They soon reached the flight deck. They got into a shuttle which soon docked into a large vessel. It was a transport ship owned by the Blyth family. They soon got into the vessel and joined the remaining of the team. There were all seated at a few benches with the twins in front of a computer and the rest huddled around her.
"Guys, a moment please. This would be Balthazar. He is coming with us to liaison with Miss Bolena," said Albert.
"Why can't we just inform her about Max and the entire thing? It would be a lot easier that way," asked one of the twins.
"They are not sure they want to let her know about Max. There might be other traitors or people surveying her and we don't want her to accidentally reveal anything to them as she isn't trained for this. So, we have him coming with us. He will be feinting as the brother who has just come to meet his sister. I will be his bodyguard. He will be informing us where she would be going and tailing her," said Albert.
"Even as a brother he can't tail her continuously. He has no background in her field. It would be best if we can tell her," continued the other twin.
"I disagree. The project she is leading at Apropos has its first test ground from the military base I used to be at. The warframe company collaborating with Apropos on it is owned by Rodrigo Banderas, who is a close friend and I just discussed about this with him a couple of weeks ago," said Balthazar.
"You can get any credentials from Rodrigo or the military signifying your role. There is a high chance that someone could have infiltrated Apropos. So, could you get any credentials from them?" she asked.
"I don't think there is a need for that. A little brother who works in the military and wants to have a look at what is going to be deployed at his base. It is a totally acceptable thing. It would be weird if he gets credentials for his sister's company. Let's put a stop at that," said Albert stopping any further discussion.
"Fine. As long as it is good for you," she said as she got up.
"Lila Jones," she continued offering a handshake. She was a short cute vanilla colored woman with pale white shoulder length hair just like her twin.
"Nice to meet you."
"So, you must be Lily," he said looking at the twin and shaking her hand.
"So, how do I know which one is Lily and which is Lila?" he continued.
"We have been with her for more than 10 years, we are still not sure of how to pick identify them," said a tall dark man with a shaved head sitting to the left of Lily. "Nolan Nocktovich,"
"This is Charles Kyle," he said pointing to the pretty boy to his left. He had shoulder length black hair, wearing a hat with a stubble beard. He just tilted his hat as a greeting.
"He doesn't talk much," said Lily.
"With men that is. Find a pretty girl, he becomes a chatterbox," said Lila.
Charles shamelessly smiled nodding his head.
"I am Jordan," said the last woman in the group. She was a very tall and pretty vanilla faced woman with golden blonde hair. She looked like a typical white-collar worker.
"My brother, Sean Connery," she said pointing to the only man who was still looking at the computer and going through the files. He just lifted his head and nodded towards Balthazar. He had short cropped golden blonde hair, neatly shaved beard, blue eyes and was the engrossed in the whatever he was looking into the computer.
"Huddle around, we are looking at the floor plan of the Apropos headquarters. Your sister mostly works in the lab and associated testing grounds a mile away from the main building at the headquarters where her workspace is located," said Sean.
He was memorizing the floor plan of the buildings in the computer. It was apparent that Sean liked to be completely thorough about his mission.
They soon began discussing the plans their positions in case of various scenarios like an open attack, some infiltrator identified, an infiltrator attack or scenario in which anyone was ever injured or even the protection target was injured at different locations and what are the nearest and best possible positions to take in the headquarters.
The team were very well acquainted with each other and it was quite easy to remember their plans once they were aware of the architecture of the surroundings and the building. But the same couldn't be told for Balthazar.
He hardly knew their patterns, strengths or habits. Even though they spent more than two hours trying to make sure that Balthazar still had a few doubts and wasn't really sure about his responses in quite a few scenarios. Finally, Albert decided to compile a list of scenarios which Balthazar was confused about and provided it to him.
The flight to BR-64 took more than 24 hours. By the time, they reached the planet, he had become good friends with the team. Both Lila and Lily were a bit aloof and loved gaming more than anything else. They were the typical geeks and loved being it.
Charles cared only about firearms and flights. He was the go-to guy for any sort of issues they had with firearms and flights. He was an encyclopedia of sorts when it comes to it. Nolan loved to go to different places and was an adventurer at heart.
Sean and Jordan were a very friendly bunch. She was a very bubbly girl and could easily get along with any person. Sean was quite an opposite of his sister. He was always serious and very involved. He hardly made a move unless he considered necessary and slept for most of the time they were on the plane.
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Meanwhile at the forbidden region of the asklepian, Bruce was waiting for someone on a call. He had already reached for the Orthrus Guardian Group with information that one of their members might be compromised because of a situation with his mother.
"Yes. So, it is confirmed that she was captured?" he asked the person on the other side of the call. He cut the call and went out the interrogation room. Arthur was waiting for him outside.
"So, what does your friend say?" asked Arthur.
"They found Roger's mother tied up along with a couple of mercenaries at the location. Luckily, they managed to track her from her place of abduction. Now that we are sure of the situation, Roger and also the Orthrus Group are compliant with us. They are extremely concerned with how they got to find out about the family members of their agents."
"The allowing us to check their communication logs?" asked Arthur.
"Yep. They are checking the locations of the remaining two, Wilhiem and William Burns. Apparently, they are brothers. Once, we get their location, we can move and neutralize them. In the meantime, I am going to get Roger on our side."
