"Sir, I just want to know if he is actually part of this mission" she said, skeptically. Her disapproval of him was evident in her face.

The man slightly chuckled and shoved his hands into his pockets, drawing closer to her with light steps.

"What is wrong with me being part of this mission?" He asked, his emerald eyes gave off a piercing gaze as he stared at her frosty, icy blue eyes.

"Do you really wanna know?" She asked, her nostrils flared---not breaking eye contact.

Luke let out a loud sigh. He had a feeling that something like this would happen but the higher-ups didn't heed to him. They need a team of Agents that can work together and the two before him hated each other.

"Can you guys not start this?" He asked, being overwhelmed to jump in to their conversation.

She shook her head "Sorry, Sir but I can't work with him. He is a total jerk!" She exclaimed.

"Really! A jerk?" The agent cocked his brows at her, his eyes twinkled in amusement "Two years ago you would have argued with that statement, Ciara".

She shot him an irritated look, angered at his statement. " That was because I was so foolish to realize that Aaron!".

"Oh, really?" He asked, the amusement in his voice wasn't missed by her. Her brows twitched__furious that he was entertained by their tiny squabble.

"Yes and you know what...."

Luke hit his fist on the desk, commanding the room---silence overcame them stunned by his outburst.

"Enough!" He yelled.

"Sorry, Sir!" They mumbled--mirroring frightened kittens.

He ran his hands through his hair, furiously "Can you guys save all this arguing for later? Right now we have a mission to do and all these argument will take us nowhere!" He stated, staring at them, intently.

"I am sorry Sir, it was my fault" Aaron said whilst Ciara scowled at him.

Luke wanted to say something but was cut short by the propelling of the door_ a man and woman walked in.

"I am sorry, did you say come in?" The man asked, looking around the office, the pressure was palpable, he really arrived at the wrong time. He stood at an impressive height with fair skin, his hair was long and slightly trimmed at the edges bearing a tint of two colors_blue and black. His honey colored eyes stared at the three occupants of the room, he could perceive the anger emanating from his Boss.

Ciara clenched her fist in anger as her gaze landed on the woman with him. The sight of her spiked the already present rage within her.

"Long time no see! Ciara" the woman said in a sly tone, a mischievous smirk rested peacefully in her lips.

She was a blonde, her light brown eyes danced with knavery as she returned the glare. She mirrored a fox, being as cunny as they are known for. She is well-known for roguery in the Agency, being annoyingly sly and taking advantage of every situations.

"Seriously Sir! Her!" Ciara pointed at the lady, disgust written all over her.

Luke groaned. Not this again! He surely wasn't ready for round two.

"I can't work with her! I can't work with both of them!" She stated, defiantly. Her blazing eyes shifted from Aaron to the sly woman.

"Ciara!" Luke said, sighing "We don't care if you can't stand them, we personally chose you guys because you guys are the best in the different departments of the CIA--- being good at what you do, we selected you" He said and took a deep breath.

Ciara had a proud smile on her face. She just got a compliment from the Director of the CIA, her Dad would be so proud.

The woman let out an irritated chuckle "so you chose us because you wanted to reduce the death rate of The CIA!" She stated, reading a different meaning to the words he said.

Aaron lowered his gaze, bracing himself for the wrath of his Boss to be unleashed on her. The way she addressed him was not the right way to speak to the Director. He glanced at her__observing her

He knew a little information about her, she was well-known in the Agency. Selina Johnson, a very shrew agent__has broken a lot of rules but hasn't been fired due to her capability and skills. As long as he could remember, Ciara and Selina haven't been on good terms since he knew them. Beth was their mentor, she was the only one who could strengthen them out whenever they got into a fight.

"So, you guys just want to get rid of us because Beth died doing this mission! Sounds like the CIA is trying to get rid of their dead weight!" She stated, crossly. The pain in her voice was apparent. Beth was the only one that saw her differently, she saw her potentials and treated her like family. Now, she was gone! It hurt her just be thinking of her death.

