"Emily? You mean the person Zack lightly mentioned back at the asylum?"
Linel raised an eyebrow as he shifted his chair closer and lowered his voice. Shooting a glance at the door, he made sure it was closed before continuing to ask. Similarly, Frank got the hint based on Linel's actions and jumped down from his chair to crowd around us.
"From Zack's reaction when she mentioned her, I guessed she was important. But how is she related to the three?"
Oliver crossed his arms and subtly cast a glance at the door. Standing near the entrance was Ava, who had her head phased through the door to keep a lookout for Jonathan, Flint, and Zack. After a couple of seconds, as Ava remained oblivious to his gaze, Oliver forced himself to look at Linel and Frank and face their questions alone.
"We suspect that Emily, Flint, and Zack have a sort of familial relationship, regardless of their blood ties. One of my sources managed to overhear Flint accidently call her 'big sister' when in private with Zack. On the other hand, although Zack admonished Flint for saying those words, he didn't refute them and even patted Flint's back a couple of times. Same for Zack, Flint has also accidentally called him 'Big brother' before, even though the two of them don't belong to the same family."
"Sources...eh."
Giving Oliver a small look, Linel shrugged his shoulders and dropped the topic after that mutter.
"Then what about Jonathan?"
Seeing Linel turn mostly silent, Frank leaned forward to continue asking. His eyes were slightly sparkling, an excited grin hiding underneath his serious expression as he curled his fingers into his palm.
Oliver looked at Frank's expression with a curious gaze, and I couldn't help the small smile that rose on my face. Seemingly noticing that his inappropriate enthusiasm had leaked out, Frank blushed as he cleared his throat and forced his lips straight.
"Jonathan might have been courting Emily back when the two of them worked here. Before Emily was reported by Jeremy for being 'infected' with MDVA and taken away."
Explaining what the systems had told us, and our own guesses, the four of us were having a full-blown discussion when Ava's voice suddenly cut through the room.
[Jonathan is coming!]
Sitting back in our seats, we gestured for the other two to return to theirs, and our conversation stopped just in time for the laboratory doors to open. Walking through them, three men, each younger than the next, strode in with different expressions.
His face cold, Jonathan gestured briefly for the two behind him to sit near us. With a frown, Zack reluctantly walked over to the nearest laboratory bench and leaned on it while crossing his arms. There was a space big enough for one person between him and Frank. Following Zack was Flint, who couldn't stop looking around the lab with curiosity as he stood not-very-still next to Zack.
Closing the laboratory door, a short beep sound grated our ears as the light near it changed to red. Walking towards us, Jonathan took a chair from a nearby bench and sat on it. He then pointed the tip of his chin to Oliver.
Oliver nodded his head and pushed himself off his chair to stand straight in front of all of us.
"The first subject we have to talk about is MDVA, what causes it, as well as certain findings made by Jonathan and Raven from both Love and Hope Research Center."
Jonathan passed a little device into Oliver's hands, who pressed a button that caused the entire laboratory to turn dark. Then, I heard a small whirring sound before something projected a screen onto a mostly blank wall. On the screen were Jonathan's pictures of the brain.
"As shown on the screen, this is a picture of the brain of someone diagnosed with MDVA..."
Oliver explained Jonathan's graph, how it related to MDVA, and what its results entailed for the future. Tearing my eyes away from Oliver's complicated speech, I sneaked a glance at Zack and Flint.
The main reason all of us gathered here was to persuade the two of them over to the Anti-MDVA faction side. At the very least, we had to convince them to become moles for us. Jeremy, based on the fact that he visited Hope Research Center before it was quarantined by the Pro-MDVA side, is probably part of their faction. And since Zack and Flint work under him, there is no better contender for a mole than them.
I gauged the two's reaction as I secretly looked at them. Zack was silent, his arms crossed as he concentrated his gaze on Oliver. Despite my fears of him interrupting or being too close-minded to listen, Zack's eyes were focused on the slides and Oliver, switching between the two depending on what Oliver was talking about. He seemed to be absorbing the information earnestly, with a side of skepticism as occasionally, he would slightly furrow his brows at Oliver's words and move his lips to mumble something under his breath.
Flint, on the other hand, wasn't really paying attention. Around the beginning, the sparks in his eyes we replaced with confusion as he stared at the numbers on the screen, comprehension escaping him, before giving up and proceeding to quietly fidget with his fingers. To be fair, whatever Oliver was saying right now was very hard to understand. Even I didn't fully know what he was saying. Panning my eyes around, there were a total of three people who were truly paying attention to Oliver's words. Jonathan, Zack, and Linel.
