“…Coming to Saesburg?”
Saron stared at William.
A video call meeting between her and William.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“I have a feeling he is after Dominic—”
“I am aware of your uncle’s upcoming arrival in Saesburg,” Saron said, waving off his concern.
“He was sure to inform me he would be coming… the date of arrival would be anonymous—”
“He already informed you that he’d be coming to Saesburg?” William questioned.
“Of course,” Saron said.
“He wishes to see Dominic.
I don’t see the problem in that.”
William’s face tightened.
“Is that so?”
“Any problems with that?” she asked.
“Not at all.
Good day, Miss Nyxviel.
“Good day to you, too, Mr Hellbourn.”
Dominic had no plans for the rest of the day.
He’s been assigned to no missions.
And he is happy with that.
So…
Why are we here…?
At the scene where they were attacked by blights, he, Adrian, and Jason sat in a restaurant by the busy road.
Nothing like the eerie quiet of the last time.
It’s odd and creepy.
“Wow, it’s nicely cleaned up,” Adrian commented, picking up the menu and handing it over to Dominic, who blankly collected the menu.
Why am I— Oh…
Dominic, realising why he had been handed the menu, immediately started scrolling through it.
“Do you want sweet or savoury?”
Adrian thought for a while.
“Both- what do they have?”
“A lot of burgers and pies… Do you like spicy?” Dominic asked
“No… but if they have blueberry pie, order two of that,” Adrian replied.
“And don’t forget to add a soda.
Jason watched the conversation between them with a raised eyebrow.
“When did you two get so close?” he questioned.
Adrian smirked.
“Why?
Jealous?” he teased.
Jason rolled his eyes and scoffed.
“You wish… I want you to know you’re not planning to drag him into your nonsensical adventures,” he said.
“You know me so well,” Adrian grinned.
“Are you ready to order?” The waitress arrived holding a notepad.
The food arrived shortly after ordering.
Adrian took a deep breath.
“Smells good.”
“I thought we were here for an investigation, not breakfast.”
“Unfortunately, Jason, Dominic, and I are very hungover… I don’t know about Dominic, but I don’t think I can be chirpy with an empty stomach,” Adrian said.
“You’ve been drinking?” Jason asked, a bit of worry in his tone.
“Just a bit, not a big deal?” Adrian said casually.
He waved his hand, and a bottle of sanitiser appeared.
“Is-is he not supposed to drink?” Dominic asked carefully.
“No…”
“It’s not a big deal,” Adrian commented coldly.
“Drop it, Jason.”
“Saron wouldn’t be happy,” Jason said.
Oh, this is a big deal…
Adrian didn’t respond to him and squirted sanitiser on his han..
“Do you want some?” he offered it to them, ignoring the uncomfortable silence that stretched on. This story is hosted at g.com.
“Sure,” Jason muttered, collecting the bottle from him.
“Is it something I should be concerned about?” Dominic asked.
“No.” “Yes.”
Nothing else was said, but nothing was resolved.
They ate in silence.
“Um…” Dominic coughed lightly.
“So about the investigation?”
“We’re going to get to it…”
“What is the investigation about, in fact?” Jason asked as he was pulled from his work forcefully.
“Explain it to him,” Adrian said to Dominic.
“Not the fabricated version.”
Dominic nodded and proceeded to explain to Jason the attack from two days ago.
“Sounds serious, did you tell Saron?” Jason asked.
“No,” Adrian replied.
“Don’t tell me you asked him not to report it,” Jason said in disbelief.
“A favour from a friend,” Adrian replied.
“Bullshit,” Jason said, pointing at him.
“That’s a bullshit reason, and you know it.”
Adrian didn’t refute his claim.
“Well, it’s not entirely,” he said.
Dominic’s eyes widened.
“You know something about the attack,” he said.
“No,” Adrian replied.
“But I have a guess… It might be correlating to something I’ve been investigating for a few years.”
“Years?” Jason said in surprise.
“That’s a long time to be working on a case.”
“Yeah,” Adrian nodded.
“It’s been dropped by B.O.G.S, but not me.”
