“Miss Beckett.” A woman dressed in the de Silver uniform of white-blue polo and trousers embroider with the family crest approached me. I gave her a slightly startled glance; my first thought being that somehow they knew about Akram’s message to me but quickly reassured myself that it’s unlikely. “Lynette had requested your presence at the side office.”

Nodding I followed her, a little tentative about what it would be about. I had no reason to worry about Gerald’s plan not working, but there is always a little part of me that automatically aim for the worst scenario. In this case in me getting stuck in this place without any knowledge of what’s happening in the world.

On the bright side, Lynette was now contactable. I tried to maintain a poker face as I made my way to the side office, which is usually used in less important functions and meetings.

“Come in.” Lynette’s voice echoed behind the closed door as I knocked, opening it tentatively I poked my head in for a look before I stepped into the room. My eyes widened when they landed on Gerald, who nodded courtly at me as if it was the most natural thing in the world for us to see Lynette in an office together.

“What’s going on?” I asked, strolling towards the pair pretending I hadn’t got a clue in the world as to what was transpiring.

“Abigail,” Lynette began, turning towards me with her heels clicking on the tile floor creating an echo across the room. “Please, join us.”

I tried not to make a sarcastic comment as I took a closer step towards the conversing two, as if I had come by her request just to leave. “We are discussing a fairly serious matter.”

I gave Gerald a surreptitious look to see if he can confirm that this was part of his plan. “Your skills are apparently required.”

From the way she was saying it, I could tell that she didn’t like that at all. Which was surely a good thing; there was no love lost between us at all. Was the family bond there? Yes. But are there any real affection? At this stage, the answer is no. So far she had only proven herself as a less than caring family member unless she want something from you.

“Yes?” I urged, not having to fake the annoyed look I threw Gerald. That sneaky, emotional handicap knew I wanted to be kept in the loop and there he stood, blatantly ignoring me.

“Your expertise is needed on a mission,” Lynette started, her eyes darting between me and Gerald trying to intimidate the invisible link between us to surface. “There has been a recent spotting of a resilient group in the Himalaya Mountains and there is a possibility that they are remnants of the Ganesh family guard. They evaded all efforts to contact them and there are high chances that things will turn violent if we continued to engage. It might be easier if you approach since they would recognize you.”

My heart leaped at this new information; although still not sure how authenticated it was, the chance of someone who survived and uncaptured was like a beacon of hope. “What about the other group?” I asked, eager to hear the response. “If you don’t want me to go, just send them.”

Seeing right through my hidden agenda, Lynette shot me a reprimanding look. “They are too far away to be considered.” She said, and before I could open my mouth she quickly added with a note of finality. “They are at a safe location, somewhere in Europe.”

Closing my mouth I felt my heart sank as it considered this new piece of information. I had no idea where I was but from what I knew about Lynette, we had to be closer to the Himalayas than we are to Tom…

Pulling myself together I tried to hang onto the words Tom said before we parted ways. He will find me and I will find him. The world was a mess right now but as soon as everything settles down, we will find each other. No matter how long it takes.

“Then what are we waiting for?” I clapped my hands together and looked from my grandmother to Gerald; there were a million people I would rather be in a room with but there’s nothing I could do about it.

Pursing her lips, Lynette frowned at the two of us before finally taking over the clipboard that Gerald was holding and signing whatever was on it.

“I want you to come back to the headquarter as soon as possible.” Lynette demanded, shoving the clipboard back to Gerald with slightly more force than necessary. “And you need to make sure she stays safe.” She added pointedly at Gerald.

“With my life.” Gerald replied solemnly and Goosebumps rose on my arm, and not in a good way. Only he could make a normal response sound creepy.

Satisfied with his answer, Lynette turned around and Heather magically reappeared and along with her came a bunch of people, half of which I recognized as Gerald’s posies.

After they all filed in, a couple of older people who I didn’t know came in as well. They looked to be around their forties and not in uniforms. Usually all working personals apart from POE in training or temporary stay in-between missions are required to wear attire with de Silver sigil on it, but not these people. Which meant they were really high ranked, like Lynette.

