While the Harrises were sailing away towards their destination, Luce was discharged from the hospital. A girl in her teens showed up at his room. He didn't recognize her.

"I'm the one who took off my helmet and tried putting it on you back in Sector 22," she said. "When that special grade truck got stolen. Remember?"

Luce nodded. "Yeah, when we lost. I remember."

The girl nodded grimly. "I didn't know that Vigilant Agents were already immunized against the virus," she said. "I didn't know you wouldn't need my help."

"It's okay." He put on his jacket and ran his hands through silver blonde hair. "Just be happy that you are not an agent and you still got vaccinated."

The girl looked at him gravely. "Thank you, sir. I'm really grate–"

"Don't be." Luce shook his head. "Every Vigilant Agent has access to two separate doses of vaccines. And I got demoted. So I didn't have any better use for them either." He grabbed his duffel bag and next he grabbed his cane. Yeah, they had given him a cane now. The leg injury from Sector 22 was going to last him another couple of months at least. "So, what was the purpose of your visit today?" he asked the girl.

"I came to pick you up," she said. "And also to thank you since you are the reason I'm still alive."

He slung his duffel over his shoulder and leant down on his cane. "I was just gonna take a taxi."

"Well, this will save your fare." The girl smiled.

Luce nodded. "Let's get going then."

Luce was struck by the clear white sunlight as they stepped out. The air was clean, the businesses were still running and the streets were bustling with people. This was Kingsville. The city of justice. One of those lucky cities that wasn't a sector.

The girl held the door of a shiny teal sedan for him. "That's your car?" he asked.

She chuckled. "I rented it especially for today," she said. "I can take you wherever you wanna go."

Luce frowned at the door she held open. And then he said, "Then lets go to a restaurant. I'm hungry for some real food."

###

He ordered eggs, bacon, waffles and a fruit salad and drank his way through two cups of coffee during his meal. The girl just had a sandwich with orange juice.

"May I ask you something if you don't mind?" she said as Luce waited for his third cup of coffee.

"As long as it isn't something personal or corny. Go on." He shrugged.

"You don't see yourself as a good guy, do you, sir?" she said.

He paused, his steel gray eyes scrutinized her intensely. The girl didn't even flinch. "That's your question?"

She nodded.

Good lord, he thought, she is actually serious. He let out a sigh. "I don't believe in good or bad," he said. "There are people that the government tells me to stop. So I go in and stop them. No questions asked. The government likes it especially when I don't ask any questions."

"So, you didn't even care that Lisa Neville was pregnant and the girl with her was just a...a child?" she asked.

"Are you still the operative from Sector 22? I think you resigned and became a reporter. Because you are really starting to annoy me now," he said.

The girl sighed and looked at the wall-to-wall window on the left. A mother walked past the restaurant, pushing a stroller. "I don't understand you," she said.

Luce's third coffee arrived. "It's not your job to understand me," he said as he started to rub a slice of lemon on the rim of his cup. "You did your job when you risked your life in Sector 22. The government allowed you to keep your job for that very reason. Anything beyond that is just...not your job."

She remained quiet for a long minute, still staring out the window. Now a teenage girl was walking past the restaurant, texting to someone on her cellphone. "You know you don't believe it yourself," she said, still not looking at him.

He stopped in the middle of his sip. "I beg your pardon?"

"The operatives who failed to apprehend Lisa Neville and that girl, they would've lost their jobs," she said. "Their families would've become homeless if they'd failed to accomplish a high priority objective like that." She turned to him and regarded him with a look much more intense than the one he'd given her. "But you sent those operatives for another mission. You knew they were gonna die. But you sent them because the government favors the families of operatives who die on a mission. You were looking out for them one way or the other."

Luce's stoic mask was starting to tremble on his face now. He put down his cup. "Their families will still think of me as a monster." He looked down into his cup of coffee, watched the deep dark liquid swirling within. "Because I am."

"A monster who gave me the vaccine from his reserves while he could've just left me to die?" she said, still probing.

Luce just sat and stared at his cup of coffee. After they were done, the girl paid for their breakfast and led him out of the restaurant.

Back in the car, Luce asked her, "If the war never happened, you would've still been in high school, right?"

"Yep," she said as she fired the ignition. "Life would've been really boring." She chuckled.

"That's where you should've been right now," he said, staring down at his hands. "You aren't meant to...weild a gun and go to war."

She regarded him with a gentle expression. "It's the world around us, sir," she said. "I've learnt to live in it just like everyone else."

