Thanks for the reviews:

Hutchy- Yeah, Lee isn't quite sure that he wants to live forever. I mean he's still young! He's not an old fool like Boris.

Silver Suzaku- I know, I know Tala will have a lot of trouble getting Mariah's attention. But hey, something may change at the end.

I hope you all will enjoy this chapter…

Chapter 19: Wind Storm Dragon

Prima arrived on the Wind Storm Dragon beach the same day she departed. The place was crowded with sunbathers, most of them were foreigners. She went to check in atthe hotel. The building stood not far from the beach. It was a white house with a wide porch all around the walls. Prima must admit that it looked chic.

She went up to the reception. A woman in a tight blue suit greeted her.

"Good afternoon, I would like a single room please," she replied, forcing herself to sound light and cheerful.

"Are you on holiday?" the woman asked friendlily.

Prima nodded.

"You're not from America?"

"Italy," Prima answered.

"Oh Italy!..."

And Prima let the young woman blab on about what a nice place Italy was while she wrote down her name and address.

"Here's your key," the woman said at last. "Room 2046."

A page boy came and took her luggage. Prima was used to this kind of treatment so she let him guide her to her room.

It was a spacious bedroom. The single bed looked more like a queen-size. The window was open, letting in the afternoon breeze. Prima tipped the boy and started unpacking while building up a plan in mind. Giovanni told her that this resort mighthold another headquarters of the Chows. He wanted her to find out where it was and what they were doing there. Prima changed into her black bikini and went downstairs.

There was a pool behind the building, bathed in sunlight. Many people were there, shouting and laughing. Prima pulled a face. She hated happy noises like that. She found a lounge chair and settled herself there. Soon there was a waiter who came to ask if she needed anything.

"A glass of pressed grapefruit, please," she ordered.

When the waiter came back with it, she decided to take action.

"Hmm, your resort is very big but I see that the forest behind is left to abandon," she observed.

"To abandon, miss? Oh no. We've got it all transformed for the tourists' casualty," the waiter answered.

"Really? Do you get many important tourists then?" she was trying to center the conversation now.

"Well, all costumers are important to us. But yes, sometimes we hold meetings. Why are you so interested?"

"Don't you know who I am?" Prima fended taking a superior voice. "I am the Italian guide-book writer. I'm checking out America to see if it's worth coming over." She gave an Emily-like laugh to scare the waiter.

It looked like it worked since he was starting to sweat.

"Um… no, Miss... Well, I… can't tell you much. Not high enough, really," the waiter mumbled.

"That's alright, I'll talk to your superiors later. But tell me, how often does the owner of this company come here?"

"Oh I can answer you that question, Miss," the waiter sounded relieved. "They usually come when the tourists are gone but normally they just send their auxiliaries to accomplish missions in their place."

"What kind of missions?" prima sounded curious.

"Oh, er…" the waiter just noticed that he had said too much but he was so intimidated by the youngwriter that he didn't perceive. "Just unloading cargos." He shrugged.

"Cargos?"

"Er… I have to go now, miss. Have a nice time!" And he ran away.

The next morning the whole resort was moved by the fact that an Italian guide-books writer was secretly inspecting the place. Prima couldn't be more pleased with herself. At least something was done. Now she must abstract as much information as possible before someone discovered the truth. Each evening she sent reports back to the villa. She learnt from the staffs that the Wind Storm was one of the White Tiger Corporation's important meeting base, and the chief of the resort let out a slip about some 'hidden meeting place'. He just wanted to show off about how important affairs took place here without meaning to tell her that they had a secret. But Prima had learnt to read between lines and a little push allowed her to know that there was going to be some cargos arriving from the land.

"Mission moving well," Prima typed before clicking 'send'. She was sitting legs-crossed on her bed, looking at the sunset.

She signed with happiness. Little did she know, an unexpected guest would be arriving with the cargos, reviving her nightmares…


Salima had a morning off the day Hilary, Mariam and Tala meant to go on mission so she had the idea of going to see Garland. She took the bus from the villa to Garland's loft which stood on Washington Street. Salima didn't have trouble finding the number 17. Her hands trembled with excitement as she climbed the 19th century staircase that stood in the hall. When she got to the 5th floor, she knocked on the door to her left (she read it off the postbox in the vestibule). While waiting for a reply, Salima mended her floppy fiery hair in the mirror hanging between Garland's door and theneighbor's one. She was wearing a denim jacket, not too warm for September and inside, she had her pale pink vest. She hoped it didn't look too simple. There was still no answer to her knock. Salima looked at her watch 11:17am. Garland couldn't be anywhere at this time, could he? She tried the doorknob. To her surprise, it wasn't locked.

"Garland?" she called hesitantly as she entered the loft.

The bright morning sunlight soaked the wooden-floor loft with warm honey. Bottles and cans, newspapers and packets of chips ran across the floorboards. The TV was buzzing in front of a moth-eaten sofa. They must have forgotten to switch it of before going to sleep… Suddenly, Salima was rooted on the spot. There, in the centre of the loft was a king-size bed filled with ashen sheets. In it, were two bodies.


