Love Began with the First Meeting



Maggie glanced around the barren room. It had only a bed and a small en suite bathroom. It gave her a feeling that she might be in a cheap hotel or somewhere similar. But the style of its appointments was quite distinct from those of a hotel.

She walked to the window, opened it and looked out. After a while she had a better idea of the situation. She was in the middle part of the building, and several floors up. It was impossible for her to find a way out from here. She wouldn't be able to find any reliable footholds during the climb, if she tried to escape from the window. Clearly, the location wasn't selected at random. Cain had done a lot of thinking, and locking her up here was all part of his elaborate plan.

Maggie turned her head. She instantly noticed the men standing at the foot of the building. It looked like they were talking to each other, but Maggie knew she was being closely monitored by them.

Just then, the door was opened from the outside. Maggie turned around and saw Cain walking into the room with one hand in his pocket. In his another hand was a box of take-away food. He approached with easy and unhurried strides.

"Eat," Cain said flatly. Maggie didn't reply. Cain smiled, quite cynically. "What? Are you trying to take it out on your own body?" He gave a little chuckle. "I never knew you could sink to this level."

Cain's insensitive words exhausted what little remained of Maggie's patience and earned him an exasperated look from her. Without a word, she moved forward to open the food container. She looked down at the food. What she saw made her lips curve slightly in the barest hint of a smile. Cain had brought her noodles and soup.

They had eaten meals together before, but all in very formal places. If the truth be told, she had no penchant for fancy restaurants and gourmet cuisine. Compared to that, she preferred street food and comfort food. She was not a fancy kind of girl. So she just couldn't say no to noodles. The smell of it made her mouth water every time. It had never yet failed to entice her hunger.

But now these noodles were from Cain. It was a very small thing, but it made her understand that he knew her better than she would have believed possible. Maybe this was her just deserts for having become so puffed up and self-inflated with her own importance over the last few days.

This was the first time that Maggie had found noodles so hard to swallow. They seemed spiced with a bitterness which she could almost taste in her heart. But she didn't have time to brood. She was worried sick about Edgar. She still had faith in him. But did he really stand a chance against such a formidable opponent like Cain?

The room was quiet save for the sound of her reluctant chewing. Sitting on the edge of the bed, Cain gazed at Maggie's profile thoughtfully. Three days, and this was the last day.

*

Edgar held something in his hand. It was burnt and so badly charred that it was hard to make out what it was. He frowned and turned, asked Vincent beside him, "What are the chances of recovering some data from this thing?"

"The chances are very slim," Vincent answered. "But it's not beyond the realms of possibility."

Edgar looked very pale and troubled. For days he had been playing a game of cat and mouse with Richard to force him into giving up the black box. Now they finally had the black box, but it was too late. It had been ravaged by fire!novelbin

"Give it a try. Please. At least we still have something to work with. It would be a pity to have come this far and then not even try. We need to try our best." Edgar sighed, turned around and walked toward Vincent's car.

Vincent shrugged, followed him, and slid into the driver's seat before starting the car. "The temporary base?"

"Hmm." Edgar took his advice. The black box was so badly damaged that he now had no other choice but to pin all of his hopes on XK Intelligence Agency.

Vincent and Edgar went straight to an XK stronghold in S City. After arrival, they quickly dispensed with the formalities and found technicians who could try to recover the data. It took more time than Edgar would have liked. Over time, his nerves were being stretched tighter and tighter, and began to approach his breaking point.

Vincent handed him a cigarette. Edgar shook his head. Vincent shrugged and lit it up for himself, then he asked calmly, "Ready to have a kid?"

Edgar grinned at the jest. "I quit smoking a long time ago." He paused for a moment and then added, "It's not a good thing for me." Smoking could be lethal.

Vincent nodded understandingly. He did, however, continue puffing on the cigarette.

Hour after hour ticked by painfully slowly. At the stronghold they waited all day and all night until the sun rose again.

Edgar sighed and stretched his aching body. "We are running out of time." After a short pause, he turned to Vincent with a grim look in his eyes. "No matter how this turns out, we've done everything we could."

Vincent arched an eyebrow. "Mr. Brian Long always achieves whatever he sets his mind to. He has never failed at anything. Especially, now Mrs. Molly Long has gotten involved in this case. Mr. Brian Long won't settle for a 'half-assed' result."

Edgar frowned. He didn't want to dredge up the past. Those dark days were over. There was no point in reopening the wound. "Will Brian come down here in person?" He silently let out a heavy sigh.

Vincent shook his head. "I have no idea." He shrugged and added, "If Mr. Brian Long steps in, it will add some complications and take the situation to a different level. So I guess he won't show up. But you never know..." In Brian's mind, everything seemed trivial and insignificant when compared to his wife, Molly.

A look of bitterness flashed across Edgar's face. Just then the door of the laboratory opened. At the sound he spun around sharply in anticipation.

"It's too damaged to make a full recovery of all the data. We've done everything we could and only retrieved some fragments of information." A doctor wearing very thick glasses handed Edgar a flash drive. "We hope this will help you."

"Thank you for your hard work." Edgar nodded and accepted the device. Whatever little information they had found on that damaged black box, he couldn't afford to waste more time in dealing with technical problems. Even though the senior military officer had done his best to delay, the deadline was the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.

"I'm not going with you." There was something sinister about Vincent's look. "I'll bring up the rear."

Edgar frowned but nodded. "Okay." Without another word, he left with the flash drive in his hand.

Excitement for the New Year began to taper off as the end of the holidays approached. Everyone's happy mood had visibly wilted by the fifth day of the New Year. Even the last sporadic firecrackers sounded listless and hollow.

Richard was sitting in the car, engaging in a video chat with his grandson via the iPad in his hand, a contented, blissful smile on his face. "Okay, okay. I will return to see you as soon as I can. You are the best. Give your grandpa a kiss. Mwah."

The secretary in the driver's seat quickly glanced in the rear view mirror. "Sir, where would you like to go? Return to the base or go buy a present for your grandson." An efficient secretary had to learn to notice the little things and act accordingly. ☐☐☐☐