The fierce winds blew the hair on Gabriella's head. The sky grew darker, and the thunder's rumble took her away from her thoughts. 

"We need to confront Arthur," She said sternly. 

"Wha- Are you crazy?" Janelle said, in shock. 

"We've let this go too far, Janelle," Gabriella said in her defence. "It needs to be put to an end"

"It's too risky. We need a plan" Janelle said, trying to talk sense into her. 

"Whatever Arthur's planning, can't be anything good. We need to find out what it is and put an end to him" Gabriella said, not backing down. "I'll record our conversation" 

Gabriella began to walk back to the safe house but was stopped by the rough force of Janelle's hand. 

"Don't fight me on this" Gabriella said, with gritted teeth.

"Even if you're right, you can never win against Arthur," Janelle said.

"You think I don't know that?" Gabriella asked. "We can never win against Arthur, but I will not stand back and let him continue this. Even if he tells me off, I'll have some proof" 

"Arthur is not going to reveal all his plans to you so easily" Janelle retorted. "We need to be smart about this"

Gabriella scoffed and pushed Janelle's hand away and resumed her march towards the safe house.

"Gabriella, wait!" Janelle called after her but to no avail.

Janelle ran after Gabriella, dodging the muddy puddles, in an attempt to resolve the situation. Arthur had all the power to silence them, if she directly confronted him, he would do just that. 

Gabriella flung open the main entrance door, leaving traces of muddy water from her boots.

"Sign this, please," The register guy said, handing it to her with a pen. Gabriella, however, pushed passed him and continued walking. 

"Gabriella, hold on," Janelle pleaded, still running after her. Gabriella ignored everyone's calls, she was determined to confront Arthur. She knew the risk she was taking and could partly understand Janelle's point of view, but the longer they dallied, the worse the situation could get. 

As Gabriella approached Arthur's office, she heard a loud conversation taking place inside.

"Make it happen, Arthur," A female voice said. 

"Do you have any idea of the" Arthur said. It wasn't his usual tone, he sounded scared of something. Gabriella flung the door open, unable to stay patient another second. She had expected Arthur to be speaking to one of the military heads but was beyond surprised to see Renee standing there with him.

"What's going on here?" Gabriella snapped, turning both heads in her direction.

"Marshall" Arthur said, back to his authoritative tone. "You're early" 

Gabriella had a lot to say but didn't want the commoners to gossip about them. 

"Leave," She said eyeing Renee coldly. 

Renee glanced at Arthur and then back at Gabriella. 

"Fine, there was nothing of importance happening here anyway," She said and left, being glared at by Arthur all the way out.

"What was she doing here?" Gabriella asked when she heard the door shut behind her.

"It's as she said," Arthur said before taking a pause "Nothing of importance"

"Yeah, look I don't know how low you think my IQ is, but I know that what you just said was a lie," Gabriella said. 

Arthur looked amused and frankly, Gabriella was surprised too. She spent all her time in the military trying to impress Arthur and never dared to disrespect him. 

"I don't owe you any explanations," He replied and walked towards the exit but was blocked by Gabriella's arm, stretched out and fists closed. 

"If you have nothing to hide, tell me," Gabriella said. She knew this would piss Arthur off and chances were, she'd never tell him, but she was willing to take the risk.

"Fine" He sighed "That girl was in charge of laundry and ruined my uniform" 

Gabriella was taken aback by that. She hadn't expected Arthur to tell her everything, but neither did she expect him to lie so blatantly. 

"I-I'm sorry," She stuttered. She didn't mean the apology, nor did she believe his lie, but she did get the time to cool down and realize that Janelle had more of a point than she initially thought. Rushing things would not help her, if anything, it might get Arthur against them. Arthur's facial expression did not help Gabriella deduce whether or not her apology had salvaged the situation, but knowing Arthur, it probably didn't. 

"Back to my question," He said "Why are you back early?"

"We didn't find anything" She replied meekly. 

"I see," He said, his expression still unreadable. "Let's see if the others were as unsuccessful as you"

Hearing those words reminded Janelle why she hated him so much. He sent them without a vehicle to find a place he already knew never existed and was now demeaning their work. She felt the urge to punch him in the face and reveal that they knew what he did, that he isn't as sneaky as he thinks, but after the speech she gave Gabriella, she'd be a hypocrite to do so.

"Now, both of you, please clean yourselves up," Arthur said "We don't want any new viruses spreading"

The two nodded and left the room.

"Now don't you wish you'd listened to me?" Janelle asked as they walked back to take a shower. 

"Oh, shut up," Gabriella said. "It wasn't a complete failure"

"Mhm," Janelle said mockingly. 

"I'll admit, I didn't get what I wanted" She sighed "But I have a new suspect"

Janelle followed her gaze and saw Renee talking to Caden. 

"That girl?" Janelle snorted. 

"I mean, it's pretty obvious that she didn't ruin Arthur's clothes. And even if she did, I know Arthur wouldn't call her to have a one-on-one. There are other people for that" Gabriella said vehemently. 

"You think she's involved in Arthur's scheme?" Janelle asked, still not fully convinced.

"It's not out of of the realm of possibilities," Gabriella said "Why are you so unconvinced anyway?" 

"She seems so... docile," Janelle said, finding the right word.

"Looks can be deceiving" Gabriella murmured. 

"If you doubt her so much, then get to the bottom of it" Janelle advice. 

"How?"

"That man's your brother isn't he?" Janelle asked pointing to Caden.

"Nothing involving him," Gabriella said austerely. 

"I don't know what you have against him, and to be honest, I don't really care. All I care about is getting to the bottom of this. So do it" Janelle said.

"Hanging out with him doesn't equate to finding out everything about her" Gabriella countered.

"No, but you can get information out of your brother," Janelle said. 

"I suppose it's worth a shot" She admitted.

"Great. While you work on her, I'll continue finding stuff against Arthur" Janelle said. 

"How do you plan to do that?" 

"That is a secret," She said ruffling Gabriella's hair.

"Ew, get away from me," She said slapping Janelle's hand away. 

Janelle laughed and turned to leave, but Gabriella grabbed Janelle's hand, making her turn her head back.

"Be careful, ok?" 

"I will," She said assuringly. "And Gabriella? Remember our deal, your brother can't know about any of this" 

"I'll make sure of it"