Chapter 03

Hyde was silently observing Adeline from his post, waiting for her signal.

“Seems like she’s enjoying it.” He scoffed and raised one corner of his lips. He knows what she is trying to do. That’s her specialty after all. If their target is a man, she’ll try to buy him some time until the other undercover agents will be spread around the area. And when everything is set, they could easily dominate the bad guys.

“Should we attack sir?” Quinn sounded impatient.

“No, hold it, unless the civilians’ security is already settled. Let’s wait for her signal.” He studied the man’s expression, he looked awfully uncomfortable yet, his other hand was still having its firm grip on his pistol.

“Wh-Who are you?” Adeline bit her lower lip and drew a smirk.

“Oh, dear. I’d bet you don’t wanna know me. It’s a bit confidential.” She said while playing with the man’s clenched jaw with the stroke of her finger, and she’d bet he likes it. She reached for the man’s ear. A slight shock came from Adeline when the man drifted his hand and pointed the gun unto Robert’s temple. Frightened, Robert got his breath uneven and raised both of his hands. The people who saw the commotion screamed which put the others into a panic.

“Oh, Sh*t!” Hyde cursed.

“Protect the civilians. Make sure they’ll exit this hall safely.” He hastily commanded and ran towards Adeline.

“I’m asking you once again young lady, who are you?” His deep rough voice echoed inside the hall. Adeline looked around her, and as expected these men in black whom she presumed to be his companions was also pointing their guns at her.

“Hey, no fair! Can’t you see I’m playing hard-to-get here, tsk?” She commented.

“Answer the damn question or I’ll blow his head!” He scolded.

“Just tell that assh*le already.” Robert inserted in the conversation.

“Okay okay, fine I’ll tell you.” She said as she suddenly changed her smile into a psychotic one.

“Just call me White Viper, then.” In a blink of an eye, she took out the gun hidden from her thigh. The second she aimed her gun at him, the other agents pointed their guns at his companions. But what surprised Hyde was the number of agents present in the hall. As far as he could remember, they appointed a lot of people in the security. But how come he could only see just a few of them?

“Sir, most of the securities were found unconscious in the men’s room, they weren’t wearing their uniforms.” The devastated voice of Luke notified him.

“I see.” The young man commented as if he already expected the current situation. This is why they’ve been chasing this group for almost a year already.

“Hey, where are the others?” The lady’s confused voice came from the line. She cursed after Hyde told her everything.

“Oh, looks like your friends left you.” The man laughed and before she could realize it, his henchmen already caught her. She dropped her gun to the ground, right in front of her feet.

“Okay, I think we’d better take it nicely.” Adeline softly suggested.

“Oh c’mon, do you think I’m that easy, young lady?” He aggressively aimed the gun sideways and pulled the trigger. Then, they just heard someone fall.

“Then, you left me no choice.” She began raising her legs and stomped the pointy heel of her silver stilettos at the man’s foot which made him shriek in pain and lose his grip. There she grabbed the opportunity to strike the other man’s eyes with her elbow. Two down, she hurriedly crouched to pick up her gun. She just got good reflexes, easy peasy.

“They won’t call me ‘White Viper’ if my movements are sloppy, you idiots!” She confidently commented and threw quick kicks and punches at the hooligans until the man was left with only five of his men.

“EVERYBODY PUT YOUR WEAPONS DOWN AND LET THE HOSTAGE GO!” A strong authoritative voice filled the hall. Everyone waft their gazes at the counter upstairs where Hyde stood up. The man put down his hand with the weapon and released Robert. However, when the hostage stood up, he pulled back his hand and was about to shoot him, but Hyde was able to shoot the gun he was holding before he could fire it. He just lost his grip on the pistol.

“I told you to put down your weapon and release the hostage, not shoot him, you idiot!” Hyde said and began shooting his henchmen out of anger, he shoot them not on their vital points but just enough to make them unconscious.

When the man realized they just got his men finished, he tried to escape, but Hyde pulled the trigger on his right leg which made him fall. He knew he was just someone’s scapegoat. He stepped towards the man with raging eyes.

“DON’T YOU KNOW HOW MUCH CHAOS YOU CAUSED, HUH?!” He yelled furiously. 

