Chapter 34: In vain

Lying in the bathtub, complicated thoughts about what had just happened crossed Nicole’s mind. The situation as a whole already made her tense, since it involved her work in the government, what happened to Lucas didn’t make it easier.

Nicole works for the government, but not for a specific agency. Until years ago, she was a mercenary, working for who paid more. In recent years, she managed to get in touch with the government, and enjoying the conditions, she accepted the job.

Since then, she has done several jobs, from espionage to fieldwork.

Right now, she is doing a job for the army; information gathering work. The person who lives in the hotel room next door is called Pedro Navarro, a man directly connected to the person behind Clovis; he is an esper with a computer-related skill.

According to her investigations, he did not develop his skill, nor his powers as an esper, but because his Esper computer skills were so powerful, he was recruited.

The man behind Clovis, Edgar Derosso, is one of the most powerful and influential drug cartel owners in the United States. The fact that someone so powerful values a man who has never systematically trained his espers skills before is proof that he is very valuable.

This man, Pedro, is so valuable that Derosso hid him as a secret weapon, he is not known even among his most trusted group of people. Because of her Esper ability, and luck, Nicole found him.

According to the information collected in the last few days with Nicole’s hard work, Pedro does almost all of Derosso’s work on the internet. This means that, as long as they get more information from Pedro, the chances of using this to take down Derosso only increase.

Nicole knew that this work was very important since she was warned several times not to make mistakes, but she did not understand why. How important is Derosso? He is powerful but just that.

The way her superiors were taking this mission seriously was at the national security level. It didn’t make much sense to her.

While thinking about her superior’s reasons for this mission, a woman quietly entered the bathroom. She looked Korean or Chinese with pale white skin, slightly oversized breasts, a lean, athletic body; she was incredibly beautiful and sexy.

“I got the necessary information; Mission Accomplished.”

Still lying in the bathtub, Nicole looked at the woman who entered the bathroom and nodded silently ... Suddenly, she quickly rose from the bathtub with a shocked expression and said.

“You got it? Really?”

“Yes, we don’t need to stay here anymore.”

Nicole looked pleasantly surprised as she took a towel to hide her beautiful body. She couldn’t be happier, she could finally get out of this place.

Leaving the hotel, Lucas looked into the darkness of the night in silence, wondering what to do next. Things were getting too complicated, he didn’t expect that.

At first, he thought the situation had to do only with a reckless second-generation rich man, but now that even the underworld got involved, he didn’t know what to do. He knew that if he went to find May now, she wouldn’t accept sitting around waiting days, weeks, or months for the government to get her daughter back.

Even if he explains the situation, and says it is the best thing to do, she wouldn’t stand still, and he wouldn’t like it if she did. It may be unwise, but if it were Lucas, even if he couldn’t do anything, he wouldn’t be able to stand still waiting for things to work themselves out.

It is the same analogy of why people are much more afraid of traveling by plane than by car. Statistically speaking, traveling by plane is much safer, but people are only satisfied mentally when they are in control of things, especially when we talk about something as important as life itself, or something even more important, as close relatives.

Sitting in the comfortable seats of the plane, people cannot completely trust the pilot they do not even know to drive such a dangerous vehicle with a high risk of death in the event of a fall. Even though traveling by car is more dangerous statistically speaking, the fact that they are in control soothes them.

That’s why May can never entrust Amy’s life to the government; to people she doesn’t even know. She wouldn’t be able to relax even if she wanted to. Precisely because he knew this, Lucas didn’t know how to speak to May, or what she would do. If he is not careful, she may end up doing something reckless.

Lucas took a taxi in front of the hotel, and as he sat in the back seat, began to think about his next steps. His number one priority is the safety of May and Amy. The rest, for him, does not matter. Unfortunately, he knew it wouldn’t be easy.

‘‘‘A war is going to fall in San Diego. Many different forces are gathering here, and the person behind Clovis is at the center of it.’’’

‘‘‘That child is at the center of all; she is the reason for all this. Clovis pretended to be interested in the property, with a valid reason since Maylin had a history there, like a smokescreen not to involve the government. If Maylin denounced the government that a child esper was kidnapped, the various government agencies, as well as the army, would move to retrieve her.’’’

‘‘‘Clovis and the big shot just didn’t know that the government has an interest in Amy before she was even born; she has been marked for a long time. When Clovis kidnapped her, we knew it from the beginning.’’’

Remembering Nicole’s words, Lucas thought.

‘Is what I had previously thought true? What she said almost confirms ... Amy’s role in this is very important. This will not be easy.’

After giving the taxi driver an address, Lucas relaxed in the back seat thinking about the situation. Looking out from the window while the car was traveling, Lucas felt that there was no way he could find a woman as good as May with zero luggage, so in a way, that was inevitable.

He just didn’t expect things to escalate so quickly.

A few minutes later, he arrived in front of a small building and got out of the taxi. After paying the driver, he approached the door and pressed the intercom. A few seconds later, a man’s voice rang out:

“What number?”

“299.”

Lucas answered shortly after and the intercom went silent. Finally, the door to the building opened, and he entered. Moving towards the building, he looked around and saw a lovely little garden on either side of the walkway leading to the building. Some of the flowers in the garden, however, were quite special, and Lucas noticed.

