"Don't worry about that for now…"
He then looked up and asked,
"How well do you climb?"
Davila scoffed at the question,
"I belong to a special force in the military that handles extreme…"
"Yes, yes, you're so special yet you got caught. Maybe you need a crash course on the basics."
"Johan, be nice."
Lucy scolded over the line."
Johan rolled his eyes and then took off his gloves,
"You'll need these. They'll help you get a better grip on the cable."
He said and handed them over to Davila.
Davila was shocked by the weight of the gloves. This was no time to complain or make snide remarks, but it felt like he was wearing iron gauntlets.
When everything was ready, Johan led the way. A single leap and he was already a dozen feet in the air,
"Try to keep up,"
He said, looking down at Davila.
Davila couldn't bother to ask questions and started climbing the lift cable. Yet again, Johan was climbing effortlessly, almost as though he was lightweight, Davila couldn't help but think. Thanks to the gloves, Davila didn't have to worry about how slippery the cable might be, and he too displayed his years of training in a special force.
Johan was the first to arrive at the rendezvous point where Wade and Connor were still standing guard.
"Hey, pull me."
He called out.
Connor heard and quickly reached out to pull Johan up.
"Where is he?"
"He'll need some time to climb up here."
"We don't have time. I'll go pick him up," said Wade as he jumped down the elevator shaft.
Soon after, he jumped back onto solid ground carrying Davila over his shoulder. He then put the shocked Davila down, as the latter had something to say about it.
"That was very unnecessary."
"You're welcome. Lucy, we have the target, we're on our way out." Wade announced.
Johan wasn't given the chance to put his shoes on and was grabbed by Connor as they retreated.
As they moved, Davila noticed there was no guard at their duty posts. He didn't need to be told what had happened here, but he was shocked to the point of disbelief. He already judged the difficulty of this operation and guessed there might be others involved in it. It might seem easy from an outsider's perspective but breaking into such a guarded facility and easily maneuvering their way up to this point where no one had detected the successful infiltration and his absence, proved how experienced and coordinated these people were. Most of all, they appeared so young.
It didn't take long before they went past the exit of the facility and into the snow-covered pine forest where the rest were waiting.
"Are you guys ready to leave yet?" asked Wade after he put Davila down.
"Yeah, let's go."
The rest of the team with Davila in tow silently made their way out of the forest. Moments later, they arrived where the van was parked, and Lucy came to greet them.
"Good job out there everyone. I've sent our mission report back to the island to confirm completion… we'll be leaving after that."
"Wait… leaving…? Leaving to where? Who even are you guys? Someone, start talking or I'm not going anywhere."
Connor scoffed,
"We're way past that now."
Then Wade chimed in,
"If we wanted to kill you, we would have… so stop whining."
Davila wanted to say something else but decided not to. Johan told him his superiors were involved in this, and the pendant was proof of that. In that case, it would be unwise to offend them, especially when he knew nothing about them.
He then noticed the team prepping for departure rather sluggishly, as though they were completely safe where they were.
"I'd hate to state the obvious, but shouldn't we be on our way by now? They could discover my absence and we'd be facing off almost a hundred of them."
"I understand your concern, but we won't leave until our mission completion is confirmed by our superiors, in case they need us to do something else..."
Lucy explained.
While she did that, the team's electronic bracelet beeped once with a symbol displayed on the screen.
"What is it? Mission complete?"
Davila asked, noting the slight change in their expression.
"It soon will be," replied Lucy.
Just as she was done talking, everyone started getting into the van, and Johan lightly brushed past Davila heading toward the van as well.
Davila was just about to say something when he discovered he couldn't, as though the words weighed heavily on his throat. Just when he found this odd, he noticed something warm trickling down his neck, and his eyes flashed with realization as he quickly held his neck. Alongside a slight metallic sensation rushing up his throat was blood flowing from his mouth. With the look of utter shock and disbelief still fresh on his face, Davila plopped to his knees and finally fell over, as his blood poured ceaselessly on the ground around him. The team acted as though nothing was going on behind them. Everyone got into the van and drove off, leaving Davila lifeless by the roadside.
~Arcanum Institute~
Dr. Ilene was working late as she always did. She was looking into the Nightfall Unit's mission report and taking note of their behavior on the field when she received a call that reflected on the large monitor behind her.
"General Norman, what an odd time to call."
"Don't play coy with me, Ilene! Look at this… what is the meaning of this?!"
General Norman was furious as though he wanted nothing more than to jump through the monitor and attack Ilene.
After General Norman spoke, a video appeared on the monitor where a body was left in a gruesome state after being mowed down by bullets and later mutilated into several pieces.
However, Dr. Ilene watched the video to the end without the slightest change in her expression. Instead, she spoke up,
"I don't see anything wrong… care to point it out?"