Velika: The story of a lover

This was a dangerous thought, Velika O'Sullivan shook it off right away.

'Remember,' She said to herself, 'You have your reason to stay in the game.'

The Sinking Boat. She sat up, flipped her hair back, yes, that company she told the 'truth' to, it wasn't hard to figure out who was running the whole company. So, she simply sent the president an email, all she wrote was three words, 'time to act'.

She hoped she could get the response. Even she had 90% confident he would reply, but people change, she couldn't be so sure that he trusted her loyalty like the old days.

After about half an hour, she received an encrypted email that from an unknown address, she bit her lips, took a deep breath and opened the page, yes, it was from The Sinking Boat.

The email said the President of The Sinking Boat wanted to meet her up in the afternoon at 4 p.m. in a bar that located in a secluded street. Velika O'Sullivan somehow appreciated that they arranged like this, as her face was on all the newspapers.

Braddock had already returned to the public and apologized for his 'mistake', declared he would try his best to assist the police hunt Velika O'Sullivan down. Astoria Leontes had every part of the show set up, all she had to do was watching Velika O'Sullivan, observe her steps.

Brave new world, Velika O'Sullivan curled her lips.

Velika O'Sullivan put on her largest sunglasses when she went out for the appointment, she had to admit she was nervous, but she was trained not to show any irrelevant emotions on her face. She tried to think of what she should say, but then she gave up, all she had to do was follow up the lines, adjust words in time, she already used to play with her hunch, for her, it was never a bad idea to take a bald move, it might bring magnificent aftermath.

She sat at the counter, rubbing her temples, she didn't sleep well last night as the hangover and what happened today made she feel even worse. Her arm was hurting so badly right now and she wanted to chop it off to end the infinite pain, she knew it wouldn't be easy to come to an end, still, she wished the final day would come as soon as possible.

Someone sat down beside her, she sensed that and looked up. The light was so dim that she couldn't see the person's face clearly, it was a middle-aged man, that was all she could tell.

"Velika O'Sullivan?" The person whispered, she nodded, and opened her eyes wide, tried to figure out who the person was, clearly not who she expected, "My name is Pacific and I'm here to represent the CEO of The Sinking Boat."

"Good codename," Velika O'Sullivan lifted her eyebrow, "Why didn't your boss come?"

"My employer wants to see your capability," Said Pacific slowly, "He received your email and he decided to offer his help, this is generous enough."

"You are not rude at all," Velika O'Sullivan said disgruntledly, "Remind me of someone I used to be acquaintance with."

"We knew you want to get Daniel Heinrich out----"

"Sorry to interrupt," She frowned, "But how did you know about Heinrich?"

"Of course, we have our own ways," Pacific said in a flat, cold tone, "So may I continue now?"

"Yes, you may go on." Velika O'Sullivan was a little dissatisfied about his attitude, she knew this person from somewhere, his voice was familiar but she couldn't find him in her memory, he was someone she used to know, someone she used to be friend with.

"Heinrich is trapped in the basement and the fastest way go down there is from the vent, you may aware there's a straight vent at the north side of the building," Pacific paused and sipped his drink, "Then you can go through several corridors and reach to him."

"Okay, I thought about that too, but I can't reach that high in the sky, wait a sec," Velika O'Sullivan tilted her head a bit, "Are you going to offer me a chopper?"

"You are smart, just like what I've heard." Pacific nodded and stood up. His tone was still flat and cold, Velika O'Sullivan wondered this was a compliment.

"I don't see any part of realizing that you are offering me a chopper is smart but thank you?" She said questionably, Pacific didn't respond, he was ready to leave.

"We'll inform you by tomorrow, get ready." He said.

"Why do you have to make the decision?' She hurried came up closer to him, "I'm the one who's going to do the operation."

"And we are the one who offers help." Said Pacific, he didn't even look at her, "See you, Velika."

She stiffed, out of all the people she knew, very few of them addressed her with her first name. All she could think of was her husband, the Leontes, Nicholas Watson, her mysterious friend and the newly added, Daniel Heinrich. Who was this man? She quickly searched in her memory again, then she came up with the scariest result, which thrilled her.

Yes, it was him, had to be him.

"Wait," She ran up to him, patted on the shoulder, "Haven't seen you in a while, Bryce Sanchez."

He was ready to open the door, the light sneaked through the gap and shined on his face, it was him no less. The man who was Astoria Leontes' lover, who set Daniel Heinrich up, and who had a history with the notorious Velika O'Sullivan.

