Both of them strode into the coffee shop in a somewhat dramatic way. In fact, in Hacker's mind, there was even dramatic music playing in the background. Unfortunately, there weren't many people to observe their grand entry. Like, the crowd was even lesser than usual. Only one or two people were spread across the shop, sipping coffee and eating cake. They took a seat and asked for a menu, as part of the ruse.

'So, I and bee will be going ahead and scouting the storage room. You stay here and keep an eye out to see if anyone is coming that way. Warn me if they do.' X instructed, tapping his ear to imply the tiny earbuds they'd fitted in earlier. Hacker nodded.

'I'll also request for the manager and ask around for info. Like, who are the regular customers here, what are their usual timings, etc.' Hacker added

X frowned. 'Can you make the manager open up about something as personal as that to a virtual stranger?'

Hacker laughed. 'I have a gift in the form of being friendly and energetic to the point of making strangers tell me their entire life story.' X nodded. He'd witnessed that happening himself.

Just then their order arrived. X thanked him and asked for directions to the bathroom. The waiter pointed it to him and X stood up. When he had taken a few steps he heard Hacker demanding to see the manager this instant regarding the quality of the food being served. She was an impressive actor. He was almost glad to be able to get away from there.

The bathroom was fortunately in the direction of the storeroom, so no one stopped him. When he reached the door, he took a deep breath and was about to open the door when Hacker's alarmed voice rang through his ears.

'X. Agent incoming from your left. Hide now.'

X bounded to his right and hid behind a conveniently located large vase. He had taken note of all the possible hiding spots from various locations almost instinctually, as he'd been trained to.

He saw a woman, suspicious alright, sneakily put the device to make sure no one was in the room. X carefully took out the bee and drove it over to the agent. When the green light flashed on the device screen, she pulled it out and entered the room. X flew the bee at its top speed, racing to reach the door on time.

To his great surprise, it easily got in and the door shut quietly behind the bee. Hacker must have increased its flight timings, he thought.

The bee followed the woman to the same spot where the previous guy had disappeared. Now, with the bee's ultra-sensors, he realized that they were, in fact, biometric systems that recognized the agents. On an impulse, he drove the bee into the woman's back pocket before she could disappear. X and Hacker had taken enough measures to ensure that the bee would not get exposed to a radiation scan, so that wasn't an issue.

It was pitch black and quiet in the pocket, so X could only guess what was happening. Then suddenly, he heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps and knew it was time for the bee to come out now.

He carefully flew the bee out of the agent's pocket without her noticing and took pics of the sight that greeted his eyes. They were in a long corridor of sorts, the kind you would find in an airport. It had silvery metallic walls on either side that created a curved tunnel. As far as he could see, the tunnel only went in one direction. The floor was carpeted, so anyone's footsteps were audible, but muffled. X began trailing the agent at a distance. She turned along with the tunnel's each curve until it opened up into a spacious room bursting with activity.

There were many tunnels leading to various paths. Not sure about where to go, X decided to follow the woman to see if she was important. The bee followed her as she strode purposefully through the corridors. Finally, she stopped in front of a glass door full of people. There seemed to be a meeting going on.

When the woman knocked on the door, everyone turned to her. A guy standing at the head of a round table nodded at her and she entered and took her place. X positioned the bee outside the room, sticking it on a high corner of the glass to ensure that it wasn't spotted. Then he began recording the ongoing meeting.

The guy clapped his hands to signify the start of the meeting. Everybody quietened at looked expectantly at him. He leaned forward, hands splayed on the wooden table and the lights in the room dimmed to add to the mysterious air. The front guy regarded everyone solemnly before speaking in a low, hushed voice.

'Hello everyone. As you all know, this is week four of the hostage incident. That means four weeks since we took these people in for questioning and began interrogating them. Progress has been stellar so far, but, as per orders above, we really need to push it if we are to make it to their deadline.'

Suddenly, a projector attached to the ceiling of the room flared to life and the screen behind him lit up with information about the basic biodata of each of the hostages along with their photos. There were ten of them in all.

X's breath caught in his throat. Most of the hostages were women, around six, some middle-aged and some young. There were three men and..... a child. His lips trembled almost of their own accord and his breath came in short gasps. How in the world could they think of using a child? In the back of his mind, he knew the answer. The child must be there to add incentive to the hostages and make them confess. He might even be related to one of the hostages. He'd studied cases like that in training, but that didn't make the real confrontation less real.

The presenter straightened up and walked to the edge of the screen. Then, waving his hands animatedly, he continued talking. 'Our officers are conducting what will probably be the final round of interrogations.'

'And then we eliminate them on schedule, as planned?' Someone questioned.

For probably the first time, the presenter smiled grimly and nodded. 'And then we eliminate them on schedule as planned.'

'What is the progress of the interrogations? Is there any useful and momentous data that they've confessed? Even if they have, how do we know whether it is accurate or not?'

The presenter nodded. 'As I've informed earlier as well, the interrogations are carefully recorded to preserve any possible details. Then, our intel team analyses it, pulls out what they feel is the key information. Then they first verify it with info gathered by the hostages, then they run it through our database to check for authenticity. As of now, all the info they're giving is correct.'

'What about the elimination stage? Is everything in place?' Someone else queried.

'Yes. Everything is moving into place. The executioner is chosen and ready, the required gun has been fitted with a very powerful sound suppressor and a soundproof room has been chosen and prepared in the bottom-most layer of HQ so that no one hears anything in the café above.'

The slide switched to a floor plan with a huge soundproof room as the highlight. X rapidly zoomed in and snapped photos. They would analyze the photos later when they were safe.

'So we are fully ready to carry out the elimination in twenty-eight hours from now. Just as planned.' He completed with a smile.

