Sanno received a call from an unknown number. He smirked as if he had been waiting for the call. His father's subordinate, Kayle, had already taken Sanno's high-speed laptop and other gadgets that he used for the mission. Kayle drove off going to Newton Grand Tower, which is 30 minutes away from the airport, to meet Joshua and Chrome for their next plan.
"Hello?" Sanno said softly and faked a yawn. "Who's this?"
"Hi, Mr. Angeldame," Paul Azirean said, "I'm Paul Azirean, Head of the Security team in D.M. Cadre Research Facility."
"Ah, sir! Sorry, I was asleep," he told him, pretending to be innocent.
"It's alright. Where are you now?" he asked Sanno, while detecting his phone's location on the map. He wanted to know if he's going to tell the truth or not, because for him, everyone close to Chrome had become suspects.
"I'm at the airport," he replied. "Why, sir?"
Paul checked that he's really at the airport, and he passed his first test. "Something bad happened," he continued, "The chameleon mutant escaped."
"WHAT?" Sanno shouted as if he was really surprised. His acting skills had improved quite a lot these past few months that he even thought of becoming an actor. He laughed in his mind and became excited to make his next move. He then asked Paul, "Why? What happened?"
"There was a blackout," Paul replied. "Can you come here? We need to ask you a few questions."
"Oh… Alright. I'm on my way." Sanno ended the call. While he drove away from the airport, he turned on his music player and hummed a happy tune.
Sanno's hacker friend Joshua, who was stationed in a fast-food chain near Newton Grand Tower, was the one who fetched Chrome. As Emil controlled the CCTV displays and Miranda took charge of the e-train's program, Joshua had already entered the West gate, and knocked out all the guards with his A-class karate skills. With only very few guards patrolling the West gate, both of them didn��t have a hard time escaping.
Joshua entered the underground parking area of Newton Grand Tower. He let the guard scan his I.S. code, and he parked his black car. While they waited for Kayle's arrival, Joshua gave a burger to Chrome, "You must be hungry with all that action."
Chrome took the burger from him and said, "Yeah, thanks," and took a bite. He missed the unique aroma and the dry texture of fast-food burgers! He couldn't believe it; it has been two years since he entered the facility.
Before he was brought to the facility, Chrome led a somewhat challenging life. His parents had abandoned him in front of a bakery, where his foster parents took him in. But their relatives were against adopting him because of his chameleon skin. When he turned fourteen, he decided to leave them because of the unfair treatment given to him.
To earn money, he followed the orders of his clients - criminal groups who wanted to destroy evidence against them, politicians who wanted to tamper records, paparazzi who wanted to get exclusive scandals, and many other jobs that involve modifying documents and uncovering secrets. He could always escape the police stations and detention buildings because of his chameleon skin abilities. But while in his mission involving the D.M. Cadre research facility, he failed to escape because of its more advanced security.
Although Chrome started out as a problem mutant, through the help of Assistant Scientist Roy he was able to adapt to his life inside the facility. Roy had been helping him in his tests, in which most of the tests were related to his chameleon skin abilities. He didn't feel afraid, nor did he feel worried about his future. Somewhere in his mind, he was sure that he could live forever in the research facility.
But finding Sanno's hidden camera triggered him. It brought back his memories, when he was still new to the facility, and realized that he still wanted to complete the last mission he received.
Meanwhile, in Aesop's room…
When the lights flickered and eventually turned on, both of them were delighted, yet disappointed. Delighted, that they could now see each other, but disappointed, because they had to part ways.
Aesop slowly let go of Lia. He still wanted to embrace her, but he felt that their relationship status as friends wasn't enough to justify his seemingly intimate actions.
"Ae, I'm sorry, I have to go now…" Lia said. When she saw that Aesop had let go of her, she faced him, "You should rest, okay? It's been a long day."
Aesop's golden eyes gazed at her deep blue eyes, with sadness. As much as he wanted to go with her outside, he couldn't, because he's a mutant.
Deep inside, he was cursing himself.
Aesop belonged to the first batch of mutants who were born in the year 2023. He's questioning all the holy entities he could think of, asking them why the hell was he given a curse like that.
And why the hell do people with animal mutations exist?
As he contemplated these things within himself, he wondered why he was thinking about these things now.
He stared at Lia, thinking about how she changed him. Before she came into his life, sadness was the only emotion left within him. But ever since they met, he opened up to her and felt a lot of different emotions that he thought he would never feel while he's in the facility - happiness, excitement, and affection. Together with these positive emotions, he also felt fear. He's now too afraid to lose Lia.
Suddenly, the sliding metal door opened. Three armed men entered the room and checked if Aesop was still in the room. As if threatened, Aesop flapped his wings and pulled Lia's arm to let her stand beside him. He glared at them as if they just intruded on his territory.
The armed men just nodded at them, left the room, and closed the metal door.
"Ae, it's okay," Lia said. She gently squeezed his shoulder, trying to make him calm down. When he finally did, she thought, "I wonder what happened in the facility…"
Paul Azirean welcomed Sanno in the e-train platform. "Sorry to disturb you this late."
"It's okay, sir… I'd like to help, anyway," Sanno said, and they walked side-to-side towards the lobby.
They sat in the sofas, right in front of each other. The receptionist served them chamomile tea.
"Your chameleon mutant escaped. It's like he planned it very well," Paul told Sanno. "These past few days… Did Chrome tell you anything?"