“Yep,” Adam nodded. “We really got a powerful enemy this time.” Then, he looked at Zack and curiously asked, “So how’re we gonna beat him?”
“Well,” Zack started thinking, looking skywards. “Um… I think there’s nothing we can do, probably not at this time. We’re under-qualified, no rank, no experience, nothing.”
“Mm…” Adam turned downwards again with a sad expression on his face. “So when?” He asked. Zack was confused and his expressions showed it, so Adam said, “I mean, when can we beat the shit outta him?”
“Shit?”
“Erm… I think my choice of words is becoming like Miley now…”
“It has become, Ads.”
Adam smiled a bit and replied, “Maybe.”
Suddenly, they heard the sound of footsteps as someone approached them. They looked towards their right, opposite to that of the operation theatre. He was wearing a blue coat-suit and black sun-glasses. He was Mr. Johnny Johnson. Zack looked towards him, and nudged Adam, whispering, “It’s Jojo.”
“So, how much time are you both gonna be here?” He asked, with his hands joined behind his hips.
“Until Harry is out of the operation theater,” Adam sincerely replied.
“Harry’s not in the OT, you two. He’s shifted to another room,” Mr. Johnson told them.
“What?” Zack asked. He turned to Adam and asked him, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know!” Adam replied to Zack. Then, he turned to the Director again and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“’Cuz it’s not my job,” He replied.
“Oh, sorry.”
“Anyways, he’s outta danger now. You both can attend the drills. Don’t make it an excuse to run away from more important things.” Mr. Johnson turned back and walked away.
Zack turned his head down and murmured, “I-I’m currently with one of the most important things of my life.”
“What?” Adam asked.
“How can he say that the drills are more important than Harry’s life? I-I’m not making any excuse to run away from any of them, but, h-his ideology is just… Oh, I don’t even have any word to describe it.”
“I think you misinterpreted it, Zacky. Let’s go to the drills for now,” Adam tried to convince, grabbing an arm of his and pulling it.
“Okay, but I needa show I’m not making an excuse to run away from more important thing- Harry.”
“C’mon, Zack. He’ll be completely fine. Plus, don’t think something bad for our Director.”
“Okay,” He agreed because he was fed up of his arm being pulled like this.
March 14th, 2014 (2:04 pm)
“So rude of him not to declare a holiday today,” Adam angrily told Zack. “Did he forget what happened at the night?”
“I don’t know. And, don’t take out the anger of losing into this,” Zack calmly replied. The two had just lost a game and Adam was angry about it. Zack, on the other hand, was still calm. They were in the cafeteria of the secret base during the lunch time, eating food.
“I’m not taking my anger out on this. It was obviously a one-sided match because we were low on players. We already had just three when everyone got four-five players in their teams!” Adam angrily explained him. “We were somehow winning back with three, and that was an achievement itself!”
“I know,” Zack replied. “But please don’t be angry now. I know we were three players low, and we had a lot of pressure on us to handle. Plus, we’re depressed because of our friend and many, many things are upon me! So, please LET ME EAT MY LUNCH IN PEACE!”
Adam was a kinda scared at the anger of Zack. The whole café was glaring at them now. Then, they went back to their chatting and within seconds it was back to normal. Zack was still eating his food and didn’t look back at the reactions of others.
After it was back to normal, Adam told him, “Don’t shout so loudly in the public.”
“I don’t care,” Zack replied. After some minutes, his food was over. Getting up and holding his tray, he asked Adam, “Hey, wanna go to the hospital?”
“Yep, the next match is at eight anyways.”
March 14th, 2014 (2:19 pm)
Zack and Adam were back at the hospital where Harry was admitted. The reception had a huge hallway at the center which was always full of people. They just entered the hospital and were going to the reception. At the reception, Zack asked the receptionist, “Where’s Harry Browns admitted?”
She nodded and started looking in her laptop screen. After some seconds, she replied, “Ah, room two-hundred-four, sir.”
“Two-zero-four?” Zack reconfirmed.
“Yes,” She replied as they advanced towards the stairs at the left of the reception.
As they advanced towards the stair, Adam asked him, “Will he be fine? His whole cheek area was cut badly and bleeding.”
“I don’t know how he must have been, ‘cuz I never saw him after he was admitted here. But, I think he’d be fine by now.”
“We can just hope.”
“C’mon, everyone says he’s fine. Mr. Johnny, nurse; what else proof do you wanna have that he’s good?”
“I don’t know, but I just don’t get a good feeling about it,” Adam told him. He was a kinda scared and he had an awkward chest-pain. The chest-pain was not because of any physical illness, but it was from a negative intuition. “Maybe something’s not gonna be all right,” He thought. “Maybe something is gonna happen soon.”
They turned right from the staircase. Zack turned his head here and there in search of Harry’s room as they advanced forward. Suddenly, he stopped by the room with the tag of ‘209’ written on it and opened the door. It was a private first-class suite provided by the Agency. He looked all around the room— a watch hung on the wall on the left, a bed on the right, with full of the necessary tools and equipment, with a window at the back, with wooden flooring. “It’s a beautiful room, isn’t it?” Harry, sitting on the bed, asked them.
“Sure it is,” Zack replied, staring at the room in awe.
“By the way, how’re ya?” Adam asked him.
“You know how much Adam was worried for you?” Zack told him. “He thought that you must be in coma or dead!”
“C’mon! I didn’t think about that!” Adam replied. “I was just confirming. What if the report the nurse gave us was of some other Harry?”
“There’re no such cases now, Ads,” Harry told him. “It’s only in some small hospitals, which are very low in numbers nowadays.”
“Yep,” Zack agreed. “So, in how much time is your next surgery by the way?”
“Um… I think it’s after one at the night.”