A few seconds of walking later, he opened a glass door and finally entered the building. In front of the door, there was a small counter, and a chubby man looked at Lucas with sharp eyes.

“What is the reason for your visit?”

“I want a product.”

The man nodded and pressed a button at the bottom of the counter. Behind him, a door slowly opened, and Lucas approached. The man opened the counter, and Lucas came in the door soon after.

After entering, the door behind him closed, and Lucas found himself in the middle of a small corridor. In the end, it had a slightly worn white wooden door. He approached the door and knocked a few times at an odd pace. Two minutes later, the door opened, and he saw a head sticking out.

“What you want?”

She was a beautiful woman with tousled dirty blond hair that went up to her shoulders. She had brown eyes, a clean white face, a small ring piercing in her left nostril. Because her face was so white, the dark circles under her eyes were very noticeable.

“F-196.”

Upon hearing Lucas request, the woman’s beautiful fine eyebrows arched upwards, but she said no more and simply closed the door, Lucas still couldn’t see the rest of her body, but from the height of her head, she was short.

‘She forgot to ask how many... ‘

Lucas smiled bitterly but was silent, and just as he expected, a few seconds later, she came back and asked.

“How many days do you want?”

“30 days; if I need more, I’ll come and get it.”

She closed the door again and returned a few minutes later with a small box in her hands. Still not showing the body, she handed the box over to Lucas and said.

“Do you need me to explain how to use it?”

“No, but ... Is the serial number in the box?”

“Yes, and nobody knows what it is, I recommend that you also don’t. Never know.”

Lucas then turned and left. The woman, however, shouted after seeing him leave.

“Wait, you still haven’t paid.”

Surprised, Lucas turned to the woman and raised an eyebrow.

‘What does she mean? Pay? First, she forgets to ask how many days, and now she doesn’t even know about it?’

“299. Don’t you know what that number means?”

The woman seemed puzzled to hear me say that. She searched her head over that number, but after a few seconds, she shook her head and said.

“I don’t run the store, I am a doctor temporarily substituting. My brother who works here, but he is temporarily absent. I usually work on the lower floors.”

The woman tried to hide it, but when talking about her brother, she showed a worried expression, and Lucas saw it. That aside, he said.

“No wonder... 299 is my number, as you might imagine. And if you’re a doctor here, you should know about the numbers. Starting at 500, they are replaceable numbers, below 500 are permanent numbers, and we get some privileges. As long as I’m not too excessive, I can enjoy most services here without paying anything.”

Upon hearing this, the woman was silent. She vaguely remembers having such a rule, but since she hadn’t worked there in a long time, most of the clients she treated had numbers above 2000.

Seeing that he continued on his way out, she said nothing more. Anyway, the guard outside would have stopped him if he didn’t have that privilege. After passing the guard, and the walkway towards the door outside, Lucas looked at the box in his hand and smiled coldly.

“I started to feel sorry for our beloved friend Clovis.”

While listening to what Carla and Lindsay had to say, May drove to the location mentioned in the note. She didn’t know what to expect when she got there, but she hoped at least to understand the situation more.

When they arrived, she discovered that it was a small apartment in a not very populated neighborhood. It looked more like it was abandoned since she hardly saw people walking on the street.

In front of the apartment, a woman wearing men’s clothes was sitting on a chair reading a magazine. When she saw the car stopping nearby, she took her eyes off the magazine for a moment, but quickly looked back at the magazine; she didn’t seem very interested in the visitors.

When they got out of the car, the three women approached the woman sitting in the chair, but she said nothing, simply pointed with one hand into the building.

“Do we have to go inside?”

Carla asked, and the woman simply dropped her hand and continued to read the magazine in silence. After looking at each other in doubt, the three entered the building cautiously. They were at the very least afraid, as they were entering a building in an abandoned area in the middle of the night.

When they entered, however, they felt better, as they found only women everywhere. They all looked different; some wore gym clothes, others wore men’s clothes, others wore skirts ... Some were beautiful, others not so much.

When the three entered and saw all these women, they managed to relax a little, especially Carla and Lindsay, who had been abused by Clovis before, they visibly relaxed.

The entrance of the three drew the attention of all women, but none approached. The three stood in silence standing there, not knowing what to do or who to speak to, and finally, a woman stood out from a room.

She was tall and wore a man suit, almost completely hiding her body, but her delicate face and ponytail revealed that she was a woman. She approached the three with a smile and said.

“Welcome. Come to my office.”

The three women were guided by the strangely dressed woman to a room that looked like an office. At her request, the three sat on a sofa facing the chair where she sat.

“My name is Lana Miller, Major in the United States Army. I am currently running this unit in a special operation. According to the report I received before you got here, two of you, Carla Del Rey and Lindsay Bailey, should be temporarily protected due to indirect involvement in the operation.”

“Maylin Angels, however, is expected to be in temporary custody of the army as a party directly involved in the operation. Your actions can change the success or failure of the operation, so the high command decided to keep you in temporary custody.”

Carla and Lindsay were not concerned when Lana talked about them being under protection as that was what they asked Nicole for in previous days when they found out the situation is going to get even more dangerous. They did not want to engage in a dangerous military special operation, not worth the problem.

May, however, was furious when she learned that they were going to arrest her. Without even waiting for Lana to continue, she got up and started talking out loud.