I nodded my head, lowering the final dish gently on the table, and the weight on my head lightened.
"Now that the table is set, I'll go call Dad for dinner. Could you help me call Oliver?"
We parted at the entrance of the kitchen, my mother heading straight for the master bedroom while I went to our room.
"Oliver? Dinner's ready."
Unlocking the door, I opened it to see the young boy sitting on his bed, his legs crossed, as Ava sat beside him talking. Turning their heads as I entered, the two showed drastically different expressions.
[Dan!]
"Dan."
I went over to them, raising my eyebrows as Oliver patted the space beside him and Ava moved deeper into the bed.
"Is there new news?"
The mattress dipped under my weight as I sat next to the two of them, forming a triangle that concealed the indent that the invisible Ava formed.
"Yes."
Oliver nodded his head before looking over at Ava.
[Hope Research Center is currently under overwhelming pressure to detain all its scientists. The excuse the government used is that they noticed someone not part of the center staff sneak in.]
Frowning Ava shook her head as she crossed her arms
[But if they already singled out Hope Research Center, I'm afraid they might have caught a whiff of the MDVA research team.]
The government...Jeremy!
I widened my eyes, my tongue running across my teeth, as a lightning bolt of guilt shot through me.
"When I was outside of the Hope Research Center, I met Jeremy."
"Is this all because of me?
I hung my head, those eyes filled with disdain that looked down on me filled my brain like a brand as my heart dropped below my chest, past my stomach, and down into my cold, cold feet.
Suddenly, something warm landed on my lap.
"If Jeremy was already at Hope Research Center, that means that he already knew that they were involved. Whether you met him or not, he would have done the same thing."
Patting me on the leg, Oliver shook his head.
"Since Raven stayed back to write his research paper, he was caught up and detained. Luckily, some systems got the heads up and the papers were passed to Elias before he was caught, so they don't know he's part of the MDVA research team. At least that's one good thing."
We turned to Ava, who nodded her head at Oliver's words.
[Right now it seems that they're questioning every researcher present, and will question the others tomorrow. So the project has to stop for a couple of weeks until they give up. Hopefully, they don't manage to capture too many researchers. The team is already running quite low on manpower.]
Ava sighed, her frown helpless as the room slid into silence.
[There's still hope.]
Walking through the door, Favian had his notebook out as he walked towards us. Passing it into my hands, I looked down, and saw a familiar page.
Flint. Zack. Emily. Jonathan.
[What are you planning?]
Ava glared at her fellow system as she peered over my shoulder to peek at the note. She placed her hands on my shoulders, using me as a shield from Favian, as she quivered and questioned him.
[The quickest way to release the pressure on Hope Research Center is to redirect it somewhere else. Jonathan, although connected with Flint and Zack who work for Jeremy, is actually Anti-MDVA and is the researcher from Love Research Center who worked together with Raven to develop the MDVA drug. If we can convince Jonathan to join us, we will immediately gain Flint and Zack's trust. And if Jonathan finished up the paper Raven was supposed to write and we release it while Raven and the others are under supervision, we can clear the suspicion from Hope Research Center for a while.]
I looked down at the sheet of paper with four names. Indeed, what Favian said sounded very feasible. However, the basis of it was if Jonathan would join us. Glancing over at Oliver, I placed the paper into his hands, effectively handing over the decision making to him.
Receiving it, Oliver paused, and a slightly ironic smile crossed his face.
"Actually, when we set up the meeting with Flint and Zack, I wanted to show them the report that Jonathan wrote. At that time, I wasn't clear about the relationship between them. Although I was aware that he had a pretty prestigious background, so I figured Zack wouldn't be able to argue his way out of it. The x-rays and blood tests were also solid enough evidence to refute their claims."
"I didn't think that Ava would tell this to other systems though. I thought you said that you wanted to wait until Zack and Flint truly joined us before telling the others?"
At the last sentence, Favian's smile froze on his face as Ava glared at him. The two systems faced each other, and if a gaze could kill, Favian would have countless cuts from the look Ava was giving him. Between the two of them, Oliver's face slowly morphed into a mixture of confusion and suspicion, while I held in the sigh at this scene Favian should have seen a mile away.