"That's not what we want to do, Selina!" Luke said, calmly.

"Then why were we given this mission?" The Agent that walked in with her suddenly asked, being more curious to know.

"We needed Agents capable of handling this mission, so you were all chosen!" He replied, choosing his words carefully---hoping not to spike their anger.

Trithfully, he indeed wanted to have more agents to the team for the mission. He certainly agree that four was a minute number for the mission. Compared to what they were facing the agents were nothing but ants that could easily be squatched. However, The higher-ups declined, not seeing reason to his suggestion, they had two options; sending a troop and risking losing them all or rather sending a team and reducing the rate of mortality. They chose the lesser of the two evils.

Luckily, he had a team in mind and chose them due to their skill. Now, the issue at hand was teamwork__ noticing, Ciara's disapproval on two of her teammates, that was going to be a very difficult goal to achieve. He needed them to learn how to work together as a team and take down whoever was behind the mutation project.

"See guys, listen" he rubbed his temples and looked at them, his demeanor softened. They stared at him, awaiting one of his 'big speeches' he usually gives before he embarks agents to their missions.

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"This mission is very important to us, if we don't find out who is behind all this. . .The entire country, not to talk of the world will be in great danger. It doesn't matter how dangerous the mission is, you are agents for a reason, handling missions like this is what you do" he paused.

Looking at them, he could detect that they weren't buying the 'speech' of his. The look Ciara bore was frightening, her icy eyes were releasing death glares at him.

Sometimes, Luke thinks that she is scarier than Beth and has the ability to accomplish more than her mentor.

He sighed, preparing for the finale "Look, what matters now is catching the mutant before he kills more innocent people!" He kept his hand on his chest, as he spoke the next words, "Personally, I know that you guys are more than qualified to take care of this mission, and remember millions of people's lives are at stake here with this mutant on the loose".

He stared at them, their facial expressions softened. He smiled.

Aaron sighed and looked at him intently.

"So, what do you want us to do, Sir?" He asked.

Luke smirked as he walked to the center of his office, he motioned for them to sit. They complied, sitting on the couch across from him. He picked up a remote on the table and pressed a button. In a fluid motion, the walls at the other end grew apart, revealing a large screen monitor which was propelled forward in between the separated walls. He pressed another button and it was switched on.

In a swift motion, a picture of a man appeared on the screen. He was in a casual outfit as he stepped out of a cafe he wore sunglasses and a mask, concealing his facial features. Beside his picture, the data they collected on him popped up on the screen.

"This is Azar Ahmad---he is an ex-terrorist, wanted in six countries for his terrorist activities. Last year, he escaped from prison and hasn't been arrested yet, not even Interpol know of his recent whereabouts. Some of our agents have tried to capture him but failed, two of our agents died in the process" He stated, his gaze landed on Ciara. Her eyes welled up with tears.

"Was he the one who killed my father?" She asked, her eyes were glued to the screen. They were deadlier than ever, bearing so much anger within them. It felt like, she could kill him by just staring at his picture.

He nodded simply, "He placed a bomb in one of the hotel he lodged in that year. Your Father and his partner, Agent Martin were working on the mission of arresting him. In the process of capturing him, they discovered a bomb and tried to diffuse it but it was too late, they died in the explosion but before they did__they alerted the security guards in the hotel and were able to get every one out on time, they were the only ones who didn't make it." Sadness tinged in his voice as he retold the tale. Losing an Agent felt like losing a soldier in a war.

She shut her eyes tightly, preventing the stubborn tears from falling.

Aaron fought within himself not to reach out to her, to console her. She hated him and it ached his heart knowing that she couldn't rely on him for comfort.

She sniffed back the tears and opened her eyes, slowly. The pain of losing him broke her. She felt her life crumble after his death.

"Sorry for interrupting you, Sir" she stated, wiping her tears with a handkerchief.

"It is okay!" He replied,

"So, you think he is the one behind all this?" Selina asked, trying to get them back on the topic.

