Robert was quite tired after the ordeal, but he didn't have any slack. He was scheduled to attend the little meeting with Doppel, so he purposively didn't give any attention to the Elf lady Reina. He almost rushed out of the lift and said, "See you soon, Ms. Reina."
He didn't even wait for the her repeat gesture. He rushed to his apartment and opened it up, only to find a rolled in paper slip on the floor, it read "Not now"
He instantly knew that it was Doppel and something urgent had come up so Doppel was forced to do it. There's no CCTV on the floors, so Doppel sneaking something through his door won't even be recorded. "Probably she doesn't want to use her mobile anymore. Good for her, it'll only strengthen her disguise. Still what is this 'Heat now?' Doppel is very rational, then it has to be a code." Robert reasoned.
His phoned beeped to indicate the receiving of a message, it wasn't from Doppel but from Manako.
"I have news, her story is too big to tell online. Can we meet somewhere privately?" the message read.
Robert instantly texted, "I'm ok with it, care to suggest a place?"
The reply came within a minute, "How about Cafe-Dragon? I'll text you the location."
"Fine by me." Robert texted back.
"Can you come within half an hour?" Manako texted back with the address.
"No problem." Robert reverted back. The address wasn't that far from his apartment and the discussion takes precedence over everything else. Robert literally stormed out of his apartment with renewed vigour, but he failed to notice that his neighbour Rebeka looked at him through the ajar door.
On the way Robert noticed that the Apartment manager's room was dark, "Looks like Chief has already left, good for me, I guess." He stepped into his car and drove towards his destination.
Cafe Dragon was a popular Maid-cafe in the neighbourhood. Mentally Robert had to commend Manako's foresight, a Maid-cafe is more or less a secure place to share secrets and more so if the said cafe is run by a bunch of Dragons.
The interior decoration of the cafe was splendid, the dimmed light and the classical music made the air quite romantic. Robert could see that mostly couples were the patrons and they're very quite and self indulgent. Robert breathed a sigh of relief, suddenly a red eyed Humanoid Dragon girl in maid uniform welcomed him. "Welcome, master. I'm Tohru, Madam Manako has already instructed me to usher you to table no. 2. Please follow me."
Following the polite Dragon Robert arrived at table no. 2. Manako was already seated there and drinking a little water from the wine glass.
Robert took a seat beside her and Tohru took out her order book, "Would you like to place your order, Ma'm?" she asked Manako.
"I would like to full Chinese dinner special. Is that fine with you Robert?" Manako asked him with an all-knowing smile.
"I'll surely like that." Robert replied, the waitress noted down the orders and took her leave.
"You still remember my favourite dish. Surely you're yet to get over of me." Robert stated with a tinge of sorrow in his voice.
Manako replied, with a deep sigh, "Those two years were the best of my life. You're the first one whom I trusted when I came as an exchange student. How can I forget my first real love?" a big drop of tear rolled down from her eye.
Manako cleared her eye, put one drop of the customary eye hydrating lotion in her eye, waited a bit and then said, "The news is not looking too bright for you, that woman was involved in some serious matter."
"Chief Hannah?" Robert asked.
"Yes, I've already got a brief overview of her service life and it doesn't look good to me. There are rumours about her floating around the HQ." Manako replied.
"Rumours?" Robert was a bit astonished.
"Yes, but let me first give you a little detail about her Service life. Chief Hannah joined the Investigation Bureau almost six years ago. Soon she got posted into the infiltration unit with three fellow agents. She had three partners, a human and three Liminals. The Human was a male, everyone else were female.
The mission was going on fine. They had two infiltrators tipping them off about a Liminal trafficking cartel. But then something happened One of the infiltrators went missing and the other's cover blew up. Then when Hannah and her partner Kazan Kimovic were chasing a trafficker Kazan was killed and Hannah met with an accident putting her in Coma and taking out her right eye.
But the rumours about her were quite unforgiving, they generally blame her being the double agent of the cartel who kiled one infiltrator and blew up the other's cover. During the chase she purposively got hurt and let her partner die." Manako was stopped by Robert.
"But then she was in a Coma, she can't feign that possibly, can she?" Robert refused to believe this particular piece of the rumour.
"Well, they say that her colleagues from the Cartel wanted to get rid of her, but failed to kill her, but being in coma is as good as being dead. Even after waking up she seems to remember everything else other than the incident, which makes a good amount of the top brass, suspicious of her. They say she probably had cut a deal with her erstwhile accomplices, even her current posting wasn't a smooth affair. It seems someone from the Home ministry pulled some strings to get her become your boss." Manako stopped to catch a breath.
