Dargan had put spy bugs on the school's telephones and ended up hearing a strange conversation, while pretending to work, asking for the school's evacuation. At that moment, he felt something was wrong. He then looked at the woman who was wearing the glasses that came from his planet and got surprised. He was going to attack her when a bunch of children passed through his way, messing with his plan. With all that movement, he noticed that it was time to leave the place, so he decided to take advantage of the cue. He picked up the tool bag and walked toward the exit, trying to keep up with the students' stampede. But in the way, the agent held him by the arm.

The noise of the helicopters could already be heard and several cars drove to the place, taking the boss Steighem and some agents.

"Where do you think you're going?" Ann tried to stop his escape.

"Did I do something wrong?" Dargan asked, trying to disguise himself.

"Stop faking it! In fact, we both know who you are..."

She pulled a gun from her purse and pointed it toward him, ready to shoot in case he reacted. The principal and the teachers, who were the last ones to leave, came across that scene. They were frightened to see the new secretary with a weapon in hand, aiming at a stranger. In love for their lives, they ran as fast as they could to the exit gate.

Dargan rose his hands, still trying to remain in his human role:

"Calm down, you could get hurt with that."

"Make one movement and I'll wipe you out..."

He kept his hands up, until a sound diverted the agent's attention for a second. At that moment, Dargan dodged her aim and moved behind Ann. He took the weapon out of her hand and they both began to fight with great skill. Dargan now didn't want to go out of there, curious to know more about that woman and how she knew about his presence at that moment.

Even without a weapon, Ann was trained for combat. The extraterrestrial took a deep breath to gain strength and struck the woman's stomach with a blow who didn't even seem to feel it as she hit him back with another one upwards to his chin. She did not wait and jumped on him, grabbing his neck. At that moment, he ducked down and projected her body over him. Ann fell to the floor, feeling the impact of the fall. Dargan waited for her to stand up, realizing his grip on the fight.

They both paused for a moment to regain their strength.

"Who are you? How did you get these transmutation recognition glasses?"

"I'm from the extraterrestrial capture agency and I'm here to arrest you."

He smiled.

"But you'll need many more agents for this."

"I think I can handle it."

"You got the wrong target and I think we were both spying on the same ET. Unfortunately, I can't let you live to exchange information."

"You speak too much for someone who's about to be captured. We'll do many experiments on you."

"Excuse me, your friends are coming and I need to go."

At the last instant, Dargan put an artifact on Ann without her noticing. Then, he pressed his bracelet and disappeared in front of her.

Ann looked at her left hand and there was a bracelet on her wrist with a red light that blinked intermittently. She tried to remove it at any cost and her hand was already bleeding, due to the huge effort she took to remove it. The alien had said that the meeting would be fatal. So, she imagined that was a bomb.

Collin appeared at the gate and said:

"Where's the alien, Ann?"

"He ran away..." She stared at him in despair. "Don't come near me, the bastard put a bomb on me!"

Desperately, the agent looked at all sides, searching for a way to get it off her. She knew she had to do something or her end would be imminent. She looked at the school's tool room, but a closed lock wouldn't let her inside the place.

"Collin, throw me your gun, quick", in her present state of desperation, she couldn't find her weapon. He threw her the gun and Ann ran to the room's door, shooting at the lock, opening it. She scanned the space with her eyes until she found an axe. Without a second thought, she placed her hand on an anvil, and with a sharp blow she cut off her own limb. Her cry of pain was heard by everyone that was still at the school.

Moaning, she wrapped her arm on her blouse, which was quickly soaked in red. Everyone stared at her surprised as she left the room, blood streaming down her thighs.

"Run! Leave right now... It's going to explode!"

And before she said anything else, an overwhelming blast carried the tool room through the airs, demolishing part of the school.

Ann was immediately taken to a hospital by helicopter. Chief Steighem and Agent Collin accompanied her. The doctors managed to stanch the bleeding and, despite the risks, she survived. The agent underwent emergency surgery and a bionic hand was placed on her.

