Departure

22:46

Artemis Briefing Room, Runway 07, New Eden

Sohel threw his tablet on the table and laid back on the chair as he let out a big sigh. Annabelle noticed this and said with a playful smile, "What? Done already?"

Sohel was lying with his right hand over his eyes. He said, "That's a lot of information to take in at once."

He sat up straight again and picked up his phone from the table. He jumped on his feet the moment he turned on his phone. "Shit," the words sipped out of his mouth unconsciously. Annabelle asked, "What happened?"

Sohel just said, "Check your phone."

Annabeele curiously picked up her phone, and she too jumped on her feet the moment he turned on his phone.

"27 missed calls from Naomi, 14 missed calls from Mitali, 1 missed call from Jacob. I'm freaked."

Sohel smiled nervously as he said, "You're saying that? What about me then?"

Sohel showed his phone to Annabelle, "44 missed calls from Naomi; 39 missed calls from Mitali; 1 missed call from Jacob."

Annabelle said, "We're done for."

Both of them chuckled nervously.

23:14

Bravo Squad House, New Eden

The Subaru stopped in the driveway, and Sohel and Annabelle got out. Both of them walked to the door, and Sohel opened the door as silently as he could. Both of them entered the house and found all the lights off. 

He whispered, "Go to your room and get ready. They must've fallen asleep already."

"Who fell asleep?" Naomi's sudden voice startled both of them. Mitali's voice was heard next: "ARIA, turn on the lights."

The house lit up, and Sohel saw Mitali and Naomi sitting on the living room sofa in a demanding pose.

Naomi asked, "So? Where were you two?"

Mitali added, "And why didn't you pick up our calls?"

Before Sohel could say anything, Annabelle said, "I took him with me. I needed some help with maintaining Artemis."

"Hmm?" Naomi didn't sound convinced.

Sohel added, "Yeah. We didn't notice the calls. Our phones were in 'do not disturb' mode."

Mitali said, "I smell lies in your voice. I'm sure you didn't need to go maintain Artemis straight from a funeral."

"I…" Sohel was gonna say something but his phone rang. He took out his phone and saw General Overlord was calling. He said, "Excuse me for a bit and distanced himself to take the phone call."

"Hello."

"Sohel, where are you? You're supposed to leave New Eden in 40 minutes."

"I'm really sorry, sir. I'll come in a moment."

"Good. Meet me at the pier."

"Yes sir."

"Oh. I've sent the things you'd need to your squad house. Check them and be sure to take them with you. And to cover your reason to leave the island, I'm putting it as a two-week training on the Japanese mainland for you and Annabelle. I've also assigned missions to the others."

"Yes, sir. Thank you."

"No problem. I expect good results from you."

The call cut, and Sohel came back and saw Annabelle was still getting interrogated by Naomi and Mitali.

Sohel asked, "There's supposed to be packages for us."

Mitali said, "Yeah. A corporal delivered two boxes in the afternoon. They had your and Ann's name on it. I've put them in your room."

Sohel said, "Ok. I'll check it."

Sohel said, "Ann. Our ship will believe in 30 minutes. Get ready ASAP."

Annabelle nodded and both of them started going towards their room. Naomi stopped Sohel and asked, "Wait. Where are you two going?"

Sohel replied, "Uncle Rahat has assigned us to a two-week martial arts training camp in mainland Japan."

Naomi said, "Ohh. Looks like we'd be busy separately for a while. I and Jacob just got assigned an escort mission in the Philippines."

Mitali said, "And they assigned me as a temporary head medic for the Delta Squad. I'm stuck in the hospital for a while, it seems."

Sohel chuckled, "You'll be alright. We'll be back together before you know it."

Sohel didn't give them any chance to extend the conversation and went to his room. As Sohel got in his room, he locked the door. After a quick shower, he got ready. He put three suits with 3 extra shirts in a small backpack along with other necessities.

Once done, he put on a navy blue suit with a white shirt. He then went to the reading table, where there was a small locked box. He unlocked the box with his fingerprint and found some documents. It had documents like an international driving license, a passport, a detective license, a small-arms license, etc. The ID had his face on it, but the name was different.

Sohel murmured, "Sahil Chowdhury, huh? Very creative."

He took out his wallet and replaced all his original ID's with the fake ones.

He then got out of his room and came out. He saw Annabelle already waiting for him downstairs. She was wearing a navy blue shirt with black jeans. Mitali and Naomi were there too. They wanted to come to the pier with Sohel and Annabelle to see them off, but Sohel refused and told them to rest.

22: 51

Dock-04, New Eden Pier

Sohel and Annabelle got to Dock-04 and saw General Overlord and General Phantom waiting for them. General Phantom shook hands with Sohel and said, "I wanted to have a last talk with you before you left, but it looks like I'm out of time. I expect good news from you, soldier."

General Phantom left before Sohel could say anything. Sohel asked, "I've been noticing; all of New Eden has been in a hurry. Is something going on?"

General Overlord's face turned serious. He said, "We're in a real bad situation right now. Dr. Sen opened his mouth. NWO has Nukes. They're planning to place them all over the world in many key places and detonate them at once. They want to cripple the whole world."

"Shite. All because we let them get away with the uranium."

General Overlord tried to cheer Sohel up, "Hey? Look at me. Nothing will happen. SNA will stop them before they can even place the nukes."

"Hmm."

"Now go. Focus on the mission in hand."

Sohel looked up and said, "Yes, sir. But… What's with the creative names like Sahil Chowdhury and Anna White?"

General Overlord chuckled and said, "As long as it works."

At that moment, a soldier came to the general and whispered something. The general then said, "Looks like I gotta go too. Good luck, captain."

As Annabelle and Sohel were getting on the ship, Sohel asked, "Is the thing ready?"

Annabelle replied, "Yeah. ARIA will now notify if anyone reports anything about Naoki, to the police."

Sohel smiled, "Nice."

Same time

Ninoy Aquino International Airport

Mimi and Lola were waiting at the terminal with luggeges. Soon a woman ran up to them and said, "Sorry, I'm late. My body isn't made for running."

The girl was American, in her mid-20s. She had a round face, silver hair and was wearing glasses.

Mimi said, "It's okay, Ida. It's been so long since we saw each other. We…"

Mimi was interrupted by Lola, who said, "Come on. You can chat on the plane. We're already late for check-in."