Kenny lied on his back in the van. The nurse Pupu stared at him with a perverted look on her face. Kenny averted his eyes away when he caught her drooling. He wondered what she was thinking.
"Orange reported earlier that you defeated an enemy skultar by yourself," said the nurse. "He even stated that you are an Exceptional, but you have a stupid ability, and it is mostly useless."
Kenny noticed her facial expression had not changed a bit. Was it her normal facial expression? Nevertheless, he tried to act normal. "I was fighting to protect. Maybe that is why I was able to defeat that monster. I do not know if I could beat someone like that again," he said.
"I am sure you will," she replied with a smile. "The organization will train you to use your skultar ability to the fullest. But first you need to recover fast, and it is our job to fix you."
"Where are you taking me?" he asked when he realized they were out of the city and now had entered a desolate street among the woods.
"You can not operate a body which is declared a terrorist organization by the government," said the nurse. "So we had to move underground for our organization to operate smoothly."
The van halted in the middle of the street. The nurse took out a device with a button and pressed it. Suddenly, the van began to go down under the ground.
"Wow," Kenny reacted in amazement when he discovered they had set up a secret entrance to their base, which was totally out of reach of the government.
The lift took down the van, and the roof closed up, just like before. The masked staff dressed in blue uniforms carried the stretcher out and took Kenny away.
Kenny observed his surroundings. He could see a full-metal passageway and a lot of chambers on the sides.
They carried him in an elevator at the far end of the passageway.
The nurse Pupu was with him too. She tapped on 'minus fourth floor' after entering a security key, which Kenny could not look at.
"How many floors are there?" he asked the nurse.
"Around ten, but I have not been down to the last two," replied Pupu. "It is reserved for only the top executives."
"You are very well organized," said Kenny in admiration. "Expected from the top force thrashing the government on every corner."
"I am flattered that our work impressed you." She smiled before her expression suddenly turned grim. "But do not get fooled by this facade. What we do is an extremely dangerous task. You might lose your life any day. There is a hanging sword over our heads at every moment of our life."
Kenny knew it already. He nodded. "I understand."
The elevator stopped as they had arrived at the desired floor. The door opened into a large laboratory like chamber. There were a few masked staffs operating on some skultar dead bodies. They were collecting samples from them and carrying out some tests.
The secret infrastructure they had set up amazed Kenny. It could rival some of the top government agencies.
"How the government did not find out this place until now?" he wondered, peering around, looking at the strange machines set around the room.
"We are sensitive about our security," answered the nurse. "We have taken the necessary steps to ensure our base of operations to be hidden. Only this much I can tell you now." She winked.
They bandaged his whole body up-to the neck, mummifying him.
"I have never seen this treatment," reacted Kenny when they put him into a strange coffin-like structure. They attached wires to his body; in his chest, his temples, and his belly.
"This is the recent development in the field of medicine," said the nurse with a smile. "We have just stolen it."
"Wait, stolen it?" reacted Kenny with a troubled face when he heard it. "Do you not have a professional operating these kinds of stuffs?" He struggled in panic. "Let me out of here."
A masked staff put an oxygen mask on his mouth and closed him inside the machine.
"Let me out!" One could hear his muffled shouts, but they ignored it.
Suddenly, there was a release of sleeping gas, causing Kenny to go to sleep. Then there was a release of mysterious shiny blue liquid which filled the coffin-like machine.
"Trust me, Kenny," Pupu spoke with a perverted smirk, "we are very professional. I would be delighted to experim… I mean, to treat you."
***
It was the next day, there was breaking news in all the newspapers and the mainstream media.
A news flashed at the screen of a television when Marya passed by an electronics shop, thinking about the incident of the day before.
< "A decapitated head was found mounted on a pike outside the city's council building. It is confirmed that it belonged to the well-known business-man Hagambo Dryer who owned multiple factories in different cities. The agencies are in search of the remaining body parts. It is also known that the victim was the younger brother of the minister, Jagambo Dryer.
It is said that the notorious terrorist group, 'The Outliers', were behind this. Jagambo has given his reaction to the sudden horror." >.
Marya covered her mouth in shock when she looked at the picture of the victim. It was the white-suited man who had attacked Kenny and her yesterday. The news channel even showed a blurred picture of the head on the pike, giving her a good idea of what the condition was. Her eyes teared up as she muttered, "Kenny…"
The channel then flashed the next part of the news. There was a well-dressed man in a blue suit. A thin, middle-aged, brown skinned, clean shaven man with a side parted hairstyle sat in a press conference. She could see the rage in his eyes.
< "The well-known minsiter and a close companion to the Emperor, Jagambo Dryer has given a statement on the sudden killing of his brother."
Jagambo's statement: "He was a very committed and a hard-working man. My brother never thought badly of anyone, but those anti-peace animals targeted him not only for his relation to me, a minister, but also for his funds to the government. It is true that he funded a major part of our programs, and he played an important role in establishing the strength of our control over the land. We were supremely successful in crushing the barks of those who went against the peace of our nation. It was because he remained as one of the pillars of our strength over the years. That is why those terrorists had killed him. They had not only killed my brother but also threatened to destroy the peace we have created. Symon, if you are watching me, let me tell you that I will do the same to you what you did to my brother." >
Marya could feel he was serious, and somehow she knew Kenny was also in danger. He got involved with some particularly wrong people.
***
Jagambo had just exited the press conference and sat in his limousine. An old man with a thick mustache and gray combed back hair wearing a black-suit came to him and gave him some information regarding the investigation.
"Sir, the investigation has found that someone spotted Sir Hagambo on the outskirts of the Kanugo city, near the Kanugo slum area. Someone had spotted his car going there."
Jagambo's face tensed upon hearing it. "Those dastards chose that place because that place is lawless. Poverty and sickness run rampant there. It is a place where only rats and cockroaches live. I had told Hagambo to not go there personally to set up his new factory after learning there was a threat to his life."
The man gave him another piece of information. "Sir, there is an information that he had tried to hunt a human there. Also, his driver had vanished the previous day, and he had been investigating his disappearance. I do not know if it has anything to do with his death, but I thought I should tell you."
"Dig deeper," said Jagambo with a quizzical expression. "Get The Faceless for this job at any cost. Go to any length you want, but I want them involved."
"Sir, would they accept it?" said the man. "They might be the best trackers and the finest killers in the world, but they do not take orders from anyone other than the emperor."
"They will accept it," said Jagambo and closed the door of his car.