Mr. Steighem's eyes roamed the command room and fixed on Helen, then stared at the lady who was accompanying her. In the meantime, he was mentally talking to Agent X, so that the humans wouldn't hear them. Dargan, noticing the new voice making itself heard, looked at the director from that place, startled.

"Who's this lady, Agent Netil?"

"She's Helen's grandmother and Merko's wife."

"What an interesting thing! Two baits to catch a big fish, the target I've been chasing for so long. I appreciate you bringing them to me. It was a masterstroke."

"Actually, Mr. Steighem, it was Agent Dargan who captured them."

Ronald Steighem approached Dargan and shook his hand.

"Congratulations, agent! You did a great job. With your help, we'll soon get our main target, Merko."

"Who are you who know so much about me and Captain Merko?" Dargan stared at the stranger, astounded.

"Be patient, spy. In the right moment, everyone will know who we are. For now, we must stick to the plan," said the director.

"As I said, sergeant, you'll know everything at the right time." Agent X spoke out loud.

Upon hearing that, Ann got into the conversation, looking as confused as Dargan:

"I don't understand this conversation, Collin. Who's this agent and why do you call him sergeant? We don't use military positions here at the agency."

"This is Dargan. An undercover spy agent, a specialist in disguise, that our HQ sent before us for this mission. When we finish this, I'll introduce him to the others who act like him", the agent replied, to foil Ann's curiosity.

At this moment, Helen, who had also been able to hear the conversation, looked at Dargan angrily, feeling betrayed. She had lost confidence in the one who had sworn to protect her. Before, the girl thought he was good and was helping them, but now, faced with the new facts, she concluded that he had taken them right into a trap. What everyone there wanted to do was capture Merko, her grandfather.

Dargan felt Helen's contempt in his direction, but that wasn't the time to explain himself. He just wanted to understand what was happening.

"Why do you want to catch my husband? What did he do to you?" Lorena interrupted them all by mentioning Merko.

"It's a long story, ma'am. You'll know everything while you rest in our prison", Steighem said.

The girl's grandmother was surprised by the arrest:

"But I didn't commit any crime... Why do you want to arrest me, sir? I have the right to talk to a lawyer, and I need to take care of my granddaughter," the lady was perplexed in face of the latest events.

"Is that really necessary, sir?" Dargan asked, finding it absurd. "After all, these are two people who can't do us any harm, a madam and a girl."

"Trust me. We need time to think and the enemy's coming. I have information that his ship's already approaching Earth. With them arrested, we'll focus on our main mission: to capture the commander. Not to mention that the girl is dangerous. She has powers she can't even imagine. Put guards to watch them all the time."

"What do you mean with this conversation? Commander Merko arriving on a ship? Helen with dangerous powers?! Could it be that the medicine that Dargan applied to me had some hallucinogen or is it real?" Lorena thought as she listened to all that talk.

Helen was also thinking of some way to save her grandmother, but she was frightened by all those bad men surrounding them, and she knew they were at the bottom of the ocean. She had to find a way to escape.

"Agent Netil, put the control leashes on the two now. I don't want any surprises."

"Yes, sir." He went to a compartment that opened on the wall of the room and picked up the control artifacts.

"You can put the collars, Dargan." Agent X said, staring at him.

He handed them to the sergeant spy, who hesitated on using them, until the director said:

"We didn't bring her here to study her. At least not at this moment. I want her alive. The girl will be our bait and it won't be difficult to draw him here. Now, please, Ann, leave us alone. I need to solve a problem with Agent Netil. Take the time to report on the mission at the school, which you haven't delivered to me yet."

Helen watched those men talking and, until then, she didn't understand what she was doing there. She only knew that the tall man had promised to help her. She saw the woman more closely and soon recognized her as the secretary of her school, whom she had never sympathized with. She had always thought she had the look of a infiltrated spy.

Dargan decided to wait. He put the leash on Lorena's neck and, when he went to put it on Helen, he knelt. He closed his eyes and murmured in her ear:

"Trust me!"

He needed a plan that wouldn't endanger Helen's life. He had to be patient. Maybe Merko himself would help him.

Agent Ann Soliver left the room frustrated. She wanted to take the girl to the base lab to start the research together with the genetic scientists. Ann couldn't imagine that Dargan was a soldier trained by Captain Merko himself, and if he had to, he'd kill her in the blink of an eye. She also didn't understand why Chief Steighem had that obsession with catching the alien Merko. However, he was the general director of the WAEP and the chances of achieving the much-desired promotion as a senior agent in the international organization were with him. She wouldn't, therefore, be the one to complain or contradict her superior.

The soldiers took the two prisoners to the cells, while Dargan remained in the command room with Agent X and Director Steighem. The spy didn't understand how they knew so much about him, in so many details.

"Finally, we're alone. Nobody has access to what we talk about here in this room. Collin, or rather, Radof, close the door and let no one else come in."

"Did you say Radof? Lord Mirov's servant whom I helped free from the prison on planet Life?!"

Agent X ran his fingers through his skin at the height of his temples and started to transmute, feeling the pain of the transformation. After a while, who appeared in front of Dargan was the good old Radof. Frightened, he turned to speak to Ronald Steighem and was scared when he saw that the image of the director gave way to the figure of the one, he had been waiting for years. He was in front of Mirov himself.

