Forty-Seven Bombs

Remember?

Carlos laughed out as he saw the two newcomers. 'Remember' wouldn't be the words he would use for those two. "The moment I realized they were after you, I knew I was fucked up until I die."

"Uhm, we're from SCC." Luca showed his badge at him, and that would make this an official interview. "Can you remember how the attack started?"

"It was just a normal cashier day, and I'm doing my thing. Then, this strange man went up to the check-out counter with no items for me to scan. I clearly remember asking him if he needed something else, and then he stared at me, straight in the eye.

"He asked me 'where can I find them?' I had no idea what he meant. Then, he… he just exploded into something very bright." Carlos subconsciously held onto his face, knowing that the person's blood by then was like acid that burned half his face. "Then… I ducked down to take cover and run.

"I called Ricky while the guards tried to deal with it. I have no idea when I actually passed out, but… I'm scared. That thing… I heard about them saying that once we displeased the boss, we would be haunted by real ghosts." Carlos only chuckled. "I didn't realize they meant monsters instead."

Luca glanced at Noah, and the latter hummed as he leaned on the wall near the door. "We're going back to Seclusion. We'll see if your boss is home, and maybe he wanted to meet us."

A shock came to Carlos, and he shook his head. "That's a death wish. The boss is mad, and he will kill you if you just walked on his doorstep. Don't do anything rash. You might be SCC, but… those things…"

However, he just recalled something as he then looked in Noah's direction. "…Wait, weren't you the one with Porter that night? Does that mean…?"

"If you already knew about it, then there's no point for you to filter your words." Noah smiled, but it was only kind. "Please, pray tell… who was behind this attack?"

"…Porter is like… some kind of merchant. He deals with drugs, arms… and some inventive tools? I don't know for sure. He also in charge of feeding people to their so-called coven… Druid's coven, was it?" Carlos sighed. "All I know is hearsay, but everyone who spoke is all dead."

Luca and Noah shared a knowing look, and that was all they needed to get a green light from Theresa. It seemed that Seclusion—and even Connor Holdings—was caught in between a series of networks concerning the witches of Beelzebub.

Since this brother was the only ally of Satan, they might as well shut them down before it involved the entire workforce of both companies.

"We'll be looking for leads to find where this Druid operates. There's also a chance that your mother would be there." Noah turned to Richard who was also seemingly getting bad hunches about the situation. "All I can promise is that I'll give her back to you when we find her… dead or alive."

"Dead or alive…" Richard only echoed.

…

After securing the targets for tonight, both Luca and Noah were back in the motel room to ready for the operations later. That… included having a hearty meal to fill their bellies. Luca would be expending a lot of power again, and so he should better stock up on his food intake.

Luca was chatting with Noah while they were eating, but it was most likely about the sports event that was on TV just then. They were waiting for the news to come on, to monitor what the public knew about the explosion in the supermarket. Survivors could have vividly described the demon.

"I wonder what prompted them to attack Carlos out in the public. They could have just waited until he was back in the club." Luca hummed, but Noah only snorted. "Maybe they knew the situation and wanted to intimidate us by taking the person under our noses.

"The explosion could be a warning." Noah shrugged his shoulders as he finished his food. "Nevertheless, they already knew we were coming… and what we looked like. The way SCC operated is very widely known by every underground entity there is. It's hard not to be baited if they attack the civilians."

"They wanted to see which agents will be in the scene?" Luca frowned. "Then, did we just… plaster our faces for them to see?"

Noah only smiled at him. "It's not that bad. It only meant that they had a narrower target. They wouldn't have to hurt more people blindly. If we get attacked here in the motel, at least we're already here to stop whoever tried to underestimate us."

The other man leaned on his seat. "Do you… do this often? As Sleepydog?"

"No, sniffing targets is Greyhound's job. My job is to make sure they wouldn't be able to leave." Noah then slowed down to a stop. "I wonder if Rosanna had received a message from Laquisha. The last time we talked, I haven't heard her say anything about the pretty lady."

"She's your partner?"

"Most of the time. We're both sent to Boston, and yet I haven't heard from her after they were taken by Satan's coven. The last time, someone called to say that they have her." Noah sighed. "Maybe after this, I should start looking for Satan's coven again."

