She felt the scorching heat piercing through her skin and she looked around.
She was back at the church. It was burning again.
"What am I doing here?" She wondered.
"Someone's stuck over there."She heard someone shriek and she turned to see Father trapped under the church pillar.
"Father." She screamed.
He slowly raised his head, blood dripping from the injuries on his face.
"Zuriña, why...why didn't you do anything back there?"
"I...I..."
"Why didn't you save me?"He yelled, his eyes burning with hatred.
She jerked out of slumber, panting seriously and sweating profusely. Her heart thumped vigorously inside of her, so much that she could hear it.
She reached for the drawer and took out her crown of thorns before clasping her hands over them.
She remained that way till daybreak and was probably going to be like until there was a knock on her door.
"Come in." She said as he opened the door and peered in his head.
"Hi."
"Hey." She faked a smile.
"You're okay?"
"I'm good. Just a bit tired. Is something wrong?"
"Um... there's something I'd like to show you."
"Sure." She said as she pushed aside the bedcovers and got out of bed.
He led her to the investigation room and she was surprised to see he'd updated a couple of things.
"I was working late last night and I realized something."
"What's that? Another angel of death?" She asked.
"No, since it would be hard to have another angel of death with a massive force like Lucian's in the same precinct... Instead there's someone in here who acts like a hub for real time information and routes for vampires.
They are known for their cruelty under the direct control of the Master. The information and events of vampires." He said and picked up a picture of the station's chief.
"This is the most ideal person to conceal all of that."
"Isn't she..."
"Yeah. The angels of death hide by changing their location and identities on a frequent basis.We have the most recent information but since Lucian's death, the information and activity of the angels of death has stopped. I don't know who is doing what and where...So if we can catch this person, we can use the information they have and learn about the missing information regarding the angels of death."
"Let's go get her now."She replied.
"Wait, I can't in my current position. It'll be hard right now, so if you could just give me a little more..."
"I'll do it."
He sighed, there was no need to argue with her. Her beauty only exceeded her stubbornness.
"The chief takes about ten minutes to talk to her lover on the phone everyday.There'll be a laptop in her office that she always carries around. This is the only time to gain access to the laptop.Meanwhile, you need to infiltrate the office,and put all the information regarding the network of the vampires into this USB drive."
"I got this." She smiled.
Kaiwan toyed with the ball pen in his hand, that afternoon as he watched an old woman cross the road. A strap of the shopping bag she was holding came loose, spilling the contents of the bag out.
"Oh my...how clumsy of me" The old woman said as she bent down to pick up the scattered fruits. Picking them all by herself would take sometime, he knew except if someone came by to help, someone who was passionate about the citizens of the country.
He wasn't surprised when the chief walked up to her and assisted her in picking the fruits.
"Are you alright, ma'am?"The chief asked and the woman nodded.
"Inspector."
He heard someone call behind him and he knew who it was without looking back to check.
"You're back already?" He asked.
"Yeah, I just concluded reporting to Inspector Dan."
"I see." He replied, and Victor followed his eyes to see he was looking at the chief as she helped the old woman cross the road.
"The chief's amazing."
"I agree."
"I heard that a lot of her colleagues were jealous and bullied her for a long time, but she didn't waver or give in to corruption which resulted in her promotion." Victor said.
"Well, I think that was possible because she cares more about the citizens than anyone else."
"She's really cool." He said and Kaiwan dug his fingers into his pockets searching for something before he remembered.
"Ah, I'm such an idiot. I left my cigarettes inside." He sighed and Victor slipped out a packet of cigarette from his breast pocket.
"Aren't these your preference, Inspector?" He asked and Kaiwan took out one with a smile.
"Oh...thanks."
Victor's phone rang and he turned to him.
"Excuse me, I have to take this."
"Sure."
He reached for the radio earpiece and pressed it.
"It's time."He said, looking at the rooftop where Zuriña had been standing and she gave him a nod before she dashed off.
"It's nice that we're able to see each other more often." The chief who was at the balcony, was saying when she sneaked in through the open window.
Hiding carefully behind the table, she sneaked to where the laptop was and his it under the table.
"Thankfully she didn't notice my presence." She said to herself as she opened the laptop.
There was no guarantee that she'll be on the phone for ten minutes so she needed to finish copying as soon as possible and get out of here.
She plugged in the USB drive and search for the folder, before she clicked on it to copy it.
The screen showed it was going to take five minutes to copy the folder.
She didn't have that much of time,she sighed and she accidentally tapped the laptop and it beeped.
The chief stopped talking and she adjusted her disguise. she was done for if she got caught.
"Who's there?" She asked.
"I think the chief noticed me." Zuriña whispered into the radio earpiece.
"Hide for now." Kaiwan said.
If she get caught, the entire network would be hidden, taking them back to square one on gaining Intel on the lions.
"Zuriña? Answer me... Zuriña." Kaiwan called.
This was the information that the inspector had taken years to find.
She gnawed on her lip.
"What do I do? Kill the chief?" She thought. No, she answered herself. That would worsen the situation and the inspector would probably get caught.
"I don't know who you are, but if you're playing a bad joke... you won't be able to leave alive." The chief said and from where she was, she could hear the approaching steps.
The copying was at 78% with three minutes left to complete it.
"Come on." She whispered.
"Chief." She heard the inspector's voice and hesitated from heaving a sigh of relief.
"Is there a problem?"
"You weren't answering your phone. Today was the day of the protest but fortunately, there was no danger."He said.
The copying was done and she stealthily slid over to where the laptop was to unplug the USB drive.
"Hold it." The chief said and turned to look at where she'd just left and she covered her mouth to prevent herself from gasping.
"Chief, didn't you want to go to the scene?"
"Chief,are you okay? You don't look..."Josh was saying.
"It's nothing. Let's go."The chief replied.
Zuriña waited until she was clear before she slowly peered out her head to confirm there was no one in the room. That was a close one, she thought to herself as she put in the drive into her pocket before she dashed for home.
The detective came in a while after she did and they went up to the rooftop to check out the information.
"Are you okay? Today was a really close one."
"I'm fine, thanks to your help. What about the chief?" She asked as they arrived the rooftop.
"The chief went to the scene so I guess we can rest easy... Let's check out the files."
He slumped into the sofa and she handed the drive to him, before he plugged it into his laptop.
"Woah.. So this is why Intel was blocked." He said,as he looked over the files.
"Inspector?"
"Yeah?"He replied, not looking at her.
"It wasn't the chief. The main player is the chief's lover." She said and he turned to face her.
"Huh? What did you say? Then..."If that was true...
Kaiwan closed the laptop and Zuriña adjusted her face mask as someone barged into the rooftop and Kaiwan frowned on discovering who it was.
"How did you know?"