Alba was sitting on her bed, her back touching the wall, her eyes staring at the opposite wall. The tablet on her legs was still turned on, the file of the Bratislava mission was lighting the dark room.

That's why everyone wants to catch them. They blew up four agents and almost killed me and Axel. Who knows what happened afterward that he doesn't want to speak about it?

She closed her eyes and focused, but nothing happened. No memories surged; There was only the usual blank, empty space in her mind.

I need to learn more. I was hit too, but I don't have scars.

She started searching the medical files. A minute passed when her name appeared on the screen: Agent 23.

Here it is.

"Two bullets were extracted from the abdomen without damaging the internal organs."

There...

She put her hand where her wound from the accident was.

The pole from the truck pierced my skin in the same place, that's why... What are the odds I was hit twice in the same spot within a year?

"Agent 40-S suffered a gunshot injury in the pericardial sac. Due to Agent 23's tries to stop the bleeding and the team's response, he survived, but he had to remain in the ICU for two weeks. He stayed under careful care for another month before starting some of his daily life routines. He returned to his training routine four months after the surgery."

She turned off the tablet, the room turning completely dark.

He pushed me to the ground, and he took the bullet that was meant for me. How could that person betray me?

She left her room and headed to the training room.

It was a large room with training equipment, weapons, and a secluded area for target training. A few agents were there, fighting in groups. She greeted them and went to the farthest corner where he was alone, hitting a punching bag.

He wore grey sweatpants, and sweat was dripping on his bare chest. His hair was wet, and his hands were wrapped.

"I figured you'd be here."

"You know me that good?"

"I had to choose between the training room or the Great Room. I like to risk."

He hadn't stopped hitting the box, but she earned his grin.

"I read what happened in Bratislava." She waited for his response, but he didn't say anything.

He started punching with greater force.

"Why didn't you tell me that you saved my life? If I knew, I wouldn't..."

"If you knew, what? You would trust me? You would tell me that you are going to sneak a tablet into your room? Because that's the only way to find out information in secret. Or would we start bonding?"

His eyes were looking at the boxing bag, but she felt that looking at her wouldn't be much different.

"I don't remember anything," she hissed. "You said you'll help me, and when I asked you about it, you didn't say anything. What kind of help is that?"

"What happened there, isn't important anymore."

Inhale, exhale...

She was holding herself from screaming, but she didn't know why she wanted to scream.

"Oh, stop that." She grabbed his arm and tried to stop him.

"I'm leaving for the mission, and I want to stay focused."

"This is how you focus?" She raised her voice but tried to calm herself when all the eyes in the room looked at them.

"What do you want?" He turned around and looked at her for the first time since she had entered the room.

"The truth."

"Come with me."

He put on a shirt, and without removing the hand wraps, took her hand and almost dragged her out of the room. Her shorter feet were trying to keep up with him.

They walked through a corridor she hadn't seen before, but she recognized them from the blueprints.

We are going out.

"Follow my lead," he whispered when they faced a metal door and two guards.

"We are going for a small training session in the woods."

"It's not in the schedule," one of the guards said after checking the program in his gadget.

"It's not supposed to be. You can call the Chief and waste my valuable time, or you can let us go. Neva won't wait for long."

The guards looked at each other and then, at the two agents who had taken defensive postures, full of confidence.

"I'm sorry, Agent 40-S. You are right."

They opened the door that led to a long iron ladder. Axel was the first one to reach the ground and then helped Alba to climb up before closing the opening of the tunnel with a metal disk.

"Are we safe here?" she asked ten minutes later.

"The drones scan the area for unknown people. Don't worry."

Everything around her was the same as the memory that came to her like a dream.

"I did my test in this place, right?"

A half-smile formed on his face. "You remember?"

"Yes, just this one, Axel." She smiled playfully as he raised his eyebrows, and his mouth opened in surprise.

"What else?"

"I know I kicked your ass during my test." She ignored his snicker. "That's it. Why forty?"

He neared her and extended his arm "I'm Axel Kerr. I became Agent 40 because my mom was a mathematician who loved Pythagoras. I felt that I would keep her with me if I used the Pythagorean Numerology to find my agent name. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Alba Rivet." She shook his hand. "You look familiar."

They grinned at the same time and started laughing.