###

Five years ago, after Velika O'Sullivan was promoted to be the Chair Field Agent as she was beyond exceptional at her job. As a reward, she had a three months' vacation leave, so she went to Egypt. The desire to visit that ancient country with thousands of years' history had been swirling in her mind for a very long time, the desert, the pyramid, the antiques fascinated her, as soon as her request was approved, she booked the plane ticket and went there all by herself, with nothing former planned, she decided to go on a blind, adventurous tour.

After the aggressive and stressful training in Natural, the bitterness of losing Dean O'Sullivan had dwindled, though she was still upset, she wasn't as devastated as before, with the belief that this tour would repair her damage, she longed to wander in the desert by herself, watch sunset and get a taste of loneliness, compare to the majestic nature, she was nothing but a tiny individual.

Nowadays when she thought of it, she was still surprised by what that foreign country had bring to her and slightly changed her life track.

She met a man.

It sounded like a summer romance, and indeed it was. She met him when she attended a bonfire party, which was organized by the foreign travellers stayed in her hotel, since she had nothing else to do to kill the night, she decided to go.

While others were dancing and drinking, singing songs out loud without any rhymes, she sat on the wood trunk quietly sipping her beer, she was never a big fan of parties, as a matter of fact, she hated parties, in her own mind, parties are for people to have a proper reason to get drunk and wasted, when they woke up the other morning, they would regret what they did.

She simply sat there, watching people losing their minds, then, she sensed someone sat beside her, she turned around and saw him. he was older than her, in his early 30s, with dark blonde hair and ocean blue eyes, he smiled at her, she lifted her lips symbolically in return.

"Not going to dance?" He spoke, he had this deep, husky voice that didn't suit his figure.

"No," She shook her head, "Neither are you."

"That's true," He laughed, "I don't want to end up drunk, it's such a shame to get drunk in such a beautiful night, look at the stars."

She looked up, didn't notice there were countless stars hanging in the ink like sky until he mentioned to her, it was so pretty. All these years living in a busy city, she had no time to travel and observe the incredible beauty of nature.

"Stunning." She mumbled, heard him laugh lightly.

"I'm Bryce Sanchez by the way," He introduced himself gently, "And you are?"

"Velika O'Sullivan," She answered, still looking at the sky, "Yes, this is my real name and I do have an Irish last name, don't judge."

��Relax," He laughed, she turned to him, he had such a nice smile, so harmless, "I'm not going to judge, I like your name, it's unique."

"Of course it is," She sighed, looked up to the sky again, "Absolutely."

The whole night they sat there and talked, Bryce Sanchez told her he was a businessman travelling around the world and this time he came to Egypt on a business trip. In return, she told him she was an office lady that finally had a chance to take a break from her tedious work. They both pretended to believe in each other's lies, even they knew precisely that they were lying, but they never questioned. What's the point of asking? Velika O'Sullivan thought, this was nothing but a summer romance, it would be gone as soon as she returned to Natural and he would go back to wherever he belonged.

She liked the part he never asked about her name, normally when people heard she had an Irish surname they would question her, and she was tired of explaining it, before she could simply say she was married, not the situation changed and she didn't want people to bring the conversation deeper form where she got a different surname.

Bryce Sanchez and Velika O'Sullivan spent the entire summer together, they travelled from Egypt to Europe, visiting different countries, admired the culture and history. Velika O'Sullivan loved travel, went around the world was always her dream, she finally had the chance to realize it. She already planned to travel alone, endure the loneliness, but she was the kind of person hardly bared to stay alone, luckily, she found such a good company, Bryce Sanchez was a mystery to her, he was funny, outgoing and very enthusiastic, she loved to hear him talking, he made her days colorful. They would hang around in the streets at midnight, sometimes they walked along the riverside, other times they went to the noisiest street, where people were singing, dancing and drinking beer glass after glass. How wonderful.

They had many thoughts in common, Velika O'Sullivan was surprised they have same values as they were from completely backgrounds, even their opinions concurred on tiniest things, like what kind of decoration style they preferred, or the view towards a certain event, there were times they had the same idea on their minds. She didn't notice that until one day Bryce Sanchez suddenly asked:

"Yes," She answered, looking at a antique vase at the street stall, "You are going to watch the show on channel six at night?"

She didn't say that on purpose, she said it because it slipped on her mind somehow, so she spoke out as a joke, but Bryce Sanchez's reaction surprised her.

"How did you know?" He rose his eyebrow, she turned around and blinked, then they both laughed.

"Oh boy," She laughed so hard, "I'm a psychic."