"Yes, our Intel says that he has been meeting with this scientist. . ." Luke paused and pressed a button. A picture of another man was displayed on the screen. He wore a gray suit and was about to get in a black car when the picture was taken. He was blonde, wearing thick glasses that concealed the details of his eyes.

"This is. . ." Luke was cut off by the other male agent.

"I know him, he is a famous scientist__Dr Raymond Charles, owner of the Genesis laboratory. One of the biggest laboratory in the country, it deals mostly on genetic engineering, biotechnology and DNA mutation, mostly anything that deals with genes" He spoke matter-of-factly, " He made a scientific breakthrough in genetic engineering and was nominated for a Nobel prize" There was a proud smile on his face as he informed them.

Everyone kept quiet, staring at him like he spoke something foreign---something only nerds and scientists could understand.

"That's correct, Agent Jason!" Luke said while trying to recall what he was saying before he got interrupted.

Jason felt a little self conscious creep in, the looks he got from them reminded him of his big nerdy days. He was skilled in computers and anything in Technology, aiding him to be a level higher than he peers. His skills were unmatched in the Agency but it seems that even with those skills, no one really knew him.

"As I was saying," Luke broke the silence "Our Intel tells us that Dr Raymond over here. . ." He pointed at the picture on the big screen ". . .has been meeting with Azar. We have a feeling that he is the one that is creating the mutagen which turns a normal human being to a mutant. Well, it is not certain if its permanent yet".

"So, what do you want us to do, Sir?" Ciara asked, staring at him with a stern expression.

He smiled, that was exactly the question he loved to hear.

"There are two things that need to be done!" He said, raising two fingers.

"Which are?" Selina asked, awaiting a reply.

"One, capture the mutant and bring him to the headquarters, we need to run some tests on him and find out a reagent, a cure__anything that could be useful to us, the more he roams free the more dangerous it is for us" He continued, "Two, find out what Azar and Raymond's plans are, so we can stop them before it becomes too late, any questions?".

Ciara held up her hand, mirroring a small child asking a question during a lesson.

"Yes, Agent Ciara, what's your question?".

"Why didn't you mention the involvement of Azar and Raymond in Beth's death during the meeting?" She asked.

He thought for a while, before responding "Sometimes Agent, it is good to keep the information to a minimum, not everyone has to know everything about the mission. I didn't want them to panic and also wasn't sure if it was the right thing to say since the evidence we had wasn't enough".

"So, are you indirectly saying that you don't trust some Agents here, because you think there is a spy among us working for Azar?" Ciara asked again.

They looked at him, awaiting his response.

He shrugged, "I am not sure of that, If there was, then we need to be super careful with this mission, we need to sharpen our eyes and ears to those around us just to be safe".

They looked at each other and nodded in agreement to his words.

"You all can leave, I will send the files we have on them to your desks later, we will start the mission in earnest!" He dismissed them.

They got up and headed towards the door, Selina was a few inches from the door when he stopped her.

"Agent Selina!"

She turned to face him a bit startled "You called me, Sir?".

"Yes, but first check if anyone is walking in the hallway" He said in a whisper.

With a puzzled look she did as she was told, she walked into the hallway and glanced at the two ends of it, the others had already left and it was completely deserted. She stepped back into the office, closing the door behind her.

"It is empty, Sir!" She informed,

He sat on his chair, his hands clasped together on his desk, his brows furrowed at her, his expression was grim.

She stood there quietly, pondering on why he called her. Was it something she did? Nope, she hasn't broken any of the rules for a while now. 'Is he going to take her off the mission? But why would he do that?' She thought. Anyway, she was going to find out soon enough.

"Agent Selina, I have an important mission for you!" He looked at her with a blank expression.

She sighed. Relief rushed in, she was glad that her fears weren't a reality. It was just another mission.

"Just for me, Sir?" She asked to confirm.

"Yes, You are the only one that is able to pull this off!" He stated.

She raised her brows at him, what kind of mission does he have in mind?, she pondered more on the question.

She let out a breath, her face was expressionless as she asked.

"What is the mission, Sir?".