Nightingale couldn’t believe it. She had done it! Despite hesitating at first, she still managed to endure it. She remembered the tears Viola shed after she had finished giving her the information.

“Are you okay boss?” asked Cecilia.

“I’m fine!” replied Nightingale, with a stubborn look.

“If you say so. What are we going to do next?”

Nightingale wanted to go and investigate what had happened for Ryan to try to join Sky Haven. However, after what she had gone through, she didn’t have the strength anymore. She remained silent, without answering the question she had been asked. A frightening silence ensued, with the only sound being the honking of the car’s horn.

The car’s destination was The Pinktail, and after parking, Nightingale went straight to her office and locked herself up. A few tears streamed down her beautiful face, but she quickly wiped them off.

It was in this moment that she made her decision. Since she had already started riding the proverbial tiger, it was now hard to get off. When she went to interrogate her friend, part of her had anticipated this would happen. Of course, another part wanted all of this to be a bad dream. She wished she would be back with Derik at the mansion, with Ryan. She wanted to be a happy family again. Another tear fell down as she thought about Derik.

She took out a small flash drive, and then opened her laptop. After wiping away all her tears, her resoluteness remained, and this time, it was in full force.

‘Since it has come to this point, I might as well brace myself for the upcoming war!’ she thought.

****************

After the introductions, came more arguments. Ryan almost wanted to beat everyone up so he could just take the tag from the girl and leave. However, he suspected things weren’t so simple. That didn’t stop the arguments though, they kept going on and on. It eventually reached a point where he couldn’t take it anymore. He activated the Roc chasing the wind technique, and with one step, he appeared next to the person who had introduced himself as Ray. The person was caught off-guard, and with one swift movement, he was knocked unconscious.

After Ray, he moved onto Gary and then finished off with the girls. He fumbled through their pockets, collecting small plastic tags from all of them. All this time, he was grumbling inside. What did this exercise have to do with being an assassin?

Ryan silently moved away from the crime scene, and then backtracked until he was at the point he had begun.

“I’ve got the tag. Now what?” he shouted towards one of the trees. Last night when he was meditating, Rogarth had told him there was someone watching from there.

There was no response. Well, at least until five minutes later, when a hooded figure come from the tree and looked at him intently.

“Congratulations! You’ve been selected to participate in the Sky Haven assassin training. Now, can I have the tags?” said the figure, extending its hand.

Ryan handed one of the tags, which he assumed belonged to the girl who had called herself Christine.

“All of them”, said the figure, upon which it received all of the tags, including the one Ryan already had.

“What was the point of this exercise?” asked Ryan. It was something Ryan had been mulling over and over for some time.

“Oh, this… We just wanted to see your decision-making process. Apparently, you’re very impatient. This is a trait that will get you killed some day.”

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“Wait, what? That was all?” asked Ryan, with some shock.

“Yes. What do you think?”

Ryan was speechless. At one point, he thought the entire thing was pointless. If you had asked him what assassins were, he’d say invisible killing machines. Why do invisible killing machines need to have a decision-making process that’s complicated? Don’t they just need to be able to follow orders and kill whoever they’re sent to kill?

As if reading Ryan’s mind, the hooded figure chuckled and said, “You might be thinking why decision-making is even important to assassins. They must be able to just carry out orders, am I correct?”

Ryan remained silent. The hooded figure was right.

“Well, you’ll see the reason during your training”, responded the hooded figure.

“So now what? How do I get out of here?” asked Ryan.

“Just follow that trail, you’ll arrive at the road. How you get back home is none of my concern from then onwards. Good luck”, said the mysterious figure, as it took out a smoke bomb and threw it downwards.

POOF!

After some minutes of coughing, Ryan realized the mysterious figure was no longer in front of him. He walked slowly towards the mentioned trail. He arrived at the road, and from the look of it, there was no hope of getting transport. When he decided to check the time, he realized that there was a signal, meaning GPS would work now. He sighed and opened the Maps app. After going through it, he realized he wasn’t far from the residential location. He started walking towards the residential area.

*************************

Now, on Aloha Island, on a small farm located close to Ryan’s grandparents’, a fat man was parking a battered-up truck. He got out of the truck and then walked towards the main house, where a middle-aged woman was waiting.

“Reeve Halloway”, said the middle-aged woman, with a warm smile.

“Rebecca, it’s always nice to see you again. How long has it been since we have seen each other?” responded the fat man, as he proceeded to hug the lady, whom he had called Rebecca.

“Quite a long time Reeve. You don’t even drop by to see people who live near you!” responded Rebecca.

Reeve gave a bashful smile, before saying, “You know how the restaurant is always busy?”

“Ha! That’s a very lame excuse. Anyways, he’s been waiting for you.”

“Have the others arrived yet?”

“What others?”

“I see. Thank you, Rebecca. How about I buy you lunch after this? The restaurant will always welcome you back with open arms.”

“Are you forgetting the reason I left?”

“Don’t tell me you’re still hung up on that. I thought we had resolved all the issues between us?”

“Oh well, I have nothing to say about that. Are you going to keep him waiting? You know he really hates it when people make him wait.”

“Okay, Rebecca. But please, think about my lunch offer”, said Reeve, as he got into the main house.

The house was neatly furnished, and in the dining hall, there was a beautiful wooden table. The table was circular, and the chairs were also made of wood. At the far end of the table, sat a middle-aged man. The man had black spiky hair, and his eyes had a distinct glow, despite the irises having a dark hue. He was reading through some files which were on the desk.

“You’re late, Reeve”, said the man.

“Sorry Grant … Or should I call you--”

Reeve didn’t finish his sentence. He had received a glare from the man, that caused a slight chill to creep up his spine.

“Let’s not dwell in the past, do take a sit. I believe we have much to discuss”, said the middle-aged man, who had been called Grant.

Reeve sat down quietly, before asking, “Where are the others?”

“I believe this meeting is only between you and me. We already held a separate meeting with the others”, responded Grant.

“Is that so? So, what’s on the agenda?”

“Why don’t we start with you giving me an update on your operations in Megapolis?”

Reeve sighed, before saying, “Did something happen?”

“You’re now answering my question with another question! The operation we have been preparing for is now in motion. Why don’t you tell me how things are going on your end?”

“Okay. We managed to plant several spies within Sky Haven. However, no significant information has been shared so far. The scapegoat we had prepared performed its job pretty well, and even got caught. Now that she has served her purpose, I think we should get rid of her.”

“Hmm, okay. What about their recruitment?”

“There are no candidates that stand out so far. However, the next piece of news is going to shock you. Ryan was among the recruits.”

Grant’s eyes widened, and he frowned. This was an unexpected development. However, after some time thinking, he smiled and said, “I guess we might have found him. The one who will destroy Sky Haven from within.”

“You’re not serious! You can’t expect him to –”

There was that intense glare again, causing Reeve to swallow hard. “Are you sure he can do this? It sounds like too much of a task for the kid!”

“Don’t worry about it too much. Here’s what you’re going to do. Make sure your spies are the ones that provide missions to him, and while you’re at it, make sure Nightingale doesn’t know about it.”

“You want to keep Nightingale in the dark about the recruitment? That might be a bit too late.”

“I’m saying don’t let her intervene in the missions you give to Ryan. It’s time we destroyed that damn organization”, said Grant, with a vicious smile.