The officers checked the school's cameras for the alien's features. It didn't take long and they discovered his identity: Hans Rethins. They then set up a scheme to arrest him.

Dargan felt sad. He could no longer meet with Rachel in that disguise of the German engineer.

"What a catastrophic day!"

He could have simply disappeared and teleported to another place, but his identity by now was already compromised. He searched the terrestrials' information systems for the agent's identity and found out everything about her. In a few minutes, he hacked the communications from Alpha-Omega and discovered that Ann had survived.

"My strategy was correct. But I could have eliminated her faster. Next time, I won't make mistakes again", he thought.

Dargan turned into the Terran form he had used the first time he arrived on the planet. He picked up his things and left the apartment. He left a destruction sphere that continued spinning until it annihilated everything, so that he didn't leave traces.

The agents arrived at the site afterwards and saw that the target had destroyed any trace of his presence. They decided to spread his images on TV and internet networks to try to find him at any cost. It was very important to get an extraterrestrial specimen.

Rachel watched television with her family in the living room of her house and the anchor of the news talked about the criminal who had blown up a bomb in the school.

"No one could have imagined that the German engineer was a suicidal madman. This morning he detonated a high-tech bomb at a children's school, as the police officers reported. The luck of the students and teachers was that the school was evacuated minutes before the blast", said the reporter.

Her parents already knew him, and looked at each other in fear, seeing the person responsible for the act. Rachel felt her world crumble.

"I could have never imagined that Hans was a criminal. And worst of all is that I was in love with him... We went out together and I was in danger without imagining... But he seemed to be so generous."

"Don't be sad, daughter. Looks can deceive... In this crazy world, anyone can be a dangerous suspect," said her mother.

"Be careful with your choices, daughter. You are young and beautiful; you have a promising future. You must find a man worthy of you", her father advised.

Rachel ran up the stairs, crying.

Meanwhile, in her house, Sophia was at the living room having a cup of tea and watching the TV when she saw the reporter give the news. She widened her eyes and, nervously, let the tea pour onto her blouse.

The case reverberated in her house because the school was where Helen studied.

"Did you see, Helen, what happened at your school?" Lorena asked.

"So that's why they told us to go home early. Something wrong was happening. Everyone commented on that on the way out," the girl was looking, without believing.

"I wanted so badly Merko and your parents to be here. You were in danger today and they can't even imagine what's happening. I hope they get in touch with us as soon as possible", Lorena said.

"Why doesn't even her mother get in touch? At least any mother would call to hear about her daughter's state of health. Something very wrong is happening. The worst thing is that I've already tried to get news from all public agencies and, so far, nothing...", Helen's grandmother thought, so as not to alarm her granddaughter or Sophia.

Dargan stayed in a hotel under a new cover. He opened his bag and pulled out a high-tech tablet from which a holographic image was lifted. It was Rachel's three-dimensional projection, rotating in 360 degrees. Suddenly, the image stopped and he touched her face gently.

"How can I see her again, stand by her side and hear her soft voice? I wanted it so much! Rachel, you gave me the best moments of my life..."

He kept remembering the moments they've spent together. Their conversations were so interesting and romantic. He didn't know how to fix this mistake.

From a minute to another, everything had collapsed. However, he had the technology and the ability to transmute himself into any Terran. Sooner or later, he would think of a way to continue his investigations and put together an excellent report for his leader.

Ronald Steighem and Collin went to Ann's room at the hospital, when she called them to reveal something important.

"So? How's our best agent?"

"Ready for another one, boss." She closed her bionic hand as she stared at it.

Collin smiled, seeing his colleague's courage.

"Ann, what information do you have to give us that made us come here in the middle of an important capture mission?"

"As I recovered, I remembered that the alien told me that there was another ET there at the school. And he was looking for them, too."

The two agents looked at each other curiously. Who would the mysterious being be?_______________________

Read #ThePhantomMan Duology by #ChaieneSantos chaienesantoswriter