(Erriador Intelligence Services)
In a pitch dark dusk, the scarce illumination from the garden lights, reveals five silhouettes.
In the middle of the garden, on a round coffee table, Rhett and Elk, sat accross facing each other. By the side, there stood three Agents, alert.
"Are you gonna talk or?" Rhett asks, breaking the austere silence.
Elk leisurely sipping his black tea, he places the cup down in it's plate, resonating a clink sound.
"Raka is aiming for the Ruhd. He has hundreds of hostages trapped in the Hotel Aurora." Elk explains.
Elk was a middle-aged man, dressed formally. He had clear eyes, and there was a clerical, dire air about him.
"Raka switched to a terrorist?" Rhett taunts.
Elk stares at him, emotionless, far finding him funny. "The world conspires to get their hands on Ruhd. If Raka owns it, he arises a war."
Rhett stays silent, known to the fact, the power Ruhd holds.
Elk pauses before continuing, "Ruhd is a threat to humanity. No matter what, we cannot let it fall into the hands of evil."
"And the common hostages could erk the authorities to satisfy his demands?" Rhett asks.
"Lily, President's daughter is one of them. You have to get the her out safely, no matter what. Rest of the citizens should be in the back of your mind." Elk sternly specifies.
Rhett rolls his eyes, typical of the higher-ups. "What if she slips out my mind?"
Ace chortles, switching to cover his snort with coughs instead. Sky standing next to him glares at the guy making him zip up shut.
The strict gaze of Elk doesn't spare a flicker. "These are strict orders, straight from above. Any scratch, and we are to be damned." A nonchalant Elk declares.
"I do my own thing or not at all. You're very well aware of it, Boss." Rhett calmly states, his tone deep and sullen.
"Then, I shall be gone." He stands up, hands in his jeans pocket. He looks down at Elk.
"I work with the force of my own free will, it's foolish to tackle a mission which disputes it. Well, forget it." He shrugs, turning around to leave.
The three agents glances at each other, torn between the urge to follow their leader, and the wrath they would have to face from Elk if they do leave.
Elk sighs, closing his eyes. Rhett is stone rigid, he can still see the rebellious teenager in him. 'I ought to slap that kid!' He grits his teeth, infuriated. He finally, lost his cool.
"Alright, mission's on your hands Czar. Do not dissatisfy me!" Elk adjures, glancing up at his retreating figure.
Rhett pauses his steps, tilting his head, he looks at him over his shoulder. He raises his brows, "Sure, you know the amount right?"
Elk closes his eyes, his heart clenching in anger, "Sure!" He ensures, smiling through gritted teeth. Rhett nods in return, ambling out the organisation center.
The Agents pays respect to their Boss, and starts following behind Rhett.
While, Elk stands there, watching Rhett's frame disappear with deep thoughts.
---
(Hotel Aurora)
"Raka, are you sure you want to do this?" A tall man, standing in the grand hotel suite asks. He was Raka's right-hand man, Zev.
"Hmm." Raka replies, standing by the desk, occupied by the file in his hands.
"We don't even know if Miss Noe's still alive. Isn't this, too much?" Zev asks, unsure of his Boss's tactics.
At the reason of his stress, Raka creases his brows. The next second, the file gets brutally tossed at him.
Raka lunges forward, Zev had no moment to process, the sudden strangling force on him. A hand smothered around the neck, he crashes Zev on the wall, choking him brutally.
Zev gags, but he dare doesn't fight back. He knows better to not annoy him greater than he already did.
"Stay. on. your. damn. limit!" Raka hisses through gritted teeth.
A knock on the door is heard, seizing Raka's attention.
He loosens his grip around his neck, jerking him off to the ground. Zev coughs out, gasping for air.
"Come in." Raka says. The door opens, revealing an armed man, dressed in an all black suit.
"Boss, there's a problem." The grim man declares.
"What happened?" Raka inquires with lack of enthusiasm.
"President's daughter stabbed one of our men." He returns with a straight face.
Raka raises a brow, "Fiesty," his lips curves up a smirk. "Is he dead?" He asks, swiping alongside on his phone.
"Not yet Boss."
---
It has been three days since Raka took Hotel Aurora into hostage. He demanded the President of Erriador, alone at the Hotel Aurora, where he had held citizens captive. Located in city Marioth, of the country Serei.
