Gerald stares at me from across the room as I sit on the pristine couch on top of a fluffy towel that had been spread on it so that I won’t accidentally stain it with blood.That is still steadily dripping from the various cuts on my person.Coraline sits next to me, dabbing a ball of cotton to the deepest ones on my face, specifically my forehead and cheeks. There is a small dustbin on the ground next to her, half filled with used, red-stained cotton. On her lap is a first aid kid, haphazardly put together by Gerald who’d run to the pharmacy nearest to the hotel after Coraline and I came crashing into his hotel room, her shocked and trying to support my weight while I tried to stay upright.“What the hell happened?” Gerald questions, still panting a bit from his run to the pharmacy.“A bar fight,” I answer with a wince, and Coraline tsks.“Don’t move your head,” she advises, discarding the pink-stained cotton ball and taking another from the packet in her other hand, “I just got this

Lemon is right. The next day, the bruises become nasty, purple swellings, and everyone stares. It’s horrible and I feel like a show pony. But hey, I made this bed, so I am going to have to lie on it. People come up to me to ask what the hell happened to me, but in more polite terms, and leave me with their sympathetic remarks after I lie to them that I got mugged the night before. That is what Gerald ordered me to say because he did not want any potential clients of our company to get the wrong idea that the COO of Zelt Tech was an adrenaline junkie who went out of his way to get involved in barfights with frat boys. “Whatever you do, do not let them know that you actually hit someone else. Make yourself to be the victim, they dig things like that.” Gerald had told me, and I had stared at him because a.) he said ‘dig’ and b.) that made no sense. “I was under the impression that strength and endurance are important assets for an executing officer,” I’d pointed out, and Gerald had sco

The trip back to Clandestine city is uneventful at best. We miss the plane at the airport because of, embarrassingly, traffic, so we have to take a train. But after that, it’s all smooth sailing, and by nighttime, we have arrived at Clandestine city.I have to admit that after the blur that was New York, Clandestine city feels calm, and serene like a breath of fresh air. The clock strikes midnight by the time we arrive home, and I ask Gerald and Coraline just to crash at my father’s house rather than brave a trip to their respective homes this late at night. Besides, there is plenty of space to accommodate anyone in the big estate, and the prospect of not being alone for the night is soothing.The sleep that night is dreamless, but it takes some time for it to come. I find myself lying in bed, thinking about everything that has happened in the last few days in detail. I think of the bar fight, and the eclectic bartender we’d met. I wonder if he will seriously come to Clandestine city

“News?” I blink at him. What kind of news did he have for me? The last time he had news for me, I ended up the COO of his company, and that is something I’m still miffed about because of the sheer havoc it wreaked on my schedule. But that is beside the point, so I focus on the present and give him an expectant look.“Yes.” He nods to emphasize his point, “while I believe that none of my alleged enemies are behind the recent shootings, I don’t know exactly who is behind it. But there is a pattern in their shootings and the victims. I realized as soon as I landed and read the reports that almost all of them are related to Zelt Tech one way or another, hence, it can be concluded that the shooters are specifically targeting employees of Zelt Tech.”“An astute observation, father.” I can’t help but provide. It’s not like I had been telling him about the exact same thing for the last few minutes. No, he came to that conclusion all by himself.Unbelievable. How on earth are we even related?

True to his word, and to my immense surprise, my father arrives at the airport to see us off.“Be careful out there,” he tells me at the lounge minutes before we’re due to board, “I’ve heard from Gerald that you have the propensity to get yourself in trouble from time to time.”If Gerald was here, I would definitely be giving him a glare for prattling to my father.“It’s not so bad,” I reply, trying to keep my tone from being petulant. We are so not close enough for me to be comfortable with that, “I just have such dismal luck sometimes.”My father shoots me a wry smirk, “I see. Want to know something?”“Of course,” I answer automatically because I am so curious about him.“When I was your age, I had the same kind of luck,” shocking me to the fullest, he reveals, “sometimes, it felt like the whole world was against me.”“How did you cope with it?” I ask him and note distantly from the large digital clock hung in the middle of the lounge that I only have five minutes until they give ou