Luce shut his eyes, shaking his head. "Your family would've received favors from the government too if I'd let you die," he said. "But...now you'll have to go back to that life again."

"It's okay, sir," she said. "I still get to live with my family, thanks to you."

Luce still didn't open his eyes. That's when his cellphone pinged in his pocket. He knew who it was from. But he still frowned.

"Where to now, sir?" she asked.

Luce leaned back in his seat and let out another sigh. "To the Central zoo," he said. "I have to meet up with someone."

She hit the brakes right outside the entry gates. He thanked her for driving him around and paying for his breakfast. As he was climbing out of the car she said, "Sir, Luce. Wait."

He looked at her.

She paused for a second before saying, "You are a good man," she said. "No matter what anyone else says. I see you as a good man."

"Even after what happened in Sector 22?" he said.

"You were just doing your job," she said. "You did the best anyone could've done in your place."

He nodded and thanked her again.

"One last thing, sir," she said. She pulled out a card from her pocket and held it out to him. "I want you to have it."

Luce took the card. It was a piece of a cereal box on which a phone number was scribbled and below it was a name. Tracy Hall. "I'm just an operative. Not too significant of a job. But there's something you think I might be able to help you with, don't hesitate to call," she said.

He pocketed the calling card and gave an awkward wave. "Thanks for everything, Tracy."

###

A blonde haired lady stood by the deer enclosure, standing next to a man who was holding a three year old toddler on his shoulder. The three of them smiled and clicked pictures of the deers as they chased each other or idled around on the patch of grassland.

The woman was wearing a flannel shirt over a white T-shirt and pair of mom jeans and a pair of sandals. Luce walked up to her. "Command?" he said.

The woman didn't turn to him right away. She paused for a second before saying to the man next to her, "Honey, why don't you two go watch the giraffe and I'll catch up with you."

The man just nodded and kissed her, completely ignoring Luce's presence. Then he walked away with the child still in his arms.

"Let's go and watch the snake pits," she said. "I've heard they've brought a new viper in the zoo."

"Sounds good."

The two of them started walking. "You didn't have to invite me during your family time. I could've come to visit you tomorrow," he said.

"Spare the niceties, Luce. It doesn't suit you anyway," she said before noticing the cane he used to walk with. "I really didn't want to believe that he's returned. But the fact that even you ended up like this makes me doubt myself."

"There is no doubt," he said. "It is him. But besides that, why did you call me today? And here of all places."

"It's the safest over here," she said as they reached the enclosure around the snake pit. "You don't know what risk I had to take at the High House of Justice that day."

Luce's heart sank. The two of them gazed into the snake pit. "What did you do?"

"I didn't mention anything about the Last Hand," she said.

Luce stopped breathing for a good sixty seconds. Almost as if she was aware of his reaction, she didn't say anything for that time.

He turned to her. "Why would you do that?!" he snapped in a whisper.

"Did you even consider that yourself before spouting that question at me?" she said, clenching her jaw. "Its not just a special grade weapon but Lisa Neville and the information about the Silver Lining is now in the hands of one of the most dangerous radical groups. Have you even considered the consequences of the Council getting to know about this?! They'd dissolve the entire Vigilant Squad division. My Division."

Luce watched the snakes writhing and twisting around in the pit. "But what did the council decide over the information you gave them?"

She groaned. "They transferred the case to the Clandestines of course."

The Clandestine division was the office above the Vigilant squad. The operations that the agents of the latter failed at were mostly passed on to the Clandestines who reported straight to the Council of Firsts.

"Also," she said, "I'm pretty sure they're surveilling me too. Thus, meeting you on a family outing like this one was my safest bet. They aren't allowed to follow me when I'm with my family."

"That's not it though." He shook his head. "You could've given me this information even at work. There's something else you haven't told me yet, have you?"

Command started to chew on her lower lip. It was the first time he was seeing her like this. Command was actually nervous. "I want to beat the Clandestines at this case," she said.

"What?!"

She nodded as she watched the snakes intently. "I want to solve this case before the Clandestines can. Sooner or later they'll find out that I didn't reveal the Last Hand's involvement in the Sector 22 incident. The Council won't think twice before they fire me and dissolve the Vigilant Squad. I won't let that happen." She looked at him. "That's why I need you. I want you to apprehend Last Hand before Clandestines find out that they are still operating."

One of the zookeepers carried over a bucket full of frogs. He threw a frog from the bucket into the pit. Two vipers fought for a piece of the frog.

"I want you to find him for me, Luce."