An egg-shaped blue car with black tires parks in front of a long, white-colored brick building.
The building was shaped in a straight line and had several windows, and from those windows, one could see the white curtains swinging back and forth. And at the front of the building, a large flower garden stood at the entrance.
The man opened the door and came out. He pulled out his black overcoat, which was hanging on the passenger seat at the front, and walked towards the door.
The way to the door had a straight, cleared path to it in the middle of the garden.
The man strode to the door, his long coat fluttering in the air. He pulled out a face cap from his spatial ring and put it on.
He reached the front of the structure and knocked on the wooden door. And he looked up at the CCTV camera on the ceiling, pointing at him.
After a while, the door opened, and an old woman with white-gray hair and narrow eyes looked like they were closed. The woman didn't stand straight, as if she had back pain.
"Hello, sir. What can I do for you? " She raised her heavily wrinkled face to stare up at the tall figure.
"Good day, Ma, may I?" He gestured to the door.
"Sorry, son. Come in." The woman stepped to the side, and the man bent his head and walked in.
The woman gazed around the garden and its surroundings before she walked in and shut the door so hard that it would be hard to believe an old woman did it.
"What can I offer you, son?" The woman asked the man as if she were a mother asking a son who had not seen her for a long time.
"Coffee. I'll prefer a hot coffee." The man spoke to the woman with respect.
"Make yourself comfortable. I'll be back." The woman walked away.
When the woman could not be seen again, the man stood up and pulled out the goggles and wore them.
This wasn't just any set of goggles. These goggles could read life signs and identify hand prints. It could trace fingerprints from up to 10 years ago.
The man gazed around the large room, but he didn't just stare at the white walls; he gazed beyond where he could see several young kids running and playing with each other.
He couldn't tell what they looked like because he could only see them in grayscale.
–---
The old lady placed the ceramic cup on top of the spotless kitchen table. She uses a spoon to turn the coffee in a calm circular manner.
Her mind drifted to the tall stranger who had visited her. She never received any normal visitors. The ones who visited came mostly for adoption, but she knew the man had a calm vibe of a leader, an alpha male.
In her trance, a flat-screen extended out of the white ceiling, coming directly to her eye level.
The black screen flickered and showed the room where the man stood with the goggles on, staring at the room.
She squinted her already closed eyes as she gazed at the screen.
"What are you up to?" She mumbled to herself. She had not seen this type of goggles he wore, but she knew it would be one of those gadgets the military kept to themselves.
Ordinary civilians' technology was like a toy in comparison to the ones kept by the WMO.
The woman washed her hand in the kitchen sink. She hit the gas button and the screen went, merged, back to the ceiling.
–----
"Sorry, son. I kept you waiting." The woman came back with the coffee.
"Oh, thanks." He collected the coffee and sat down again.
He noticed the camera earlier, but he didn't give a damn. He doubted the woman would be able to see him well from wherever she watched him from.
The man brought the coffee to his mouth; he pretended as if he drank it and gently put it down.
"Nice coffee."
"That's why they call me Mama Coffee," she said, and thought inwardly, "You think I'm a fool? That coffee is just ordinary water."
"So what brought you to my orphanage?" The woman said it with a motherly smile.
"I'm from the WMO." He used that word so that the old woman would speak up.
"You're a military man. Son, I am very happy to see young men these days joining the military. My grandfather was a military man, and you know what? He fought and survived World War 2."
"That's nice to hear, but that's not why I am here," the man said.
"I'm all ears, son."
"I wanted to ask for some information about an orphan who has stayed here before."
"What's his name?" The woman straightened her back, and her back made a bone-chilling crack.
"He goes by the name Ethan Hawk."
The woman's closed eyes opened suddenly.
Her expression didn't go unnoticed by the man.
"Your expression tells me you know him?"
"I do. What about him?"
"The academy has been doing background research on every student, and now, it's Ethan's turn." The man lied.
Over the next few hours, the man interviewed the old woman.
"When was he brought to the orphanage?"
"I found him at the entrance, folded in white clothes."
"Who left him there? I saw cameras here, so you should at least see the person."
"Yes I did, but I didn't see his face because he wore a face cap covering half of his face."
"How did he get the flame ability?" The man fiddled with the tab he used to record all her answers.
"That I don't know."
"Ok, that's all."
She smiled her motherly smile and politely said, "I'll see you out."
She opened the door, and the man walked out. She stood at the door and watched him until he drove out of sight.
She walked into the kitchen again. She sat on the kitchen stool beside the sink. She tapped her forehead, and her wrinkled skin peeled off step by step from her body, revealing a woman in her 30s and shoulder-length hair, but the dragon head on the red attire stood out the most.
The screen retracted out of the kitchen ceiling again, and Aldric's face appeared on it.
"Agent 55, what's the problem?"
***