|Inside Sideon office|
"What can you say about the situation on the ground?" Sideon asked his best friend.
"In my opinion, Sideon," Riley began, "I think we are being tracked by roving bandits."
"Roving bandits? You meant to say, someone is trying to commit theft?" Sideon asked solemnly.
"Yes, that's my point."
"So?" Sideon implored, wanting to find more information his friend could offer.
"Their plans aren't based on destroying or terminating the systems, I guess they plan to confiscate the assets of recorded tax," Riley explained.
"No, no that shouldn't be, what are they trying to do? Embezzle?" Sideon asked again, astonished.
"Cool off man, we've not concluded."
"Yeah right, we've not but Brooklyn income keeps reducing," Sideon relayed.
"You didn't inform me about this," Riley stated, surprised that his friend has kept another fastidious issue from him.
"I'm so sorry man, I was not thinking right" Sideon pleaded remembering that he hasn't updated his friend about the state income.
"Oh shit man! I keep increasing the number of public products!" Riley exclaimed.
"I told you guys the other day not to touch the chart for now."
"But you never informed me that this was happening, you caused this yourself," Riley complained standing up from the sofa he was sitting on to get some water from the table placed by the right-hand side of the office.
"You should have given a listening ear, you don't blame me for it, at least you don't have to know about everything," Sideon protested, pissed off for being blamed again.
Why must he be blamed for everything? Isn't it enough for them to stop blaming him?
"You don't want me to know about everything you do?" Riley asked, unbelievably. He could not believe that the statement was coming from his friend, "You don't want me to know about your situation?" he asked again, confused.
"I'm not saying you shouldn't know them, I'm just trying to say the ones you know are enough and don't blame me for them," Sideon answered, incentive.
"Why? Because I'm not capable of assisting you?" Riley asked again feeling down.
"Because I can't keep bothering you with my problems, they are mine and only I could solve them," Sideon relayed. His response made Riley tranquil for some moments. "I know you very well Riley," Sideon continued, "You are my very good and generous friend, you keep assisting me in good and bad times but I haven't even tried to do little of those things back to you," He paused again and continued, "Please hear me out, it's not like I don't need you to help me, but because I keep interfering with your life."
"Interfering with my life?" Riley solicited confused, "How are you interfering with my life?"
"Don't bring innocence into this Riley. You've got a family."
"What does a family have to do with assisting you?"
"Your wife is out there with an unborn child! Your son only gets to see you once a week, all because you have to keep correcting my mistakes."
"Don't you dare mention that to me, Sideon!" Riley fired, hitting his fists on the table beside him, "My family are good and healthy with the way things are, don't you dare use them as an excuse. I'm assisting you not because of our friendship, don't you get it, we're now family."
"It's different."
"It's not!" Riley flared again, getting tense.
"Calm down Riley, I don't mean to take thing's this far" Sideon said to ease off the temper starting to rise in his friend.
Riley felt so devastated. How could his friend talk so low about assisting him? What are friends for?
"I'm sorry if I said so much" Sideon apologizes with concern in his tone.
Riley poured out some water from the jug made of glass into the glass cup placed beside it and drank it down into his throat. His mouth went bitter from drinking the tasteless substance. "Let me make this clear to you," he stated calmly, "Kendy and my baby are taken good care of by her parents, Shed is grown enough to take care of himself."
"I'm aware," Sideon mumbled.
"No, you're not. Staring into this, you've never cared for your son as I do for mine. So right now, this moment stirs your thoughts away from my family!"Riley warned.
"Fine, fine I won't."
"Now can we continue with our business?" Riley said, calmly as he moved to sit back on the sofa.
"If you insist."
"We need to generate more security to the system, only the economic system should be active, others should be shut for a while."
"What if they get through the active system?" Sideon asked disturbed.
"If so, then we have to delete all data from the systems, but first, all data should be copied into another base."
"Riley?" Sideon called solemnly.
"Yes?"
"Thanks."
"I and you both know I hate the word you just mentioned," Riley said with pride.
"I'm being thankful man, you should accept it."
"Whatever," Riley scoffed, his lips spread into a smile.
"You'll say, your welcome" Sideon teased.
"You're not."
SAH Mansion|
Nancy was the first to wake up among the four of them that slept on the balcony. She went down to prepare something for them to take in as breakfast. She got down and went straight to the kitchen, where she met Mrs Sara, the caretaker, preparing some food.
"Good morning, Mrs Sara," she greeted, bowing her head low.
"Wow! Who do we have here?" Mrs Sara asked surprised to see Nancy at their house, it's been a long time since she visited.
"Yeah ma'am, it's me," she answered sheepishly before giving her a back hug.
"How're you? What is the matter, we've not seen you for some time?" the old woman asked.
"Busy ma'am, Why are you cooking? Where are the chefs?" Nancy asked worriedly.
"I'm preparing Maths and his father's breakfast," Mrs Sara replied.
"Oh! That's nice, let me help," Nancy proposed and collected the knife the old woman was using to cut the vegetables.
It was 10:50 when Angie woke up. She looked around her and discovered she was the only one laying on the couch on the balcony.
She yawned and stood up, striding her weak body down the stairs leading to the living room. She got down and heard some people chatting and chattering. She moved to where the noise was coming from and later found out it was her new friends. They were already having breakfast. Nancy was serving out the food, Shed and Davis were laughing at what little Julie was saying and then she suddenly stopped when she noticed a face she had seen somewhere. Just immediately, she remembered the pregnant nurse at the hospital where she was taken to after drowning. As she moved closer to them, Shed was the first to sight her.
"Come on here, Angie," he called and gestured to her while the rest also looked up.
"Good morning ma'am," Angie greeted Julianne immediately as she got to the table.
"Good morning my dear, you look familiar, have we met before?" Julianne asked, anxiously.
"Yes, at the hospital, I am the drowning girl from the other day."
"Oh right! You are," Julianne said after recollecting her face. She then looked up at Nancy, "Is she the girl you were talking about?"
"Yes ma'am, she's Angela," Nancy replied.
"I never knew we'd meet again," Julianne said.
"Same here ma'am."
"She's always lucky," Nancy added and
gave Angie a broad smile which she returned.
"What_" Angie was about to say when a bang sound was heard from the living room. They all rushed out from the dining to the living room. At once, they stood still and were confused about what they saw in front of them.