Luca then whispered, "Noah, what if this all a diversion? What if they're just trying to cover for the witches of Satan? I mean, Beelzebub had no reason to suddenly assert dominance, right? Last year, he wasn't even visible. There's too much activity this year…"

A sigh escaped Noah's lips. "That's a possibility. I guess, we will be able to find out the truth as long as we follow the trail of Druid's coven. If we get to eradicate them, then let's interrogate their surviving members. I just hope we could neutralize a high-rank so he would know more…"

"It's hard to be led by the nose." Luca sighed along with Noah. "It's making me hungrier."

When Luca was about to speak again, a news flash interrupted the encore broadcast of the sports event. It was about a bomb threat in Connor Holdings, and all the employees were orderly leaving the building while the bomb squad took precautions to find the bomb.

The message even specified that 47 bombs would explode in an estimate of four hours. With such a large window, the police were confident to find the bombs set in place. The face of the leading detective investigating the scene then flashed for a short interview.

Noah frowned as he recognized the detective as one of those two who invited him to come down a year ago. However, Noah knew that the man was only doing his job. After looking into the white witch's data, he figured that she could manipulate reality to a certain extent… like published material and recorded videos.

"Forty-seven is so many." Luca glared at the TV. "Sending the message four hours early? The person in charge should be very confident that the police would find it."

"Four hours? That's six in the evening. Most people must have clocked out by then." Noah was dragged to reality by Luca's voice. "It's quite suspicious that they wanted to detonate a place that would be vacated…"

As if the same thought flashed through both males' minds, they exchanged gazes at the same time. Luca then murmured, "You're not thinking about that, right? That's…"

"Too cruel?" Noah curled his mouth in a ridiculing grin. "We're not dealing with humans. What's more, I was told that instilling fear in the general public is a way for an organization to qualify itself for a rising. If they managed to terrorize the entire world with this…"

"Then, they're indeed paving the way for Satan's coven."

Luca finished his food and dialed for Theresa. "Theresa, have you seen the news? The bombs in Connor Holdings."

"Yes, we're on it. Rebecca and some more agents are on the scene." Theresa was watching a feed from her screen while coordinating with more agents. "Please be on standby. We have eyes of Jones in the crowd, and he didn't seem to be worried at all."

"Theresa, they're going to detonate the possessed bodies. It's a hunch, but someone in the supermarket had already exploded." Noah spoke through his comm as well, earning a gasp from the woman. "Did you cross-reference the families Luca saved? Which departments did they belong to?"

Theresa worked on it as she listened, only taking a few seconds to run the system in the list of names she had. Her eyes then widened. "They're all from Human Resources…" She then made some more inputs and determined an alarming fact.

She then put herself in a central speaker. "All active agents in the Connor Holdings case, I'm sending a list of names and faces. Please secure the locations of the forty-seven other human resource employees of the company."

Luca's eyes quivered. "We'll be heading to the scene, Theresa."

"We'll corner Jones before time is up." Noah got to his feet and picked up their readied props to look more like legitimate SCC agents. Luca followed him while receiving more reminders from Theresa.

The two then got on the black motorbike and sped all the way through the scene.

The plaza was not as chaotic as it should be. The employees were most likely to be annoyed as their work was disturbed by the bomb threat. Most of them computed the time in their minds, and that was indeed past knock-off period. What was there to be afraid of?

Rebecca greeted Noah and Luca as soon as they arrived on the scene. She then walked them to the front and gave them a good view of the building while keeping an eye on the group of employees that stayed altogether by instinct. The company's External Affairs was still working to calm down the media.

"Are you sure it would be them?" Rebecca murmured as she glanced at Luca. "We also sent in some agents to escort the bomb squad in looking. If it was just us, we could detonate small electronic mapping bombs to locate devices in the building and isolate office tech from there."

"If it's in the building, why give them four hours?" Noah secretly eyed the group while Caliga and the others were sniffing the employees without no one noticing. It's just that… Pane started reacting to one man who was feeling hard to breathe.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Everyone's phones rang, and they all took out their phones. Rebecca did the same and found a message from a blocked number. She opened it and saw an ominous message:

"Hi, I'm Montana Mills, and I believe the show should start earlier than expected. In one minute, a bomb will detonate. Happy running!"