Irene was starting to see double and her vision was starting to blur over all.She muttered, "I'm so sleepy, Isaac…" Isaac leaned down to kiss her cheek. "Nope. Don't sleep.""Yeah," she said ever so softly."Find the nearest hospital, Zachary!" Isaac barked right then.Zachary searched the map, but there were none nearby, and he said, "I'll take a look at her!"He was a doctor too—he could at least help her with first aid.With that, Stan stopped the car by the road, while Zachary alighted and jumped in the backseat. Once he was in, Stan continued driving while Zachary checked on Irene's injury. The bullet that hit her on the shoulder was embedded deeply, and she was still bleeding endlessly.He took off his clothes and held it down with his teeth to tear a chunk out, and then tore off the sleeve as well.He then raised Irene's arm and fashioned the sleeve into a tourniquet, tying it from her underarm up to her shoulder, just an inch away from the bullet wound. He then t
Irene grunted dully in pain, her fingernails almost digging into Isaac's arm right then! "Umph!" Isaac knew that she was hurting a lot, but words of comfort seemed to be pointless just then.Even as he caressed Irene's cheek, he told Zachary, "Hurry."Zachary was certainly working as first as he could and was in full concentration as he tried to extract the bullet. Fortunately, he could see the entire bullet clearly without any equipment and easily took it out!However, Irene's started to bleed even more freely after he did, and he promptly pressed hemostatic powder over her wound. Irene was almost passing out, and she was sweating so much it was as if she had just taken a shower!Zachary then poked his head out to yell at Stan, "Let's go!" Stan got in and asked, "Is it done? Did you take the bullet out?""Yeah," Zachary replied, while Stan started to car and they resumed their journey.They were not far from Franconia—a little more road past this town, and they would r
Before Zachary could react, the man continued pompously on the other end, "Not coming, are you? Just give us an address, and we'll send you one of his legs. How about that?""Lay a finger on him, and I'll cut you into pieces!" Zachary bellowed."Oh, really?" The man laughed smugly. "Why do I doubt that? Come to us if you dare—I'll wait."Zachary was at once stumped! He quickly hung up and set his phone to airplane mode in fear that the gang would trace his signal here.It was obvious that those gang members were serial criminals, and that meant they were capable of anything!And now, they had James! He paced around anxiously. What should they do? How were they going to save James?Still, she soon remembered that Isaac was the smartest among them, and they would need him to make the call.However… Zachary glanced at his bedroom then. Irene was shot, and although he got the bullet out, she needed time to recover.Isaac was blind.And Stan left to get a doctor and was n
Stan was slightly relieved to hear the doctor's words and walked up to ask, "Are you saying that treating it will be easy?""Relatively speaking, blindness caused by external factors should be easier to treat than blindness caused by illness," the doctor explained. "However, we need to find out what's actually causing his blindness first, to decide if it's treatable."The cause was certainly very important in treatment, though Stan became weary from the doctor's response.He thought then that everything the doctor said was pointless!Still, the doctor glanced at Stan and said, "Please keep it down. I'd rather not be disturbed while I examine the patient."Stan slid a peek at Isaac to see that the latter was pursing his lips and glowering. Stan promptly turned silent—another word, and Isaac would really get mad! The doctor opened Isaac's eye just then and held his flashlight in front of his pupils, asking, "Can you see this light?"Isaac could somewhat see it, but it was very
Isaac said, "Shut up if you don't have anything meaningful to say."Zachary was speechless for a moment, but he soon said, "Why are you so cold?""Why don't you leave?" Isaac said quietly.Zachary, however, stayed on the laptop and kept working. "Do you think you can send the map to the right email address if I do? You won't even find the toilet on your own without me around."He was certainly getting bold since Isaac was blind, and Isaac had no retort aside from bellowing angrily, "Get out!!!""No way." Zachary remained there stubbornly. "You can't do anything to me anyway."Isaac scowled. "You're full of it.""Actually, I'm famished," Zachary replied. "Come on. Let's go eat once I'm done sending the email—Pierre should have something ready by now. I'm so hungry I could die!" Isaac snorted coldly. "Still in the mood to eat? Can you actually stomach it?""I'd be worrying pointlessly now anyway," Zachary said, shrugging. "Since I can't do anything, I'll put my hopes on you ins
Zachary replied, "I did."Irene frowned. "Then why'd you say you don't know what happened to him?"Unable to hide it, Zachary said, "He might have been captured. Don't worry, though—Isaac has already asked people to find him."Irene remained worried. "Is he really going to be alright?"Zachary did not tell her about the phone conversation he had with that gang member, so that she would not worry too much."You're still hurt," he said instead. "You should be resting. Isaac and I will find James."After all, Irene was arching her back slightly even as she stood, and her face was pale—the bullet wound her shoulder must still hurt."Call me immediately when there's news," she rasped."Yeah. I'll go bring Erin over now," Zachary replied.Irene nodded, and Zachary turned to leave.Pierre approached her then. "Ma'am."Irene then saw a maid carrying a tray of food and said, "Just bring it to the dining room. I'll eat with everyone else.""Sure." Pierre gestured for the maid to leav
Irene understood that Isaac's hostile takeover over Smartville Tech was what led to the whole mess.When people are desperate and have nothing to lose, they would fight without holding anything back—even if it kills them!As the saying goes, "Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose."And none of this would have happened at all if not for the plane crash!"Yeah," Isaac replied."I'm going out later," Irene then said."Where to?" Isaac asked. "I need to cook up something so Erin will be willing to go back to Minerva. I'm afraid she'll find out something about James if she stays here with us," Irene told him."Your excuse might arouse her suspicion anyway," Isaac pointed out. "You're still injured, so you should stay here.""What if she asks about your blindness? What would you say here?" Irene asked."She must have heard about the plane crash, right?" Isaac asked in return.Irene shook her head. "She would not be here this late if she did. She doesn't know."Isaac w
Irene was left stumped. She stammered a little before saying, "The place he went to was remote and has poor cell signals…""He wouldn't let that stop him," Erin said, her eyes almost ablaze as she held Irene's gaze. "I hope you're not hiding anything from me, Irene."Irene was afraid to look Erin in the eye just then—she could not do it while lying to those exceedingly sharp eyes. "Why would I lie to you?" Irene said."But why did you bring me out here? To persuade me to go home?"Irene quickly denied it. "Of course not. You just came, so of course I'd like you to stay a few more days… but you can't stay because of work, right?""I applied for an extended leave," Erin replied. Irene was stumped. Erin was not so easily fooled. What should she do?Irene certainly did not know what to do just then. To make things worse, Erin suddenly said, "Let's go. Once we're done shopping, we can head to your place."And with that, Irene could not tell her to return to Minerva at all!