Maitho opened his eyes to a thin ray of sunlight streaming between dark brown curtains. The twin-sized bed under him had caused his tired mind, during the night before, to dive into the darkness of unconsciousness before he could even make himself comfortable. He felt slightly rested, the four hours of sleep warding away some of his exhaustion. An eight hour of deep slumber would be nice, followed by a spicy breakfast. What I wouldn't do for a chili-infested burn fest.
As he neared the door, Maitho placed his ear against it, listening for any sounds of life. Judging from the lack of noise and the lack of Bevan's constant and fairly audible chatter, it wouldn't surprise Maitho if no one was around at this time of the day. He quietly opened the door – feeling like he was sneaking in a place he was given permission to stay in, if only for a temporary period – and ambled his way to the kitchen.
When he reached the doorway, he found Brigid leaning over the kitchen counter, staring at two shot glasses filled with a clear liquid. Either the apartment had run out of glassware and Brigid was making use of anything to have a sip of water, or that small container held a certain kind of distilled beverage. The woman looked sideways at Maitho.
If his life had shown him anything, it is that sometimes, people are either addicted to the pain or to an addiction that can make them forget the pain, if only for a short while. Without waiting for a remark, he turned around to leave.
"You don't have to leave," said Brigid.
Maitho stopped and faced her, deciding to lean against the doorway to the kitchen. "Everyone deserves a moment to their own, especially at a time like this." He noticed a bottle of vodka on a small kitchen station in the center of the room. The station itself was kept spotless, and was devoid of any objects except a basket of assorted fruits. Above it hung a rack that held various kitchen accouterments, all of them looking like they were just store-bought. The more Maitho's eyes explored the kitchen, the more he realized how well-kept it was. For that matter, the entire apartment seemed to be close to spotless. Having personally accustomed himself to a strict tidying regiment in his own home, he understood the value of maintaining one's possessions well, as though eliminating chaos in the house somehow provoked a sense of orderliness in life.
Brigid offered Maitho one shot glass. He showed his palm and offered a small smile as a quiet, but polite, rejection. Shrugging, the woman downed her drink, grimacing slightly as she swallowed it. She placed her glass upside-down on the counter, closing her eyes as though contemplating something.
"I think I did not make an attempt to start a proper conversation yesterday at the cafe," said Brigid, eyeing the second shot glass as though waiting for a mental confirmation to have the drink. "I should have handled the situation better."
"I hadn't handled the situation well either. I lost my patience too quickly."
"It was justified."
"Perhaps. But it was not necessary." Maitho crossed his arms as he pondered how well to put his next set of thoughts into words. "If you have enough reasons, you can justify anything. Maybe it is not about how well you can justify something. It's about whether you should."
"Now you are showing off." Brigid smiled, her expression reaching her eyes. Her whole face lit up and there was a slight flush in her cheeks from the drink she just had.
Maitho responded with a genuine smile of his own. "I got an opportunity and seized it."
Brigid held the positive expression on her face as she downed the remaining shot of vodka. This time, she gave a soft and contented sigh, as though of the two drinks, she definitely enjoyed the latter. She placed the glass right-side up.
"We don't know anything about Raiden," said Brigid, her eyes straight ahead but her mind lost in whatever memories she had decided to conjure up for the moment.
Maitho nodded. "We don't know anything about, well, anything. At least you managed to make contact with someone."
Some memory that was best forgotten must have crossed her mind, since Brigid's expression became laced with a hint of anger. The muscles in her face tightened, her jaws clenched ever so slightly. "He got in touch with us. And he would have gotten away with whatever god-awful plans he had if not for Epona. Raiden is smart. But I think his overconfidence made him to believe that we were blindly trusting him."
"But you weren't."
"Epona wasn't."
Maitho wanted to offer a few words of encouragement, but he held them back. The woman in front of him wasn't seeking comfort for her past mistakes; she had made peace with them. She and Bevan had trusted a stranger who had entered their lives under the guise of an accomplice, like an invader entering a home after gaining the trust of the occupants. But she seemed to be the kind of person who does not allow a mistake to consume her thoughts.
Time to change the subject, thought Maitho. "Does he know where you three live?"
Brigid shook her head. "We met him a few times on the other side of the city. Sure, we trusted him. But we did not trust him so much."
"That's one point for us, I suppose."
This time, the smile did not reach Brigid's eyes. She began to rub one of her eyebrows with the knuckle of a finger, one of the many fidgeting actions that people around the world use to ward off anxiety and focus their mind. When Brigid spoke, she paused after almost every second sentence to give her mind more room to arrange information better. "It was a comforting to know that there was someone out there who shared the same fate as us. I was convinced by what Raiden said. Bevan is really trusting of people, as you might have noticed. But Epona was doubtful. She doesn't trust anyone who is not, well, us."
"Meaning you and Bevan."
"Yes. Perhaps she doubted the supposed kindness of someone who would appear so soon after our encounter with Jonathan Cray."
"Seems like an unwise move from someone so smart. He should have known that you would be suspicious if he contacted you so soon."
"I agree. But maybe it was deliberate, I don't know." Brigid pinched the bridge of her nose to dispel any mental strain she was feeling. She recovered quickly and continued. "Point is, Epona placed a tracker under his vehicle. We now know where he lives. We just haven't planned anything with that information yet."
"At least you have some advantage."
The look that Brigid gave Maitho was one of evaluation, as though she was wondering the wisdom of divulging any more information. "We do." She bit her lower lip for a few seconds. "Let me show you something."
