I don't usually like intrigue. Hindi ako mahilig makialam sa ibang tao dahil ayoko rin naman na pinapakialaman ako. It's true that I keep tabs on the people who matter in my life - mainly my family - and the few close friends I treasure, but that's just to make sure that they are fine.

I sat down on my bed and stared at my computer screen after Diosa left. She's with Prince in her room. Under normal circumstances, Kuya Alfredo would be pounding on their door and demanding him to leave, but I guess last night gave us a level of assurance that he would keep his promise to respect our sister.

Natural. Subukan niya lang at may kalalagyan siya sa mga Zabala.

I plugged in my palm computer and opened the drive that I stole from Prince's psycho ex. There's a wealth of knowledge to be found in people's hard drives... their deepest darkest secrets, their desires; an unconscious map to their personality.

The first layer is often the most superficial - school works, music, ebooks, photos - the stuff that people expect to see. Deeper still and you will begin to see signs in what type of music are in their playlist, what channels they prefer, the conversations from their social media accounts, the websites they frequent, the people they stalk...

I skimmed over the photographs and videos of her and Prince. I had to steel myself and assume my non-feeling persona because the moment I imagine my little sister doing these activities, I would probably kidnap Prince and make sure he'll never surface again. Thankfully, it appeared that she was the one leading him on and not the other way around.

I stopped and stared at a whole folder titled 'Current' filled with photographs of my sister. The first ones looked like they were lifted from her Instagram account and her friends' IG accounts and Facebook. Most probably sa mga account nila Sabrina at Kiko. Wala naman kasing Twitter or Facebook si Diosa at paranoid din siyang mahanap n'ong stalker niyang senior noon.

The next photos were stolen shots. Photos of her in class, around campus, her car. Further along and the photos were getting creepy. There are shots from a bathroom mirror, mayroong naka-high angle. There were snapshots of her and Prince sa AS, sa Sunken, sa kotse niya. Maski si Adam may photos din.

I logged online. Time to use my advantages. I hacked her social media accounts, her phone records, and emails. Her blog made me cringe. She sounds like a disturbed individual. May cryptic posts sa kaniyang IG, FB, Tumblr, Deviantart, and Twitter. One email in particular was disturbing. When I try to open the emails from a particular sender, an encrypted message appears asking for a password.

Who makes encrypted email that needs passwords to get accessed? I checked the security and it looks pretty special... military-grade firewalls? Double-backing passwords?

I started to take a particular interest in her, in Melanie Elaia Hernandez. It seems she's more than who she appears to be.

I've always been fond of puzzles. I started a more thorough research about her; from her birth records, to every single public and private record of her. As long as an item is in digital form, it doesn't take long to unearth them.

I was surprised at the amount of intrigue surrounding her. She's been in secret relationships with gambling lords, politicians, and even married celebrities. Some of them barely made any news. Pulos speculations and media hush-hush. I turned to her school records. She was an achiever up until her fourth grade, tapos biglang nag-spiral. I checked the evaluations from her school guidance office. It seemed she suddenly became alternately violent and withdrawn.

What the hell happened?

And around that time she became an art prodigy too. I looked at samples from her exhibits. May flashes ng innocence, beauty lost... then a vast majority was about emotional trauma. May something disturbing about her art. Sometime, somewhere... something went wrong. I checked her family background. They are incredibly rich. Galing sa matandang angkan ng mayayaman ang pamilya nila with connections in both politics and the business world. It isn't hard to imagine na spoiled siya ng mga magulang pagdating sa pera pero salat sa pansin. Karaniwan na naiiwan sa yaya or something. She has a brother.

A brother who left when she was nine.

Is this the reason for her trauma?

I couldn't find any records of her brother other than he was ten years her senior. It looked like somebody erased his records after he disappeared. Hindi naman malayo na baka connected ito sa isang family scandal.

My probing was interrupted by Icen's face popping in on my notifications bar.

"Yes, Icen?"

"Jaguar, new assignments arrived from the Main Branch."

"Send the files to me," I ordered her. Ilang segundo lang at na-email niya na sa akin ang files.

Brian Tiu. A drug syndicate, eh? Isang larawan ang nahagip ng aking mata.

"Icen, Hernandez is in Manila?"

"Um, our leads tell us he is in Singapore," sagot ni Clauson. "At least that was the last contact we had according to Komova."

But my eyes can't be fooling me. Sa background ng photo ni Brian Tiu, I can see the unmistakeable tattoo of a scorpion. That particular tattoo belonged to only one person.

XH32, also known as Alexander Hernandez.

Interesting.

***

Just as I expected, Melanie Elaia Hernandez did not like how we foiled her plans. I kept her under tabs because an obsession like hers would be unhealthy to my little sister.

I almost felt sorry for her. Then I had to remind myself that if I don't take steps, she might do something drastic to our Diosa. I tapped her communication lines and CCTV cameras so I would know what she is doing 24/7.

"Bitch, bitch, bitch... I am going to kill you." I watched as she repeatedly stabbed a photograph of Diosa on top of her bed, the mattress getting ripped in shreds in the process. She downed another bottle of whiskey and popped a few pills-ecstacy. If she doesn't kill herself, the drugs would. And sooner, rather than later.

She was laughing maniacally now.

"I'll let him have you, you little slut. He'll wreck you, you know. Just like he wrecked me." Who is she referring to? One of her old flames? May balak ba siyang ipakidnap ang kapatid ko? "Wawasakin ka niya... wawasakin kita..."

I have to act, now.

I over rode the electronics in her room.

"Good evening." I used a program to mask my voice. Her head lifted from where it rolled on the bed in a listless manner.