"I see, it's more intriguing than its appearance. By the way do you have any info on the other two Liminal agents?" Robert asked the Monoeye agent.
"Not really, I tried my best to pull up anything regarding them, but it seems that their files were deleted. Probably somebody from the upper echelon had his or her hand in that. There's probably a cover up after that incident." Manako replied sombrely.
"Thank you for your patience, Here's your order, please enjoy." Tohru brought the order and placed it in front of the duo.
Both the Human and the Monoeye were very hungry so they didn't wait anymore to dig in.
"Robert, please be careful. This person is nothing but trouble, keep your distance from her and take care, by the way how's Doppel doing? Haven't heard from her for a while?" Manako was also Doppel's classmate during the training period.
"Well she's out of the country. Some problem popped up in her family that's why she's on a leave." Robert replied, it was not like he distrusted Manako but orders are orders.
"Hmm...I see. But if I'm not mistaken then her parents are already dead. I guess something in her extended family must have happened." Manako reasoned.
"Probably, she never mentioned anything about the trouble though." Robert played his part aptly.
"Excuse me, here's the bill." Tohru put down the plate on which some eclairs and the bill were placed.
Manako and Robert split the bill between them. Before leaving Manako held Robert's hand in her both palms, "Please be careful, I know might not be in a position to say this, but if something happens to you I won't be able to forgive myself. If you need any help please feel free to ask me." Manako was already tearing up.
Robert hugged her lightly with his free hand, "I'll and don't say that Manny. I still love you, maybe we are no more a couple but I still love you very much and I'll never let you down. Nothing will happen." Robert reassured his old love.
"They tipped me so handsomely, I pray to the dark god that their love becomes immortal." Tohru was looking at the couple and rooting for them to reunite, she didn't like tragic romances, more so in real life.
Manako and Robert bade goodnight to each other and went to their separate ways, the taste of the Eclairs still lingered in his mouth much like the touch of Manako in his hand. he relished both immensely, suddenly a thought came into his mind, "Caramel, carbon, heat. Shit." He rushed towards his home.
On arriving he took out the note which was supposedly left by Doppel, he turned on his high power lamp and held the piece of paper closed to it, it was indeed a message from Doppel,
"It's deeper than anticipated. The drug dealers whom you've caught were going to become in the witness of prosecution in the Bunny Brothel and Trafficking case. Someone in the top brass covered it up and the case is dropped as of now. There's something bigger going on, that assassin is said to be a double agent. She is maybe an insider or something of our department. Don't worry I'm nearby, just be calm and remain collected and stay on your guard."
Robert was panting desperately, it's all coming to him now. "It has to be her, she's getting a condo in my apartment, she has already gotten a contact in the Home Ministry. I'll have to be on my guard and gather as much proof against her as possible."
Robert opened the bathroom closet and took out the bottle of sleeping pills, he knew that he needed at least one for the night.
Robert woke up with a loud knock on his door. He looked at the clock, it was already 7 in the Morning. He looked through the peep hole, to his astonishment Rebeka was standing there. He opened the door, Rebeka replied "Good Morning, Rob. Sorry to wake you up this early but somebody slipped a letter addressed to you in my condo. It even has your name and a postmark."
Robert took the envelope from her hand, it was addressed to him, but the flat number was illegibly written, probably that had been the cause of the mix up.
Robert thanked Rebeka, she replied, "You're just too kind. I didn't perform a phenomenal deed, I just performed the duty of any civilized neighbour, so no need to thank me like that. But there's something bad that I've noticed in this apartment. I got the smell of that Jinko from the Museum fiasco. Beware of her, Robert. She's a maneater." Rebeka left a bewildered Robert.
"There's some serious bad-blood flowing amongst them. Chief Hanna and Rebeka appear to be bitter rivals and probably they don't trust each other. Wait a second, that means Rebeka is probably one of the two infiltrators of Hannah's erstwhile team. But it's still a speculation and I need further proof to ascertain it. I'll have to investigate Rebeka, I'll bring up the vague recollections of that case and observe her reactions. But first I'll check up this letter."
Robert tore open the envelope, a printed letter came out of it,
Dear Robert Hayek, or I should rather suggest agent Hayek. Your life is in danger. People who're close to you will backstab. Don't trust anyone, I'm the agent assigned to watch over you by our Research and Intelligence wing. Don't trust anyone with a dysfunctional right eye, your partner has already sold herself. Don't believe her.