"Listen, I wish I could tell you everything, but time is running out, and I promised to myself that I would never let Neva escape again. Bratislava is our past. But now, the world is in danger. We believe that they have a second plan. Their people are everywhere. It won't be difficult to convince governments to distribute new vaccines with a surprise present."

"What can I do?"

"Take care of yourself. You are safe here, and, as long as you don't do anything stupid, they won't find out about the amnesia."

"That's the problem."

He narrowed his eyebrows and frowned. "No, it's not."

Dammit, Alba. You can't tell him about the strange conversation with the Chief hours before a difficult battle. Oh, gosh, he looked so cute when he talked about his mother. Why did I have to write that phrase in the notebook?

"Go, find Neva and Azarov, and end this nonsense. My theories can wait."

"That was so Agent 23's words." He opened his arms, and she willingly fell into his hug.

Don't worry, Axel. I'll let you save the world, and then, I'll find the truth about you.

They talked a little bit more about the base on their way back, following the same route as before.

"This is where we part, for now." They were close to his room. "I'll have a quick shower and go get my equipment. We'll probably talk through the earpiece."

"Good luck." She patted his arm and left without looking back.

Let's take that tablet and go back to work.

"Hey," a female voice said.

"Agent 19. I was about to return to work."

"Oh, don't be silly. I want to talk to you about something."

"How can I help you?"

"Actually, I will. I hope." She bit her lip and smiled shyly. "I have something that might interest you."

Alba let Agent 19 lead the way and quickly realized that they were heading to her room. Only that when they arrived, the young girl opened the opposite door and got inside.

I suppose that's her room. What could she possibly have for me?

Agent 19 opened her wardrobe and started searching for something.

"One moment." Her hand was trying to reach the most secret part of the closet, where under a stack of objects and clothes was the item she was looking for.

"There you are!" She returned with a small envelope. "The paper is probably creased, but I wanted to hide it the best I could. I hope it is the information you were looking for. Agent 16-E almost caught me when I entered the files."

What the hell is happening in this place?

"Thank you. I'll read it. I hope you haven't talked about this to anyone."

Agent 19 shook her head. "I keep my promises."

Alba nodded and left for her room. Making sure that everything looked normal, she put a chair against the door handle and opened the envelope. Inside were two pages too creased but legible.

The first paper contained the Chief's travels over the last six years. Agent 19 had highlighted in red three routes. The first was from the base to London, the second was from London to Helsinki, and the third was toward the city where her parents died.

He went to London exactly three months before the accident, to Helsinki one month before the accident, and to that dreadful city the day the accident happened. I was tracking his route. Why would I do that, unless...

She felt her head dizzy and sat on the bed. She put the first page aside and took the second one.

It was a list of the companies that collaborated with the Chief secretly. Again, highlighted in red was the name of an airline company whose base was in London.

What did you do, Rob? Did you cause my parents' accident and why?

"I'm going to lose my mind," she murmured. "How can that be a coincidence?"

Tears started running on her cheeks, but she didn't stop them.

I came here because I thought their killer was an agent. I believed that Axel betrayed me. And now the Chief, who made Agent 16-E watch me, is connected to that airline. And he didn't react in his office. Why didn't he say something about my fucking car accident?

She punched the wall with her fist and barely stifled a scream. Alba threw the chair on the floor.

"Remember!" She hit her head with her hand. "Please, remember."

She took the fallen chair and retrieved the red notebook from the hiding spot. Turning the pages fast, she found the pages with the numbers and the letters. This time, she had an idea what to look for when she looked at those numbers:

51.509865, -0.118092

60.192059, 24.945831

41.881832, -87.623177

They are coordinates. But why Helsinki? What's the connection?

And then, she found something familiar: B16XTL.

The device I gave to Neva!

Suddenly, the numbers had faces. They were coordinates and tools for mass destruction. They were amounts of transferred money and bank accounts.

Someone is working with Neva. And I was close to finding that person. Or did I find him? No, I wouldn't be alive.

She started pacing up and down in the room, the notebook still in her left hand. Her wrist twitched a little, and her hand released it involuntarily.

Staring at her hand, she shallowed in fear.

I'm a miracle. I wasn't supposed to live after the accident. But was it really an accident?

She gasped loudly as the image of the truck running to her came to her mind. However, this time she remembered what she wanted to touch when she realized that the end was coming.

It was a silver necklace with a small bunny.