He should reach in the next five hours, and hand him the Ruhd in exchange of Lily, and the citizens. If he fails to, Raka would start his killing spree.
At this moment, the four elite agents have reached the Hotel Aurora.
They had influenced the surveillance cameras, tempting the footage to play on the faultless guarding men, when they had been knocked out of life to make a safe entrance into the Hotel.
They would have to be severely discrete with their movements, until they had entered the Hotel.
"Sky, any changes in attitudes?" Rhett inquires.
Sky; the hacker, stayed behind on the car, guiding them the routes and variations in the hotel, having successfully hacked into the security cameras.
"Yes Czar, President's daughter have been kept separate in the west room, 12th floor, room number 446. The rest of the hostages remain in the same spots. It's as before, each floor has a room of fifty or more hostages." Agent Sky replies, her fingers continuously tapping along on the keys of her laptop.
"Ace, head up a viewpoint that allows the clearest, perfect shot into the hotel." Rhett commands Agent Ace; the sniper of the team.
"Roger that Boss." Ace responds in a professional tone, stripped off his usual, goofy self.
"Hunter, you're with me." Rhett says, he was necessary to operate alongside him.
"Roger." Agent Hunter; the explosive specialist replies.
"Sky, now." Rhett commands, concurrently snapping the neck of a man, erupting a disturbing sound of the bone being broken.
"Gotcha..." With a clean swap, Agent sky hacks in the static of the Hotel Aurora.
Manipulating the lightings in accord with it's requirements.
Everyone has taken their positions. The mission, was in action. They had more than fifty percent of maneuver over the scene at hand.
They would tackle the troop marching on them, blinding them with the darkness. Czar and Hunter would see through the dark with the night-vision goggles, with ease, eliminating obstacles.
Ace keeps the troop outdoors at bay, shooting them down before they could come to their aid.
Heading ground through ground, they had freed the crowd of captives. Warning them to be still at the place until help arrives. While, Ace on a distance covers up for them.
On the other side, "Raka, they are on the move." Zev informs, interrupting Ishmael's smoke session.
Raka agapes his lips, exhaling white, clouded smoke. "What about the special team?"
"They have made their advance."
---
"Someone's heading towards Lily's room. It should be Raka." Sky notifies Rhett.
"Received. Keep being alert." Czar remarks, leaning on a wall, refilling the bullets on his gun. He glances at Hunter beside, he gestures him a nod. Hunter nods back at him. Lily alone had been left, and she should be in the roughest shape.
"Czar, Lily has been put into an explosive belt." Sky had been studying the backdrop, her attention shifted on Lily, she informs the leader.
"Ace, are you in the position to shoot him?" Rhett asks. "No Boss, the windows are tinted." Ace replies.
"Sky, Ace get the hostages out of here. Fast!" Rhett commands.
They had shot down counts of them. Even as, the shooting at the savages still unceasing.
However, he could feel them dissapearing, not because they overwhelmed the gang.
He knew the count of the members, and the amount they had probably taken down, they should have snuck out through a secret passage.
"Roger." "Roger." Sky and Ace, simultaneously responds.
Rhett and Hunter had attained the door to Lily's room. Bursting the door open, they step in the lighted room with caution.
The girl's eyes enlarges in gladness. She tied up in a chair, suffocating. A tape on her mouth, hushing her continuous rambles, and ear piercing screams.
Lily was wrapped up in explosives. The timer active, set to five minutes.
They could perceive no one else other than Lily. Raka could not have run out in such short moment.
As Lily gets a glimpse of Rhett, her eyebrows creases in bewilderment.
Rhett and Hunter had neared Lily. His alert gaze scanning around the room, while Hunter scrutinzed the type of bomb Lily was wrapped around with.
Then, a man creeps out. Rhett forces the gun's aim at the man.
A sturdy and tall man, formally dressed in a dark blazer, black hair tied up in a man-bun. From out the shadows, sleekly, he calmly strides towards them.
Guns pointed to his head, he raises his hands. Feigning a surrender to Hunter and his leader. The object in his right hand, though; results his dominance in this bloody game.
Rhett clenches his jaw, annoyed. In Raka's hand, is a detonator, a push-button remote control, trigger of the bomb.
