"Do we have to go there to eradicate all of the rebels?" Randall, Vincent, Etienne, and Jon Cho huddled around the conference table.
An emergency meeting right after breakfast annoyed him.
Leo wanted to throw the papers in the trash can and forget being a spy. But it doesn't have to be that real of a desire.
He's going to get killed on the spot if he tried to scrape off that title from him.
Leo took a seat down on the huge chair as Vincent pushed the sample of bullet bombs he invented.
Etienne schemed the Tempus Moneda right on his screen, coordinating with Jon Cho about the escape plans they needed to plot since Telamur citizens might recognize them.
As Etienne scrolled at the citizens, he found something absurd.
The screen suddenly blinked, and the command center asked for his permission.
With it read the permission to grant access to Telamur fugitives, people who ran away from the borders and reached the Calvorite, with their Tempus Moneda still active.
"Is it possible?" Etienne suddenly spoke up as Randall and Leo halted from their discussion.
Vincent, examining the bullet bomb with them, came over behind Etienne, and peeked at the screen.
Etienne pressed 'yes' and the files showed the faces and it's a lot, more than what they could imagine.
"What is that? I thought we're going to deal with rebels from the Telamur." Vincent got confused.
"Yeah, that's what our job does. Why is the command center giving me permission to runaways and fugitives who crossed the borders of Calvorite?" Etienne hushed.
It made Randall and Leo glance at each other.
Even though Jon Cho, Vincent, and Etienne were aware about Zella Albert's presence inside the mansion, it didn't occur to their mind…
"Must be the silver notice Zella Albert has, right?" Jon Cho got it right. Leo's jaw clenched, and turned to Etienne's laptop.
He was still scrolling down the people, but Leo shoved him away, searching for a name.
Etienne got surprised by his boss' strange actions. Jon Cho turned to Leo's stony face.
Leo saw Zella Albert's profile, her name, and even the case filed against her.
The verdict showed at the card, too. It showed red, meaning…
"The Tempus Moneda got deactivated. She's nowhere to be found in Telamur's system," Leo uttered. He crossed his arms over his chest as Randall joined the commotion.
Vincent, Etienne and Jon Cho turned to the two of them.
"You know about this?"
"Why didn't you inform us?"
"We have known that woman have escaped the borders, but how can she be capable of escaping the borders by deactivating her Tempus Moneda and finally wiping her location out of the system?"
All three of them continued to talk. Leo shushed them.
"First of all, her existence confused us, too, both Randall and I. We know the silver lighting in her arm, indicating it was the Tempus Moneda. The thing is… we don't know that she deactivated it and the silver notice was the cause of its blinking." Randall knew how tight the situation was.
Looking at Zella Albert, she was accused with killing her family, convicted for a month with death penalty as a punishment, crossed the borders, and…
"So why did we have this kind of permission? We are dealing with rebels, not with runaways," Vincent queried.
Leo's cell phone rang at his chair, and he approached it fast. He picked it up.
Leo swiped the answer button after seeing it was Jeremy, and placed it in his ear.
"What's up, Mr. Tyran?"
…
"We're dealing with the rebels, not fugitives." It was the moment Leo knew they're doomed.
The Cassanos were hiding a death convict runaway inside their mansion, securing her there, with nothing but internet and a bunch of maids to talk with.
Leo clenched her fists underneath the table. Randall looked at him, too.
"The Cassanos have lived up to their name for the group of spies to be able to kill a lot of rebels in the Telamur. But Sam Grobes reported to me there were a lot of fugitives and runaways now escaping towards Calvorite. We met the other day, brainstorming ideas, and we came up here. That's why I called all of you." Randall didn't know what to feel.
It's as if someone pierced a dagger right in his heart with the news.
For the first time in his life, he had to suffer with panic.
"So you're changing our job, am I right?" Leo remained calm.
As the leader of the group, he had to. The fear shouldn't lace through the creases of his face, or else the other members will be frightened, too.
Leo sat with a cross-legged position, waiting for Jeremy's further instructions.