“Sounds serious,” Dominic commented.
He watched Adrian’s expression; he no longer wore his smile, meaning it was something serious and possibly personal.
“Yeah…”
Jason’s brow furrowed in worry.
“You are not saying it’s—”
“Most likely.”
“I am so lost,” Dominic said.
“We’re talking about a different organization,” Jason explained.
“A different organisation?” Dominic asked.
“What are they called?”
“They are called the Architects,” Jason said.
Dominic almost laughed.
“What kind of name is that?
It sounds generic,” he said.
Adrian laughed.
“Exactly what I said,” he said.
“This is serious,” Jason said dryly.
“Saron personally put an end to the investigation—”
“Saron ended it for safety reasons… Unfortunately for her, I’m not interested in playing it safe, only bringing safety to the general public,” Adrian said.
Dominic didn’t know why, but Adrian having such a noble reason felt wrong.
There’s another reason…
“Okay, so what are we looking for?” Dominic asked.
“Easy,” Adrian said.
“Grab your menus,” he said.
Weird request, but okay…?
Dominic opened the menu, and it immediately turned into a screen.
Cool!
Did he do that?!
“There have been several cases of hundreds of people being kidnapped,” Adrian started to explain.
“Of course, it’s nothing new… A few pictures are going to appear on your screen, Dominic. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
I need you to tell me if you recognise any of them.”
“Okay?” Dominic said.
It’s confusing, but a few pictures were shown on the screen.
Is this a bad time to say I’m bad at remembering people’s faces?
He looked carefully at the pictures, gulping slightly, as he didn’t recognise them.
“I-I don’t know any of these faces,” he said, glancing at Adrian.
“Shh… We’re not done,” Adrian said.
Dominic faced the computer screen.
I bet this is just a bunch of random people.
How does he even have these pictures?
“How do you have these pictures?” Dominic asked, looking at some of these pictures.
“I had someone check every police server for missing persons’ cases,” Adrian explained.
“Plus, people from our missing persons case.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Dominic said.
He stopped at a picture.
“I think I remember this person.”
“You don’t actually remember any of the people from that attack, do you?” Adrian asked with a knowing smile.
“What?” Dominic scoffed.
“Of course I do,” he lied.
“All of the people you’re seeing here were among the people who turned to blights, Dominic,” Adrian said.
“I already showed Roxanne yesterday.”
Dominic’s face heated up.
“Wha—”
“Poor you,” Adrian teased, poking his face lightly.
“Do you feel dumb?”
“I am going to strangle you,” Dominic said, covering his face from the embarrassment, while Adrian poked him.
Please ground, open up, and swallow me whole!
“Who’s Roxanne?” Jason asked, raising an eyebrow at them, unbothered by what they were doing.
“A mutual of ours,” Adrian replied, grinning.
“She was with him when the attack happened… According to her, the blights were correlated more with regular people.”
Jason frowned.
“How so?”
“They had no trace of resonance,” Adrian said.
“That’s impossible.”
I didn’t even notice that…
“I’m guessing that’s worse than it sounds?” Dominic asked.
“Regular people don’t produce a resonance… they don’t have a contract, meaning they can’t produce resonance,” Adrian explained.
If they don’t produce a resonance, then…
Dominic frowned, trying to think of how regular people could become corrupted.
“But that would make it impossible.”
“Exactly what I said,” Jason said.
“I have a theory… it’s based on research I studied a few years back, but I’m not certain,” Adrian explained.
“What am I here for?” Jason asked.
“Emotional support,” Adrian replied.
“You know I can’t do anything without your dry, sneaky comments,” he teased.
Jason rolled his eyes with his arms crossed.
“Be serious.”
Adrian sighed dramatically.
“Fine, fine.
Since you insist on professionalism…” he said, then snapped his fingers.
A vial appeared in his hand.
“I managed to collect some of the blights’ ashes off everyone present’s clothes,” he said.
Both Jason’s and Dominic’s faces scrunched up in disgust.
“That’s so gross.”
Adrian laughed lightly.
“Don’t be silly.”