Lucas's eyes slowly opened. The faint light of the early morning sun allowed him to make out a woman sitting at the head of his dining room table. He squinted at her, then tried to talk but realized there was a cloth stuffed in his mouth, preventing him from speaking.
He began shaking and rocking the chair as concern grew on his face. However, his hands were tied together, and so were his feet. His body was also bound to the chair with a rope tied around him. Lucas now looked back at the woman with the short hair, who smiled at him and said,
"Why is Turnner working with you at the agency?"
When she said that, he noticed the presence of a woman standing next to him. She had a knife close to his neck and used her other hand to remove the cloth.
Then the short-haired woman added, "Before you answer, I should make it clear that if that knife cuts you, you will die."
After hearing that, Lucas asks sternly, "Why do you wanna know?!"
"Because we want something from Mr. Turnner, and right now you're the only one who can help us get it?"
"I'm not allowed to reveal agency secrets."
"Would you sacrifice your life to protect some criminal?"
"This isn't about my life; it's about the agency, and I signed an oath to keep what's in the agency there."
"So you won't tell us anything?." The long-haired woman states, putting the knife closer to his neck.
"No I won't."
"Then die." After saying that, she slit Lucas's throat with the knife, and blood spewed from his neck. He opened his eyes wide as he gasped for air. Then his head fell on the table and permeated it with thick red blood. And after a few more seconds, Lucas died.
"He proved to be useless." the short-haired woman stated as she walked up to the other woman.
"Indeed, but what do we do now?"
"Our only option is to visit one of Turnner's allies"
"Isn't that too much of a risk?"
"Yes but assuming Turnner knows we're here already. It's a risk we're gonna have to take."
"Alright fine, but let's lay low until tonight."
2 hours Later Cornerstone Agency
"How the hell did we get hacked?" Noria shouted towards a man sitting at a computer desk.
"I don't know, mam. We think the hackers were able to get in via a loophole or backdoor in the system, but we need to run a few more tests."
Noria sighed, "I want answers as fast as possible." She demanded, then walked away.
As she walked up the aisle, Trent joined her and said, "This is bad, Noria."
"You don't think I know that?"
"No seriously, every case we ever conducted has been downloaded to a server we only just managed to track. A team is on their way to that location, but there's no guarantee the culprits haven't taken another copy."
"And what about Turnner? Have you heard from him."
"No."
"Get him on the phone; he better have some answers."
"You won't need to." Turnner stated, walking up to Noria, "I already have the answer to your question. Yesterday, you were hacked by a well-known Indian hacker named Mohamid Kadashi. Unfortunately, he's now deceased. He was killed by two Russian assassins who entered the country two days ago."
"How do you know this?" Noria asked.
"Because I have eyes everywhere."
"Do you know why the assassins killed him?"
"Yes, after forcing him to hack the agency in search of information about me, they killed him. Their state given names are Irina and Victoria Rostova; however, many know them as the Twin Assassins, but I consider them spoiled brats who got away with murder too many times to keep count. In an effort to escape prison after killing someone at the age of 12, the twins made a contract with Assassin God and have been killing people ever since."
"What do they want?" Noria asked, then signaled to a man to start writing.
"The Theatom, of course, after being hired by a man I'm yet to track down. They came here to not only kill me but also to acquire the Theatom."
"So they're on the Severance List."
"Yes number 26."
"Alright everyone you heard what he said so the first order of business is to search for any newly rented apartments in the city by 2 Russian females." Noria started speaking to everyone."
"And by the way you should check on those who work with me on this case since the twins are likely to kidnap them for information." Turnner stated as he walked away.
"Why can't they just use the database?" Trent asked Noria.
"Because, this case was never documented at the agency, it's being done directly with the government." Then she looked over at Gordon and said, "Gordon, I want you to call Toktio and tell him to check on Amelia."
"Where're you going?" Trent shouted, staring at Turnner.
"To deal with my own issues I'll make contact with the twins at some point. They aren't even worth my time."
***
"Ring, Ring, Ring, Ring, Ring, Ring" Tokito's phone starts going off in his pocket as he walks down the sidewalk in a neighborhood. He took out the phone and answered it. After listening to what the person had to say, he answered.
"Understood I was gonna stop by at her house this morning anyway.'' Then he continued down the street. After a while of walking, he arrived at the gate of a house surrounded by a big wall. It looked like a vila from the outside, and on the stone post next to the gate was a doorbell below what looked like a speaker.
Tokito pressed it, then waited a bit until Amelia's voice came on, saying, "Toktio, is that you?"
"Yes he replied, the agency told me to check on you."
"Oh ok, you can come in."
Then the gate opened, and Toktio walked inside. He walked up the driveway and went under a glass roof that covered the front door. Amelia was waiting for him in her nightgown and said, "Is there something wrong?"
"Yea apparently the agency was hacked last night by some Russian assassins. They were searching for those close to Turnner, so I was told to check on you. Why aren't you at work today?"
"I wasn't feeling well so I called in sick."
"I see well make sure you lock up the house and that sword close to you." Then he looked at her see through nightgown and said, "And change your clothes it's already 10 am."
Amelia smiled, "You know you like seeing me like this."
Toktio blushed and shook his head. "Anyway, I have to go."
"Why don't you come and join me inside?"
"Cause I have work." Tokito answered as he walked away.
***
9 : 35 pm
A man and a woman are both eating at a large dining room table. He is seated at one end of the table, while the woman is at the other end. After chewing a mouthful, the woman spoke, "How was work today?"
"It was pretty good."
"Did you do any work for Turnner?"
The man paused his eating and looked up at her, "...No"
"You had to pause to say No?"
The man sighed, "It was one shipment. I won't do it again."
"One to Ma-" the lights in the house shut off, the woman looked around, "The current went off?"
"I think so, let me go check the break-" As soon as he got up, the lights came back on. That's when he saw the short-haired woman sitting on the right side of the table, two spaces away from him.
"Who the hell are you?" He asked sternly.
"Relax Mr. Smith, so long as you give me the answer I want, you and your wife will get to live." Hearing that, he shifted his attention to his wife. The long-haired woman was holding the knife to her neck.
So he sat back down and said, "What do you want?"
"Information about Michael Turnner."
"I'm not allowed to reveal anything about Mr. Turnner."
"We would like to know why he's working at the Agency." The woman answered, staring at him.
Smith swallowed his saliva and said, "Listen I organize stuff for Mr. Turnner, and I manage his shipments; that's it."
"So you never heard anything about when he came here?"
Smith looked at his wife, who was visibly angry with him, then said, "The only thing I can tell you is this: when Turnner first came to Florida, he ordered us to monitor a woman named Amelia Sanchez. I don't know why, but we had to place cameras everywhere in her house, and coincidentally, she works at the agency; that's all I can tell you."
"So this woman is important to him?"
"I believe so."
After hearing that the woman Got out of her seat and said, "Let's go, Victoria; it's time to bring Turnner to us.'' Then the two exited the dining room.
After they both left the house, the man got up and ran to his wife saying, "We need to leave the country now."
"Why? Cause you sold out Turnner?"
"Yes, he'll kill us both."
"He'll find us, James. It doesn't matter where we go. That man has eyes everywhere."
"There's an island just off the north coast of Cuba. I promise he won't find us there."
"But don't worry, James, I'll go wherever you go, and we'll die together."