Beside Linel, Frank was staring blankly at the screen, his eyes in a daze as he tried his best to appear attentive. Keeping my head as straight as possible, the two of us met eyes, and we gave each other a small smile before I diverted my attention back to Flint and Zack.
At this point in the talk, Zack had unfolded his arms. Instead, one hand was holding his chin while the other supported his elbow, as he subtly nodded his head along to Oliver's words. Beside him, Flint had created a lattice with his fingers and was popping each of the rough fingertips between each other to stave off boredom.
Returning my attention to Oliver, he was making eye contact with Zack as he continued to talk, pausing every now and then to drink from one of the plastic water bottles that were originally placed on the bench. Occasionally, Oliver would switch to look at Jonathan and Linel. The former especially when Oliver was making a point that, from what I vaguely understood, came from his research. The latter would nod his head and show a thumbs up whenever a small water break was needed between words.
"I think, before we continue the talk, it would be good to release those who do not understand."
Suddenly, interrupting the peaceful water break, Jonathan's words rang out throughout the lab as he gave the three of us a glance. Jerking up after being startled by the voice, Flint quickly disentangled his fingers and placed them innocently on his lap. However, his actions had caused everyone's eyes to gravitate to him, and Zack gave a slightly amused sigh from beside him.
"I suppose you're right."
Patting Flint on the thigh, Zack gestured for him to take Frank and me over to another section of the lab. Shooting a glance at Oliver, I saw him nod his head and signal for us to follow Flint. We then left the four of them and retreated to the other corner of the laboratory, to not become a disturbance.
"Dan."
Whispering to me, Frank and I held hands as we looked at Flint. The tall and stocky man had only given one look to Zack before heading straight here. Stopping as we reached the wall, Flint turned around to look down at us.
"What?"
I furrowed my brows, bending my knees, preparing to counter whatever action Flint made. However, instead of any act of violence, Flint just snorted from his nose and grabbed a nearby chair to sit on.
"Relax. I'm not going to do anything to a bunch of brats."
He stretched his hand to the chairs, telling us to sit down as he leaned his head on the back of his chair. With one eye on him, we reached out our hands to drag two chairs from beside the lab bench. However, as I gripped the chair and was about to drag it with my body weight, a slight screech sounded and I immediately let go.
"..."
The three of us quickly turned our heads over to the smart group. Meeting four pairs of eyes, I subconsciously straightened my back as I exchanged glances with Frank.
How were we supposed to drag the chairs without making any noise?
"Here."
In the middle of racking our heads, Flint's voice called out to us from behind, and soon two large arms silently lifted the two noisy chairs and set them down in front of Flint's own chair.
"Thank you."
"No problem. My only redeeming feature is my muscles after all."
Giving us a wide-mouth grin, Flint's face turned slightly less ugly as he said that self-deprecating sentence with a sincere smile.
"Surely you have other talents besides your muscles?"
In pure naivety, Frank asked Flint as he leaned his back on the chair and relaxed his body.
"Well, yeah. But my broth- uh, Zack - is always better at everything than I am. The only thing I can win him in is strength."
Flint explained with a smile on his face, no trace of any envy or resentment towards Zack present on his features as he indirectly praised him. In fact, there was even a slight trace of pride in his eyes as he shot a look toward his 'brother'.
"You seem very proud of Zack. How did the two of you meet?"
Turning my head to give Zack a quick glance, I questioned Flint as I noticed Jonathan and Zack speaking. It seemed that the 'talk' part of the discussion had ended. Now was probably the point where Oliver had to convince Jonathan and Zack to assist us.
This was probably why Jonathan chased us away. It was most likely also why Zack made Flint leave with us as well.
"Hehe, so you want to ask more about Zack! Well, fear not, I'll tell you two how smart he is! Rats - uh, children- like the two of you could never achieve his level of smartness!"
Hearing the arrogance in Flint's voice, I suppressed the wry smile that threatened to show on my face. I relaxed the muscles of my neck, intending to turn around to face Flint, when I caught Zack taking a small break from the discussion to jerk his gaze toward us. Meeting eyes, those calculating and cold depths sharpened as they half-threatened me, half-cautioned me.
'If anything happened to Flint, I will make sure you will regret it.'
I gave Zack a small nod, reassuring him. After all, what could two children do against this musclehead? In response to my nod, those beady eyes narrowed further before finally returning their attention back to the discussion.
Feeling a tight squeeze on my hand, I quickly swerved my head back toward our own little circle and smiled at Flint.
"So, how did the two of you meet?"
Flint paused a second, taking a while to look at the other group. After ensuring that nothing strange or dangerous was going on, he bent his back, leaned forward, and whispered to us the 'great story of Zack'.