I quickly counted about ten people excluding me and Gerald, a few of them looking to be in the late twenties or early thirties. I was pleasantly surprised because I thought most of the experienced members went sent to contain the Apocalypse situation before I remembered this was one now.

Out of the ten people half of them were Gerald’s follower. There’s Liam, Raven, the skinny telepath who is called Malcom and Gerald’s two cousins. The rest consist of all men except for a young woman in her mid-twenties with light autumn brown hair and green eyes. As if sensing my glance she looked over and our eyes met; for a moment we just stared at each other, neither one of us breaking away from the unexpected eye contact. Her eyes were an unfathomable shade of green, a green that was so vibrant, so full of life that seemed impossible to be found on a human being. After a while she looked away but I continued to stare at her, slightly transfixed as I tried to figure out what it was about her eyes that had me so intrigued.

“…I trust that you will succeed in your journey and return swiftly.” One of the men said as he finished briefing us on the mission which I managed to blank out. Not that it mattered too much because the real motive of this mission was to get me out of this place. Sighing I hoped I didn’t miss anything important, I probably did.

And just like that everybody started filing out of the room and I mentally kicked myself for not paying attention to the itinerary. Fortunately, Lynette began moving towards me and seeing this, Gerald had stopped at the door to wait for me.

Swallowing the lump in my throat I faced my grandmother. She probably suspected we are up to something but I know her; she will never be upfront about her suspicions. The only thing she will do is try to gauge your reactions by asking sneaky questions.

“I trust that you will return promptly.” She reiterated, dusting off imaginary particles on my shoulder before moving on to fixing my collar. I nodded, stealing a glance at Gerald who was still waiting by the door. “Good.” She said, I could see that she was unconvinced but she eventually retrieved her arms and walking away.

“Come on.” Gerald said to me as soon as I reached her, having stepped sideway to let Lynette out. “The faster we get out the better.”

I nodded in agreement as he began to lead me towards wherever it was that we were meant to go. The rest of the team seemed to have gone ahead without us and I secretly wished Liam would have stayed behind and waited. He was the only semi-normal one in Gerald’s fan group, and it would diffuse the awkwardness that I was feeling about receiving help from this guy who wanted my hand in marriage.

After about five minutes we made it to the kit room. I had never been here before, since I didn’t ever had the reason to. The rest of the team was already getting their gear and supplies from a girl behind the counter so Gerald and I quickly joined the queue.

“Hey boss, got you yours.”  A boy no older than me with black hair whom I recognized as Gerald’s cousin Adam said, handing him a backpack with a worshipful glint in his eyes. It was obvious that he idolized Gerald, which in my opinions was a big mistake.

“I will go get mine.” I said, moving forward to grab my supplies when the counter freed up. The girl looked extremely bored and started pushing items towards me robotically. A backpack half my size, three season sleeping bag, first aid kit, emergency rations, walking boots, three sets of clothing, windbreaker, and various assortments that was not dissimilar to the things we received from Ganesh family guard.

“Here.” The girl shoved a walkie-talkie to me before practically shoving the whole table of items into me. I quickly chucked the things in my backpack and put on my shoes. I wasn’t sure if I had to change, but nobody else seemed to be.

Being unclear of the procedures pre mission, I decided I should just watch and follow and tried to hide how nervous I was. One toe out of line and they could all sensed that I was new to all this. And no one likes to have a newbie on mission.

“Gerald is going to be the mission leader; we are now going to the exit point for final check-up before being send overground.” Liam nudged himself next to me and said. Startled by his approach I nodded gratefully and moved alongside him with the group as we head towards an exit.

By now we had lagged a little behind from the main group and I couldn’t help by asked a question that had been on my mind for a while now. “Why do you follow Gerald?” I asked, watching his face carefully. Liam smiled knowingly as though he had been expecting the question for a while.

