It has been a week since my favorite couple in this whole agency lands at a faraway country called Federation of Peace and Freedom. The president of J-MEF gave Agent L, or as some would call him "Lukman", an assignment to lead a project there. The project is related to several mana pipe leak detection, courtesy of his own research. In a guise of work travel, this could also act as a vacation for these lovebirds. All they have to do is to sit tight and see some process through.

That particular research is now at our hands, The Agency. It was leaked through unofficial channel. Details were explained this morning by Agent A, my handler for this week's field mission. To summarize, someone at Federation of Peace and Freedom is doing some weird stuff by using an ancient and undocumented mana pipes that scatters underground from Milium straight to Federation. One of our informant is said to have leaked this information to us, but based on his lack of due diligence, a man-in-the-middle attack got him and now he's in trouble. To protect well beings of our informant, we began constructing his whereabouts as soon as possible.

An impartially damaged message he gave before his disappearance turns out to be clue on about a hidden organization in Federation. A well known criminal organization has something to do with creating a bank account using a large amount of hard mana. Not a counterfeit, more like smuggling.

Based on what we know from our poor informant, they planned to get those hard mana by using a pipe that can be used by a certain nation with no regards of legality and morality. Which is his specialty, for some odd reason. He didn't give us that much information about which part of this large and mostly unknown piping system is going to be used by Milium. But Agent A said that part of it was solved using Agent L's research back in J-MEF. Largely because we can detect leak to see which area of the pipe is seen to be most used. She said liquid hard mana tends to damage pipes worse than usual so we can exploit this pattern and narrow our search down to several old building in Federation. We deployed teams of excellently trained agents all then scatter them all over the country. My part is to check on a city hall in a region called Baraks.

Mission briefing said our informant is kept mobile using cars and or vans, driving around a particularly bleak side of this country. There is a chance he will end up at my designated location, so me and my partner in crime need to be ready to rescue him. Assuming he's still alive.

Agent D

Yo, C. What's with the silence man?

Right now we are traveling in a car, riding towards our destination. Agent D is my battle buddy today, which I'm not against at all. I just haven't seen him in a while, so it made some of our interaction awkward despite non of us changed in ways that matters. I sit passenger side giving direction while Agent C has his hands on the steering wheel.

Agent C

Remind me again why are we here and not those federations bastard.

Agent D

Because this is a state country where everyone is decentralized. Power are not held by a government but spread out thin based on each state's policy.

Agent C

That shit don't work let me tell you.

Agent D

What makes you think of that?

Agent C

Because we're here and not them. If they're any use to us, we can definitely arrange a rescue team using their resources. We can just lie and tell them that he's a criminal hostage or some thing.

Agent D

Nothing is perfect, C.

Agent C

Of course nothing is perfect. Look at us, bunch of corporate wankers spending time working on holiday. You know, we have three days a week of vacation, which is upheld by our constitution!

Can we even raise this inhumane work hours to HR?

Agent D

Not while that man's life is still on our hands. We don't play by the regular law anyway, so constitution is just a piece of paper for us.

Agent C

Damn, you're right.

Poor guy probably got caught after using an insecure line to communicate with us. Don't know how he managed to do it, 'cause all of our informant is still safe besides him.

Agent D

Briefing's did say he has a family back home. His children or something probably accidentally leaked some of his info. Most of our informants are so deep in the orgz, they don't have time to make a child, let alone raise one. He's definitely not normal, for an informant.

Agent C

What's his name again?

Agent D

Herrera Fusi-something. We don't know much of him before his shenanigans with ancient mana pipes. He seems to be interested in it because he likes pipes, weird guy.

Agent C

What is he, a plumber?

Agent D

Surprisingly no, he's not a plumber. His profile said he is working for a taxi company. Small, unknown, yet profitable. Probably linked to a lot of underground groups, that's why he's able to know bunch of things about ancient mana pipes.

Agent C

Ancient mana pipes doesn't sound that ancient. It was not that new of a technology right, how is it ancient already?

Agent D I'm not gonna bore you with history, but let's just say mana transfer technology is pretty old. Quite simple too, just a tad more expensive than water pipes.

