Chapter One: Niklaus Heinrich

"Niklaus Heinrich?"

I yell the name as the door to the chief's office swings open.

As usual, the chief isn't at his desk but holding a mini-golf club, playing with the track set up in his office.

The chief’s face lights up at my presence, but I am far from happy with this interaction.

"Niklaus Heinrich? Chief, this is uncalled for!"

I protest.

"I take it our little Luci has a problem with my mission?"

The response doesn't come from the chief but from a low, husky, and aged voice from a person who is not in view.

With a low sigh, the chief turns his desktop to face me at the door.

"Ah, deputy commissioner."

I say, recognising the face staring back at me.

Snuffing the flames of my anger, I bow my head low in greeting.

"Do you have a problem with my mission, Agent Sinclair?"

"N- mmh,”

I bite my lip before my direct ‘no’ can echo.

“I believe that I shouldn't lead this mission."

"But such low professions suit omegas; who would believe there is an alpha in the cleaning team?"

The deputy commissioner, a man whose face is shaped no better than a squashed onion, says with a slight chuckle.

I grind my teeth to keep my lips from moving.

"Don't be so stiff, Agent Sinclair; it's just an old man's joke."

What nonsense.

No matter how many medals or accomplishments I have under my belt, people like him always find a way to bring back that I am an omega. They do everything to diminish me and make themselves feel better even though I am still ace in my division.

But then, that’s alphas for you, so frail and weak in self-esteem, yet they are still somehow at the top of society while omegas are at the bottom.

Yet…I wasn’t always an omega.

"With all due respect, Niklaus knows my face."

"Oh, because you were partners briefly all those years back? Yes, well... since he has been around many omegas, it should be fine. I doubt an alpha like him would even remember you.”

The commissioner says with a slight sneer.

He wouldn’t remember that I slashed his cheek after he broke my sister's heart? Can he really forget that he was engaged, let alone to my sister?

My gaze turns to the chief, hoping he steps in.

"Commissioner, they were partners. Our agents form partnerships in their early training period, so there is a high chance he will be recognised if he does this mission."

"He has the highest success rates of all our agents; surely, even as an omega he can-”

“It’s not about him being an omega, the mission will be compromised if-”

The commissioner lets out a bored groan over the chief's words, clearly not appreciating the interrupting game, yet in the process, he causes the Chief to also fall silent.

“It’s a touch-and-go mission, Agent Sinclair. Are you in or are you out? All you need to do is release the virus to Heinrich’s computer, and HQ will send in another contact to clean up the job. Then, we can set up another agent to deal with the other part of the mission, finding out his ties to the human trafficking case.”

The commissioner says, oversimplifying everything as always.

“I understand, commissioner.”

I say with a bow; I know the old man will not yield, and if he does, I will likely be iced out from various missions.

Well, fuck me.

After this, I want a vacation.

**

“Easy enough, my ass.”

I mutter as I lower my blue cap to shield my face from the cameras around Heinrich Electronics' main headquarters.

The Heinrich family owns Ferndale Republic, or rather, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration if that were said. They manufacture everything from phones to fridges, TVs, monitors, and even the AIs in cars. Hah, I bet the whole world would lose its shit if it's discovered that the current CEO and founder, Niklaus Heinrich is a known arms dealer in the underworld.

The private elevators leading directly to Heinrich’s office open wide, so I step into them with my cleaning cart and nod to the cleaning team leader, who raises both hands in a gesture of ‘ten minutes, then get out’ as the doors close.

With a sigh, I lean back on the glass wall and take in the beautiful surroundings.

A bitter feeling clings to my chest at the fortune he has amassed in the short time we were apart. We were both novice partners at the force, and he-

Well, it's a tale as old as time. I was stupid enough to trust him, and now I have a gun wound on my left thigh.

Shaking my head to get rid of the thoughts, I notice the elevator slow.

“Eighteenth?”

I mutter with a frown, knowing my destination is the twenty-seventh floor. The only reason the lift would be stopping at another destination would be if someone else called it—yet…It’s ten p.m., and according to the cleaning team leader, there shouldn't be anyone inside the building.

“Fuck.”