Maitho followed Brigid out of the kitchen and across the spacious living room to a narrow hallway that led to various rooms. She stepped into the farthermost room, which was a small library. A line of bookshelves adorned three walls, filled mostly with various fiction novels, manga, a small helping of encyclopedias, a few cookbooks, and some books for learning technical skills. There was an antique coffee table in the center of the floor space atop a rather expensive looking rug. Two armchairs sat close to the table, facing the entrance to the room. Maitho did not have much time to take in the decor – even though he managed to spot a vase of yellow irises on the table – as Brigid confidently walked up to the bookshelf on the left. She turned around and crossed her arms, regarded Maitho humorlessly. "No one outside our team has seen what you are about to see."
Maitho considered the statement. As always, his curiosity started rising to peak levels, like mercury in a thermometer reacting to extremely hot temperatures. His emotional side wanted to focus on establishing trust, but the part of his mind with the proverbial red horns nudged him ever so slightly towards the chance at discovering something new. He decided to tread cautiously. No one decides to reveal a closely kept secret just because of a friendly breakfast conversation. "I haven't been with you for long and you had a bad experience with a godlike in the past. What changed Brigid?"
"We have to trust someone if we are going to solve this situation."
"And I am that person?"
"You could be that person.
Maitho squinted his eyes and gave a smirk that wasn't mocking, but inquisitive. He was trying to see what strings were attached to this peace offering. "What are you not telling me Brigid?"
"I am merely giving you an opportunity to join forces. And I am only going to make this offer once. You will have to fend for yourself if you are unwilling to accept this offering."
Was this some kind of a trap? Why was she not seeking out the opinions of the other two members? Maitho knew that he had so much to gain by allowing himself to accept the gift of discovery. He also had so much to lose, if there wasn't any offering in the first place. "Fine," he said, running a hand across his head, "I'm going to head back to the kitchen, maybe grab something to eat. We then wait for the rest of the team to wake up. If they agree, then you can reveal this secret."
Brigid relaxed, but only her body. She maintained her serious expression. "You lost your chance."
"In that case, I can work alone. Two years have given me a fair amount of training."
Maitho turned around.
And found himself face-to-face with Epona. She was casually holding the revolver that was held by Brigid the previous night, pointing it towards the floor. "Juist tae be clear, ah wanted ye tae fail."
Maitho looked from the gun in Epona's hand to Brigid, who now had her arm on the spine of a book on popular mythology.
"Is there another test?" said Maitho.
"There isn't," said Brigid. "Although we were confident you were harmless."
"Because Charon told you about me?"
"That," she said and threw a look over Maitho's shoulder, sending some form of communication only she and Epona understood. "and the fact that you didn't try to attack us last night."
Maitho didn't turn around to see how Epona responded. It wouldn't matter anyways. He didn't know the group long to understand their intentions by examining a single non-verbal message. But he still wanted to find out what made Brigid confident. "I could have been sneaking around."
"Hardly, Bevan and Epona were awake, waiting to see if you would try anything."
They were testing me the whole time. Was Bevan's attempt to start a conversation all a charade? Maitho wouldn't put it past the team, but he would not bring up his suspicions for discussion.
Brigid pulled the top of the book. There was an audible click from behind the bookshelf, an indication that some mechanism was activated. The central portion of the bookshelf slid forward and, when it was completely beyond the line of the shelves on either side of it, began to move sideways, revealing an opening the size of a door.
From his position, Maitho saw a far wall beyond the doorway that was no more than six feet from the opening. Blue light highlighted the room's interior.
Brigid entered the room and stood just beyond the opening. Epona pushed past Maitho, bumping his shoulder softly enough to avoid making it look like an attack, and hard enough to show she was only tolerating his presence. Ignoring the physical distaste showered upon him, he followed the short-haired woman into the room.
On one wall, there were three rows of monitors, with four monitors on each row. Each screen showed four sections that gave different views of the apartment, the hallways of what could be every floor of the building, the underground parking, and various sections of the street outside. In front of the monitors was a table that featured a single keyboard, a joystick that looked like it could be used for a space battle themed video game, and a trackball device. Maitho could see the main entrance of their building on one of the screens. He spotted one image showing a bird's eye view of the street outside, as though the device showing the image was placed on the roof of a tall building.
Maitho wasn't aware of how long had passed since he first viewed the monitors. He had a feeling it was just under a couple of minutes, but it seemed longer than that.
"That's not all," said Brigid.
She pressed her palms on a small section of the wall that was slightly off-color. There was a soft whirring noise, a sound that could only indicate that some hidden tech was scanning Brigid's hand.
When the sound stopped, Brigid withdrew her hand from the wall. A few seconds later, a thin beam of light in the shape of a rectangle roughly six feet wide and four feet high appeared on the wall. The rectangular section slid away from the wall and then sideways, mirroring the movements made by the bookshelf. Inside was a hollow lit up by golden lights.
Whatever expectations Maitho had about the secret he was about to find did not include what he was seeing.
Within the section of the wall that was revealed, Maitho saw an assault rifle, fourd handguns, a semi-automatic shotgun, and what could only be – based on his knowledge from an assortment of movies and TV shows – a Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun.
He looked back at the women, who were neither gloating nor looking smug. They looked like they were not entirely proud of having all the equipment and weapons in the room.
Despite the huge surprise dumped on Maitho, he began to analyze the situation. His mind ran through various questions and statements, but he threw them aside one after another until he landed on one that could not be ignored.
"Just what is it that you guys do?"
Epona looked like she was gearing herself to shoot a snarky comment but a motion from Brigid stopped her, even before she could let out a single sound.
"Something we are not proud of," said Brigid.446Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgN8FhSLN1v