Our car is going to a place near city hall. Right beside it is an abandoned mall which has a large parking lot in front. We are going to park there and prepare everything, including our disguise. Despite the sad state of this city, most of its governmental facilities is still functioning. There's a lot of bad actors around which kept it up and operational, probably using it as a home of operation for their "side businesses".

To penetrate it without being seen, we will slip in with a disguise. To keep it functional and inconspicuous, Agent C choose to pick a boring grey uniform with pockets lined up from top to bottom. He also took two hats for us both and slap a generic company logo in front of it. I am in charge of bringing in some equipment to make our disguise that much more legit. We are of course disguising as a maintenance crew.

Once we have parked our car, I got out of it and open up the back door to access our equipment. We of course have scouted this abandoned mall before. No one seems to live here, not even those homeless we often see living near sidewalks.

Agent C

D, bring me those clothes.

Agent D

Sure, here change into it and fast. We don't want to miss our VIP, if he's still alive.

Agent C

He better be alive. I'm not going to miss my private time for a carcass.

Agent D

I hope so too. Here, you carry this ladder. I'm going in front and do all the talking. Also, both of us are going to carry this tool box in. There's weapons parts inside disguised as tools.

Agent C

Do I really have to carry this ladder?

Agent D

Of course man! We are THE maintenance team. Everything in that building is ours to fix so of course we gotta have this ladder. It's cliched, but everyone will talk less to us, because we are carrying a big ladder! Why would anyone talk to a man lugging a heavy equipment if they don't really need to?!

Besides, everyone loves ladders.

Agent C

Ok, alright, fine. I'm going to carry it. Now, what about this "disguised gun", have you used them before, D?

Agent D

I mean, we've assembled and disassembled it together because Agent A told us to. But I've only shot it several times before. How 'bout you?

Agent C

Same as you. Don't really like the recoil on these, it goes everywhere.

Agent D

Agree.

Once both of us had don the outfit of a true blue collared worker, we will now get used to call each other with fake names. I call myself "Callum" and his is "Doloran". Both are a very common name in Federation, so they shouldn't be able to trace us easily even if they want to. I take one last deep breath before starting our complete buddy-check.

Agent C

Let me start checking this time. Uniform!

Agent D

Check!

Agent C

Equipment!

He is checking his own toolbox and mine, while rattling it around to see whether we have all of the required parts for a gun. Barrels, triggers, stock, and spare magazines. All of it is disguised as things like screwdrivers, tape measure, bolts, and chocolate boxes. We also decide to pack in a one-eyed night vision goggles for when things goes dark, which probably will happen.

Agent D

All check!

Agent C

Buddy comm check!

Agent D is fixing his earpiece right into his ears. It's small and skin colored so people won't be able to recognize it even from up close. This will enable us to reach each other even if we get separated. He pushes a button on it and talks.

Agent C

Alright I can hear you loud and clear. Agent A and D, comm check, you copy?

Agent A and Agent D

Comm check copy, crystal.

Can't forget to mention our girl in charge, Agent A. Some of us know her as Aya, also her pseudonym but with a more friendly connotation. As mentioned before, she is our handler for this mission and will guide us through any new information that might come our way. After that, we are now ready for the pursuit of a man we don't even know.

Like everyone else, we are entering through the front door. From an outside perspective, our get up is definitely catching one or two eyes, yet no one is staring at us for more than a few moment. Inside, we are greeted by a huge and contrasting feeling from a bleak and depressing aura outside. Well known paintings, statues made of shiny metals, and world class floor lining. Everyone is busy within their own world, never noticing how beautiful this building actually is. Something so spacious and beautiful, it almost hurt to know these are paid using taxes from those men on the street.

Right now we are trying to find a spot where no one could see us. This place will serve as our temporary safe room. Useful for assembling our guns for when it is needed. Based on our intel, there should be a small room near an emergency stairway which doesn't see much use. Knowing that this mission wouldn't take much time to complete, it should be safe to just use it.

Security here is not as tight as I think it would be. Maybe no one here cares about who's coming in, because everyone knows only the desperate or powerful wants to make a deal here. My theory is proven right as soon as I take a glance of the faces that's walking around here.