Realising that this is happening either way, I instantly lower my cap, grab cleaning fluid in a spray bottle and a cloth, and wipe down the number buttons just as the doors slide open, revealing two male employees.

“Hey, I thought-”

“Me too. Shit, cleaning guy? I thought this would be our chance to use the executive elevator.”

The two speak amongst themselves.

“Do we have to bribe him?”

“Fuck...”

After a muttered curse, one of the two, whose hair looks as if a wild animal died on it, speaks to me.

“Hey, cleaner, for your hard work.”

He says as he hands me two five-dollar bills.

Hah? Give me a fifty; what in the hell kind of bribe is this? Sir…you work in a good company!

“Oh, thank you, sir.”

I respond in a low whisper, bowing my head lower to hide my face as I take the petty cash; only the man grabs my wrist and squeezes, keeping me in place.

“Mr cleaner, you are awfully pretty. Are you an omega?”

He steps into the lift when I try to pull back from him.

“Hey, Dale!”

His friend calls, but the man presses the close on the elevator doors, trapping us both inside.

“Hey, cleaner…”

‘Dale’ drawls as he leans into my space. His nose falls on my neck, and to my surprise, he inhales me loudly.

Ew?

“No scent…. But your face is really something to look at. Mr cleaner, I can change your life, you know.”

He whispers as his hand reaches for my waist.

“I- Obfmm!”

His deep and muffled cry fills the small space before Dale crumbles to the ground, holding his c*ck between his hands.

Before he can curse at me with tears in his eyes, I grab his hair and bash his head into the walls of the elevator until it shakes. Luckily, he falls unconscious at the first bash.

Sprinkling the two five dollar bills on his unconscious body, I reach into his pocket and open his wallet.

“One..two.. three.. four, hmmm, from rags to riches, I guess you did change my life.”

I say with a soft chuckle as I pocket the four hundred I ‘collect’  and toss his now empty wallet over his body.

“I should do something about my face, though… this happens every fucking time.”

I say as I stare at my reflection in the lift doors.

Finally, the number displayed on the lift turns to twenty-seven.

**

Heinrich’s office is large, spacious, neat, desolate and devoid of personality.

There must be cameras around, just like in the rest of the building so I keep my head low and send down the elevator which has its light, to keep the room dark, only unfortunately for me, the room lights up.

“Sensors…fuck.”

I mutter and sigh as I adjust my cap.

After turning on his computer, I slide the USB through the port available, and to my relief, even without inputting his password, a bar with a maroon tint and an image of a black widow pops up and begins filling up.

0%....9%....10%...14%

Below the slowly filling bar are the words *7 minutes till completion*.

Tapping my finger on the desk impatiently doesn’t seem to help the virus upload faster, so I rake through his drawers and again, empty and desolate.

“What the hell…”

Furrowing my brows at the emptiness of the place as if Heinrich has no attachment to it, my hand grabs the second last drawer.

It feels just as empty as the rest, but when I open it, a picture in a frame rolls into view.

“Hah…this piece of sh*t.”

Anger simmers in my veins at the image staring back at me from the frame of Heinrich, holding my sister Maya in his arms as my sister laughs while making pig ears at me. I am at the corner of the picture holding a hose, and for some reason, only my image looks worn out—did he want to erase me from that picture?

 We were all wet; Heinrich and I had just washed my sister’s car as punishment for forgetting her birthday.

It was a happy memory, and yet…

“That crazy….”

The frame flies from my hands and hits the wall on the other side of the room before I can control my temper.

Before I can process the consequences of my actions and all the traces I am leaving behind, the elevator doors that I closed and thus sent to the ground floor slide open.

My anger instantly turns to fear before I recall that the head cleaner promised to check on me.

“Sorry, I broke the-”

My words halt in my throat at the blood trickling down the floor from the fist of the man standing alone. The head cleaner, whom I had thought had come to check on me, was hanging unconscious from the other hand of the man, with his face beaten to a bloody pulp.

On instinct, I stand from the desk chair and reach for my gun, but as my eyes trail upwards from the bloody mess, the full view of a familiar devilishly handsome, blonde-haired, blue-eyed bear of a man with a sharp scar across his left cheek—a scar that somehow still enhances his beauty, fills my gaze.

Niklaus Heinrich is looking right at me