"Come on in," Mrs. Rauss invites me after herself entered her office. I, hesitantly step my foot into the office.
Following Mrs. Rauss, I sit on a love chair right across where she is sitting.
"Do you remember this room ?" Mrs. Rauss asks. Of course I do. I remember how proud I was to enter this room for the first time, back when I was only seventeen. I remember how excited I was every times her P.A called us to have a meeting with Madam in this room. But I don't say a word to respond her question.
"Let's get it done," I say to her coldly.
Mrs. Rauss gives me a thin smile. "Zack, prepare two doses of truth serum for us," She orders her P.A.
"Ma.. Madam ?"
"You heard me, Zack. Two doses with two glasses," Mrs. Rauss repeats her order.
"Right away, Madam."
Silence is totally embracing us while we wait for her P.A preparing her order. Around five minutes later, the man is back with two wine glasses and two blue liquid in a tiny bottle on his hand. He puts all of them on the coffee table. He opens the bottles and pours each content to each glass.
"Please," he says before making few steps back.
"You may dismiss yourself, Zack," Mrs. Rauss says, telling him to get out of the room. Hesitantly, the man obeys her and leave us alone.
Mrs. Rauss is about to take a glass in front of her. "Wait !" I halt her movement.
I then reach both glasses, pour the content on my right hand into the other glass, stir it for some seconds by wiggling the glass, before pour half of its content back to the empty glass.
Mrs. Rauss just shakes her head to see what I do. "You really need to have a little trust in me," She says.
"I had," I reply her words coldly, "And I ended up on a dumpster."
"Quint.."
"Aa.. aa.. aa..," I cut her words. "Just drink this," I say, pushing one of the glass toward her.
Mrs. Rauss picks it. "What's the rule ?" She ask.
"We take turn to ask questions," I say. She nods then gulps what is in the glass. I also take down the liquid in the glass on my hand with one gulp. I wince to feel the burning sensation in my chest. "And promise me to not persuade," I add.
Mrs. Rauss widens her eyes slightly hearing my last request. "You're tricky."
"Promise me," I urge.
She sighs. "Okay, I promise not to persuade you during this conversation. Satisfy ?" She asks.
I just nod. "Who's first ?" I ask.
"You can do first," She says, laying her head on the back of the couch, I know the serum is starting to work, just like it is to me.
I close my eyes as my sight becomes blur. "Can you safe Jennifer ?" The most important thing I desperately need to know is uttered from my mouth.
Mrs. Rauss nods. "Of course we can, and we will.. we will make sure both your wife and your baby are safe and healthy," She says. "But.. it depends on you.."
I stare at her blankly. "Your turn."
"Are you... willingly to come back to the organization ?" Mrs. Rauss asks. I know that is also the most important question she wants to ask me.
"No," I answer shortly.
Mrs. Rauss gasps. "Are you sure ?"
"My turn," I say, ignoring her last question.
"Okay... okay," Mrs. Rauss nods few times.
"Why did you hurt her ? No.. I change my question.. why did you want to erase Jennifer from my life ?" I ask.
"I didn't, for both questions.. the answer is I didn't want to do it."
I halt my urge to ask the follow-up question.
"Are you really sure... you don't want to go back to us ?" She asks her question again.
"Yes. 100%."
She sighs. "Then.. I'm afraid we can not safe them."
"What do you mean ?" I ask in reflex.
"Is that your question ?" Mrs. Rauss asks me back.
I close my eyes. My blurry mind is considering which ones are more important to be asked first.
"So.. if you didn't mean to hurt her nor to erase her from my life, what was exactly your plan. Tell me all the details," I finally make up my mind.
"The order I gave to Royal Knights is to bring you back to the organization. So, Sarah's plan was simple, we kidnapped Jennifer so you would come to see us. And then ..." Mrs. Rauss' mouth is moving but without a sound.
"You are telling lie. Tell me the truth," I urge. I know it is the effect of the serum. This serum makes people literally can not utter a lie. When we lie, we will lose our voices. This is maybe the first time she tastes her own serum, but as her knight, I had tasted it more than dozen times in the past. We always had this honest conversation after every undercover mission to make sure non of us is double crossing. But the conversation usually a one-way, meaning only the knights drink the serum.
Mrs. Rauss sighs. "Then I would persuade you to join Royal Knights again," she says with a lot of hesitant.
I nod. "Your turn."
"Why don't you want to join us ?" She then ask.
"Because... I want to live with my wife and daughter. Jen doesn't want me to live double live and I agree with her. Moreover, I don't want to be monster daddy for my daughter."
"But you can't even have them alive if you refuse to join us back."
"Whose fault is it anyway ? Who hurt them in the first place ?" I challenge her.
"You." Mrs. Rauss answers vanishes my anger. "It was a pure accident. When Bruno was back to the airport's exit, you were already gone. The car did had GPS, but Bruno can not teleport to a moving place. So all he could do was waiting for you to stop somewhere. None of us deliberately placed the truck in front of you. None of us made the cable broke. None of us wanted to hurt her."
"Except Lily," I hisses.
"Yes," Mrs. Rauss admits it. "But Lyly has no capability to do all of that."
"You don't know how stubborn she is.."
"I have had an honest conversation with her already. And she didn't do it," Mrs. Rauss cuts my anger again. "Quint... it was an accident."
I feel a sting in both of my eyes. A guilty feeling infiltrates my heart knowing, it was actually me and my decision that harm them.
Mrs. Rauss stares at me deep as I try hard to prevent my tears to fall.
"Your turn," I say with choked voice.
Mrs. Rauss exhales heavily. "We are in a loss-loss situation here. This is not good. We need you and you need us to safe your family. We need to turn this into win-win deal."
"Your question ?"
"It's not a question.. it's a decision you need to consider very wisely. I don't want to see my daughter in law and especially my granddaughter die neither, Quint. Can't you see that ?"
"Is that your question ?"
"No." Mrs. Rauss denies it. She once again exhales heavily. "Look... how about... you deliver one mission. Just one mission. After that you can walk free and we won't bother you again..."
"In replace of what ?"
"We will safe your daughter."
"My wife... ?"
"Quint... we can not give you all if you didn't give us all."
"Yo have to safe them both !"
"That's blackmail.."
"Or... you kill Lily !"
"What ?!?! I told you she was not the one who hurt..."
"She didn't cause the accident, but she did tried to hurt her! At my wedding. Or was it part of your plan ?"
"No, I only knew it now."
"Well, she did tried to hurt her. You can ask her... or Bruno. Beside that, she did killed two innocent people, Andy Vaccaro and his boyfriend. Doesn't your organization have rule for Royal Knights for not hurting innocents ?"
Mrs. Rauss stares at me with widen eyes. She definitely just heard about Andy's death.
"Eliminate Lily. That's your rule, right ?"
"I can't eliminate her. Without you in the team, she is the only hope we got for the next mission."
I smirk. "Then safe Jennifer."
"What ??"
"If you can't eliminate Lily, I demand you to safe Jennifer. A life for a life"
"That's... that's..."
"Blackmailing. I know."
Mrs. Rauss' hands are clenching the arm support to suppress her anger. I stare at her calmly as she closes her eyes and manages her breathing.
Slowly, she opens her eyes. "Okay, you win," she says dejectedly. "We will pull the iron cable and fix her heart as well."