Like any other loyal guard dog, Luca Morra stalked the Gala with a trained, unemotional eye. His superiors seemed sure that nothing would happen during tonight’s event, but Luca wasn’t so sure. It would be errant of him to say this, but sometimes his handlers were too cocky. Now that Cerberus was out of the way, Hydra thought they were untouchable Gods. Now that their biggest competitor was gone, they were free to do business as they pleased. Until someone took Cerberus’ place, that is. No one expects a knife in their back until someone stabs them. So without the order, Luca kept an eye on the guests and the perimeter.
As he patrolled, Luca kept his ears out for anything out of the ordinary. He also kept his ears open for important tidbits of information. Although he was a loyal dog to Hydra, Luca liked to collect vital information when he could. He wasn’t trying to blackmail his bosses, per say. He just wanted an insurance plan if he stopped being valuable. For the time being, he was Hydra’s number one assassin. Without him, Cerberus wouldn’t have crumbled. Even though he was indispensable, he didn’t get to rise through the ranks like his colleagues. He had his place, and he worked hard to keep it secure. The day he becomes useless is the day he finds a bullet in his brain. For now, he still had unfinished business. His revenge wouldn’t be sated until he took down every single member of Cerberus. They had taken his family, so he wanted them all dead in return. No one believed him, but he knew a few stray members were licking their wounds in the shadows. When they emerged, he’d be there to take them down.
“Morra, come on over!” At his name, Luca’s head snapped up, ready to jump into action. His hand froze at his back, preparing to pull his concealed weapon. Instead, he relaxed at the sight of his primary handler, Sargent Pecas. With an obedient nod, Luca made his way over. Once in arms reach, Pecas clapped him on the shoulder and introduced him to a curvy blonde. The name wasn’t memorable, so he forgot it instantly. He wasn’t invited over to mingle with the guests. Pecas called him over to brag, like always. It was just another reminder that while Luca had freedom, he was still a stray dog. When his handlers threw scraps of humanity at him, he knew better than to accept them. He was only around for show, and he should remember his place. The moment he forgot that he was dead.
After what felt like an hour, Pecas finally released Luca. Luca made a quick break, heading back into the shadows where he belonged. Once hidden, Luca allowed himself a moment of humanity; he felt sorry for the blonde. Pecas had a track record of losing his women because sometimes he got too eager with a knife. There was plenty of evidence to send him to jail for life, but with the DA’s help, that would never happen. Like Luca, those girls were nothing but amusement. If he were more human, he would have felt sick to his stomach. But he hadn’t been for a long time. If they were stupid enough to get in Pecas’ clutches, then there was nothing anyone could do for them, least of all him.
Just as Luca began another check of the perimeter, a bomb went off somewhere in the south quadrant. The walls rattled as cementer rained down on the party. As the building shook, Luca took a moment to gather his footing before he shot out from his hiding spot. Between the screaming women and the running guests, his handlers were nowhere in sight. That meant he was on his own, which he preferred. He could get a lot more done without his handlers breathing down his neck.
While a group of guards headed towards the blast, Luca went in the opposite direction. Over the last week, he’d spent a lot of time mulling over the floor plans of the building. There was nothing of value near the blast site. That area housed the guest rooms and parlors. If he were a thief, he’d head for the west quadrant. That’s where Hydra kept all their offices and vaults. There was a lot of extra security in that region, but there was no guarantee of anything being ‘unhackable’. Luca himself could crack any of the safes in the building in under two minutes. If anyone were ballsy enough to dare break into Hydra, they would have done their research to know all this too. With his gut leading him, he sprinted towards the offices and hoped he wasn’t too late.
Along the way, Luca found an armory (something added per his request) and grabbed better firepower. He was a talented marksman but worked best from a distance. He grabbed a few different weapons, hoping it would be enough. All he needed to do was take down this group of thieves quickly and efficiently. By his guess, he assumed there were at least three to five of them. The bomber was most likely out of the picture by now. Once in the right area, he moved from room to room quietly. With the element of surprise, he could get ahead of the situation.
As Luca worked his way down the hallway, he caught a flash of a person slipping into the far right room. He paused and thought back on his blueprints. The last door on the right was where Hydra kept a lot of their business dealings and contracts. If someone was trying to steal those, they were looking for proof of something. The only question was what they wanted. Luca would find out. Taking a deep breath, Luca took a moment for the target to settle into their task. Once ready, he kicked the door down and headed into the room. “Stop right there,” he barked, pulling his gun into position. He slapped the mag into place, pointing the weapon at their head. “Turn around and put your hands on your head,” he ordered, never taking his eyes off the target. “Slowly, now.”
Josephine kept pushing through the crowd, trying to not cause too much suspicion by bumping into anyone as she probably would have under different circumstances. Tonight, however, she needed to keep a low profile. At least for now … during the calm before the storm. She could already imagine the chaos that was bound to take place in a few moments, but the time hadn’t come yet which meant she had to blend in until the attending guests couldn’t care less about anyone but themselves. A default mode for most people in this room, she assumed. And she couldn’t even claim to be any different no matter how much she would have wanted to. The truth was, however, that Josephine herself was driven by selfishness. It wasn’t triggered by greed or the thirst for power, but she was selfish nonetheless. Revenge was her vice and she knew she would allow no one get in her way … even those who cared about her. They didn’t know, couldn’t possibly understand … but the wrath she was feeling these days threatened to consume her and getting justice for the family she had lost seemed to be the only thing to keep it at bay. Or so she believed.
