Danger zone

At the same time, in another corner of the town, a car entered quietly and parked itself near the only inn of the Bluris town. A tall young man stepped out of it, and quickly walked towards the lobby. The front desk staff swiftly worked and gave him a card to his suite.

Finally after entering his suite, he locked the door behind him and picked up the phone which had been constantly ringing ever since he left Broris city.

If you took a closer look at it, you would notice that the phone was designed a bit differently from the ones available in the market. Lucas answered the call and placed the phone next to his ear. He had already expected what he would face,

"How many times have you been fucking warned Lucas?! You pick up the Bureau's call no matter what situation you are in! Do you place yourself above the Bureau?"

A stern loud female voice was heard from the other side. Lucas didn't reply with anything, he had knowingly done it and fully accepted it. There was a silence on the other side, followed by a deep breath before continuing,

"You have been ordered to leave the Bluris town."

"Why be so redundant? You know I won't leave the town when I've already decided to come here after ignoring the Bureau's calls."

"You'll face a penalty if you continue to defy the Bureau. We are doing this for your sake. The Bureau doesn't want unnecessary sacrifices."

"You don't have to worry about me. I am only here to get a friend out of trouble."

"It's not up to you what the Bureau should worry about. You are a super, it's our job to look after you."

"You know I am a super, but still worry about me?"

"Do you think supers are invincible? They can die just as easily as the rest of the humans. Or in your languages, mortals."

"I am not that arrogant to consider myself detached from the species. I still consider myself a human, and a mortal who can die."

"Why do you still insist on saving that friend yourself then? We could have helped you with it."

Eyebrows raised, Lucas asked after a second of thought, "You would?"

"I mean, we are already in the process of dispatching a team to deal with the specter. Rescuing your friend would be easy."

"No wonder. And here I thought the Bureau suddenly became so magnanimous as to help people out of specter infected areas."

"You do realize that you are talking to an agent of the Bureau right? All the calls are being recorded and reviewed. The Bureau already doesn't have a favorable opinion of you, talking crap about them doesn't help with it either."

And you already know I couldn't care less about Bureau right? 

The female agent continued when she didn't get a reply, "Please tell me the name of your friend and other details so that I can relay it to the field unit."

Wouldn't be bad to have extra help.

He inwardly chewed over the details of his pal before telling her what he could remember. It had been years since they last met, he wondered how he was doing.

"Aiden Spencer. Hmmm…"

A series of typing sounds were heard on the other side as Lucas put the call on speaker and took that time to change into a more comfortable clothing. It was urgent, yes, but since the Bureau had already contacted him, it would be better to ask them for information on the specter so he could be better prepared to help Aiden.

A couple minutes later, the female agent spoke up again, "Hmm… did you know that your friend's parents were once field agents? They were even in the same unit. Their neighbor Hellen Radcliffe was also a field agent under the same unit."

Lucas's hands which were buttoning up his shirt froze midway as his eyebrows shot up in surprise. He exclaimed, "Damn! Really? No fucking way they are part of the Bureau!"

"Nope, they aren't part of the Bureau. Not all field agents work under the Bureau. Some of them are in more of a collaborative agreement with us, we provide them information and they do the work for us. Any gains they make during the task is theirs to keep, which they can also choose to sell to us, which includes information, equipment and other things."

"Damn, such a bummer. Why would they not want to work under the Bureau?"

"You don't know much of it because you aren't a field agent. You come under a different department which deals with problems of the common public. Not every department has the same set of rules and restrictions."

"Yea yea, anyway, can Aiden and his family be rescued?"

"By family, if you mean him and his little sister. Yes, I'll relay that to the team which is going to be dispatched."

The speed with which his expression had lifted crashed again at the same speed. Before he could say anything, the female agent spoke up quickly after sensing his mood,

"Sorry, I should have mentioned it all in one go. Aiden's parents have gone missing. They aren't confirmed to be dead…yet."

Lucas heaved a sigh as he resumed buttoning up his shirt. Not even a few seconds passed when the agent spoke up again, "Sir, you need to leave the town. You are NOT allowed to engage with the specter or even go near the town. The penalties you'll face would be definitely harsher than all the previous ones if you refuse to cooperate."

"Don't care. I'll leave after I am done doing what I came here for. Since the Bureau cares so much about supers and don't want them to die, you can surely send me information about the specter here, yes?"

"You are being too stubborn. Don't take advantage of the Bureau's kindness. Plus, we don't know anything about the specter either. Everything is a mystery."

Lucas sat himself on a sofa and sipped on a glass of water as he asked, his voice laced with confusion.

"Didn't you deem this town as dangerous? Not safe, even for me, as a super, to approach? How can you classify it as a danger zone without any information?"

"You really don't know anything about how the specter department works do you? The Bureau has already lost a team there, all of them are suspected to be dead, with only one coming back alive. That's one of the biggest losses we have had in recent times, our caution isn't baseless."