His hold compressed on the firearm. He could unfortunately not kill him yet, although he's more than prepared to penetrate a hole into his skull.
Under the lights, Raka's features appears. His countenance; translucent to the eyes.
Lily feels a chill spiking down her spine.
His pupils contracts, speaking his astonishment by the crazy flip of events. Rhett frowns, their stone cold gazes riveted.
In action, Rhett always found it repulsive to mask his face. His face was bare, abscend of disguise. His frown deepening.
What was this supposed to mean?
The sided, two people in the room, Lily and Hunter, they were astonished beyond belief. Their stunned glimpses travelling between the two men.
The one by Hunter's side is a soldier in uniform, who had layed down his life for the country. A gun on his hand, aimed at the Don of the underworld.
Lily and Hunter could not believe their eyes, baffled, Lily had goosebumps rising on her body.
"Why do we look-" The tensed atmosphere was slashed with Rhett's subconscious question. Suddenly, sails anger and confusion in his eyes. He couldn't even complete a sentence; abhorring sharing the same face as the criminal.
Ishmael himself, he carries a hint of surprise in the orbs.
Why were their countenance; identical?
A pathetic scene, they remain calm, minds hurling to form answers. The foe; is a look alike of the other.
There remain no possibility Raka ever knew Czar, or had ever seen him.
Nor, Rhett, had ever been able to crack Ishmael's identity. Both of the men, has been mysterious in their own style.
Either, one of them were fake, or this was a pure coincidence and nature's play.
"No mindless talk." Ishmael remarks in his consistent, cold voice.
Rhett raises one of his brows. 'Bastard!'
"You are surrounded, hand me the remote." He demands, time was fleeting. He certainly wouldn't wish to die here.
Ishmael smirks, before he could retort back, a ringing noise of a phone resonates throughout the stiff room. He fishes out the device from the pocket of his lengthy coat. He swipes the green button.
"We've got the Ruhd." The voice of a man resonates out the phone.
"Good." Raka smugly returns, immediately hanging up the call.
He swiftly spares a glance at Lily, she had absolutely, close to no use for him.
"Such a pity." He mutters.
Ishmael then directs his gaze at Rhett. "Pleasingly, our chat ends here."
In a sudden, the faint sound of an evtol approaching from a distance becomes clearer. An evtol has come to fetch Raka.
The now, transparent floor to ceiling window, enabled them to see an evtol hovering by the balcony of the suite they were currently in.
Rhett could do nothing, he watched as Raka moved away. The guns aimed at him, he had a hand raised, warning the destruction he could cause them with a single strike of his finger. In a moment, he was out through the door, and on the balcony.
Ishmael turns around, peering ahead, he prepares his muscles for a gamble.
What meets one's eye, is the tall and rigorous legs racing. Reminding one of a high sea. The right foot lands him up on the handrail of the glassed railing. Raka vaults, bearing no fault so painfully smooth on to the evtol, through it's open door, just for him.
Prior to closing the door of the aircraft, Raka throws the remote, in aims of crashing it on the balcony.
Rhett rushes out, almost close to end. He catches the remote, safely, swallowing the anxiety.
"Farewell!" Raka wishes, aloud.
Rhett grits his teeth in fury, his form still and rigid. Glaring at the departed evtol.
He glances down at the remote, his appearance darkens shades deeper.
The detonator moronically, useless.
The explosion could not be caused or stopped by the device.
Raka fooled them.
The explosive automatic and abscend in control. He escaped unharmed.
Rhett could not be any more irritated.
"Hunter! Hurry!" Rhett yells for Hunter, all has been left in his hands.
"Yes!" Hunter returns. He swiftly glances at the weeping Lily. He fails to reassure her, focusing to diffuse the complicated bomb. He swallows, a little complicated at the situation.
"Are the hostages out?" Rhett connects to Sky, inquiring her through the earpiece.
"They are safe Czar." Sky responds, away from the Hotel Aurora with the civilians safely on a distance.
Sky and Ace, had already taken care of the hostages.
He rushes inside the suite, commanding the elite soldier to bring in his exceptional skill to action.
Thirty seconds....the time Hunter had been left to prevent a disaster, and diffuse the bomb.