Stepping out of the cozy coffee shop and into the brisk morning air, Sheri was deeply conflicted about what they were about to do. She felt a heavy knot of anxiety forming in her stomach. If she actually went into the corporate building when management had explicitly told her not to, then she might get into quite a bit of serious trouble. And the truth was, she genuinely liked her job at the security firm.
Working at the Billion Bloodline group gave her a perfect, legitimate excuse not to deal with the suffocating stress and dark expectations of her own family’s business. It was her sanctuary. But on the other hand, she was deeply, undeniably curious about everything unfolding around her. She firmly believed that if she just peeked behind the curtain today, she might finally see something that would answer a lot of the burning questions she had about Max and the dangerous underworld.
Besides, she reasoned with herself, she had Max on her side. As far as she knew, he possessed quite a bit of heavy influence within the Billion Bloodline corporate hierarchy. If they were caught snooping around, she highly doubted she would actually get fired with him vouching for her.
And if the news reports were actually true and it really was just a hazardous gas leak? Then they would easily be able to smell the fumes, turn right around, and go home safe and sound.
As the two young women exited the cafe, they started to make their way toward the downtown financial sector. The Fortis building wasn’t too far from their current location—only about a thirty-minute journey on foot. They figured walking would be a much better tactical approach anyway, so they could safely observe the entire blockade from a distance and find a subtle way in.
But after taking only a few blocks’ worth of steps, their attention was entirely stolen. They noticed someone highly unusual walking their way down the busy sidewalk.
"Wow!" Cindy couldn’t help but say aloud, her eyes wide. "Now she is really pretty."
"I have to admit, she really is," Sheri commented, her gaze tracking the stranger.
The woman that they had both stopped to stare at was currently turning quite a few heads on the street. She stood out vividly against the drab morning commuters with her striking, long, bright pink hair. To top off her incredibly unique appearance, there was a large, heavy-looking object wrapped entirely in thick cloth and tied securely to her back.
Her clothing was equally distinct. She was wearing rugged, durable garments that almost looked like they were made of heavy black denim, but the dark fabric was covered with sporadic patches of white paint splashed in random, chaotic places.
However, if one looked closely beyond her aesthetic appeal and focused on her cold posture, the two girls quickly realized that this stranger looked exactly as if she was walking bad news.
"Hey... am I just completely imagining things, or is she deliberately coming straight towards us?" Cindy whispered. Her confidence instantly evaporated, and she nervously moved in close to Sheri, tightly grabbing her arm for support.
The pink-haired woman closed the distance, her boots clicking against the pavement.
"What... what do you want?" Cindy asked, her voice shaky and entirely lacking its usual edge.
The imposing woman stopped in her tracks, blinking as she looked at the two terrified girls clutching each other.
"I..." the stranger froze for a long, awkward moment. Her tough exterior seemed to shatter as a blush crept across her cheeks. She eventually answered, "I just thought you two looked really pretty, that’s all. I hope you both do well today."
Right after awkwardly blurting out those wholesome words, the dangerous-looking woman abruptly turned away. She practically speed-walked down the street in the opposite direction, her head ducked down as if she was intensely embarrassed by her own spontaneous actions.
’What on earth was that all about? Why do incredibly weird things just keep constantly happening in my life lately?’ Sheri thought, shaking her head in sheer bewilderment.
Regardless of the bizarre encounter, the two girls didn’t let it stop them from their primary goal, so they linked arms and continued on their journey.
During their walk, it didn’t take long for them to finally find the specific stretch of commercial streets that led directly to the Fortis group headquarters.
There were four different main avenues where civilian traffic could typically enter the district. Currently, bright orange traffic cones had been meticulously set up across all the intersections, blocking the roads completely, accompanied by several large ’Detour’ signs.
The workers manning the barricades were all wearing bright orange, high-visibility clothing. They were aggressively waving their hands, stopping all commuter cars from coming through, and redirecting the frustrated drivers back toward the highway.
"Let’s walk around the perimeter and look to see if absolutely all of the other connecting streets are blocked off the exact same way," Cindy suggested, keeping her voice low.
As they cautiously continued to scout around the cordoned-off blocks, they noticed the setup was identical at every single entrance. But as they watched from the shadows of an alleyway, something felt incredibly odd about the entire operation.
"You know, for a highly dangerous, city-wide gas leak... don’t you honestly think there’s an awful lot of emergency personnel that are just casually standing around and doing absolutely nothing?" Cindy observed, narrowing her eyes at the men in orange. "It seems like their entire, sole purpose is just to turn the civilian cars away from the district. I don’t see a single technician actually going inside to fix the pipes, and none of those men look even slightly nervous about breathing in toxic fumes."
"You are entirely right," Sheri whispered back, her brow furrowing in deep suspicion. "But honestly, whenever I see city workers doing construction like this, I never actually see them doing any real physical work anyway, so I just assumed it was normal bureaucratic laziness. But wait... what is the actual emergency procedure anyway? Gas leaks are meant to be incredibly volatile and dangerous, right? Shouldn’t the local fire department and heavily armored police units be swarming this place right now?" Sheri asked herself, the dark reality of the situation finally dawning on her.
What the girls also quickly realized was that, due to these fake workers being incredibly lazy and not paying much attention to the pedestrian sidewalks, it would be relatively easy to quietly sneak past the perimeter.
The specific area where the towering Fortis building was located was a high-end corporate business district. Because of this, there were plenty of adjacent, interconnected office buildings lining the streets. And although these neighboring office buildings had been officially evacuated and closed due to the broadcasted leak, it wasn’t as if every single side door and maintenance hatch was perfectly locked down.
Taking a deep breath, they slipped unnoticed into an adjacent commercial building through an unlocked loading dock. They crept quietly through the empty, echoing lobby, and then carefully pushed open a heavy metal fire exit that allowed them to slip out directly onto the other side of the syndicate’s street blockade.
They were officially inside the kill zone. Now, they just needed to get their bearings straight and head directly toward the towering glass structure of the Fortis group building.
"I’ll finally find out the truth about what happened to Abby," Cindy commented, her voice hardening with absolute resolve as she looked up at the skyscraper. "I’ll ask you directly to your face this time, Max. I’m ready."