“So late!” Adam was a kinda shocked. “I’d never wake up till one in the night for a surgery.”
“But you have to do it if it’s on your life,” Harry sarcastically replied.
“Haha!” Zack laughed. “I taught my boy the art of jokes!”
“Yeah, I’m proud my disciple has taught and done such a great deed,” Adam sarcastically replied.
“Haha,” Harry said. “So, what’re ya gonna say in return, Zacky?”
“Um…” Zack rubbed his chin and closed his eyes. “Maybe… When did I apply to be your disciple?”
“When did Harry apply to be your disciple?” Adam asked him with a huge smile on his face.
“I teach for free.”
“Still, application is necessary. You just can’t catch a layman walking peacefully on road ‘Sir, wanna learn the art of jokes? It’s something like…’”
“Haha Zacky!” Harry said. “Adam still has the first spot.”
March 14th, 2014 (3:58 pm)
Adam was angrily advancing on the corridor of SAI Secret Headquarters. He had the wall of glass just on his right from where he can get a good sight of the competition going on below. Then, he passed that and now there was just wall beside. He continued advancing forward until he reached the end of the corridor, with Mr. Johnny Johnson’s Director’s Office just in front of him. He banged open the door and confidently yelled. “Sir!”
“Yes?” Mr. Johnson was working on his laptop with a bunch of papers scattered all around his table. He took off his spectacles and asked, “Did I ever tell you to knock before you enter?”
“Sir, I have an important errand to ask you for.”
“Ask it out.”
“Sir, as you know, I’m in a team which consists of just three trainees. Already low on players, we now have an injured among us. Such a low number is preventing us from winning the matches. Can you please provide us with a solution?”
“Um…” Mr. Johnson started rubbing his chin. Then, he replied, “No, kiddo. Deal with it yourself.”
“Sir, we can’t deal with it ourselves. That’s why I’m here.”
“See, it’s your problem, Adam. I didn’t tell you to do that kinda shit, ‘kay?”
“But sir, what I did was for the betterment of the Agency. I was there when the Agency needed me, now I want Agency to be there when I need.”
“What you did was your decision, Mr. Atkinson. I had no say then, and thus I don’t have any say even now.”
“But sir, if I told you then that what was happening and what my plan was, maybe it would have been not as it should have gone.”
“It didn’t even go correctly now. It’s still a failure, isn’t it? Tell me what information you gained by that episode? Absolutely nothing, Adam.”
“But the main plan was not to gain information, sir. It was to save as many people in SAI as possible. And thanks to it, we’ve got just one casualty with us, and too he will be fine in a matter of days.”
Mr. Johnson stood up from his chair and advanced towards Adam. He whispered in his ears, “Saving someone’s life is never a primary objective of a mission, Mr. Atkinson. That’s what you needa learn about spy-shit.” Mr. Johnson opened the door of the office, went out and closed it back. In the meantime, Adam didn’t even move an inch from his position. He, at last, sighed and whispered angrily, “Saving someone’s life is never a primary objective of a mission, huh?” Then, he also turned around towards the door and took his leave.
The first one he met after the discussion was Zack. Zack, continuously glaring at his mobile, was at the stands which was half-filled by the trainees. Not many people were interested in watching the match. Instead, they would try making strategies for the next match or just talk. Adam sat beside him and said, “It didn’t work.”
“I knew that it would not,” replied Zack, who was still glaring at the phone.
“So what do we do now?”
“Even Mr. Carlos is not with us now. Maybe there’s no future. We can just quit.”
“Really? You wanna quit?” Adam was disgusted at the reply and his expressions showed it.
“Nah, joking.” Zack looked towards him. “But seriously, I don’t know what to do next.” Watching on his phone again, he added, “However times I said that it would not work, even I had faith that it should, because it was our last hope.”
Adam just nodded and tilted his head down in despair. “S-So we should just give up?”
“No, Ads,” Zack replied. He looked at him and kept a hand on his shoulder. “There’s gotta be a way.”
“Well, there’s a way, kiddos,” Someone from behind them patted their heads. Both turned back only to be shocked by finding the Director Mr. Johnson.
“S-Sir,” Adam murmured.
“See, you two,” He started. “There’s another exam for special cases. Maybe y’are one of them.”
“W-What type of another exam is it?” Zack asked.
“For some special cases, where a team is either low in number or unable to participate in the exam, there’s a special test for the team. Passing in this test can give you direct job, but failure can give you direct no-no. I actually forgot about that way out. So, wanna participate?”
“Um… Yes,” Adam replied.
“But, if I tell you about the test, then there’s no turning back.”
“Um, okay. We agree,” Zack replied.
“Great, come to my office.”
Both were at the office now, standing in front of the desk of Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson was sitting on his desk as he asked, “So, you really wanna take this way out? It can be way difficult that now.”
“We’ve no other choice, sir,” Adam said. “I know we can’t participate in the competition any further.”
“Yeah, that’s a fact.” Mr. Johnson nodded, feeling the seriousness of the problem. “So, sit and sign a contract.”
The two sat on the chairs in front of the desk of Mr. Johnson as he started typing on his laptop. Suddenly, he took out his tablet from one of his drawers and opened something in it. Then, he gave it to the duo, along with a stylus. “Read it carefully and then sign it. It says that you are now backing off the regular exams and taking a new, more dangerous one.”
Zack gulped ad he read the contract. He was hesitating while signing the contract. He looked at Adam, who nodded, and then signed on it. “A-Are Adam’s sign also required?” He asked nervously.
“No, only the leader’s sign is required.” He took the tablet back after Zack has signed the digital contract.
“So now, listen,” Mr. Johnson told them. “All you need to do is… SURPRISE ME!”
