The Story of Blood and Roses

I was in the hall where Scott had been executed. I remembered the whole scene. Anthony had gone easy on the man; I wished I knew why. He didn't seem like the type of guy who let go of people who were disloyal to him. I had seen his anger, and I had seen how hard he tried to control it. He would lash out on everyone around him.

He had mentioned that he needed Scott for something and that Scott had been an idiot to lose his cover so easily. Anthony used people as they came; ignoring their actions until it was too obvious. Would he do the same for me? He might know, but what use would I be to him? I'm just an agent who is here to finish him off. I can't help him with anything except that. If he really wanted to get rid of his life, he could've pulled the trigger himself. It was something I had to think about.

Someone tapped on my shoulder. Instinct kicked in and I cautiously turned around.

It was Sean. His nose was wrinkled like he had smelled something bad. I gave him a look that asked, 'what?' He cleared his throat and looked away.

"You're wearing the same clothes as last night," he said, trying his best not to laugh. I narrowed my eyes at him, sure that he could see it from the corner of his eyes. "And you smell," he burst out laughing. I rolled my eyes at him, not even embarrassed.

"So?" He bit his lips to hold from laughing again and failed.

"Where are your shoes?" He stared at my naked feet.

"What's your problem?" I deadpanned. He stopped laughing, still looking down, a bit scared by my voice. I stifled a smile, pleased to make him squirm.

"N-no…" he choked. "I-I was just… saying," he cleared his throat, now looking at me. I raised a brow, just to be a little more intimidating.

"Urm… Let's get to work!" he blurted out. He gulped once and without another glance at me, turned to leave. He went down the hallway and opened a door.

To say the truth, I quite liked pulling the poor boy's leg.

The thought struck me suddenly. Did Anthony do the same with me, too?

Maybe he wanted to get a reaction out of me just like I did with Sean? It could be, right? But mine was a harmless approach… I bit my lips and thought for a few more minutes.

Now it was my turn to wrinkle my nose. I really did smell. I tried to run out of the property without gaining any attention, but all the guards seemed a little too interested in my sweaty clothes.

Not that I minded.

After I'd retrieved the spare pair of clothing from my car, I went up to the bedroom I had taken up last night and got into the shower.

I took a hasty shower and slipped into my clothes. I looked well rested, even though I didn't get much sleep last night. There was a hint of a smile on my face and my eyes shined despite the smudged eye makeup around my lids. I carefully washed my face to wipe off the makeup, properly and then looked at myself.

I remember how my mom looked with her wet hair falling on her shoulders. When I was young, I'd looked exactly like her. I had a heart-shaped face with wide innocent brown eyes, but now I had developed some features of my father, too. My face had lost its roundness and my eyes were framed by long lashes. They weren't wide anymore, they had taken a thinner shape which suited my face perfectly. My lips were not plump, but enough to make my smile look beautiful.

I dried my hair with a towel and then ran my hands through it to comb it.

Good.

Having finished cleaning up I searched for Sean.

A smile spread across my lips as I reached where Sean was. The room looked like a deathtrap with all the wires scattered on the floor. There were flat screen televisions all over the walls and a dozen desktops. Sean sat in the middle of it all in a small revolving chair with a laptop on his lap.

He was staring intently at the screen and typing with inhuman speed.

I coughed to let him know of my presence. He looked up, unaffected and nodded.

"The chair is behind the door," he muttered as he went back to his typing. I shut the door close and stared at what I saw. There was an identical chair kept beside what seemed like a mini-fridge.

I took the chair and walked through the obstacles. I took a seat beside him and he looked up again.

"What are you up to?" I asked him.

"I'm writing a story." I raised a brow at him, not expecting the answer. "I like to write short stories and post it on the internet. People love me," he said with an easy smile. This was a different person altogether. He was comfortable with himself and he had a gleam in his eyes. This was where he belonged, I understood. He felt at home between all the computers and wires.

"Let's get to work, shall we?" I asked, excited about learning something new. He nodded, closing the tab and opening another. He cracked his knuckles and plugged in a wire into his laptop. All the computer monitors came to life, showing different pages. He handed me the laptop, giving me instructions and walked over to the set of computers.

"Log in for me, will you?" He said and I nodded. I logged into the system, breaking through the firewall will little difficulty. The codes were easy to find, though a bit tricky sometimes. He turned his head back and smiled in appreciation.

"Not bad," he comment, satisfied.

"So, here it is. Breaking through the security is too easy," I shrugged. He nodded, absentmindedly and then turned back.

"These passwords have not been changed in a while. They were set before I came. We need to reset them." He licked his lips and then stared at various monitors for a long time.

"Now," he said as he came back to me and took the laptop from me. "I need to break through the second barrier. You go and check for anything peculiar in the system." I nodded and got up. He typed away, his eyes locked to the screen. I looked at the monitors, my mind calculating and looking through the details. This one was really tough. Sean took about fifteen seconds and then looked up at me.

"Got anything?" I shook my head.

"I couldn't trace a thing. There was no bug. You could check again." His jaws clenched.

"Either someone got the passwords or they are excellent hackers." His face was pale. "I didn't know we had someone who was good at this." He gulped the lump in his throat and then shook his head. "Scott couldn't have had the time to find out the exact location of the shipments without breaking through the system."

"Maybe he's really good."

"Or someone was helping him." He closed his eyes, trying to seek out a way. And then the idea struck me.

"You know, there is this process I've heard about where you can track down the stuff that happened on the computer. It's sort of like having your history stored." His eyes opened at my thought.

"Yes!" He shouted, overjoyed. "Now, I work here all day… We need to find out when he came in and worked."

"Don't you have any cameras around here?" I asked. He nodded and clicked on some files so that a list of recordings came up. Now we need to go through each and every one of them. My eyes widened.

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