8 years later.
Noah stirred awake to his ringing phone. It felt like he slept less than a minute before being woken up. Facing the clock, he noticed 3:30 AM in bright green digits. No wonder he felt so lousy. Fixing the device had taken too much time, and he fell asleep less than half an hour ago.
His eyelids were like a pair of passionate lovers reuniting after a long time. They didn't want to stay apart. Through lidded eyes, he peered at the caller ID. One good look at it, and he knew attending the call would be a pure waste of time. He briefly considered blocking the number.
Then again, she would get up to her usual antics and he neither had the time nor the patience to deal with her. Resigned to his fate, he accepted the call. "I hope for your sake, you're not calling about something stupid."
As always, Gwen ignored his foul mood and chippered. "Hey. What're you doing?"
"It's 3:30!" he snarled. "What do you think I'm doing? Get to the point, or I'm going to hang up."
"Aww. You're no fun," she complained. "Is that any way to greet your friend? What if you hurt my feelings?"
Good riddance, he thought. If it stopped her badgering, he would do it as many times as it was necessary. Still, his better sense saved her from the tongue lashing. There was a reason he put up with her. Without her help, the difficulty of achieving his goal skyrocketed. "Look, I'm quite tired right now. If it's nothing important, let's discuss it in the morning."
"Wait! Don't hang up!" Noah paused, his finger hovering over the red button, and waited for her to continue.
"While I enjoy our little conversations, sadly this is a business call." Her voice lost its playful tone and turned serious. "The transaction's happening tonight."
Noah's annoyance and sleepiness evaporated. Putting the call on speaker, he thumbed down the trading schedule and frowned "Are you sure? The next convoy isn't slated for another two weeks."
"Well… I'm not one hundred percent certain," he groaned, and she hastily added, "but I think I got it right."
"You think? You do know crashing these parties involves a fight, don't you? One little mistake, and I'm a goner."
"You'll be fine."
A vein pulsed in his temple at her offhanded reply. "Easy for you to say. All you have to do is sit in front of a computer."
"Feel free to sit in front of a computer then," she drily commented. "And good luck getting any information."
Her blase attitude made his anger erupt. "I guess I shouldn't have expected someone like you to try harder. You never were one for sentiments. People are disposable objects to you, aren't they?" The words came out in the spur of the moment, and he regretted it the moment he spoke.
The line went so silent, Noah wondered if she cut the call. After a moment, words layered in ice punctuated the silence.
"So… you want to quit. Is that it?"
None of her casual attitude was present, and he knew he went too far. "That's not what I meant. I—"
"Then I don't understand why you're complaining. Did I ever give you the illusion that this was going to be easy? From day 1, you knew what you were getting into. In case you're getting cold feet, then by all means quit. No one's stopping you."
"I don't—"
"I think both of us have been underestimating the risks involved and the last mission had been the much-needed wake-up call. It showed us how dangerous things can get. If you want out, now's the right time. Think over it. I'll share all of the information I've gathered. If you want out, ignore it. I'll understand. But don't expect more information. I can't compromise my identity and the safety of what little I have left."
"I—" The line went dead before he could explain himself. Closing his eyes, he pinched the bridge of the nose. That went well.
Generally, Noah had good control of his emotions. The problem was Gwen. She had a way of getting under his skin.
Even so, he shouldn't have let it get the better of him. His anger mainly stemmed from the previous mission. He had escaped by the skin of his teeth and blamed her for not being more careful. Honestly speaking, it wasn't her fault. She took considerable risk in digging around for forbidden files.
While his mind knew that, his emotions were a different matter and held a lot of bottled anger. Adding insult to injury, her attitude only made the situation worse and forced him to utter those words. Sighing, he wondered how he should apologize.
Eventually, he turned on the lights and walked towards the wall hidden behind lush velvet drapes. The soft material slid on the smooth hinges, exposing the wall engulfed by newspaper articles, photos, and research material. They were all connected by a variety of colored threads.
His eyes went to a wrinkled newspaper article — the first to get on the wall. Most of the piece was hidden under its edges that drooped like rabbit's ears and there were a few razor-thin holes over the creases.
The fact it managed to survive for so long was a miracle. The article went through a lot of abuse. Every time he failed a mission, he crumpled it and threw it at the wall. He had expected it to be in bits a long time ago.
Noah could've replaced it anytime, but he left it alone. Every time he looked upon it, he remembered the anger, frustration, and helplessness he felt all those years ago. The feelings faded over time, but he never let himself forget. Whenever he wavered, he looked at the article to remind himself of the reasons he fought.
The paper crinkled as he smoothened it and gazed at the headline.
Ark failure dooms Ceres.
The all too familiar flames of anger burned inside his gut. What an easy way to cover up a conspiracy. Blame it on a mechanical failure. The people responsible for maintaining it were all dead, so there was no one to testify. Apart from placing a few sanctions on the companies that produced the parts, not a single person was found guilty.
The judgment placated most of the population, especially after the companies promised to be more careful in production, but not the people that knew the truth. Ark reactors were the most robust and failsafe systems to be ever built by humans. The chance of a critical component failing was less likely than getting struck by random lightning while walking down a road. And a cascading failure? He would believe it when dolphins started flying. It surpassed improbable and bordered impossible.
The article got one thing right. The reactor had indeed failed. Otherwise, there was no way the Zon could've opened portals inside the city. But it didn't happen due to a mechanical failure. Someone had sabotaged it.
Noah's hand closed around the crystal hanging around his neck. Gwen didn't have to give him time to make up his mind. It was made up a long time ago. No matter the situation, he would say yes in a heartbeat. As long as the people responsible for Ava's death roamed free, he could never rest peacefully. They would feel his wrath if it was the last thing he did.
His lips split into a wide grin as anticipation crawled inside him. It was the first piece of information Gwen unearthed in some time. After their last fiasco, they decided to keep their head low and wait for things to calm down.
He turned towards the worktable that was empty save for the octahedron-shaped object with purple energy lines running through its surface. Luckily, he managed to finish the module. His grin widened. The hunt was going to be so much sweeter with that thing.