"Sino ka?" Namamangha niyang tanong habang nakaharap sa screen ng computer niya. She turned her head and saw the same image on her flat screen TV. Her eyes widened and she recoiled. "Sino ka?"

"Don't even think of hurting her or you will be answering to me." I gritted my teeth. "You don't want to anger me."

She stood up from the bed on wobbly legs. She touched the screen in an almost innocent manner.

"Wow..." She started to giggle uncontrollably. "Wow..." She took the computer screen and lifted it over her head before she smashed it on the computer table. Her wild hair swished around her face. "Wag mo kong inuutusan!" She screamed as bit and pieces of glass, metal, and plastic flew. "Akin siya! Akin siya! Akin siya!" She screamed until she was hoarse. Blood dripped from her hand. She held whatever remained of the computer screen and slammed it on the TV. Loud knocks sounded on her door. I cut-off the signal as a househelp and what looked like two guards tried to restrain her.

"Ano ba yan Ma'am Melanie," the maid muttered. "Ay! Ay!" Nagpupumiglas siya.

"Bitawan niyo ko! Ipapakulong ko kayo! Mama! Daddy!"

***

I invaded her personal space. It wasn't the most noble of things to do, but I'm far from being a good person. I needed her to shut up and stop making a mess of things. She needs to learn fear.

I watch her walk away in a daze after I met with her. She can't believe I'd go and meet her in the flesh. So far our only meetings have been indirect. I need to make sure she doesn't come close to my sister; that she'd think twice before trying anything.

The worst crimes have been done out of passion.

I sure as hell won't let it come to that.

***

The next few days were busy. Tahimik naman si Melanie so I'm grateful. After that last meeting, she seemed to have shifted back to her old activities. I've seen her with other men. She went around and got passed around. Nakakapanghinayang dahil pinapanood mong sinasayang ng isang talented na tao ang sarili niya, but then some people refuse to help themselves. Some people would rather run than face their problems.

I kept an infinite tracker on her online. Lahat ng lalabas with reference to her would be collected and sent to a secure server. I turned my attention to my work.

Brian Tiu proved to be a tough one to crack. Malakas ang kapit niya sa gobyerno. He has half of the officials on his payroll. Maraming mga projects ang funded niya and a lot of officials are turning a blind eye on his activities. I also discovered he's part of the Chinese Mafia and Hernandez is his right hand man.

Hernandez. That man is a real pain in the ass. Rika's chasing him across South East Asia for the past three months. He'd always be one step ahead of us and its making me impatient as well.

"Ali..." I heard a sultry voice from behind the door. I looked at the security camera and saw Lana with a champagne bottle in one hand and flutes on the other.

And she's wearing almost nothing.

Ghad.

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. When is she going to learn that she's not my type?

I heard the door knob move and a soft knock.

"Ali!" She's drunk and fucking horny. Tangina, bakit kasi puro babae ang agents ko dito.

I pushed a button and heard a yelp. Well 120 volts will do that.

"Icen," I clicked on the direct line to the Control Room.

"Yo, boss?" I can hear the sounds of her fingers furiously typing on the keyboard. I can almost picture her pouting face while she played on her split-screen habang nag-mo-monitor ng activities.

"Get someone to remove Komova from my door." I heard her snort.

"Again?" Natatawang tanong niya. "Okay, on it." I swear I could hear glee in her voice.

"Alistair, c'mon let's play..." I can imagine Lana's fake lips pouting. She's really annoying. If she isn't hand-picked by the higher-ups matagal ko na siyang pinaalis. She's one of their eyes here, alam ko.

I opened my drawer and took out my knives. I started sharpening them. Mabuti pang mag-practice na lang.

"Icen, wala na yung ostrich?" I heard her snicker.

"Haha boss, ostrich?" She bobbed her head. "All clear."

I stepped out into the corridor and sure enough there were no signs of her. I went inside the training room. Isa lang ang ilaw na nakabukas and I can see someone furiously at work on the gym bag. I walked closer and saw it was Yellow, Red's sister. She looked like hell. There were dark circles under her eyes and she reeked of sweat and alcohol.

I carefully stepped away without sound. I don't want to meddle too much into my agent's personal lives as long as they function the way they have to. Hindi naman niya ako napansin at nagpunta na ako sa room kung saan kami nag-ta-target practice. Trixie is out there with a bow and arrow as well. Tinanguan ko lang siya at nagpunta ako sa sariling cubicle. It's good to know that she's putting in extra work.

I tested the sharpness of the blade against my fingertip. There's something about knives that draw me in. I feel like they are an extension of myself when I use them. Even though I can shoot as good as Red and Jem, iba pa rin ang accuracy ng bladed weapon.

I concentrated and let go of everything. This exercise is way better than any yoga I've tried. Everything else in the world fell away as the target came to me. There was nothing but the red dot in front of my face and I cannot miss. I've never missed.

Both knives sunk on the wooden practice dummy. I felt a vibration on my side and saw a message on my personal line from Kuya Alphonse.

Kuya Al: Annual trip to the North on the 27th.

He wasn't asking me. He was telling me. I missed my Kuya's authoritative presence. Siguro lahat ng tao may isang pinapakinggan lang and in my case, that's Kuya Al.

Me: Sure.

I sure missed these annual trips.

I called up my assistant.

"Icen, I'm going to take a leave..."

A/N: This was one of the hardest chapters to write. :(

Sorry if it took so long to update this one. I went on back-to-back trips and just got back to Manila. XD Late flights are really hell, plus the bloody traffic in the metro is sucking all my energy. Anyway, next chapters would be... more fun in nature. XD