“As Mr vice president already informed you about the benefits of being a freelancer, I’ll tell you about the other privileges. You’ll now get a discount of 15% on all items from the guild’s store, and you can now place orders for customised gear there as well. Your pay will be increased to 10000 dollars/week as well, I know it isn’t much but since you’re not an official member yet, this is the best we could do.” Maya explained, “Furthermore, as a special thanks you’ve been given an additional benefit – the guild will provide you with some medical personnel as well as the necessary equipments to carry on your sister’s treatment from your home. However the guild will only pay around 60% of the cost. The rest would be deducted from your pay. After deducting the necessary account, you’ll get about 6700 dollars per week.”

“I don’t care about the money.” After hearing this Arnold couldn’t stop smiling. “How long will it take to shift her from the hospital?” ​​

“A couple of hours, if you sign the contract now.” She handed him a new contract.

Even though Arnold was ecstatic after getting the news, he still read the contract carefully. After all his sister’s well being depended on it.

He signed the contract after confirming that Maya was actually telling the truth, then rushed towards the apartment. He had to prepare the apartment, after all Nicole was coming over there for the first time.

*****

AROUND THREE HOURS LATER

“Brother!” Nicole exclaimed as she wheeled in through the apartment doors on her wheelchair. She wasn’t wearing the robes that the hospital provided anymore, but a new white top coupled with brown leggings.

“Welcome home, Lil one.” Arnold pinched her face and laughed. “Thanks for bringing her over.”

“It wasn’t an issue.” Alice replied, “You guys can go and set up the equipment.” She ordered the medical personnel.

Arnold showed them the way to Nicole’s room and returned to the hall, where Alice and Nicole were chatting.

“Brother your girlfriend is so cool!” Nicole exclaimed once again. Followed by an awkward silence phase. Arnold walked up to her and pinched her cheeks once again.

“Who put that thought inside your head?” He asked.

“Shame. You’d make a great couple though!” Nicole replied.

Alice burst into laughter. “She’s too cute.”

“I’m sorry about it.” he said, scratching the back of his head.

“I should leave, you guys have a lot to catch up on.” Alice said and started gathering her things.

“No stay please! Let’s have dinner together.” Nicole suggested.

“Lil one is right. You should have dinner with us.”

“Um… I don’t know.”

“Pleeeeaaaase!” Nicole requested.

“Alright alright! I’ll stay. Happy now?”

*****

AT AN UNKNOWN LOCATION

Tu, Tu, Tu.

Alex, the chief security officer of Troy security agency, hastily walked towards his boss’ office. He was drenched in sweat because he knew that his boss wouldn’t like the news he was about to give to him, but he had no choice. He stopped outside the boss’ office, took a deep breath and walked.

“Sir-”

“You failed didn’t you?” A person walked out slowly from the back of the room facing the light. His front was dark, and his looks could not be seen. He stopped before Alex, who had just entered the room. The light behind the man stretched out his shadow, covering Alex and extending into a black line on the corridor.

“S-sir, I immediately dispatched the troops to kidnap the t-target, b-but she wasn’t in the hospital! It seems like someone leaked the plan. They couldn’t do anything!”

“Hm… who would’ve informed them if only a handful of people knew about the operation.” The man in the dark mumbled.

“Sir?”

“Shut up you useless piece of sh*t! I’m thinking.”

Alex immediately went silent. He knew his boss’ anger was justified. Gary, Boss’ son was a soldier in the army when the first outbreak happened and his unit was deployed to take care of it, but things went south and his entire team was slaughtered. Only Gary survived but, nearly all of his organs were destroyed. They tried transplanting new organs many times but his body always rejected the new organs. All seemed lost, the boss got desperate and ordered the doctors to transplant the organs of a patient infected by Andrea syndrome, something he was strictly against as he wanted his son to have a perfectly healthy life. Everyone expected the organs to fail but to their surprise, Gary’s body accepted the transplant… for a few days. Although the experiment itself resulted in failure but it gave a hope. Since then they were actively hunting other patients who had Andrea syndrome.

After sacrificing countless patients they finally developed an algorithm to help them find a suitable organ ‘donor’. Using the algorithm they were finally able to locate one such person but before they could anything the person disappeared into air. The hope was lost once again.

“Find her. I don’t care what you do. FIND HER!”

“But sir-”

“Fine! If you incompetent fools can’t do it then, I’ll do it MYSELF.” He exit the room, “No one will take my son away from me.”