“Turn left here and then take a right turn at the end of the hallway.” Raj told her even though Josephine knew the layout of the premise by heart, thanks to weeks and months of preparation and many sleepless nights when she would hover over the map instead, coming up with countless alternative plans in case the preceding one went south. Despite still not fully grasping what she had gotten herself into, Josephine refused to go into this endeavour unprepared. She had studied all the exits, knew where Hydra would most likely position guards and made sure all the information was imprinted in her memory. Failure was unacceptable. Not now, not when she was finally one step closer to holding the people who had taken everything from her accountable.
“After that you need to take another right turn.” he continued and Josephine nodded, looking up at one of the security cameras, knowing that he had already hacked into them in order to conceal her presence as well as lend her his eyes. “That’s where the office is at …” Josephine concluded, knowing that the files she was tasked to get would be stored inside that room. “Yes, but before you go there wait until you hear the explosive go off. There are two guards right in front of the door to keep you from getting what’s inside. I assume they will all be ordered to head for the scene, rather than keep their positions. The top brass of Hydra are among the attendees so their protection will be the first priority. You’re at the west wing of the property, these two will be the only ones in your way.” the hacker advised, even though she imagined he knew just how little patience Josephine tended to have … even on her best day. Today was even worse, but she stayed in position nonetheless, feeling the weight of the knife strapped to her thigh even more so now that she knew it might come in handy soon enough.
Just when Josephine believed to finally run out of patience she heard it; the loud noise she assumed to bring lots of joy to an overly excited Kitty. The guards hardly gave her time to think ––not that it was required, considering she had been ready long before them–– and as they headed towards the direction the blast came from they immediately ran into the brunette. She caught them off guard, ironically enough, and it didn’t take too much time for her to take them out, leaving them both laying on the ground unconsciously, aware that Clara had been watching her every move and most likely already coming up with ways to improve her skills. Nothing Josephine felt like worrying about now; her style was effective even though messy at times.
Getting into the office proved to be a piece of cake when Josephine entered the room shortly after with Raj’s assistance and the device he had handed her earlier. Everything else was set into motion once she got a closer look into the room. She placed an USB drive in the computer that was situated at one end of the office after turning it on, knowing that Raj would take it from there to not just copy all the files the needed onto the little device but also send a copy to himself just in case. In the meantime, she was looking for something else, which was when Clara took over. “I don’t see a safe.“ Josephine told her, not having expected it to be easy as she kept checking the room for potential hiding spots. It took a while but eventually she found it, not a safe, but a locked drawer in the massive wooden desk that the computer stood on. Apparently, someone believed those guards were actually worth their money. She took a paperweight off the desk and slammed it against the lock, soon revealing more files which she could only assume were too important to be risked hacking into. In addition, she spotted a gun attached to the bottom of the desk.
Once she gathered the files she scanned them with her phone, sending copies to Raj when the hacker finally finished his work on the PC. She took the USB drive and put it away securely, just in time to hear Raj’s warning voice in her ear. “Someone’s heading your way. Male, armed. You need to get out of there.” But as soon as the words were said, another voice already addressed her. None that belonged to anyone in her team and yet it sounded oddly familiar. She raised her hands slowly, recalling the gun that was strapped to the bottom of the desk — just in case it would become useful. Of course, Josephine hadn’t come completely unarmed but there was only so much one could hide under a dress like the one she was currently wearing.
“I assume this isn’t the way to the ladies’ room?” the brunette asked with feigned innocence, a halfhearted attempt if she’d been honest, considering this guy was already pointing a gun at her. She doubted herself able to come up with a good enough excuse to erase his suspicions, already preparing herself for the fight that was surely going to take place in a bit.
That was, until she finally turned around and was met with familiar features, ones that had kept haunting her on most nights for the past years. Forgotten was their mission, forgotten was Raj who kept telling her which way to go once she got past the man, forgotten were Cerberus and Hydra ... Forgotten was that insatiable urge for revenge that had kept her going. Instead, Josephine just stared at the ghost that stood right in front of her, gun still pointed at her but she didn’t care nor notice. All she saw was his face, accompanied by the sound of his voice which she had been sure she had forgotten what it sounded like after all those years. But here he was. Oliver. Her big brother. Oli. The one who should have survived instead of her. And he did. Contrary to what everyone believed. Including her.
“Oli …?“ she said under her breath, noticing how strange her voice sounded, uttering his name, actually addressing him rather than talking about him or gasping his name in her sleep. It all felt like a dream, so unlike those nightmares she kept having despite the gun that still had not been lowered.
Back in the headquarter, Clara’s head perked at the sound of her late nephew’s name, unable to see what was going on. “Josie?” her voice rang through Josephine’s earpiece but the younger woman said nothing in response. Instead, Clara was met with silence. “Josephine, what is going on? Do you copy?” Still no response. “Can you hack into something in there? We need eyes on her.“ the older woman asked the hacker by her side who shook his head in return once he hacked into the front camera of the PC, revealing only a snippet of Josephine’s still form. “That’s all I got.“
“It’s Oli. He is standing right in front of me. He’s alive …“ the brunette finally broke her silence, still staring the her brother who had been presumed dead, who was part of the reason why she had even found herself in this room in the first place. Her voice sounded almost void of any emotion if it hadn’t been for the utter disbelief that could be heard clearly. She was in shock, incapable to comprehend, to move or act … And Clara knew it. “Ryan! I need you to get Josie. Now!“