“Who the hell are you working for?” Hyde’s voice echoed in the place.

“I am working to no one.” The man answered fiercely. But Hyde believes he was working for someone.

“I’m asking you again. To whom are you working can guarantee your safety if you talk.”

“I don’t need your protection! You can execute me all you want” The man strongly replied, darting his furious eyes at the young agent. The interrogation was paused when the loud siren from the tower spread around the city, indicating that it was already midnight. Then, they heard the man laugh loudly like a psycho.

“It’s almost time.” Hyde crossed his brows in confusion.

“Thirty minutes from now, your beloved Silver Cruise will explode. HAHAHAH!” the man laughed psychotically which made Hyde’s blood boil. He moved forward and got a firm grip on the man’s collar.

“You-“ He almost raised a fist onto the man’s face but Adeline interrupted him. It would be difficult if she’ll let him lose his temper.

“Hyde, don’t waste any more time to that bastard and we’d better rush out to the ship. We can’t let those people die because of this moron.” Releasing his temperance, Hyde breathed out and threw the man to the ground.

“Take these men into custody. White, let’s go to the harbor. We can’t waste any more time.” The lady nodded in reply. Both of them rushed towards the basement and swiftly drove away from the museum at full velocity. 

“Call the bomb squad and tell them about the situation” He immediately said.

“Copy.” Adeline immediately took her device and managed to contact anyone in the bomb squad.

“A bomb was planted at the Silver Cruise, we need you to go there immediately, now!” the lady commanded impatiently and hung up the call. Next, Adeline dialed her friend who was working on the Cruise and asked her to evacuate everyone from the ship.

Hyde immediately drifted the car to the entrance gate of the harbor. He got his identification card prepared beforehand so that the security personnel would let them enter without wasting any second.

Hyde hurriedly stepped on the brake and left the car. The bomb squad hasn’t arrived yet, but they can’t afford to waste another minute waiting for them. So Hyde ran towards the entrance wherein the staff was helping the guests to leave the vehicle immediately.

“Good evening sir.” The captain of the ship greeted them. Hyde nodded to acknowledge the greeting.

“Take the guest to a safe place.” He ordered.

“Sir, the ship is cleared.” Staff came out from the cabin and notified the captain. The man instructed the staff to evacuate themselves.

“Sir, let me help you with the searching.” Offered the captain but Hyde didn’t hesitate to refuse. They have to make sure no civilian would risk their lives.

Hyde signaled Adeline to join him inside the cabin and began searching the area. They searched the bathrooms, the bar, and everywhere that could be a hiding place for the bomb, but they found nothing. Hyde started to lose his temper and become impatient as he glanced at his wristwatch and realized they only have ten minutes before 12:30.

“Damn it!” he swore, brushing his hair with his fingers in frustration.

“Hyde, what should we do? Our men didn’t find any traces of a bomb in the cabin. Are we duped by that b*stard?” Adeline asked, but got no response from the young man. Something must be stuck in his mind. They already searched every side and corner of the cabin but there was none. Hyde’s expression lit up when he realized there was only one part of the ship that they haven’t gone to yet.

“White, let’s go to the control room,” Hyde said and immediately rushed to the control room and he was right, the bomb was there, hidden beneath the captain’s seat. the room was dim that’s why nobody knows it was put there.

“Sh*t!” Hyde cursed upon realizing that they only have less than one minute, not enough time to detonate the explosive. 

“Hey, what are you doing?” Adeline worriedly asked when Hyde took the bomb from the seat and started scanning for any fire exits.

“There’s no more time, I need to throw this outside.” He didn’t wait for Adeline’s words and rushed outside the fire exit. He stopped at the ship's balcony and briefly gathered all his strength to throw it away from the ship.

*BOOOOM!!!!*

The deafening sound of the bomb startled the whole city like roaring thunder striking on a peaceful night. Then suddenly, the bomb’s sound kept repeating in his mind and his breathing started to turn unsteady. Large droplets of sweat began to form as his sights slowly turned blurry.

“Oi Collins, are youjndhdl” He felt Adeline’s presence but he couldn’t clearly hear her. His mind was filled with tormenting memories from the past. Then he just found himself being swallowed by pitch black.