"You've gone pale, sergeant. Did I change so much after this time that we didn't see each other?"

"No, sir, I mean... Your Majesty. I just don't understand what's happening. Why are you here? I thought you'd send some military men to pick me up and help me carry out the mission. But you came in person, what an honor!"

"I liked being called "Your Majesty"", he smiled, presumptuous. "I'm no longer the king of planet Life, thanks to the cursed captain Merko, who expelled me from my own planet. For now, I am condemned to live here on Earth, and I can already tell you that I don't like the human beings. I hope you continue to show your loyalty to me and you'll be well rewarded. I probed your thoughts and saw that you have a great desire to stay on this planet. I also felt your affinity with the Terran girl. Therefore, I warn you: be careful, sergeant... As for the feelings that imprison us to people, they may, someday, hurt us fatally."

Dargan thought that things would be even more difficult for the Terran girl. He looked thoughtfully at the bottom of the sea, through the walls of the room, in order to hide his emotions. When he turned back to the villain, he saw that he had a very bad shadow around him. It was as if all the evil that Dargan knew circulated around Mirov.

At this moment, Radof allowed another person to enter the room. It was Croiff, who was coming through the corridor at the base, dressed as an agent. Once he entered, he also transmuted into his normal appearance.

"Since you're all reunited, I decided to take part in this party as well," Croiff said, smiling.

"Who gave you permission to enter, servant?"

"Excuse me, Lord Mirov. I thought that..."

"I'm the one who thinks. I give you permission to enter, since you have provided me with many services."

Mirov continued to explain why he was there.

"Queen Isadora occupies the royal throne and I was forced to flee to this planet. We had a great battle with Merko, Nicholas, Zara and their friends in the Earth's past. They defeated us and are at this moment returning to Earth with the battle cruiser Star Hunter. They won't take long to get here. They think they've killed me, however, I escaped alive together with my faithful servants, Radof and Croiff. They landed with a scout ship and when the damn young Earthman launched a powerful attack on me, Radof teleported to my side and led us to the ship."

The loyal servant continued to tell the adventure:

"We traveled through a wormhole and got here at this epoch to execute our boss's plan."

"What an impressive story!" Dargan commented, trying to retain as much information as he could.

"When we arrived here, a few years ago, we infiltrated the American government's Alpha-Omega organization, which wanted to capture beings of our species. Disguised, I killed the director of the agency, Ronald Steighem, which was in its beginnings, taking his place. Radof eliminated Agent Netil and Croiff disintegrated a British agent. The others are alive serving our purposes, since I'm the boss of all of this that you're seeing. I knew you were here, in this country, and from the moment I asked Colonel Fizard to infiltrate you on the planet, I already imagined that one day you could be of great value. I'll reward you greatly and let you personally oversee every step of the genetic research we'll do with the girl Helen, after eliminating Captain Merko and his friends."

"What should I call you, since we are among Earthlings?" Dargan asked.

"Use our WAEP Agency names. We can't ruin our disguises", said Mirov.

"I see there's a lot of technology from our planet here." Dargan looked curious.

"I was able to get the Terran engineers to follow my projects. I have a good autonomy to use the funds of the member countries of this organization. In addition, the agency provides an international task force to serve my purposes. Technology... This is the word that commands the minds of this world. All humans want it, and I can serve it on a tray to satisfy their hunger. Once we know the technology of the future, we can't live with the outdated inventions of this era."

"What about the girl? What will you do to her?" He was uneasy, fearing for Helen's safety.

"The important thing is to capture our target. With her in our hands, the lion Merko will turn into a kitten... Then, we'll study the hybrid girl's powers to populate the planet Earth with genetically perfected beings. We'll enhance the DNA of the human beings on this planet until they become evolved beings, in our image. We have the technology of the future to surpass the limits of the knowledge of this Age. We can eliminate the weaknesses inherent to the Homo sapiens' DNA. I want to become the ruler of an evolved race of human beings and prevent them from reaching planet Life in the future," Mirov laughed in celebration. "I want to end that miserable Planet once and for all."

"But this will have a cascade effect on man's evolution, perhaps ending the humanity of the future as we know it."

"But we'll be here creating life. We're the future, sergeant! The present is what interests us."

"I don't know, but I think that the paradoxes could destroy the humanity." Dargan was, for the first time, worried. Mirov, in his madness, could destroy everything for which they've fought.

"I have no esteem for the humans... I don't care about their future. I want to build ours, and whoever is with me will be well rewarded. Whoever is against will be eliminated."

Dargan looked at him indignantly. One thing he was sure of: he didn't want to be a part of this. He would protect his relatives from the future. He served the kingdom of his planet, and even when he was renegade, he obeyed Colonel Fizard's orders and was only there to spy on the enemy.

In that occasion, Mirov was the king and Merko was considered an enemy, but now the situation was reversed.

At this moment, after everything that had happened, he didn't have to yield to the orders of the former monarch, an enemy of the planet Life. However, he couldn't demonstrate what he thought close to the others, who were telepaths. If they discovered his real intentions, they would try to kill him. He liked Sophia and the least he could do for her was to help her family.

"I need to be silent if I want to survive..."

Things were closing in on him.

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https://youtu.be/07JiIpO7hFo