The Meeting at The NIA HQ and The Tomboyish Girl

#The Meeting in the Conference Room

The participants were seated comfortably around a big, round, rectangular table. The director of NIA himself was present, along with the chief advisor to the King, Mr. Timothy Adkins, and the minister of defense, Ms. Ecrin Baig. The chief advisor and the defense minister would later brief the King themselves.

Someone cleared his throat. Agents from various departments were also attending the meeting with their respective findings.

"So? What do we know so far?" Ibrahim Jawad asked. He was the director of the NIA and the chair of this meeting.

"Sir, with the amount of crude oil destroyed, we have lost a significant amount of monetary resources. The price of oil in the local market has suddenly risen sky-high." He pointed to a visual chart on a large monitor.

"As no one has taken any responsibility, our rival nations are pointing fingers at each other, causing more confusion," replied Brigit Ambroz, an analyst at the agency.

He continued, "The price hike has already impacted the price of electricity, transportation, and other essential commodities. This has negatively impacted mid- to low-income families. The king's regime is under pressure."

"Could this be the work of King's political rivals? They definitely could do something like this!" said Timothy Adkins with a frown on his forehead. "It'll be very troublesome if a battle for the throne begins at a time like this! What is the intel from the docks?"

"We talked to the eyewitnesses. Denzel Takahashi was the security officer who was attacked. According to his words, the person who attacked him was specially trained."

"He said that the attacker took advantage of the environment and attacked when it was dark, windy, and noisy. He couldn't even react to the attack," said Rafael Kinderman. "We also tracked down the source of the container where the terrorists emerged from."

"So? What did you find?" asked Ms. Ecrin Baig.

"Sir, we contacted the shipping company and learned that a shell company from Omorto Kingdom sent the container to another shell company in our nation. But strangely, the shell companies got dissolved right after the container was unloaded at Port Emerald."

Rafael pointed to a dataflow diagram on the screen. It explained the connection visually. "We tried to trace the money, but the shipping company said they received hard cash during the contract signing. As it was not illegal to pay in cash, they didn't bother. All they did was ship the container from Port Battoncreeck in the Omorto Kingdom to Port Emerald."

"What other implications do we have? Could this be a diversion?" asked Ecrin Baig.

"We are still open to that possibility, but at the moment, it's still not clear what their target is if this were to be some kind of diversion. The damage they caused is significantly bigger. So, if the attack were to be a diversion, the other target must be of some significance," Rafael replied.

Timothy was very anxious. "Could they attempt an attack on the king?"

"So, this could be an international conspiracy, or an act to pressure the King's regime, or this could be a diversion?" asked Ibrahim Jawad.

"Right, sir," everyone replied.

"Did they divert our attention from other important places? What about the airport and borders? What if they did this so other cells could infiltrate our country without getting unnecessary attention?" Ibrahim Jawad was loudly thinking to himself. The agents took the hint.

"Sir, we will analyze the airport and border entries within that time frame and report back to you," said Rafael, with a sense of urgency. He did not think of this. The diversion was not a strong possibility in his mind.

"Okay! Everyone, do it fast! Our nation is in danger! Our economy was hit, and so was our national security. We cannot sit idly and watch as things unfold. We must pry open the lead of this mystery and eliminate all threats to our kingdom."

"Yes, sir," everyone in the room responded in unison.

After that, the meeting ended, and the agents rushed to their respective departments to begin the investigation with diversion in mind. They were still in the dark about the 'who' and the 'why' of this terror attack.

Further investigation would be conducted into the shipping company. A team of experts would be dispatched to the Omorto Kingdom.

Whoever did this needed to pay the price of this atrocity. The lives of people were lost, and severe damage was done to the most important seaport in the nation.

This could even call for a war between nations, depending on the result of the investigation! The intelligence community throughout the kingdom went on full alert with renewed perspectives.

#A cheap motel somewhere in Ayodale

The gloomy clouds loomed over the kingdom. Although the rain did a good job of cleaning the visible filth on the ground, it was unable to cleanse the darkness inside the hearts of humans.

Soon, the rain will give up on humans! The streets were empty at this time of the day. Vehicles were randomly seen traveling at reduced speeds due to the rain.

The tomboyish girl looked out the window of her shabby-looking room. It was not that she could not afford a better living condition.

She chose this motel because she could shut the owner up with a bit more cash if something were to happen. To maintain her cover, she had to lay low in a place where people would not look. The condition of the motel was a nice complement to the backpacker's disguise.

The monotonous drumming of rain on the hard surface was addicting. If not careful enough, one could very easily fall asleep. However, the girl did not have that luxury.

She came here with a clear mission that only she could fulfill. Her age and look were well-suited for the job. She closed the window, drew the curtain, and ran the air conditioner.

She looked at her bed. There was a duffle bag with its zipper wide open. The content could be vaguely seen from where she stood, and there was a folio on the target.

It mentioned the age and location of her objective. There was no photo. Her mission was to find everything about the target, get clear photos, learn about all of the contacts, who was meeting with the person, and security details—in short, the ins and outs of the target.

The next mission would be decided based on the information she provided to her handler. Failure was not an option. Girls of her age were recruited especially for this kind of mission and sent all over the world.

She opened the folio to read the details.