Tim had brought down a bag full of papers, documents, and pictures. It was the bag that contained all the evidence that Tim had collected over the past decade.
Sera had noticed that Tim's expression had gotten a bit grim. It usually happened when he was all business.
"Sera, I think we have gotten our hands on bigger fish than we had ever thought", Tim said.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Spill!"
"Are you sure Eva won't come back down?", Tim wasn't certain if he should pull out the plethora of evidence he had on his lap. He didn't want to blow his cover.
Eva had no clue that Tim was the masked vigilante, or that they were trying to expose the Cetus Foundation.
"Oh my god, Tim! Please take them out and speak!", Sera couldn't wait. She was very anxious to know what he had uncovered.
"Okay, fine. Take a chill pill. I'll tell you everything", Tim said, spooked out by Sera's behavior.
"And they say Eva was acting erratic, I think I get where she gets it from", Tim thought to himself.
Sera was aggressively tapping her feet on the floor; that was Tim's queue to spill all he knew.
Tim, being the master strategist, laid out all his findings in an even, organized manner. Nothing unbeknownst to him, just casual business for the Man in the Shadows. But he was damn proud regardless.
"Well, we were able to stop all the shipments from the US. Unfortunately, that's only 25% of what was supposed to be shipped to Paris."
"Oh, so we didn't complete the job?", Sera asked.
"25% is still a significant number", Tim replied.
"Oh, that's why Julian Klaus himself came to check what was going wrong", Sera replied.
Tim asked, "Julian Klaus was there in person?"
"My reaction was just the same! I'm just surprised that we were able to get away with this, to be honest. We have a lot of luck left."
"Maybe, maybe not. But I found enough evidence from the database you gave me, which is much more serious than all this", Tim said.
"Oh, you weren't able to get much from the people who were at the site?", Sera said while being unnerved.
"The workers were hired; they knew nothing. They don't even know who they were working for. There was a mediator, but this person wasn't present at the site,", Tim replied.
"And after you were done, you decided to torture them?", Sera asked.
"I was just giving them a second chance in life. They will never do such scum work in their lives again. Honest work, honest living,", Tim said in a very proud tone.
"The news that came in the evening said two of them were paralyzed,", Sera replied.
"I mean, most working places now are made accessible for wheelchairs"
There was some awkward silence for a minute or so.
"Okay, moving on."
"Oh yes, please", Sera said, desperate to break the awkward silence.
"From the database you provided, I was able to find two very significant things that literally shook me to the core."
"What's that?", Sera inquired, still unnerved.
"From what you provided, I was able to get through the block walls of the system and see files that were beyond anyone's reach. I saw blueprints for machinery, which initially didn't seem very clear to me."
"Oh, it could be something related to our mineral mining."
"Sera, they were blueprints for weapons of mass destruction."
Sera was perplexed, not being able to understand what he was trying to imply.
"Sera, the machines I saw were way beyond our time—stuff that scares me."
"Nuclear?", Sera asked.
"Not yet"
"What do you mean by not yet?", Sera was now in panic mode.
"This is way more than animal splicing experiments in humans; this is way bigger than human abuse. This is about world dominance.", Tim tried to make it sound less threatening.
"Cetus? World domination?"
"I didn't say Cetus wanted world dominance; they are going to sell this. It's very obvious that it's a sale that's going to happen in Paris."
"I did hear from Charlie that Cetus representatives will be attending a meeting or some party in Paris,", Sera said.
"I reckon that's where the sale might happen", Tim replied.
"Wait, who is the buyer, then?", Sera asked.
"Some dude called Kushnov"
Sera knew that this name was familiar. She had heard of it before, but she couldn't place where she had heard of it. And then, finally, it clicked in her mind.
"Wait, is it Alexander Kirshnov?", Sera asked Tim.
Tim nodded.
"Do you even know who that is?"
Suddenly, even Tim found the name eerily familiar.
It then clicked in his mind. He knew who that was.
"The Russian Army?", they said in unison.
"Yes, that Kirshnov, one of the most highest ranking generals in the Russian Army."
"I'm not sure if it's the army or the government behind the purchase; all I know is that General Kirshnov will personally attend the meeting and make the purchase,", Tim said.
"This is way beyond our reach now, and yet you still want me to be undercover?", Sera was not just worried; she was perplexed beyond words.
"We still have a job to do; we still have to finish what we started", Tim tried to reason.
"Have you lost it? What can we do about something that involves a multinational corporation and a freaking army? We two are not enough for this", Sera was slightly losing it.
"We personally cannot do anything with the sale; it would happen regardless, and we can't reach Paris", Tim said.
"Let's just stick to crime fighting, please. Let Cetus do whatever they want to do. Let's just live a normal New York life."
"I can't stop until we avenge what happened to Mr. Tran", Tim said, with anger in his voice.
"Tim, there are so many ways in which we can get the truth out. Going after things that transcends everything we know is not smart. Think about Eva."
Tim took a while to reply. He stood facing away from Sera, trying to avoid her.
"What if it was us?"
"What?", Sera asked.
"I said, what if it was us? What if whatever happened to Caden instead happened to Eva?"
Sera didn't speak a word.
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing. We will stay within our boundaries and fight against them so that no one will ever face what they had to."
Sera was touched. She stood up and hugged Tim.
"Hey, so what happened at the meeting today?"
Sera took up a huge chunk of the air around her. After hearing all the new info that Tim had just dumped on her, she was really hesitant to reveal about her promotion.
"Uhmm, as I said, Julian Klaus came today and went through our files. He called me to his room, asked a lot of questions, and then said,..."
"Then he said what?", Tim asked.
"He then gave me a promotion to a higher corporate role, haven't been briefed about it yet"
"Oh wait, really? Congrats! That's good. Gives us more access to their info now", Tim said. He hugged Sera as he said this.
"Umm yeah, but-"
"What's wrong?", Tim was perplexed.
"After what happened today, I'm not sure if I should take it. I think I should quit and just leave all this", Sera told Tim.
There was some silence for a while.
"I know what you're gonna say, but-"
She continued to look at Tim, yearning for his approval.
"You have to, now that we know what the stakes are.", Tim replied.
"Alrighty then, I'll just mail them and see what they reply. Was going to take a day off anyways too"
"Good, let's check on Eva and break the news to her.", Tim said.
"Nope, lets surprise her tomorrow".