"Come here."
Ding narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips at this," Am not your damn pet!"
"Haha! Now you just look like an angry cat."
"Knock it off… it's making me uncomfortable when you talk to me like that, making it seem like am your husband."
"What was that? Husband? You? No offense, I mean you're hot and all but you know am not attracted to men right?"
"Yeah yeah."
Ding moved from the curtains and took a seat beside Lily. He turned to her and in a serious tone asked," So, back to the business at hand. When do we depart?"
"Oh?" Lily placed a finger on her cheek and tilted her head in Ding's direction," you barking orders now?"
"N, No! I mean…"
Lily covered her mouth trying to minimise her laughter at Ding's embarrassed expression.
"Give me a minute," she said, stood up and disappeared into a room.
Ding sat patiently waiting for Lily to finish whatever it was she was doing and after a few minutes, she emerged from her room dressed in a casual outfit.
"Let's get going shall we?"
After ensuring Mimi was securely kept in her cage with enough greens and water, Ding and Lily walked out of the apartment side by side. They walked through the entrance and took a left turn down the path leading to an estate. Though having numerous questions, Ding kept silent and followed Lily as she walked through the gates and into the grounds where lavish mansions were built.
"This is…"
Lily ignored him and pulled out a card from her pocket, which she showed to the guard by the gate. Ding studied the guard and he could tell from his well proportioned and sturdy physique that he was not one to mess with. Sure he was confident in his fighting skills but he deemed it wise not to pick a fight with such a person.
"Miss."
The guard's cold, brutal eyes landed on Ding and Lily followed his gaze.
"He's with me."
With that, the guard stepped aside and allowed them entry into the paving stones leading to a mansion secluded from the others. This mansion was bigger and seemed more like a castle than your average day mansionette. The colourful flower bushes and towering trees surrounding them gave the area such a lush and aesthetic appearance. Upon arrival at the door, Lily rang the door bell and a butler received them.
"Welcome, the master is waiting for you," he said in a british accent.
"Thank you."
Lily walked past the butler and into the house with Ding following closely behind her.
"Ah, tu m'as manqué Lily," the guy said.
"Merci, Louis."
The guy, Louis, stood from the couch and walked towards Lily with his hands outstretched. He kissed her on the cheek and Ding, who only knew one language, stood watching the two.
"Ah, Louis meet Ding. Ding, Louis."
"Pleased to meet you," Ding said with his hand outstretched.
"Nice to meet you too. I've heard a lot about you from Lily," he said and Ding was taken a back by how fluent his speech was.
"Enough with that, we need your help," Lily said breaking them apart.
"What seems to be the trouble?"
Lily explained their current predicament and Louis nodded his head in understanding and once she was done, he smiled.
"You did well coming to me and I happen to have just what you need."
Louis stood from where he was seated and vanished around the corner. Seconds later, he emerged with a laptop in hand and sat placing it on his lap. Ding moved closer to Lily and in a low voice whispered," What is he doing?"
"Working his magic," she replied in a similar low tone," if you want tracking done fast, he's your man."
Louis typed away furiously and Ding watched this in amazement. After a while of nothing but the echoing types of keyboards, Louis finally spoke up.
"Where was the location again?" he asked eyes still glued on his screen.
Ding and Lily exchanged worried looks once Louis stopped typing and turned to them with a serious expression on his face.
"I found them!" he exclaimed excitedly and the two let out the breathes they didn't know they were holding and Louis looked at them," what?"
Lily rubbed the bridge between her eyes and let out a low sigh," Nothing. So what did you find? Anything useful?"
"Don't insult me!" Louis said clearly taken a back by what she had said," Here."
He turned the screen and played the clip showing how the kids were bundled into a van. Ding clenched and unclenched his fists and Lily placed a hand over his in an attempt to calm him down.
"Where did they take them?" he asked through his clenched teeth.
"Hmm… according to these video clips, they headed to…"
Ding leaned against the wall, hands in his pockets as he surveyed the building which housed the kids. Lily walked up to him ice cream in hand.
"…so what now?"
Ding turned to her and the scent of her mint ice cream reached his nose and he covered his mouth.
"Really?"
"What?" she asked clueless.
He eyed her and let out a defeated sigh," Never mind. Remember the plan?"
Lily gobbled down the remaining cone in one bite, wiped her lips clean and walked towards the building. A guard stopped her and Ding watched this from the corner of his eye. He pretended to walk past the building and when he had a clear shot of the guard, he effortlessly strangled him leaving him unconscious. Lily kicked the body and turned to Ding," Did you kill him?"
"Maybe… maybe not."
Not wanting to ask more, they made their way into the building and down to the basement. At the very entrance to the basement, the sight that greeted them was horrific and Ding was glad he didn't go there in a full stomach.
"What exactly happens in here?" Lily asked, a hand covering her nose in an attempt to keep away the dense smell of blood in the air.
Luck being on their side, there seemed to be no one on guard and this was making their mission surprisingly easy or so he thought. As he approached a sort of operating table, he stood frozen in place at the sight before him.
"How could they do this?"
"Ding?"
Lily walked to his side and let out a small gasp upon settling her eyes on what had Ding dumbstruck. She did not want to assume that the parts laying around belonged to young children but no matter how hard she tried to hope this was not true, there was no other reasonable explanation.
"I'll kill them!"
"Hey, hey. Don't go doing unnecessary things. Right now our priority is finding the kids."
He took in a few steady breathes and nod his head," Okay."
It didn't take them long to find the enclosure housing the kids and just as they had finished getting the remaining survivors out, a loud alarm blared around them.
"Dammit!"