"Unfortunately, yes, we had to change it. The Telamur had shown to me a few of the silver notices. One of them is a murderer and a death convict, in the name of Zella Albert." All of them remained their eyes to him.
Leo's insides were shivering, his subconscious screaming at him to drop off the talk and go to the bathroom.
As Jeremy scrolled through his tablet, he took turns glancing at his members.
They remained silent. No one will drop the fact they're hiding Zella Albert in their mansion.
"This woman got lucky to find out the code on how to deactivate the Tempus Moneda. The authorities didn't know how she done that, and it was bit of an astonishing performance from a death convict like her. She's the first one to deactivate the time chip after a very long time." Leo nodded, convinced how Jeremy explained it thoroughly.
He didn't twist any truth. It's still a fact.
Jeremy gave the tablet to his assistant, placing it in front of Leo.
He didn't need to take a look into it since he knew exactly what Zella's face looked like.
Jeremy lectured, "This is her face. To be exact, I know the Cassanos will make progress about these changes. That one particular runaway was difficult to find, Mr. Leo Luciano. She's feisty, just by looking at her face."
Leo didn't know why his team should handle this. It's not only Cassanos doing that.
Group of spies formed after them, dealing with a lot of dirty jobs for Telamur and Calvorite, under the presidency of Yunis.
She doesn't like her hands to be dirty. It must be the right term for it.
"The Cassanos are the high-class spies, proving to kill a lot of rebels in the Telamur zone. We picked your group to deal with fugitives. You're much of a use than the police officers, anyway. They're sort of a display for now." Disapproving the authority for the police officers was an insult.
These matters should be handed to the officials, not to the secret spies. Leo sighed, and didn't even react.
What would they do? Retort? No, they can't afford to have a cut on their budget.
Leo will stay silent until the time's right.
"We're increasing your pay, each one of you. 2 million increase would do, right?" Look at what money does to humans.
Look at how they can use it to bribe the rich spies to catch the woman who became his Leo's wife a few days ago.
Good thing he knew how to spend the money, because if he doesn't, he'll be killed today.
"I agree with that. Does our job start tomorrow?" Vincent, Etienne and Jon Cho nodded.
Randall and Leo did, too.
"Yeah, you can start tomorrow."
…
"We'll have a meeting at the conference table. I just need to check if Laina's doing alright."
Leo turned his heel around before Randall could even stop him. He took two steps at a time, rushing upstairs, and to her room down by the end of the second floor hallway.
Sighing, he unbuttoned his coat, slowly eased off his shoes and placed it on the rack.
He didn't remove his socks. Besides, Leo's not going to stay that long.
He reached Zella's door, Leo didn't hear any noise.
He knocked three times, but no one answered.
Leo checked if the door is unlocked, and it was. He went inside, staring at her arms slung over the comforter, wearing a long-sleeved in the coldest day of the spring.
Leo observed her chest rose peacefully. She's sleeping quietly, like a baby who just had a few hours' sleep, dreaming about candies.
Leo approached the side of the bed. He turned off the lamp, and the room lost its glow.
When Zella shifted her position, he tucked in her shoulder underneath the comforter.
Leo sighed, gritting his teeth, and decided to come down to talk with the Cassanos.
…
"Are you still going to hide her? We got an order to turn her over. We don't have much time left to decide, Leo," Randall asked.
It was what the rest of them considered, too. But what would happen to them if they turn her over?
It was going to be bloody. Leo propped his chin resting upon the back of his hands as he think hard.
"Randall, there are two sides of the story. The thing is: Zella Albert doesn't know who she was. And the other thing: she's married to Leo," Vincent pointed out.
"But in another name. She's Laina Luciano now." Jon Cho shrugged. Etienne remained silent.
"That was all pretend. All of the documents are fabricated," Randall retorted.
"How…" Leo's voice rose over them, dominating their speeches. He lowered his palms down, looking at each and every one of his members. Randall stopped from pacing back and forth, too.
"How can you turn over a woman who lost a memory while fleeing away from Telamur who accused her of murder? She even became a death convict without evidence."