Maria was relieved to see the door of the cellar and the path that they walked into was already rid of the fire.
"You are careless, señorita." Spoke the man that Maria encountered a while ago. She couldn't answer him, feeling the effects of inhaling smoke fire. "Both of you."
"We'll hear about your reprimand, Julio," Zeronis said in a hoarse voice, limping on his feet as two of his men carried him by his shoulders.
"I'm just saying." the man whose name was Julio only shook his head with displeasure written on his face. Maria was sure that he was angry at her. But she was grateful that he held her rather gently.
Making it outside, Maria was greeted with busybodies of people working under Villan, the blaring red lights of three fire trucks, and two from the paramedics.
"Thank God, you're alright!" Exclaimed of the people working under Zeronis.
"Make way!" the medical team approached both Maria and Zeronis.
"Tend to her first." Zeronis gestured to Maria.
"We will have to tend both of you, sir." the paramedic said and ushered both of them into the medical vehicle.
Maria had no strength left to speak with anyone as she felt too dizzy to even make of anything. Her vision blurred and didn't even notice that she'd been having shortness of breath. When all her adrenaline subsided, she felt like an unwatered vegetable that all her limbs gave out.
Before she passed out, she heard someone call for her in worry. It was Zeronis and he snarled at the poor paramedics inside the medical van. She felt that they let her lay down on the stretcher inside and put on a nasal cannula with a mask on her. There was a cold supply of oxygen that follows and that felt a ton better.
"He's alright, sir. Now we need you to stay still and let us aid you."
"I told you, I'm fucking alright. Treat her first-"
"Villan..." Maria called out and blindly raised her hand to what she estimated was his direction. Luckily, he reached for her hand with both of his own.
"Yes. Yes, I'm here." he answered in a cracking voice.
"I'm alright. Just need a little sleep." Her voice was rasped and scratchy but she hoped that Zeronis heard her better.
"I'm sorry. Alright, sleep my love."
Maria had no idea why she smiled at that and closed her eyes. However, she recalled something very vital that she suddenly gasped and opened her eyes in alarm.
"What? What is it? Are you hurting?"
"Sir, you gonna need to stay still." The paramedic complained.
Maria grabbed his arm tightly in wide eyes. "Bomb! There's a bomb threat! Vacate everyone now!"
Both the paramedics and Zeronis stiffened at her words for a few moments.
"She's maybe hallucinating still-"
"I'm not fucking delirious!" Maria shouted, looking suddenly invigorated.
Zeronis saw how serious she was as he has turned in the direction where Julio was saying something to a few men.
"JULIO!" He called out loudly that it actually garnered eyes even from the firefighters.
"TELL EVERYONE TO LEAVE! THERE'S A BOMB THREAT! MOVE!"
Hearing that, all of the people in ear shots swiftly execute what was needed in a situation like that. And Maria felt their own medical van drove away from that area along with all the people in the vineyard ground. The rest of the event became history and Maria collapsed for overusing her body that day.
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It was the beeping of something that awakened her and the white ceilings greeted her the moment she opened her eyes. She looked at the noise and learned that she was hooked on it. There were still tubes on her nostrils which brought her a constant cold supply of oxygen.
She lifted her hands and saw bandages wrapped around them. Recalling the incident, she guessed it might be due to the hot metal she tried picking up in bare hands. She studied the room with her eyes and wondered how can a hospital room be so huge like that? There was even a set of cushioned settees by the corner and above it was a chandelier.
No doubt that she was in a VIP room of the hospital.
Her attention was stolen from studying the room towards the door when someone came in.
A nurse.
"How are you, miss Montes?" the nurse politely asked and went to inspect the dextroses hanging by the pool beside her bed.
"I'm quite alright." She answered in a rasped voice still. "How about my company?"
"If you're referring to mister Villan, he's recuperating on the other room." The nurse said.
"Can I see him?"
"I'd really love to assist you. However, you're still under treatment for your inflamed lungs. We're trying to detoxify you as well as mister Villan who's still hasn't woken up yet."
"Oh. But was he alright now?"
"Yes. His shoulder isn't severely damaged aside from the lacerated tissues that we cleaned and stitched up There's no significant injuries on his leg too but it would bruise for a couple of weeks."
"Thank you for telling me."
"It's alright. Have some rest." The nurse finalized her work there before leaving the room.
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Two days later and Maria was able to sand up from her bed and decided to roam around the hospital's garden. She went to visit Zeronis but he was still put under sedation by the doctor's order after he insisted that's he was already alright and wanted to stand up from his bed.
Maria laughed at the meager thought that the doctor had to sort out into such a method just to pin Villan down on his bed until he fully recovered. She had asked the doctor about Villan's condition and she was right that he had all the worst effects of smoke inhalation. He was literally trapped in the contained area for a long time. The doctors remarked their astonishment when he endured it all after they saw his lung diagnosis. His respiratory was in distress that endangered his lungs to collapse if he wasn't found in time.
Grateful over the result of everything, Maria contented herself with the peace around the hospital's garden.
"This place is beguiling," she muttered mostly to herself, lifting her head in closed eyes to enjoy the sun rays streaming through the trees.
"You think so?"
Her reveries were cut off with the voice to her left side. It belonged to a man who sat beside her on a bench under the tree.
"Why are you checking up on me?" Maria wasn't surprised anymore to see one of her co-agent from the organization.
"Simple. The data is detecting one of the agents under the line of fire. We'll, in fact, it was a literal fire this time." The man sipped from her canned coffee and nodded in appreciation to its taste. "The coffee here is good."
"I'm fine."
"I'm convinced now that I see it myself." He said.
"Do you got anything for me? I'm not due till next week." Maria tried fixing her hair away from her face but the wind kept blowing them out of place.
The man shook his head after seeing that. He gathered her hair and grabbed a black tie on his wrist, tying them skillfully.
"Geez thanks, James." she said and looked at him in full. "I didn't know you're trying to grow your hair long."
"I don't intend to but I got no time to go for a barbershop." He said and dug out something from his pocket. "There's a change of operation. You won't be doing any guarding duty."
"You're talking about the Philippines?"
"Yeah. Can't tell you more than that. You know the protocol." He said.
"I understand." she conceded.
"So, who's the guy?"
"What guy?"
"Oh come, Maria. Don't play dumb on me." James chuckled. "Should I elaborate how you ride that motorbike in bullet speed just to save the guy from that damn fire?"
"You're spying on me."
"You must be forgetting that the head of our organization is a world's monster hacker. We can't hide anything from her. Picture me surprise when she sent me that CCTV footage of a woman in her pajamas riding furiously in the dead of the night."
"I had no time to find blind spots."
"Don't worry, those are forever gone from the government's record. Though Nabi actually stored those reckless videos of yours on her archives for future reference."
"Oh no." Maria groaned. She knew Nabi Yang would always find anything to tease her nonstop.
"She sent me to check up on you and specifically asked me to know about that guy you're willing to die with," James said with a suppressed grin on his face.
"I'm not willing to die over anyone." Maria defended but her blushing face tells otherwise.
"Yeah, of course. We'll I think that is yours to keep and ours to find out." James stood up from the bench and placed a hand above her head. "See you around, Maria. Only create trouble you can get away with, alright?"
"You're annoying."
"And we have eyes on us."James suddenly said which alerted Maria. "I think it's your lover boy."