He went into the interrogation room. He quickly removed the gag and unlocked Roger. Roger was extremely surprised by this. When Roger saw him walking back into the room towards him, he thought that these were going to be his last few seconds of life.
"What is happening?" asked Roger very cautiously looking around him and then at Abel who was still tied down. It had been a very trying day for both of them. Abel never doubted that Roger would betray him even when he told Bruce that his mother was abducted. He thought that he was feeding Bruce some story.
"The Orthrus Group has verified that you mother has indeed been abducted and they managed to acquire her back. You can talk to her to confirm on this," said Bruce ask he made a call to someone. A minute later, Roger's mother appeared on the screen and talked to Roger in front of Bruce and Abel. It was then that Abel realized that his partner had actually not been forthright with him.
"Now that your mother is safe and sound, it is best you tell me everything you know unless you go relish being strapped on to the table," said Bruce.
"I will. I will," said Roger. "I was told only to cover for the Burns brothers and keep Abel from checking their locations or have him doubt anything about them. I couldn't let the Orthrus Group know anything about them if I wanted to see my mother again."
"You did say something about being able to locate the Burns brothers. If you talk quickly about that, it would be very nice," said Bruce waving one of his instruments to intimidate Roger.
"Well, I can't actually give you information directly on them, but I know someone with the credentials to do that," answered Roger.
"Be quick."
"The Orthrus Group has allowed us to employ personnel at other planets whom can help us occasionally. They are being used by the Burns brother temporarily and were the ones who supplied them arms and intelligence," said Roger.
"We can remotely contact them as long as Abel is convinced to help us. The Orthrus Group have nothing to do with it. He has the total control over them. Only he can help us. He has the code that allows us to contact them and it is best if he is on board."
"Well, then unlock him," said Bruce nodding towards Abel with his head. "Try to convince him while I inform your boss about the same."
He immediately went through the door and contacted the Orthrus Group and in a minute later he came back into the interrogation room. A video call was immediately screened into the interrogation room. The person on the other side was someone that Abel and Roger held in high respect and were extremely afraid of.
It was Yassin Achaemenid, the one who established the Orthrus Guardian Group. Though the Achaemenid family always denied their involvement in the Orthrus Guardian Group, they had Yassin remove himself from the family to create the group. He was one of the most feared men when he was in the alliance military and fiercely led many infiltration missions when he worked as a black operations agent.
"Sir," shouted both Roger and Abel saluting at Yassin.
"Both of you shall provide any and all kind of support requested by Bruce," said Yassin.
"But Sir, it might compromise our security protocols and,.."
"I don't care. They managed to find out about our assets and agents. I need to know the extent of their infiltration within our organization. This is an extremely critical situation. You two can be up-front and open with Bruce. He is independent from the Blyth family. In case, he determines that you are being uncooperative, he can shoot you dead and I would make sure that there would be no legal intervention."
"We will do our best to do find out who managed to gather intelligence from us and how," said Abel.
"That will be all. I hope you will be able to find out who were involved in this mishap, Bruce," said Yassin as he cut the call.
"So, could you please contact your goons and get them to divulge a few details of what your dear ex-partners are doing?" asked Bruce.
"Yes, give me my wrist band and I would be able to connect to them through a secure channel," said Abel stretching his hand.
"Just tell me how to access the secure channel, I will do it through my own device," said Bruce as he was one of the few outsiders who had been allowed into the forbidden region and knew that normal communication devices wouldn't work here. He also had to change his device whenever he entered the forbidden region.
"Can't be done. We have some hardware modification in our devices which make it differ from a standard one. I need to use my own," said Roger. It was common knowledge for them to use special hardware for such purposes.
Arthur suddenly came into the room and took out a gun from his waist and fired two shots at them. It was a tranquilizer gun and they both were immediately out of conscious.
"Was that really necessary?" asked Bruce.
"Don't need them to know about the forbidden region. Let us take them to the family grounds outside. We can discuss there," said Arthur.
About 10 minutes later, Abel found himself waking up on a bench in the Blyth family garden in front of the mansion building. He had Arthur and Bruce on either side and Roger was still knocked out on a bench to his left.
"Here is your wrist band," said Arthur throwing it towards Abel.
Abel caught it and looked towards Bruce for confirmation. "It is fine," said Bruce nodding his head. Abel immediately contacted his contact at the planet BR-64.
"Hello Sir, I hope that you have heard from Wilhiem Burns. He had requested quite an amount of ammunition and details about the Apropos facility yesterday. But we are unable to contact him for the past few hours."
"What did he actually request for?" asked Abel.
"The usual firearms and explosives. Explosives enough to level an area of about 30 sq yards easy."
"OK, Michael. I need you to get me the location on the William and Wilhiem. I hope you can track the firearms," asked Abel.
"Yes. of course, Sir. I will get you their location right now," said Michael.
"Get him to send the tracking codes to you. We will take it from here on. We already have our men ready there," said Arthur to Abel.
"No. No. Bruce I need you to be able to assure me that they find out how them managed to gather intelligence from us. That is the only reason I am helping you," said Able looking at Bruce.
"Calm down. They have been attacked and used by these guys for a lot longer than you two. They want to get information from them a lot more than Yassin and you two," said Bruce waving a gun at them.
"Abel. I have a long-standing issue with these people and have been getting nowhere for the past decade. Believe me, by the time we are done interrogating them, anything and everything they know, even their repressed memories would be known to us."