For example, we walked past a woman in dark dresses with her two entourage. That is definitely a member of Black Flower, Madam Celeste. It's a well known organization here in this town, with crime portfolios ranging from extortion, vote manipulation, and even murder. We don't really know where she is placed in that organization right now, beside her obvious seniority in Black Flower. This is not a coincidence, for her to be here and we might meet her later. Until then, we are going to prepare for the worst.

Doloran inspects a particular door in front of us. It is black and has an "employee only" sign written on a sticker. Right beside it is a card reader used for opening doors. On paper, we should probably use another room to use for preparation, but this is our best chance given the available time frame.

Thankfully, he brought a tool to crack it open with a black box which you could attach to a card reader. According to its specification, it should go through any card reader within two minutes, at most. We are going to count on that, because someone is approaching us from beyond our horizon.

From the corner of our eyes, a man in water soaked clothing is moving towards us. He is menacing, towering over me by more than I'm embarrassingly wanting to admit. His eyes is squinted and the floor are shaking as Mr. Humongous here walks right past some city hall employees. Worst case scenarios, I need to throw this ladder that I'm bringing with and somehow stab him with whatever I could find.

He stops in front of us, making Doloran nervous because this device could be seen as suspicious by others. I can make out his name from a tag that's pinned on his left breast. It says, "Senior Secretary Morgan".

Doloran

Mr. Morgan, good evening. How we may be of help.

Subtle, but from an angle I can see a glimpse of sweat produced on the back of his neck. This is a totally unexpected development, we must wing this situation until we can get back on track. Morgan doesn't seem to be bothered by a strange device attached to that card reader, but he certainly has something else in his mind.

Morgan

Yeah, goooood evening too. Can you guys tell me why the fuck is that faucet isn't fixed yet? We have been waiting for someone to replace it since last month to avoid shit like this!

He rhetorically points at his water soaked shirt and pants. Doloran straighten himself up and answers.

Doloran

Absolutely sir, that will be the first thing we will do after this. Pardon us but we need to prepare our tools-

Morgan

I AM NOT IN THE BUSINESS OF WAITING AROUND!

Isn't my ruined outfit enough proof for your urgency?!

Doloran gave me a quick glance. Although for only a split, I can see his slothful expression. Our most sensible approach to calm Morgan down is to fix his problem as soon as possible. Can't believe he's gone through training for war and espionage and his most valuable skill right now is plumbing. Doloran's expression is fast enough for Morgan to not notice, and he begin to put on a professional expression once again.

Doloran

Certainly sir, let me go there right away.

Morgan

Okay then, follow me. The leak is coming from a toilet near my office.

They left me here alone, while I'm still carrying this big stupid ladder on my shoulder. I'm waiting for that card-reader-hacking-thing to finish its job. Meanwhile, I can hear this repeating and quiet ping from my earpiece. Someone is trying to communicate, it's probably Aya. I turn myself towards a wall to not attract any attention as I talk to her.

Agent A

Agent C or D, requesting status immediately.

Agent C

Callum here, a complication just happened, Doloran need to fix a water pipe so we don't "let it out". Anything new?

Agent A

Copy that. I understand you guys need to keep your cover, just be quick about it. Also something just came in, our VIP is on his way to your place. Locals said there's an undocumented room below the city hall which houses a strange large pipe. We're confident that our VIP is going to be brought there.

Agent C

Copy, we will finish preparing as soon as possible. Can we get an ETA?

Agent A

Negative, we don't know which vehicle he's in. Just know that you're going to be the final destination. I suggest you to get ready, quickly.

Agent C

Copy, hear from you later.

Right as I close our communication, there's this faint mechanical click coming out of that device. I think it has cracked that annoying card reader's security. I'm now turning the door handle to get inside as soon as possible. Doors open, lights out, and a breeze of stink and moisturized air goes right into my nose. I dislike this room even before going in it.

The floor feels damp with water coming out of a broken bucket filled with sludge of yesterday's cleanup. Mops, brooms, and worn out rags are lining those walls, hanging on it helped by nails that's driven straight into the blockwork. Someone is working here for a long time, photos of family and friends is littering a table right in front of me. I carefully pick those up and put it somewhere dry, which is on a patch of floor that's far away from the bucket spill.

