ARCANUM

CHAPTER 9

RUBY POV

This is my first mission. Not to mention because I asked for it. After it was revealed that Manoban was still alive and everything that Jisoo and Irene had told me, I wanted to be his partner. One, because I've worked with him. The other, because of what they told me. And I became more and more sure because of what uncle Won Bin told me. Even though I'm still annoyed with him, I have to do this. I have to do this mission, and if he still refuses to partner with me, I can do another mission. I can do it myself too.

Once in Moscow, I had carefully planned the scenario to meet with Valdo Bykov, who would lead me to my partner. I know he's trying to find information about Punpun's whereabouts. He struggled a bit and couldn't rely on Rattle much because the human traffickers here were still using the old-fashioned way. Ink and paper. The last information Rattle had received from him was that he was still trying to locate Valdo Bykov's private safe, but since he had not been able to approach and gain his trust, he did not get the information he wanted.

He had been here for almost a year and had been acquainted with Valdo Bykov for seven months, but he had not succeeded in getting any further into Valdo Bykov's business. He just got to get easy access to his stripper club. Perhaps Valdo Bykov was a difficult person and suspected him. But after I managed to pull him into the trap, he turned out to be just a pervert. And that's probably why Manoban had a little trouble. He can indeed be called beautifully handsome, but still, he is not a woman. Shame on him because I can get Valdo Bykov's attention quicker. With this, I hope he realizes that he needs me as his partner because there are some things that only I can do.

But how wrong I was to underestimate him. In months he hasn't contacted Rattle again, I didn't think he's getting any progress. But what I saw before my eyes was something else. He and Valdo Bykov called each other by their first names like they were old friends. They even call each other 'buddy'. Not to mention the woman in his hands who turned out to be Valdo Bykov's, favorite woman. Valdo mentioned it briefly to tell me about Kayden. Beautiful woman, attractive, dirty-blonde hair, and a sexy body.

Valdo Bykov seems to have trusted Manoban enough to be willing to share his woman. Ugh... I don't want to imagine what they've been doing all this time because Valdo Bykov asked her to accompany Manoban, he said as usual. Ugh... My mind was, of course, going all over the place, especially after seeing how he pulled her body and made Kayden's full and perfect breast pressed against his. How the woman's hands are placed on his chest and then down to his perfect stomach.

Damn! This is my first time doing this. My first mission, I don't want every training I put in hard every day to be in vain. I had to try to take my eyes off them and focus my attention on my target. I had to manage to win his trust and be given further access to his business in hopes of finding out where he kept those damn files.

I can't understand why he doesn't keep a softcopy in this era of rapidly advancing technology. He looked young and quite handsome, but the way he worked was old-fashioned. Or maybe because of the rapid development of technology, he thought that it would be risky to store the data in softcopy? If that's what he thought, well, he wasn't wrong. Rattle or Rosie would have easily gotten the data long ago, and maybe Manoban had already found Punpun.

Finding Punpun is our mission, so I have to concentrate on this mission. But my concentration was broken as soon as I saw the way Manoban looked at the woman. So gentle and caring. He is a great actor. If he's acting. Or maybe he was really interested in her? Especially after what they did? Judging from their current closeness, I'm sure they've had a long, satisfying, enjoyable night. Ugh... No. I can't. I have to get going before I ruin everything.