Velika: The story of a lover

Later after Nicholas Watson left, Daniel Heinrich and Velika O'Sullivan were sitting there, facing each other silently with serious expressions on. Both of them were sinking in their thoughts and had no will to break the delicately balanced atmosphere, it would be a crime.

Daniel Heinrich never could comprehend why Velika O'Sullivan put her own life aside, fought so violently for someone else. Although she claimed she was fighting for herself, he never understood. She had a disastrous past, that was why she needed to let it go, started a new life instead of still twisting with memories, build a barrier in her heart. But no, she chose to live with it stubbornly, refused to be saved.

Suddenly he felt the pity for her, he had the impulse to take her away and started all over again, they could have a wonderful life, people talented and suffered this much like them deserve a good life, so as they said.

"Aren't you going to ask me why I have to do this?" Velika O'Sullivan looked into his eyes, said coldly in a flat tone.

"No," Daniel Heinrich shook his head, "What's the point of asking? You've already decided."

"You think I'm stupid, right?" She kept her flat tone, "My alliance sent my husband to target me, and I have to fight my husband, also, there's no guarantee this isn't a trap, Astoria might want me killed regardless that I might be her last hope to cast out Romeo."

"I don't think she wants you dead," Said Daniel Heinrich slowly, "This action will drive Romeo Leontes out, he will believe you are loyal to him, but you do risk too much. Does it worth you putting your life on a blade?'

"I have my very own reasons," She laughed gauntly, "What I do is all for comforting myself, call me arrogant or whatever you want. Plus, Heinrich, don't you want to save Clarabelle Lewis? She was dragged in this because she was investigating for you."

For one second her words made him speechless. It was true that Clarabelle Lewis was captured because she was returning his favor, he somehow felt guilty about it, but not much. In the field of what they did for a living, they couldn't get much sentiment attached. However, at this moment he started to realize, everything Velika O'Sullivan did or going to do was all about her sentiment. Yes, she was cold and ruthless, but deep inside, all she ever wanted was to glue the fragments of her heart together, that was why she wanted to revenge Romeo Leontes no matter what price she had to pay for. Same did Astoria Leontes, that pretty creature had an even worse past than Velika O'Sullivan, her heart was fulfilled with hate, she wanted, longed for revenge, revenge the people who made her suffer, revenge the society that left her behind, stood aside indifferently, watching her burn in the flame.

But he still doubted that Velika O'Sullivan was hiding something, something that she only kept to herself.

###

Velika O'Sullivan was waiting in the alley near The Sinking Boat, searching for her target. With large numbers of employees, staff in The Sinking Boat couldn't possibly recognize their colleagues, even they did, she had to risk.

A young lady dressed in her office suite was walking hurriedly towards her, it seemed she could barely keep her punctuality record. Velika O'Sullivan noticed she had an ID card pinned on her coat and had the TSB logo on, it was time for the predator to hunt her prey.

She went up to the woman, pat her on her right shoulder from behind when she turned back from the right side, Velika O'Sullivan injected anesthetic on her left arm, she fainted within seconds, Velika O'Sullivan rose her eyebrow and was pleased that the medicine worked.

After Velika O'Sullivan made sure the poor woman was far beyond being conscious again, at least not within a short time, she dragged the woman to the car and shoved her in, assured she wouldn't show up within hours. Velika took off the ID from the woman, pinned on her blouse, scanned around quickly, making sure no one was watching.

She felt her phone vibrated in her pocket, it was a message from Daniel Heinrich, he was asked to stay in Natural, observe the operation together with Astoria Leontes so he couldn't help her in any way in the field, and Nicholas Watson had to stick with the computer as he was assigned a mission from Velika O'Sullivan, as a result, she was on her own, but she was confident enough to handle it alone, like what she had done thousands of times before.

'Good luck, and come back in one piece.' That was what Daniel Heinrich texted her, she curled her lips and replied: 'No worries'. The advantage that he was inside Natural was, he could update the status of Dean O'Sullivan and Clarabelle Lewis's mission to Velika O'Sullivan so that she could react in response. Though it was still dangerous for him as he was under the surveillance of Astoria Leontes, he doubted she cared, probably she wanted him to message Velika O'Sullivan, so her plan could be accomplished easily without much damage.