Now, I must ready myself. The content of this toolbox that I bring with will now be put to use. Firstly, night vision goggles. Can't hit what you can't see, so darkness will be an element that we're going to exploit here. After wearing it properly on my left eye, I then turn to a not-yet-assembled mid powered gun. Its about my arms length including the stock, doesn't have a scope, and will be so loud that everyone nears it will have to wear an ear protection.

Of course, I have several pairs of ear plugs to dampen the sound of these guns once it starts firing. Fatal engagement with our adversaries are to be expected, especially when this involves kidnapping a VIP of The Agency. Getting this over with will be a challenge if we engage with an immature plan. We must use all of the available variables and tune it towards our advantage. After all, you must never attack your opponent fairly. Only fools would do that and fools tend to die faster than most people.

It is not mentioned before but our clothes are lined up with a protective material, enough to stop any small projectiles from piercing our skin. It will still hurt like hell but at least we are not bleeding. I also have a small bomb that can be triggered remotely from hundred of arms away. The range is highly concentrated to an area, making it suitable for damaging something without wreaking up too much havoc.

As I finish up on my preparation, I sense someone is walking towards this room. That person is walking alone, his steps are producing this squeaky noise similar to a wet rubber sandals. The door knob twisted clockwise and I already hid all devices that might raise suspicion. I can see a shadow of a man. Its length increases as he turns out the door. His posture is familiar, yet I'm blinded by a shiny lamp shining behind his back.

Doloran

Relax your asshole Callum, it's me.

Callum

My butt is never clenched in the first place. Come and use this table, make your gun here quickly. They are coming soon.

Doloran

Shit man, alright. You still remember what to do after this?

Callum

Yeah I do know what to do. But we don't have much time though, hell they might already be there doing business.

Doloran

Stick to the plan. Now help me open this grate.

On the back of this room is a ventilation grate, acting as a false door which connects us to a secret backroom. There will not be anyone there because it's mentioned in the mission briefing, complete with a hand drawn layout.

No one knew about this entrance back at The Agency. But several months ago, there's this tip from one of our trusted informant that happens to be working as an office cleaner that has been in the business since twenty years ago. Without any information from him, we will not be here. Yet he is out there, probably bounded inside of a moving vehicle.

We are moving as fast as we could towards our designated post. The secret backroom is a damp long corridors of darkness. From side to side, it's cluttered by tunnels leading to rooms made in war time, back when The Federation was still a part of Milium. According to information we've got from our VIP, these rooms were intended to be made for torture, imprisonment, and even execution. I've peeked into one of them as I walk past it, every single time there's at least a glimpse of a metal covering near the corner of the room, a drainage. I can only imagine the things people have done here, in secrecy.

Our destination is simply called "Pipe Room". A large room with plenty of head room. It was used as a utility room, mostly for storing mana and transferring it straight to Milium in war time. There are multiple entrances for us to use, making this situation much easier for us. We've planned about how we would save this man since the start of this mission, and it can be broken down to several parts. But I won't bore you with details, let's get on with it.

Right now I'm in front of a white door, one of the obvious entrance towards Pipe Room. Less obvious though is a hidden entrance far away from this door, used by the maintenance team back then. The hidden entrance to this hidden room is actually secluded away from prying eyes because it leads to a very important scaffolding that holds above everyone's field of view. It's up there, hanging among all of the ventilation system. No one on the ground should be able to notice if someone is up there, given no sound is being produced when walking around.

We separate ourselves with two jobs. I'm the one who distracts everyone's attention so my friend Agent D could watch over our VIP being handled from above, stealthily. He will of course have his gun ready at all times, waiting for my signal to shoot any potential enemies on sight. It will be a pretty brutal endeavor, but we are not dealing with small fries here. Often seen as excessive, even I agree that this kinds of violence is needed when dealing with anyone from Milium. At least, I assume our perpetrator will be someone from Milium, who else know the existence of this room beside them anyway.

Agent D

In position, we are late. They are already dealing with something, can't hear much though. This ventilation fan is too damn loud.

Agent C

Give me visuals, what are we dealing with?

Agent D

I see 5 men with casual clothing, 3 women in tight clothes, and our VIP. He is bounded and gagged with beaten up face. Right now he's sitting on the floor while being talked too by one of the men.

