Vows and Bullets
Chapter 90: Sub Mission

Chapter 90: Sub Mission

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[Agent Selene POV]

[Back when they suddenly had to leave Yoon-Ah’s place...]

Bzzzt. Bzzzt. Bzzzt.

The sun was barely out, but my smartwatch had already woke me up with its non-stop vibration. I put it in that mode since we’re at Yoon-Ah’s place just in case we receive news from Mythos, but I didn’t expect it to arrive this soon. They told us to lay low for now, so I was expecting it to be a few days or a week at least. I wonder what happened?

I rubbed my eyes, forcing myself to wake up as I tapped on my smartwatch. It was currently in private mode so it won’t show the notifications unless unlocked via fingerprint. Once unlocked, a pop-up appeared on the black screen, written in cyan blue text.

"Agent Selene, you have been summoned by Assistant Chief Athena to her office. Please report as soon as possible."

I knew it—a summon. Usually, Fae, my brooch, would be telling this to me but I didn’t wear the brooch today, and I’m currently in bed, wearing pajamas. I then glanced over at Agent Helios who was lying beside me, to see if his watch also gave him a notification. As expected, it also lit up, signifying a notification received.

Stretching out my hand, I tugged his shoulder gently to wake him up. I was careful not to make noise, so I wouldn’t unnecessarily wake Yoon-Ah instead.

Agent Helios woke up as soon as I touched him. I pointed at his watch, and he looked at it. He probably wasn’t expecting a summon as well since he didn’t put it in vibrate mode. Good thing I did, just to be on the safe side.

He then got up after reading it. We didn’t need words to talk. We simply nodded our heads, and we already understood it was a summon for both of us, which also meant we would be discussing our S-rank mission regarding Kraken.

Without further ado, we carefully got up, leaving Yoon-Ah alone in the bed. Then, we went downstairs where Mr. And Mrs. Lee was already up, together with my mother, busy baking new pastries for the shop.

"Eomma, Auntie, Uncle," I called the three of them one by one, and they all looked in my direction. "I’m so sorry for disturbing you all so early in the morning, but... something came up, and I’m afraid we have to go."

"Oh my! What happened?" my mother exclaimed.

"Don’t worry, Eomma. It’s just... work-related."

"O-Oh, I see," she nodded, understanding what I meant. Peeking in Eun-Woo’s direction, she asked, "And him? Will my son-in-law be going with you?"

"He’ll drop me somewhere near. He also has somewhere he needs to go," I whispered.

"Okay. Take care. And come visit us again soon."

"Yes, Eomma. Please say my sorry to Yoon-Ah. We’ll catch up again soon, okay?"

"Uhm. Be careful on your way."

We hugged each other goodbye and finally left. Our bodyguards and driver were ready outside, and we drove home first to get our things, take a shower, and change clothes—something casual to make it look like we were just going on a date. Agent Helios instructed the bodyguards not to follow us anymore since it would be a private trip. Besides, "house cleaning" was still in progress.

We took his car, which was now my car, and he let me drive, after much argument. Soon enough, we reached our base and went straight to Assistant Chief Athena’s office as instructed.

Seeing our base once again after a while, I couldn’t believe how much I missed it! From the advanced technology all around, especially the robots that help carry your things to your quarters as soon as you step inside, up to the holographic screens in the lobby displaying the latest missions in the Mission Board, the current rankings, and many more. It was like those guilds in role-playing games—only more realistic and techy than magical.

Looking at the mission board, a new mission just popped up.

"Rank: A

Mission: Raid

Details: Infiltrate the target’s base and catch a list of people alive while retrieving valuable data from the specified location. Further details are to be shared once the mission has been accepted.

Required headcount for the mission: 5 to 10 agents

Deadline: August 14, 20XX"

Hmm... A raid mission, huh? And an A-rank at that. It must be related to the accounting fraud from Mr. Choi’s case that we submitted two days ago. They surely work fast. They already managed to gather enough intel to launch an operation in just a couple of days. Mythos’ Intelligence Department indeed was one heck of a department. I wonder how high the IQ of people working there was.