...
Finally, when the gaze from Ava was about to burn a hole into him, Favian sighed and gestured for the two of them to talk outside.
At first, Ava shrunk further behind me, her cold hands digging into my shoulder. However, taking a deep breath, I saw her nod and the two of them disappeared from the room. Leaving an awkward silence.
"...We should probably head for dinner."
".....Yeah."
Getting up from the chair, the two of us headed straight out the door of the stagnant room into a warm living room that smelled of meat, spices and family.
"Boys, I thought the two of you would never come out."
Smiling as she spotted us enter the kitchen, my mother pointed at the chairs and we took our seats around the kitchen table. Although the time inside the room felt like ages, the rice still had steam rising out of it, and the soup was still hot as I took a spoon and sipped it.
"It can't be helped. The two of them have been quite busy these past few days. Mark and James told me about the adventure the two of you, together with Frank, had a couple of nights before."
My father sighed as he scooped a spoonful of rice and placed it into his mouth. Showing a face of happiness, he took another spoon to hand feed my mother before gazing at us with gentle but concerned eyes.
"I know the two of you are involved in something very important, however, please keep in mind. If the you ever feel that you need help, don't hesitate to ask. Seeking assistance isn't a sign of weakness, it's proof of your maturity and knowledge of your own limits."
Shifting my sight to Oliver, I saw him pause with his spoon in the air, his mouth slightly open as he lifted his head to meet our parent's eyes.
"Alright."
The spoon continued on its journey into his mouth, and his head bobbed in a shallow nod. Smiling at this scene, our father shared a look with our mother and we wrapped up dinner with some small talk.
Polishing off all the food, we carried our dishes to the sink for our mother to wash. Then, leaving the kitchen, Oliver and I retreated back to our room in silence.
Taking one step into the room, we met eyes with the two systems who were waiting inside. Sitting on the bed, crossing her arms as she faced away, was Ava with a pout on her face and furrowed eyebrows. Standing quite a distance away at my outdated board of newspaper clippings was Favian. His hands were politely laid near the center of his body, and his eyes were blankly staring at the board.
"Ava?"
Calling out to his system, the two of them simultaneously turned their heads towards us.
[Dan. Oliver.]
Uncrossing her arms, Ava stood up from the bed and walked towards us. She latched onto Oliver's side and gave a small sigh.
"You alright?"
Oliver patted Ava on the arm, to which she just shook her head and gave Favian a weak glare.
[Yeah. It's just that 'someone' has the disaggreable habit of peeping at people.]
Favian looked away from the board, his face an emotionless mask but his eyes held regret, as he cleared his throat and diverted the conversation.
[Moving back to the topic of Hope Research Center. I think the four of us can agree that the best option would be to convince Jonathan to take over the job of writing the research paper. Then, when we distribute it, it will draw High Street's attention off Hope Research Center while completing the request from Mark and James.]
[I'm guessing you also 'heard' that.]
[...]
"Ava."
Oliver reached out a hand to draw Ava's glare away from Favian. Then, nodding to him, the three of us went to Oliver's bed and sat down.
"Does Jonathan also have a system?"
[No. Since High Street doesn't execute their prisoners, but confines them, there is barely anyone belonging to High Street who is bound to a system.]
Favian shook his head as he walked towards us and stood a little distance away.
[But it's also because of this that we may be able to get a trump card that would win over all three men.]
"Emily."
I whispered as all the information clicked together in my head. Feeling three eyes on me, Favian nodded as he took out his notebook.
[Actuially, we've been trying to find her in the Asylum. However, our search so far has turned up nothing. So just recently, we've set a trail on Jeremy, since we found out that it was him who reported Emily's MDVA.]
"If we want your plan to succeed, it would be better to act fast. Since Hope Research Center is under investigation, if Jonathan agrees, we can set the new meeting point at Love Research Center. Then I can call Zack to inform them."
Oliver took out his notebook, flipped to a new page, and wrote down what we just discussed. Watching him write, I felt my brain scan through all the new information, and something Favian said seemed to stand out.
"You mentioned that you searched the Asylum for Emily and couldn't find her. Does that mean that she's in the isolation containment area?"