X inhaled sharply. Tomorrow? That just left them a little more than a day. And he still didn't know anything about their VX reserves and their location.

'Are there any more questions?'

Everyone shook their heads. 'Well then, this meeting has come to an end. Thank you, everyone.'

The meeting ended and everyone stood up. The presenter plugged his laptop out of a USB and tucked it under his arm. He pulled open the door and walked out briskly. X was torn for a split second. Then he decided to follow the presenter as he was the one who had the most information among all the agents he'd observed till now. The bee detached itself from its perch and zeroed in on the presenter.

X carefully guided the bee to the guy's laptop. Then the bee brandished the special pen drive hacker had made. X's eyebrows furrowed in concentration as the bee tried to find the appropriate plug point while the laptop bobbed up and down.

Finally, they found the plug point. X drove the bee even closer, trying not to get smacked down by the laptop. The bee was made for speed and finesse though, so it endured and responded to his every touch. He somehow managed to fit the drive-in and perched the bee on top through a series of complicated manoeuvres and sighed in relief. Then he looked at his watch and counted down the seconds. One, two, three.............. TEN!

The bee wrapped itself firmly around the drive and pulled hard. The drive easily came off. The bee even got pushed back a bit because of the momentum. Then the bee straightened itself and X let out an involuntary gasp. The surroundings had imperceptibly changed. It was less crowded here, and more polished. From his experience, he knew that the offices here were of more important people. But what made him gasp was something else. The presenter guy was just entering someone's office. If they had been a few seconds late, the bee would have been trapped in the room. Then, it would be game over when it was discovered.

X drove the bee over to the room and carefully perched it on a high corner of the door, just like last time. Then he cranked up the volume and started recording the scene playing out in front of him.

'Good evening Agent Panda.' A woman sitting across a desk greeted him. She had a very polished air around her and looked smug about her role as she adjusted her glasses and greeted him. X stifled a laugh. Agent Panda? No wonder nobody addressed him with that name in the meeting. It mustn't have been a name he was very fond of. But he was obviously reporting to this woman, and she enjoyed the sway of power she held when she called him.

'Good evening to you too.' He greeted her with the slightest antagonism in his tone. He took a seat across her and they struck a deep conversation.

Panda pulled out a file from a gleaming black bag by his side and was going through its contents with her. 'The latest batch of VX arrived today morning. I couldn't catch you earlier, so I finished up with all my other meetings till you were free.'

The woman nodded and narrowed her eyes in concentration as she read. X carefully shifted the bee so he could see the words from an angle. She was flipping through the pages too fast, but he caught what looked like a timetable and quickly took a photo.

The woman finally looked up from the files after turning the last page and asked. 'So that makes our total stores of VX to?'

'Twenty liters in all, since it's in liquid form. The VX, including the current batch, has been loaded and stored in a barrel in the usual location.'

'Ok. I'll be taking this file to the main authority during our weekly updates meeting today. Are the guards in position around the weapons room like we planned for the VX drop off?'

'Yes, we have five extra guards on duty for the weapons room. We've recently built a tiny storeroom for the VX barrel due to its incredible potency. We also worked out a guard schedule. The camera trained at the new room is one of the main focus areas of our surveillance team and as for physical security, we've created a new rotation cycle so that two of our guards are always posted there.'

'By always, do you mean literally 24 hours a day, or is there a slight gap?'

Panda looked slightly shamefaced. 'This was a recent development. There is inevitably a gap of ten minutes between each switch, no matter which way we work it out.'

The woman looked irritated. 'Then for god's sake figure out a foolproof way to keep it secure. This is the reason you're paid to work here. To figure out solutions to logistical problems!'

Panda nodded stiffly. 'It shall be done. By the end of this week, you'll have a completely failsafe guard system at your table.' It was apparent that he didn't take to criticism well.

They discussed a few more things pertaining to other missions X had no idea about. He was busy trying to think of ways to get to the location of the VX. Probably if he was able to find out the surveillance room, he could observe the feed and get more info. Just then Agent Panda stood up, thanked her and walked out of the room. X was torn, should he follow Panda or should he go looking for the surveillance room on his own?

Just then his alert senses picked up quiet footsteps coming his way. It took a moment for him to work out if it was coming from ACE's HQ or near him. When he realized that someone was walking in the same corridor he was in, he immediately tucked himself in as well as he could, until he was sure that no one would be able to see him from any angle.

From his vantage point, he saw a bright, unmistakable red cape swishing around a pair of feet. Of course, that could only mean it was 'Hacker.' X grumbled. 'I told her to wear something less conspicuous.' He carefully checked to make sure she wasn't being followed, then stepped out of his hiding place.

Hacker was startled when she saw him and looked like she barely stopped herself from screaming. 'That's it. I'm seeing the doctor today to make sure that my heart doesn't have any problem from all those shocks.'

X sighed. 'Save it, drama queen. I have huge news for you. Come and see this.' He showed her his screen, which was displaying visuals from ACE's HQ. It took her a second to piece it together. But when she did, her eyes became as wide as saucers. 'Oh my god. You made it into ACE!? How?'

X looked around him. 'Let's go back to HQ. The bee isn't going anywhere, and I don't feel safe around here. I'll tell you on the way.' Hacker nodded and they both walked out of the café and caught the quickest metro. When they were comfortably seated, X quickly ran her through all the developments. Hacker barely had time to react when they reached HQ. She was still processing it when they opened her room door. A dark figure was seated on Hacker's swivel chair. Both of them tensed. 'Who're you?' X asked.

'Took you guys long enough.' The figure responded, without turning around. X snuck up to him and spun the chair around. Both of them gasped when they saw who it was.

Oh no! A mysterious stranger is sitting on Hacker's chair and greeting them so creepily! How many votes do you think it could have taken from our heroes to catch his interest and summon him?