Our eternal affairs

Truce Avidon entered his office, with Ace Beamwood and Alex Chen following behind with black files in their hands. Truce sat on his swiveling chair and got busy, signing documents and contracts. After a minute, he paused, from his work and looked straight at Chen, thinking about something.

Chen froze at the sudden icy attention he received from both men. Then Truce spoke up

."Order Michelle to put her assignment on hold." Chen nodded, and got to his duty, Ace Beamwood stared at his boss, wondering what made him change his mind.

"What are the reports from the private investigator?" Truce directed his question at Ace, and he opened his file.

"Apparently Darkfire has a foot in the economic sector, shaping policy decisions and infrastructure developments. A man like that could pull multiply strings even if we leak information to the press... that would cover his tracks."

Truce kept quiet for a minute before he spoke again. "Create a false company research project about us, to attract sufficient attention from them, before leaking the information to the press."

Ace intercepted immediately. "Boss, that's putting us into the limelight, tarnishing our image as well. Darkfire would cover his tracks in a heartbeat–" he stopped short when he noticed the death glares Truce fired at him for interrupting. He chuckled nervously.

"A limelight that would blind their eyes from the moles we'll strategically plant in all their organizations, dismantling them from within."

He said, as he rose from his seat, and circled his desk. He moved to the expansive, lounge room in the middle of his office, decorated with plush dark sofas with slashed golden legs, and a massive, wall-mounted TV, broadcasting the news on mute. "Where's Chen?" He inquired, as he sat on a sofa.

Chen walked back into the room on cue, availing himself before his boss. Truce asked, with his right arm outstretched. "Do you have the documents I requested earlier? Ace, see to it that the business gets done efficiently." Ace bowed and left the room, shutting the door behind him.

Chen handed a black file in his boss's hand as he began explaining the details. "Mrs Helen Dore was married to her late husband's co-worker, now a mother of two college girls, and was recently diagnosed of cancer. She's receiving treatments in a private hospital, Southeastern San Francisco." 

The moment Truce's eyes landed on 'DORE,' he knew there was more to Anna than she put upfront. Why wasn't she bearing Dore? Did she descend from Miriam? He shut his eyes as he thought. His focus on healing Anna, distracted him from using her blood to investigate the lineage.

Chen stood silent, watching his boss in a conflicted mood wasn't something he encountered everyday, not since he began working for him.

"Get her transferred to a better hospital, take care of the bills and make sure they keep her alive. I want answers." He said relaxing into his seat.

What a joy it would be for his Anoma to see him look distraught. The all powerful Avidon, at loss for answers, and confused. Only a woman could do that to him. Truce sighed, opening his eyes, surprised to see Chen still standing in front of him. "What is it, Chen?" 

"It's quite refreshing to see you fatigued, sir. I feel a bit overjoyed to see you're almost... human." Chen said in an amusing smile. "Do you want anything? Perhaps a brief respite from your extraordinary duties?" 

Truce gazed at him for a minute, before flashing a heart clenching smile at him. "Yes, I'd like your resignation letter with my signature on it." Chen's bemused smile faded immediately, as he began apologizing, before he left the office.

 ♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣

Back at the mansion, Anna hadn't woken up, and Charlotte fussed about it all day. The maids kept speaking in hushed tones about the house until Charlotte called her son, Gerald, who was a practising doctor in Southampton.

Gerald arrived at the mansion, just when the sun was setting over the horizon. Charlotte greeted him anxiously in the foyer.

"Thank you for coming through, Gerald. Anna's been through a terrible ordeal. I'll take you to her room."

They walked into the house, and to Anna's room. As he approached her bedside, his expression was skeptical, but he said nothing. The sleeping beauty before him was a sight to behold.

"Anna?... Anna can you hear me?" He asked softly, taking her hand for a pulse.

Her eyes flickered open, but she felt too weak to talk. as she gazed up at Gerald with a mixture of fear and confusion. 

"Hurry up, I wouldn't want Master Truce to see you here." Charlotte said to her son urgently.

Gerald examined her thoroughly, taking notes of her vital signs, and checking for signs of trauma or infection.

After reviewing her medical history, he stepped outside the room with his mother, wearing a thoughtful expression.

"Mom, it's clear she suffered a severe traumatic injury, and the stab wound would have been fatal, if not for... whatever intervention she received.

I noticed that her blood pressure is low, and she's pale. I think it would be best if Anna is transferred to a hospital, for further examinations and monitoring." 

Anna listened to their conversation as she laid quietly in the room, drained physically and emotionally from the recent activities that shrouded her life. In less than two months, so many things had happened and she didn't know what to expect. She just wanted to return to her pleasant teaching life, where the only problem she had was dealing with Sam's excesses.

She kept drifting in and out of sleep, she couldn't tell when she was dreaming or thinking. She hoped to sleep and never wake, that would bring unmeasured peace to her life, and an end to every death threat she'd receive standing beside Mister Truce.

The side of her bed dipped and someone slipped between the sheets. She froze immediately, afraid that her killer had returned to complete his unfinished business. She turned to see who it was, but an unnerving pain radiated through her and she whimpered.

"Shhh, go back to sleep lady Ruby. You'll be fine by tomorrow." Truce said, planting a kiss on her forehead, and wounding an arm carefully about her. "I'm here now." Immediately her eyes closed, and Truce's body slowly began to glow, strange energy seeped through her body, and for the first time in a while, Truce fell asleep.