"Hey," Agent Helios grabbed my attention. "Walk faster. How long are you going to stare at the mission board? It’s obvious what it will contain."

I rolled my eyes at him the moment I heard that.

"Yes, BOSS, I know. I was simply double-checking."

Soon enough, we were finally in front of Assistant Chief Athena’s office. The detector scanned us as usual before we were granted entry.

"Agent Selene / Helios, answering a summon," we chorused while raising our hands in a salute.

Assistant Chief Athena was standing behind her desk at that time, staring at the huge screen behind her.

"Welcome back, agents," she greeted us and turned around to face us with a smile. "You have done well on your first task. If my deduction is correct, once the A-rank Raid mission has been completed, I believe we can soon close Project Ursula."

"Hm? That soon?" I asked, curious as to why she thought that when we haven’t gotten all the evidence we could get. "Mr. Choi was guilty of accounting fraud, but for the pyramid scam, I’m not sure if we have all the evidence we need. Did you get new intel from other agents?"

Assistant Chief Athena chuckled.

"No, but considering all the info I have, it wasn’t that hard to deduce that Mr. Choi is also the one responsible for the pyramid scam and, in fact, the First Leg of Kraken."

My eyes widened hearing those words. I glanced in Agent Helios’ direction, and he didn’t seem surprised. Did he also deduce the same thing? Why? How? We both knew the same thing and had access to the same information, so what was it that I was missing?

Truthfully, it was easy to tell that Mr. Choi could have been the head of that syndicate group leading pyramid scams all over Korea, but what’s the connection of that to the accounting fraud? How did they come up with that conclusion, and with what evidence?

"Don’t think too much about it, Agent Selene. You will soon know why."

"Yes, ma’am."

"As to why I called you here," she continued, pressing a button on her computer. "Please look at this."

The screen behind her changed afterward and showed us the picture of the little girl I had saved before!

"Did something happen to her again?!" I blurted out, worried about the child.

"Relax, nothing happened," Assistant Chief Athena assured me. "The reason for your summon is about a sub-mission we would like you both to take. This little girl’s name is Tiffany Young, and it will be her birthday soon. I want you both to attend it and meet everyone in their faction of business, make connections, and meet with her father to hand over an important letter from Mythos."

A sub-mission, huh? She did mention that we could use the little girl’s family to gain intel in the future and that her father agreed to cooperate with us should we need help. I wonder what the letter would be about? If it’s a letter from Mythos, then it would be a secret letter, or a coded letter no normal person would be able to decipher it. So basically, what she meant was...

"You want us to deliver a message to him, right?"

Yes. We, Mythos agents, were the only ones who could decipher the letter. Sending the letter was just a pretext in case anyone was watching the recipient. It would contain nothing but pleasantries and useless words arranged only for our understanding. And the agent bringing it, which was us, would be the one giving the real message to the person.

"But, if we deliver the message to him, wouldn’t that break the secrecy of this S-rank mission? No one else is supposed to know that we are agents from Mythos."

"Don’t worry, my dear. The theme for the little girl’s birthday party is a masquerade, so make sure to dress in your best attire, then you can change when you deliver the message, and change back to your original clothing once done—the usual trick."

"Got it. Yes, ma’am! We’ll make sure to carry it out flawlessly."

"Any questions, Agent Helios?" she turned to him, who had been silent since the beginning.

"... What is the message that you want to relay?" he asked.

Assistant Chief Athena chuckled hearing that question.

"Of course, you would ask," she jested. "I’m afraid the message would be coming directly from Chief Zeus. Even I don’t know what it would contain. He will send the letter to you personally in a few days’ time. For now, I ask you two to prepare for the masquerade ball."

"Yes, ma’am."

A secret message, huh? I wonder what that would be? And for it to come directly from Chief Zeus... must be something highly confidential.