Chapter 13: The Final Confrontation

Back to the present time

Agent Shade ended his call with Jinx. He had no answer to Jinx’s question. Will he ever see Sarah or Jinx? Only time would tell the answer to that question. He sent his report on Jinx to the commander with his recommendation. He was a potential recruit, and Shade had high hopes for him.

Shade took a deep breath to calm his nerves. It was time to take command of the last leg of the mission. The moment of truth had arrived.

They started their raid on multiple locations simultaneously. Each team had clear targets for arrest, specific instructions on what to collect, and strict protocols to follow. It began with James’s arrest. He was intercepted on the highway as soon as he turned around to return to Sarah’s home. Shade concluded that James must have noticed the missing electronics in his car. With James’s arrest, he could breathe a sigh of relief, but his instincts were screaming at him. Something was wrong. Something was seriously wrong.

He had felt a similar unease not so long ago during his previous mission. It was as if he had missed something important. Like he had made a critical mistake. The mission was already underway, and there was little he could do except check the status of each team. He pondered what he might have overlooked, but nothing came to mind. Next, he thought about what was at stake, and his mind immediately turned to Sarah.

He had recently lectured Jinx about the dangers of personal attachments in this line of work, but was he truly immune to his own feelings? No, he was not. Sarah had proved her love for him and had stayed strong. It was time for him to reciprocate those feelings.

Jinx was already on the move toward the safe house, and he could not call him back. There was only one other person he could trust with Sarah’s safety. He immediately called a number from a secure line.

A sleepy voice responded from the other side, “Detective Johnson here.”

He spoke in a calm voice, “It’s Mark Thompson, and I need your help.”

Sarah had barely managed to sleep as her mind wandered through the events that had led her to this point. The sound of shattered glass broke her reverie, followed by the sound of hurried footsteps. She sprang up from the bed, reaching for the bedside lamp. To her surprise, Detective Sandra Thompson broke into her bedroom.

“Sarah! We have to go now!” seized her by the arm and yanked her from the bed tangle. “Mark asked me to come for you, there is imminent danger to your life. Let’s go!”

Sarah stumbled behind Agent Johnson as they rushed out of the bedroom and down the stairs. While her mind reeled in confusion, the mention of Mark’s name made her compelled to answer Sandra’s call. What mattered to her was that Mark cared for her.

She managed to grab her laptop from the sofa and looked around for her purse and phone, but Sandra did not give her time. She still managed to pick a glass angel from the half-decorated Christmas tree in the hall. A memento for the plans she had made for this Christmas, the plans that may never come to pass.

Sandra pulled her outside through the back door without stopping. They ran through the shadows along the dark lawn towards Sandra’s car parked in the distance from the back lane.

A deafening explosion rocked behind them, and Sandra barely had time to pull Sarah flat to the ground with her. Sarah looked back in horror as she saw a massive ball of fire erupting from the inside of her home and windows blowing out. The force of the blast sent debris raining down around them.

Sandra held her down till the shock wave passed, and they continued moving towards the car in a crunched-down position.

Sandra shoved her into the passenger seat and slid behind the wheels. The car peeled away from the curbs, leaving the chaos behind.

Sarah stared behind in stunned horror at the wreckage of her home. It was no different than the current state of her life. Both were destroyed beyond repair.

“Sandra, what’s going on?” Sarah finally found her voice. She barely controlled her flowing emotions as she looked at the detective.

Sandra glanced at her briefly before looking at the road again. “I don’t know all the details, Sarah. But for now, we need to get you to a safe location. Your life is in grave danger, and the people who did this will not stop until they get you.”

Sarah kept looking in the direction of her home. She could only see the clouds of smoke rising in the sky. She was abnormally calm in the face of things happening around her. The destruction of her house had ended the last shred of her pretence, and her double life was truly over. It was time to confront the truth and face the music.

Sandra kept glancing at her as she continued to drive. Just hours ago, she had seen Sarah on the brink of an emotional breakdown, and now she couldn’t recognize the woman beside her anymore. Sarah had been through so much in one day that she seemed almost numb.

Agent Shade’s mind raced as he worked through the incoming mission reports. His frustration was increasing every minute. While much of their operation had gone according to plan, the major setbacks he had faced burned through his conscience. He couldn’t help but reflect on what he had overlooked.

His thoughts kept circling the only point he was not happy about. The insider they had found was undoubtedly a decoy. The true mole collaborating with James held a more senior position, wielding greater authority and influence. There was simply no other logical explanation for the events that had unfolded in recent hours.

It began with the attack on Sarah. While struggling with his feelings for Sarah, he had overlooked the gravity of the situation. She was a close aide of James in this operation. He knew James would not directly harm Sarah, but what about the master in the shadows?

Sarah should have been on their target list since the day she quit. While he planned his mission, he had completely missed the possibility that they might target Sarah to silence her. He should have seen it coming. He breathed a silent prayer of gratitude to Sandra. She had trusted him and managed to save Sarah’s life in the nick of time.

Sarah’s safety was still at stake because of another major miss. The team tasked with James’s arrest had made a huge blunder. There was some confusion about where to take him after his arrest, giving him a chance to escape. Someone had orchestrated this failure from within and helped him escape. Just like they had tried to silence Sarah, they could not afford for James to be arrested. He knew too much, and he was still useful to them.

James was not the only high-profile target that had escaped their clutches for the night. As the minutes ticked by, Shade received more bizarre updates on the mission. Four other key figures had managed to slip away from their net. Three of them had been warned before, and they had vanished before the team could reach them, while the fourth one managed to escape after his arrest. Shade was sure that they received help from the mastermind in the shadows to make their escape. Their mission was compromised at the last minute of execution.

The only silver lining in this disaster was that they had still achieved their primary goal. Jinx had helped them with the vital information. All the arms consignments were recovered from warehouse no. 7. They had also managed to freeze and seize all the financial assets and bank accounts.

The key targets that managed to escape were now exposed. They were on the run, and their influence was diminished. It might take time, but Shade knew they would be captured eventually. Still, he could not call this mission a success.