Also, there's a lot of hard mana here, I think they're making a deal.

Agent C

Wait, 3 woman in tight clothes? Those are members of the Black Flower! I think our intel is right, they are trying to make a new bank account using those hard mana!

Anything else?

Agent D

Oh shit, one of them is putting a gun in the mouth of VIP!

Agent C

God damn it! NV gogs on, I'm shutting the lights!

To distract them from Agent D, I'm going to knock and say a few words to them. It might stall the guy who's putting a gun in our VIP's mouth. With a rushed breath, I call unto them from outside.

Agent C

Delivery!

I press a button on my left hand, a trigger connected to a bomb that was planted when I'm getting here. It should be good enough to mess up some wiring and short this whole part of the building. Quick thinking that, we don't have much time and this is the best we can do in less than ten minutes.

As expected, I can hear lamp sudden shut off from outside. Several people can be heard frantically stepping around, chasing a non-existent safe place to hide. I can also hear shots which are very similar to the caliber used by our disguised gun. Screams of women and men are echoing throughout this eerie long corridors.

To help Agent D, I shot several bullets through this white door. It should be able to distract everyone inside into my position while they are confused from which way they are really being shot at. From my earpiece, I can't hear anything but a very loud bang that peaked my speaker every time Agent D pulls the trigger. In there, ricochet of bullet is flying in a random, unpredictable pattern, bouncing off hard floors and walls made out of concrete.

The explosion of gun powder is filling everyone's ear. Everything is amplified by the close quarter nature of this engagement. It's frantic, loud, and feels like forever. But then, I feel everything is waning down. Loud sound became silent, scream of men goes quiet, and Agent D's breath can be heard through my earpiece. The battle is over in less than an instant, confirmed by the time I'm keeping on my watch.

Agent D

D coming in, you copy?

Agent C

Crystal copy, are you good?

Agent D

Yeah I'm good, threat neutralized, safety is on. Use your NV goggles though, you need to see in the dark.

Agent C

Alright I'm coming in.

Night vision goggle is on, everything looks green and contrasted. There's little to no light, so it's still hard to see even with this device on. I can see several bodies near the entrance, they're in various form and postures. Most of them are lying or leaning their backs to a wall, with trickles of liquid squirting through every hole on their body, man made or not. Checking them one by one, none of these people are breathing. No sign of life, in several seconds Agent D just made a room filled with criminals into a graveyard.

I can still see my friend up there, lying on a scaffolding. He waves at me with his hand still near the trigger. I nod at continue to check on his victims.

Agent C

Which one of these is our VIP?

Agent D

That one, proning near those ladies.

Agent C

Thanks man. Hey you, get up and let's get out of here!

I flip him over and see an image that I'm sure enough to give me a mental health related days-off. His shirt are bloodied from his own veins. Necks are not damaged, but I can see a bullet wound exiting from his right cheek. He probably died instantly from shock.

Agent C

D, I think our VIP is long gone man.

Agent D

Ah shit, not like this. We've gone so far just to reach a shitty conclusion like that?

Agent C

Afraid so. Let's get out of here before shit get worse. Give me a minute to report back.

Agent A can you copy me?

Agent A

Station reading you loud and clear, what's your status?

Agent C

We got into a situation, got out of it unscathed though. I need to document 4 men bodies wearing casual clothes, 3 women bodies in skimpy clothes, and now...

I held my breath before calling in the last casualties. Hard to say which one stops my train of thoughts first, my shamefulness of this failed mission, or disappointment in our luck and timing. There's going to be a lot of paper work and apologizing to be done after this, especially to the family of our VIP, the true victim.

As I compose myself to utter the last word in my mind, I can hear knocking from right above me. Agent D is trying to get my attention. From my green and blurry vision, I can see his hand pointing at someone near me. He's pointing at none other than a body, coming back to life.

Feels a lot like reincarnation, this man's hand is shaking out of control, but clearly points to the ceiling, or an imaginative sky. Only one thing is coming out of his mouth. A mouth violated by bullet wounds that destroys most of his tongue. He begs us in the most pathetic way possible.

VIP

elp... mih... hep...

Holy shit, he is still alive.