“He is actually a great guy.” Liam started and I raised an eyebrow at him. Seeing my disbelieved look Liam chuckled and shrugged at me. “He is helping you now, isn’t he?”

Now it was my turn to shrug. I knew he would help me. That’s why I asked him. Whilst Gerald had some redeeming quality, but from what Liam was implying, there was more to him than meets the eye. Finding that hard to believe I threw a skeptical look at the profile of the object of discussion and shook my head.

“I know that you think he is a freak,” Liam said and a snort escaped my nose and now it was his turn to shake his head at me. “But he is a loyal guy. He takes care of his people and he is a great leader.”

“That doesn’t give him the right to boss you around, or anyone for that matter like he runs the show.” I retorted, “You can still be a loyal leader to people without acting like you are above everyone else.”

Liam opened his mouth but seemed to think better of it and closed it abruptly. I could sense that he had more to say but I didn’t want to push him, not to mention it was a subject that I wasn’t eager to pursuit.

After getting searched thoroughly at the exit by two guards, we were herded into a shipping container-like lift with another guard. No one spoke a word as the fully-suited guard entered a series of complex code into a number pad on a corner.

With an unsettling creaking sound, the whole lift began to move upwards in a frighteningly dangerous motion and I quickly grabbed onto the handle installed on the wall for support. They seriously needed to renovate this part of the exit. What happened to the modern, sleek elevator that Lynette brought me in from?

After about half an hour of ascending the container changed direction with a thunderous halt, almost making me smash into the wall. My heart began to beat with renewed ferocity in my chest; this was it! After all these time I was finally going to go back up into the surface and be free. Relatively speaking.

After what felt like centuries, but must had been more like ten twenty minutes we began to go up again. With a worrying thud and creak the doors opened again and a group of guards greeted us on the other side. After an exchange of salute and farewell we were ushered into a smaller elevator which took us up to the ground. I couldn’t help but noticed the series of metal tracks on the floor where metal gates could fall down, each with a guard standing beside it. They took the security very seriously here.

As the doors glided open I peeked out at the gap curiously, wondering if it would be similar to the place where Lynette and I went through to go to the headquarter. Instead, however, what greeted me was a dark, gloomy tunnel with the only light source coming from the far end of the tunnel.

“Good luck.” The guard smiled at us before entering on the key pad once more and the door cracked shut behind us. Without a word, Gerald began marching down the tunnel as though this was as natural as going to school and the rest followed swiftly.

Staying at the back of the group I turned around and saw a concrete wall slide into place where the lift disappeared seamlessly, making the tunnel look like a dead-end abandoned relic shelter from the Dark Ages. Impressed, I turned back around and took a deep breath.

Closing my eyes, I reminded myself the real purpose of this mission. I was here to find Katerina and get the answers I needed about Akram de Silver and the video he left me. Finding the resilient group was just a cover and it isn’t the main focus. No matter what happens, I needed to think about the bigger picture. If the situation proof impossible, I told myself in my head, you need to get out of here and do whatever you have to.

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Hey guys :) so I have decided to carry on with the story until the next marker :) and for the tabigail fans out there I want to reassure you again that Gerald and Abigail are NEVER going to be romantic in any way, except for his creepy proposal, there is just another side of him that we hadn't see which will be explored :)

Also - for those of you who might be interested, my travel guide is out :D the link is down here:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ctr-berlin-and-carmen-paddock-and-megan-gibbons-and-yung-nam-cheah/berlin-calling/ebook/product-21800973.html

it costs 77p and it would mean the world to be if anyone who is intested in going to Berlin would give me a shot and let me know what they think!

On the uncostly side I had enjoyed travel writing so much that I had made a tumblr on it!

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/lovefashiontraveleat

It won't be related to wattpad stuff at all - hence the name change, but if anyone is interested in HK/London/travel reviews etc from me please follow!

And also, special shout out to @sunlollyBP for your sweet comment :) If anyone is actually interested in meeting me, I do live in London. And if I ever travel I can post a status/message about it so do let me know if you want to meet me :P