Agent Eighteen's POV:
"So, any suggestions?" I fold my hands, waiting for my team to come up with good schemes.
"I don't understand. Care to explain from the start?"
Hearing this, I turn my frustrated eyes on him. "Ben, were you even listening in the first place?"
"I did. But I couldn't catch up with you," he whines.
We are in the conference room with me explaining everyone about our mission and target. We all were gathered up in front of the table with papers scattered around.
"We need to find this guy," I point the picture, "He is not a normal criminal like we have dealt before. He is one of the most wanted criminal in the agency. He runs half of Europe with his minions. His guys are all over the world. He is known to be the most ruthless and heartless person. Now, the agency has got hold of the news that he is planning on setting bombs in and around to make the government officials kneel in front of him," I make a thoughtful face, "Which I highly doubt but why take chances when we can end it right?" I look around to see everyone deep with their own thought.
"So, how do we catch him?" Meghan questions.
"That's where the question lies. All the members of his gang are secretive. We can't just bribe them to tell his location or address," I let out a sigh. This mission is going to be a lot difficult than I thought.
All of us go through the papers once again to double check if we left something that could potentially be helpful.
"I quit. This is so boring. How are we supposed to find this guy when we have no idea where to start?" Ben grumbles holding a piece of paper tightly.
"Wait....Give me that," Jenny motions towards the paper. Ben shrugs and passes the paper. She scans through the contents.
"That's strange," she states.
"What's strange?" Meghan asks already glancing at the paper.
Jenny turns the paper so we all could look at what she is pin pointing. The sheet contains graphs that depicts crime rate.
"Don't you find that odd?"
"Crime rate constantly increasing in all factors in Europe. What's odd with that?" Liam questions.
"All except one. Look closely, there has been a downfall in cyber-crime and they have lost lot of money through it. And yes, they might be stealing money from rich and efficient people and transferring to their account through hacking but during this particular time, there was no such thing happening. So I can bravely conclude that either their personal hacker is dead, retired or simply just ran away."
A smile grazes my lips. Very smart, indeed.
"The agency have been constantly looking through their activities. If the hacker was dead, we would know it. There is no such thing as retire in gangs which leaves us to the only option that she or he ran away."
I was so proud of Jen. That's why she is known to be the most intelligent and best hacker in our agency.
"Well done Jen," I appreciate with a grateful smile.
She beams with happiness and walks towards her room.
"Wait, that's not fair. I was the one who was holding the paper. I was about to say the same thing but she pulled the sheet off my grasp."
"Yeah... sure," I reply sarcastically. I see Jen joining us back with her bag pack. She pulls her laptop and a mini device and starts clicking buttons.
"Eighteen, can you off the signal jammer or should I?"
"I'll do it," I press few buttons in my phone to off it.
"Thanks," she retorts solely focused on her laptop, "I'll let you know when I get hold of something."
"Sure thing."
"Alright then, I am off to bed," Ben yawns and walks towards his room so does Meghan and Liam.
I turn around to see Jen's eyebrow knitted together in absolute concentration and she swiftly presses the keys on her keyboard.
She isn't going to sleep until she's done.
I turn around to see Alex leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. I slowly walk towards him.
"Aren't you leaving for bed?" I ask.
"Aren't you leaving for bed?" he fires back the same question.
"Answer the question."
"Answer the question."
"I asked you first."
"I asked you second."
I chuckle at his response. I walk past him towards the living room as he follows suit. I sit down on the couch. He takes his seat beside me.
"You okay?"
"I am fine."
"Then you're clearly not okay."
"Oh really, what makes you conclude so?"
"That's a universal fact. Now tell me what bothers you?" I open my mouth to say it's nothing, "Uh-huh. I prefer the truth."
I stare at him for few minutes and let out a sigh.
"I don't know. I am just confused. This mission is taking a toll on me," I rest my head on the back of my seat, "Maybe I am just overthinking about the possibilities," I sigh again and close my eyes and slowly drift off to sleep. I hear Alex whisper something I don't catch on but I hear 'I promise' at the end of his sentence as I drift off.
"GO!" she screams.
"NO! Please, don't do this."
She sends me a sad smile as a single tear streaks down her face.
'I love you,' she mouths.
Though I was far away from her but I can still read her lips. As I was about to reply the same, there was a sudden blast.
I gasp as I wake up from my sleep. My eyes wide and breathing ragged. I place my hand on my chest to calm my racing heart. That's why I hate sleeping. I see Alex quickly sit up and turn towards me.
"What happened?" he questions with a concerned tone.
"The usual," I answer with my eyes closed, desperately trying to keep my emotions at bay. As soon as I realize what I said, I almost face palm myself. I turn around to see worry flick in his eyes.
"You told me it stopped," he whispered, catching me red-handed. When Alex got to know about my nightmares, he asked me to check-in with the therapist. Though I was reluctant, he booked for my therapy. Turns out, the therapy didn't work on me but he didn't know that but now he does.
"It happens occasionally," I tell him truthfully. My mind still feels hazy due to recent nightmare.
"You okay?" he asks as I hum in return.
"Guys, I found out," Jen walks in. We quickly pull away.
"Found out what?" I inquire, my tone clipped.
"A potential way to get hold of the hacker," She beams proudly.
A smile makes its way on my face as I forget about my recent nightmare.
Thanks for the distraction Jen.
"Great! Wake Ben, Liam and Meghan. I'll collect the weapons we might need," I say already walking towards another secret door. I check my watch. 3.16 am.
I walk towards the end of the living room and spin the jewel which is mounted on the wall. I work my hand slowly and spin the jewel. One wrong move and we will be in stuck here forever. I hear a satisfying ping and the door opens. I quickly grab a bag and throw in weapons that might be useful for our mission.
I quickly run back to see all awake. To be honest, I am surprised to see Ben awake this early but when I see his soaking wet shirt, I try my absolute best to control my laughter.
We started our way back to the helicopter. After 15 hours of hiking, we reach to the place where we parked our chopper only to see it gone.
"What in the actual world? Who robbed our chopper?" Ben asks, turning towards me. As I was about to reply, Meghan points something with her finger towards the end of the forest and beginning of the road.
"What's that?"