Twilight paced up and down the length of his office, muttering to himself.
What the fuck were the police doing? What the fuck were the WISE agents doing? Why hadn't he had any updates on Anya and where she was?
Sylvia Sherwood had explained to him in no uncertain terms that he was not to go looking for her by himself, and he had done everything in his power to remain in Berlint like she had ordered, but his patience was wearing extremely thin.
A knock at the door startled Twilight out of his thoughts, and he shook off his thoughts, and painted a pleasant and neutral expression on his face.
He expected to open the door to see Fiona, since she normally would have handed him some documents at this time of day, but he could not contain his surprise when he saw who it was.
"Erik Zacharis?" he said, stunned. "We aren't due for our next appointment for another week. Is everything alright?"
Erik Zacharis stood at his door, and Twilight didn't miss that Zacharis was absolutely shaking in his shoes. "Uhm," he said, and swallowed. "I have, uh, I'm ready to talk about…"
Twilight's eyes widened a fraction, and then with the precision of a spy, he smoothed his features over immediately. "Why don't you come in?" he said gently and gestured for Erik to come into the office. "I don't have a client meeting for another thirty minutes. I can tell you've come a long way here and you have something important to say."
Erik Zacharis leaned on his walking stick heavily as he sat himself in the chair in front of Loid's desk, and put his walking stick down on the ground next to his feet.
Twilight's eyes flicked from the cane to Erik Zacharis' face. "Did you bring that last time?"
Erik shook his head. "I don't like using it normally, but I felt I needed the support today."
Twilight nodded. "Right," and he cleared his throat. "Well, Mr Zacharis, what can I do for you today? I'm getting the sense that something significant happened for you to come all the way here today. Could it not wait for our next appointment?"
"No," said Erik hoarsely. "I… I'm sorry."
"It's alright. We still have some time today." Twilight didn't know why, but he got the sense that Erik Zacharis wasn't just apologising for turning up unannounced.
Loid noticed that Erik held tightly to a tiny piece of paper in his hand. Something about the way that Erik Zacharis was presenting today was putting something on edge, but until Zacharis actually started talking, there wasn't much that he could do.
"I…" Zacharis coughed. "I'm sorry, this is so difficult for me to say, I don't know if I'll..."
"Just take your time," Twilight said reassuringly. "Try to breathe through it."
This seemed to reassure Erik somewhat, as she started taking several deep breaths, and then held out the piece of paper to Twilight with a shaking hand.
Twilight reached across the desk and gently took the piece of paper from Erik's wizened fingers. He glanced at it quickly before looking back at Zacharis. "It's an address," he said simply, dumbfounded.
What did it mean?
"It's… the location of one of the human experimentation laboratories."
Twilight felt his blood run cold. It was only his second meeting with Erik Zacahris - why did he give this to him? How did he release this much information so early, without Twilight having to wheedle it out of him?
"Why are you giving this to me?" said Loid breathlessly, almost excitedly, but he did everything he could to school his own expression into something that appeared neutral.
But he could never have expected the next words that came out of Zacharis' mouth to contain something that would devastate him so completely.
"That's… Where your daughter is."
Twilight felt the air vanish from his lungs. He paled. "What?" The paper shook in his hands as he thought that he might be sick.
And then, after more than a decade of nightmares, guilt, sleeplessness, and regret, Colonel Erik Zacharis broke his silence.
Damian paced up and down the length of his room, before hurrying back to his bed and yanking his bag out from under it.
The gun was still there. Like it was five minutes ago, when he last checked.
"I can't take this anymore!" Damian said out loud. He swiped his books into his satchel, and slung it over his shoulder, before making his way down to the mess hall for breakfast. He couldn't back out of it now.
When Emile and Ewen saw him, they raised their eyebrows at each other, and then at him. "Why do you have your bag? Why isn't it in your locker?"
"Don't feel like it," mumbled Damian.
When Ewen held out his hand for it, Damian clung to the satchel strap and turned away. "No!"
"Damian-sama, don't you want me to carry your bags?" Emile looked like he was going to cry.
Damian cursed himself. He should have known that something would go wrong.
"No, it's okay. I'll - carry it myself. Thanks," he said awkwardly, and moved away.
Loid stared at the piece of paper in his hand. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't move. He stared wide-eyed at Eric Zacharis, who wrung his hands nervously in his lap..
"I..." Loid started to say, but he felt his throat starting to choke up dangerously. "I don't know how to thank you."
Erik hung his head low. "Just find her, and make sure she's okay."