazzo!" Lorenzo shouted, looking back as they drove off into the city. His heart was racing and he could practically hear the blood racing through his veins. "What the hell do we do now?" He then asked almost breathlessly, shrinking down into the backseat.
"I'm taking us to my home. It's uncharted for security reasons so we'll be safe there," Daniela said and no one bothered to challenge her. They sat in silence, the intensity of what just happened still looming over them.
Mia was now certain there was a deadly conspiracy weavedwithin the DIS. And she didn't know how deep it went or who was involved, butall she knew was that they had to go to Craco if they wanted any chance atputting an end to it.