The doors parted to both sides as Hazel sauntered into the welcome lounge, orange hair pulled up in a high ponytail with eyes that shone with health, thanks to the antidote that was tucked in her bra.
Her pink lips curled into the congenial smile Sush so often saw, but there was a glint - a flicker of knowingness in those eyes she used to trust so much, and Sush wondered if the glint had always been there, or had it just revealed itself now?
Hazel skipped at her last step and hopped in front of Sush, saluting. “Reporting for duty, Chief!”
She never saluted, not even as a joke. And the slight over-emphasis of her title was a dead - but intentional - giveaway.
Cutting the crap and getting to th
Patterson was in Ferdinand's residence again for another session to satiate Larissa. He’d initially planned to only do it just so he could leak out this affair, but now, he came with something else in mind - wanting to find out if Larissa knew anything else about Catrine Carter, perhaps even Monica Upshaw and the recent attacks on hunters headquarters.What he couldn’t comprehend was what the perpetrator could hope to gain from these strikes. The hunters were a large part of the defense systems, too. Soldiers alone weren’t enough. Why did it feel like they were being exterminated? There were no casualties from the parking lot explosion, fortunately. The most severe injury was a third-degree burn that had been treated with a positive prospect of recovery.And the situation got really suspenseful when the media
In the trenches, Kenji put on a numb exterior - one he wore everyday as the head of the eastern octopuses. It was the best way he knew of to withstand the stress that came with the job. And in recent weeks, he’d been under a lot of stress. His vulnerable side had only ever been shown to the people he trusted, which were not many to begin with. And this arrangement worked well enough for him to never contemplate on changing.His numbness projected a firm and tough exterior, one that had always been responded with efficiency and near-perfect delivery of tasks from his subordinates. Like Sush, he wasn’t liked by many, but was well respected by most.When he was not checking or correcting the western octopuses’ work, he hung around the mavericks since he didn’t know which hunter to trust seeing that Hazel was frie
At the diplomatic residence, Sush was on a high stool at the kitchen counter, scrolling through the eastern files that had been opened before the archer massacre for the umpteenth time. She and Greg agreed there wasn’t a pattern when they discussed it, but what if they missed something?If there wasn’t a pattern, was there something else, something they’d both missed? She lost count of the number of times she tried Ctrl + F and typed in “hyena”, “owl”, and “rat”, and found nothing.“Eat, please,” Greg urged and left a light kiss on her temple after placing a takeaway box of pasta in front of her as he got into the seat next to hers, removing the laptop from beneath her fingers and setting it to the side, placing it next to his own.
The doorbell jerked Sush out of her shock and a deep sense of protectiveness took over Greg, who instructed, “Get your gun loaded and ready. Don’t come out unless I say so.”Head whirled to him, she protested, “What? N—”“Don’t come out unless I say so,” Greg repeated, his deepened voice and partially onyx eyes cut her off sternly, though as gently as he could.Greg strode away before she could argue, and was relieved to hear her releasing the safety off her weapon. The moment Greg disappeared from the kitchen, Sush hopped off her seat and moved swiftly to the wall partitioning the kitchen from the living room, making sure she had a goo
On file, Hazel’s parents were said to have been residing in their family holiday cottage in a quiet countryside. It would have passed off as an innocuous choice if that countryside hadn’t been Itam - the place where Monica Upshaw was found dead.Upon hacking the Land Office’s records, they also found that the Robinsons owned three other cottages in remote locations, one of them being Jagah, though the far end of Jagah from where Catrine Carter was later found.After several mavericks confirmed the information, Greg mused, “Really confident or really idiotic to have the properties registered under their actual names.”“I’d say the former,” Kenji offered numbly. “They probably got away with things before and didn’t se
The wooden cottage seemed normal enough from afar with its moldy brick walls, thatched roof, and casement windows. Narrow trees, bushes, and shrubs grew all around. Luscious grass covered the land, save for a stone path from the entrance door to the wooden gate. The lights went off about thirty minutes before Greg, Sush, and the others arrived. The watchers reported that no one came out. And everyone had been smart enough not to suggest that the Robinsons may be taking a nap since it had hardly been four hours since they were up. But the stillness was unsettling. Greg grew impatient when nothing happened for the next thirty minutes, and ordered Baxter to send in a drone - one in the shape of a firefly that flew to the window, where its cameras caught nothing, then glided to the front door, sneaking in through the gap. Despite the gloomy weather outside, it was still bright enough for the drone to spy without needing to turn on its torch. On every maverick’s phone, they watched the f
Shocked. Spooked. Dubious.Kenji was sure he was seeing a ghost. Jade wondered if their drones had been hacked. Baxter was recalling the last time he sent the drone for maintenance. How did it miss a human?Patterson, Sush, and Greg knew the game was on.Leaning against the doorframe, one hand holding her phone - screen facing Sush and the others that showed a big, bright, blinking orange button right in the middle that could activate Goddess knew what - Hazel began with the Chief Chameleon. “I always knew you had a thing for older women.”“Cut the crap, Hazel,” he spat, not at all surprised by her knowledge.“Who is that, my l
Several things happened within the next few seconds: a stone-faced Mrs. Robinson aiming at Greg and pulling the trigger to discharge the oleander bullet, Sush yelling at everyone to take cover while she herself attempted to pull Greg off Hazel, and Greg using Hazel as a human shield as the bullet scraped across her shoulder while he angled away before he saw Mr. Robinson aimed at Sush at the same time his claws scratched across Hazel’s chest, tearing through her shirt and bulletproof vest underneath.The initial plan was to kill the orange-headed nuisance as painfully as time allowed him to, and the smell of her blood had been a good start, but time clearly didn’t offer him that luxury to do more at the moment. The gun aimed at his octopus took priority.Greg wrapped Sush and rolled themselves out of the way as the