As night came, Prima changed into her ninja combination. She was sure that the cargos would be arriving tonight and she had the intention of following it. She crept out of her room and sneaked downstairs. The whole resort was sleeping, not a mouse squeaked. It was like the silence before a storm. Prima felt surer and surer of her hypothesis. She went down to the beach and hid among the trimmed bushed surrounding the resort. She waited for about 15 minutes before a sign of mysterious activity appeared. From the sea, she could see a giant shadow approaching the pier. Suddenly, something moved behind her. Prima quickly turned to see the head of the resort accompanied with a couple of men coming out of the building to greet the ships. They stopped at the pier and the ships opened way to trucks. Prima suspected that they were carrying the cargos in question. A company of men came down the ships and was negotiating with the owner of the resort. Prima twitched as the men went into one of the trucks. This was her chance.

As the trucks sped past her one by one towards the forest, Prima jumped on one and clung on the backdoors.

After 20 minutes of ride, the trucks seemed to slow down. Prima slid underneath the truck so that no one would see her. From her hiding-place she could see that the trucks had stopped in front of a mountain. The Belle-View Mountain? Prima asked herself. That mountain was the highest on the island and was renowned forits magnificent view. To her surprise the mountain's surface was lifted, revealing an entry large enough for the trucks to enter. Prima looked at her side and saw that they were entering a kind of artificial cave inside the mountain. The truck came to a halt and the driver came out. There were voices of someone commanding and the driver went to open the back door. Other people came and helped unloading the cargos. Prima waited till the noises were gone then she let herself down and crawled out from under the truck. She found herself in a strange hall inside the mountain. All the trucks were lined in a neat row. Prima took out a voice recorder and quickly counted the trucks. Then she turned to the door at the end of the hall. It was left open.


Salima couldn't believe her eyes.

"Gar- Garland?" she spluttered.

The silver head moved slightly and Garland slowly opened his eyes, which widened considerably at Salima's sight.

"Salima!" he exclaimed.

The body next to him moved and Salima gasped with horror as she recognized…


Prima went through the door and witnessed something that would stay carved in her memory forever. Beneath her, scientists were scurrying around, working on what seemed to be like chemical solutions. Actually, there were different rows of scientists working on different stages of what seemed to be the making of a potion. She also noticed that they wore metallic collars around their necks. At the first row, the scientists were given blacks boxes which Prima presumed came from the trucks. The scientists took out tubes of different colors and other things like sprig of herbs. Prima thought she was going insane. What on Earth were they doing?

Suddenly she noticed a woman among the scientists. She had blond hair and dazzling blue eyes. Judy Tate! Max's long-lost mother! But what was she doing here?

"Scientists arecaptured to make strange potions. Cargos bringing the ingredients," Prima spoke into the voice recorder.

Before she could continue, a hand was placed on her shoulder. She felt like an icy grip had taken over her body as she slowly turned her head.

"Are you having fun, little mouse?"

The man had a Chinese accent. He was holding his gun at her.


"Shit!" Brooklyn said.

But Salima was already running away. Tears began to steam upon her face as she left the cursed place. She couldn't believe what she had just witnessed! Garland… and Brooklyn? Mariam was right after all. Oh God, she wished she could die! Salima came into a halt when she noticed that she didn't know where she was. Why am I so unlucky? Salima asked herself. Why couldn't any man take her seriously? Enrique for once just played with her and when he was bored he left her with nothingness. And now when she thought that she had finally found someone interesting, it was all gone in a blink of an eye. I can't believe it, I can't believe it, she kept repeating to herself as she sat down on an empty bench, somewhere in New York, feeling forever more lost.


The scientists had stopped working to watch the guards surroundinga girl clad in black.

Prima eyed intensely the guards standing around her. They all had their guns out.

"Now, don't you move," the owner of the resort said as he made his way towards her. "Let me take a look at what you've recorded."

Prima looked at her voice recorderin her right hand then suddenly an idea passed her mind.

"Come and get it," she said and threw it towards the place where the scientists were working.

With a swift movement, she took out her gun and shot the machine, making it explode overthe chemical substances, occurring intoxication. Prima used the opportunity to dash past the guards and ran towards the forest. But she wasn't as lucky as she thought: someone was running after her. Prima tightened her grips and ran faster, hoping she could take refuge in the night's mantle. But the person's steps were still after her.

Suddenly, she fell down a slope and from somewhere a shot could be heard. She could instantly feelthe striking pain in her leg. She suppressed her scream but the person jumped down to her and wascoming dangerously close. With her last force, she threw a dagger she always kept at hand at him and heaved herself up. Another shot made itself heard but Prima was already drifting across a river nearby, as helpless as a bird without wings.


I'm so sorry if it chapter is boring (because reading through I don't find any elements worth reading, except of course the fact that Brooklyn and Garland are together!). But I promise that the next chapter will be better.