Here I Come | ✔

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six - Much Love

Saturday, 21st November 2020

KRYSTALLIA

We heard a faint 'come in' and James pushed the door open. We took silent steps in and Mark slowly closed the door. We waited until the Secretary looked up from his table and landed his gaze on us.

Immediately, he pressed a button on the phone and said into the machine, "Security-"

"No, wait!" we all called out and he glared at us. The voice on the telephone spoke, "Mr. Secretary?"

"Send security up here in ten minutes," he said and the voice complied before his hand left the phone. I spoke up first, "Hey..."

"Crystal Undead."

Shit, he actually knew how we looked like.

"Yeah...about that..." KT mumbled softly and the Secretary stepped back a bit, "What're you doing here? Trying to kill me?"

"Mr. Secretary, please, we need your help," I said but he stopped me, "You need my help? After you killed my people?"

"What can we do to assure you that we're no threat at the moment?" I asked.

Even I don't know if we're going to be a threat or not in the future.

He stared at us as he thought about it.

"Put all your weapons down on the table."

We raised our hands in surrender, "Okay."

With slow steps, we walked towards the table and dumped out all of our weapons. Guns, knives, grenades, ninja stars, smoke bombs, et cetera.

"Happy?" KT gestured to all the weapons on the table. I felt bare without a weapon on me. The Secretary looked at someone behind us and Sam walked out, looking sheepish. He took out the boot knife and placed it on the others before backing away.

"What help would you need to come all the way to us?"

"Our brother was taken. He's the leader of the Crystal Undead and CEO of EAH. Without him, our people are useless," I explained.

"And how would I help you?"

"Your specialists with our assets joined together can find him," James entered the conversation and the Secretary looked at him, "And who would you be?"

"James Estrada."

His face scrunched up, "But..."

"I didn't die, we'll explain later."

"We need your people to help us find him," I said and he leaned back on the glass wall, "What benefits would I get if I helped you?"

KT and I shared a glance before he negotiated, "We'll share our trading secrets and our high-end assets. You'd need holopads, don't you? And weapons?"

He seemed to be deep in thought and I spoke, "Listen, there's a psychopath out there trying to kill us and take over the world. We need to take her out and get our brother before she decides to come here and murder you."

"Why me?" he asked, getting intrigued.

"Don't you get it? You hold the most information in this country. With you hostage, there's no stopping her," KT was starting to get frustrated and I can't blame him. This Secretary is dense.

"Why would she want to do this?"

Oh, my god.

"She's unpredictable, we don't know why she does what she does. That's why we need your help to find our brother before she decides to change up her plan," I explained, and suddenly my phone went off. I pulled it out of my pocket and stared at the screen.

It was a text from an unknown number with an image attached to it. I glanced at KT before unlocking my phone and dropping my jaw at the picture.

Kris was tied up on a wooden chair, blood dripping out of his mouth. His hair was completely matted with blood as his head hung low.

Unknown Number

Seems like brother dear has been beaten up quite badly.

I wonder how his death will go.

One month, that's all you get, Estrada.

Much love ❤

-T

"Is this," I said, shoving my phone in the fucker's face, "Enough to convince you to help us?"

My voice broke as the thought of Kris hurt somewhere settled in my mind. He read it before staring at me, his dark green eyes clashing with my crystal blue ones.

The doors burst open and on instinct, all of us took the guns from the table and aimed it at whatever was at the door.

Soldiers with armors and shields we currently don't have and rifles. They had their guns on us as we had ours on them.

Well, this is a thick tension to be in.

I glanced at the Secretary to see if he would do something. He raised a hand halfway, "Put your guns down."

We slowly lowered our guns but noticed the soldiers still had theirs on us.

"Are you seriously gonna kill us after everything we told you?" Zach said, getting exasperated.

The Secretary glanced at him before looking at them.

"Drop your weapons," he said and the captain looked at him in slight shock, "But sir-"

"Drop your weapons, soldier."

They lowered their guns and we let out a breath of relief. We couldn't afford to die now.

I turned to the Secretary, "Well?"

He looked at me before glancing at his watch, "When are we leaving?"

***

We fell onto the hotel beds, exhausted from the day.

"At least he agreed to help us, right?" Sam said, taking a pillow and fluffing it up.

"I honestly thought he'd say no," Mark added. KT tapped my shoulder, "Let me see the text."

I unlocked my phone and gave it to him. He took out his AI from one of the suitcases and connected my phone to it.

"While we wait for the AI to do its thing, we have two bathrooms. Who wants it first?" KT asked, looking at us.

"We can take one," Zach said as he got up and held my hand.

"I'll take the other," Sam crawled off the bed and took fresh clothes from his bag. I pushed myself off the very comfortable bed and followed Zach to get our clothes before walking into the shower.

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