[That's what we think. However, there seems to be more than one isolation area, since the system that investigated the Asylum did manage to find several entrances. However, we couldn't find Emily among those confined.]
Everyone frowned. If we could get a hold of Emily, Jonathan's cooperation would practically be guaranteed. And with it, so would Zack's and Flint's. Lowering my head, I closed my eyes and focused on my thoughts. The Asylum. Several isolation containment areas. Jeremy. MDVA.
Suddenly, from my ear, I heard a constant beat.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Looking over at Oliver, he was unconsciously tapping his pencil on his notebook. His eyebrows were furrowed, his eyes hazed over with thoughts before they cleared, like clouds passing in front of the moon.
"Based on your words, the isolation areas are underground right?"
Favian nodded his head. He flipped to a page in his notebook and showed us. The whole Asylum was a large circle, with two gates in the front and back. Inside the large circle was a smaller circle named the 'center containment area'. Within the outer containment area were three gardens, seperating the outer area into three segemnts. One 'foyer' that we experienced when we entered from the bottom, and two 'residential areas' on each side of the circle.
Within the center confinement area, there was no large garden. Instead, there were many large houses scattered inside.
"Where were the entrances to the isolation areas?"
Favian pointed to what seemed like several random places on the map. One was near the 'top' gate leading into the center containment area. Another was right beside it, at the wall facing the residential area on the right side of the Asylum. The last one, the third, was placed in the middle of the Asylum.
[The first entrance that Jerry found was the one near the top gate. He followed one of the guards down into what looked like an underground facility. It wasn't very wide, barely one quarter the width of the center containment area and slightly smaller than the residential area it was next to. The facility contained many houses, just slightly smaller than the ones in the center and outer areas, as well as a tiny garden. The people there were not kept inside by any bars or walls, but by a two heavy metal doors separating them from the exit.]
[The second entrance was the same. It was the one right beside the residential area, and it led to a similar underground facility. The middle one, however, was slightly different. How Jerry discovered this entrance was by following someone outside of the Asylum, a visitor, from when they entered the center area until they reached the entrance. Going down, this entrance led to what appeared to be a testing facility. There were many people in labcoats, and warning signs were plastered onto the doors like graffiti stickers. Peeking into one of the labs, he saw them taking blood samples from someone. In the other labs, a lot of scientists were arguing with each other, and the person Jerry followed asked one of the scientists something before they left.]
We looked at the notebook, rough sketches of the estimated width and length of the facilities that Jerry the system had discovered were drawn in pencil together with their entrances and how to find them.
"It really does look quite random."
Glancing at how much space each facility took on the map, I guessed that there could be two more large facilities that held prisoners. Assuming that they stayed within the borders of the center area.
[If we assume that they didn't build past the borders of the center containment area, there should be four of these large facilities for prisoners in total. Jerry is currently trying to give us a more detailed map of the three facilities he found.]
I looked at the map again, my brain trying to take in this picture and somehow spit out a complete map of the place. However, that was just wishful thinking, since all it did was fire smoke through my ears as all this new information overloaded it and caused it to stop working.
[We could always just give Jonathan the information regarding these entrances.]
Ava suggested from the side as she tore her gaze from the map, one hand bending up to press against her eyes.
"That is a possibility. And if our information is too detailed, it might cause him suspect us instead."
Oliver nodded his head slightly as he looked at the map. Those obsidian eyes shone with slight disappointment, as if what he saw wasn't what he expected. Furthermore, his face was cast into a frown, expressing that he wasn't satisfied with this suggestion.
[Other than offering this map, we could also offer our services to them. Since Zack is working for Jeremy despite his loathing of the man, Jeremy's probably controlling them using Emily. And if that's so, there's a high chance that the three of them will not be allowed into these facilities. If we give them this information and then offer to bust out Emily, Jonathan will probably agree to our plan. Since it'll be harder to do all this by himself.]
Folding his arms, Favian explained as his gaze switched between us and the map.
"Either way, there's not much time or information available for us at the moment to do anything else."
Sighing, Oliver closed his eyes and shook his head before picking up the notebook and standing up.
"Since our plan has roughly been decided, let's call Jonathan."
I nodded my head, and the four of us left the room.