Her husband and Clarabelle Lewis were inside The Sinking Boat already, she was sure that as Daniel Heinrich notified her almost half an hour ago, they planned to avoid them as much as possible. While she was walking to the operation center, she put on the glasses that 'robbed' (quoted Nicholas) from Nicholas Watson, she was short-sighted as well, even worse than who she took glasses from, most of the times she had contact lenses on, not because she hated glasses, it was all because she was a field agent, work factor if that was what it was called.

The operation center was a narrow space surrounded by glasses, people could see what others doing from outside, but whoever could get inside was the higher-level agent and required a special authorization card, which Velika didn't have. She circled the center and saw Clarabelle Lewis standing beside a ladder, then no wonder Dean O'Sullivan was 'examining' the vent there up in the ceiling, considering the time, Velika O'Sullivan thought they were about to finish, she couldn't get in right now as they would probably saw her and cause big chaos, so she sat at an empty table that near the operation center and stood by.

Vibration, message from Daniel Heinrich again, saying 'Evacuating, 15 minutes' count down'. Velika O'Sullivan wondered why he could message her this easily under Astoria Leontes' surveillance, guess the boss was trying to get her job done effortlessly. With a smirk on her lips, she looked up, noted Dean O'Sullivan and Clarabelle Lewis had already come towards the door, now it was her chance arrived. She stretched her arms, stood up lowered her head, picked up the coffee mug on the table and walked to the door casually, pretended she wasn't nervous at all. At the very moment, Dean O'Sullivan opened the door, she grabbed it, turned her head away so that he couldn't identify her, but she knew he would notice her, she was the only person in the world that he could recognize no matter what disguise she was in, so as him to her. She was exposed in the light now, Astoria Leontes was watching her over the surveillance camera, somehow this could be taken as her official announcement of her return.

When Daniel Heinrich saw her image on the screen, he felt a twitch in his stomach. He was aware that Velika O'Sullivan dared to risk and would accomplish the mission regardless of what would cost her, but this move was really on the edge, he used his sidelong glance checked on Astoria Leontes, worried that she would notice something peculiarly, she did frown a bit, but didn't say anything, Daniel Heinrich knew she identified Velika O'Sullivan, but as he deducted before, she wouldn't act, since she wanted everything went as smooth as it could be.

Velika O'Sullivan got into the operation center successfully, she relaxed a little as she wasn't caught. She stood under that vent, lifted her head, checking, or imagining where could she got into the vent from without climbing the ladder in front of everyone in this room. At first, when they planned this, Daniel Heinrich told her to enter the ventilating system from the west corridor vent on the third floor, then climb to the position where the bomb was placed, but Velika O'Sullivan questioned the accuracy of the floor structure diagram he showed to her since there were several blurry spots, seemed had been changed and edited. Astoria Leontes would never let her mission be this easy, after the time that she wasn't around, her trust in Velika O'Sullivan went down, although there wasn't much trust at the first place, she had to test her best agent to ensure her ability was the same.

Now things turned out to be she was right, she couldn't enter from the west, instead, she needed to get in from the east, the whole diagram Dean had was the reflected version of the original one. She swiftly walked out of the operation center and turned to the corridor, when there was no one around, she started running.

There was a hovel under the vent, she picked the lock and took out several paint buckets. Then she took off her heels, hid in the hovel, stood on the buckets, finally she climbed into the vent. It was dark and cold inside, she was glad that she had a little flashlight with her, ten minutes left, the clock was ticking, she had to go for her hunch, she speeded up and eventually saw the red beeping spot, there was the bomb.

Before she considered herself as an expert in defusing explosives, and she was confident that this one was a piece of cake as well, but now she was proved to be wrong. It must be a new bomb that Natural newly imported, just like the micro one that could insert in the human brain, this bomb required a cipher, and according to her acknowledge about ciphers, the set-up system of it must have two ciphers, one to blow up, the other one could defuse it.

"Oh hell." She rolled up her eyes, at the moment she had no choice but confront her husband, and she wasn't sure if he would give her the right cipher, well, hopefully, he would, but after a twist. Like dramas, all Astoria Leontes wanted is a drama customized for Romeo Leontes.