Face To Face.

"Did you get the info?"

Yuya had to rush back to their hideout as fast as he could. He was extremely flustered.

"Yeah. Wasn't expecting this in a million years."

The target was gone, the surveillance team had been taken out, and the mission had been compromised.

"What do you suggest now?"

Johann shrugged.

"Whatever do you mean?"

Yuya took the paper out of his pocket and said,

"I am serious. What do we do about this plan now?"

He nodded his head in disappointment.

"Did you contact our informant?"

"I didn't. My first course of action was to discuss revision of the plan. Most of the preparations are in place. If we are going to take a different path, I need to know what the new plan is."

Johann took out his phone and handed it over.

"As soon as the news arrived, I received a text. Turns out, the original plan is still viable. The date and time of the meeting has been left unchanged."

Yuya placed the paper back into his pocket.

"Do we have anything on our enemy?"

"Nothing yet. They have been excellent at covering up their tracks. I suspect this to be a group effort. Killing 70 people in broad daylight is way too much for one person.

That made sense.

"An enemy mercenary group?"

Johann nodded.

"Most probably."

He looked outside of the window.

"We don't have time to locate the target, and we don't have enough information to identify the enemy. We can only hope to intercept the target at the hotel and take her out."

The last question Yuya had was,

"Could this be a trap?"

Johann furrowed his brows. Laura had money. Their informant was only in this for the rewards. There was a high possibility of this being a set-up.

"Could be. Fortunately, we have the means to find out."

He had the location of the informant. Both of them could pay him a visit.

"We could do that. It is risky, but if we are quick enough, we could manage to pay him a visit."

The informant didn't know about this. Yuya had uncovered his identity within a day of their arrival.

"When do we leave?"

Johann pocketed his phone and said,

"Now."

--------------------------------------

"You called?"

Alex was scouting for possible points of interception and sniping locations around the MQ residence. The building was located in one of the focal points of the city, and the area around it was somewhat crowded.

"Yes. Quite the mess you have made there."

Aglaya was monitoring his activities from a distance. As the handler, she was collaborating with the MI6.

"I thought I was pretty careful."

Honestly, except for the explosion in the sewer base of the surveillance team, he had done an amicable job in removing traces of his rampage. The operatives that he had taken out near the hotel were the only ones that the government had to clean up. The remaining bodies had been dumped into the sewers along with their leader, where the blast must have burned them to ashes.

"You were. The repercussions of that post and taking out the surveillance team has already done a lot of damage to the secrecy of your enemy. For them, calculating every action twice is a necessity now."

He clicked a photo.

"So they aren't ready to give up?"

"Of course not. People from the mafia are very stubborn. Haven't you seen it in movies?"

"You have time to watch movies?"

Alex was surprised.

"One must always have time to appreciate art."

She spoke in a British accent.

He clicked another picture.

"Anything else?"

"Yes. Is the equipment up to the mark?"

"It is."

From the corner of his left eye, he managed to spot two people making their way towards a nearby building. Despite their efforts to look as inconspicuous as possible, their relative movement when compared to the crowd was precise and quick. The illusion of normalcy created by their expressions and body language could fool the general public, but as an assassin himself, Alex could see that they were not ordinary.

"I have eyes on something interesting. I'll call you back later."

He placed the camera in his pocket.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Yuya was right behind Johann, and both of them were making their way to a nearby grocery shop. As they were getting closer, he stopped in his tracks and turned around.

Johann heard the sound of his footsteps come to a halt and asked,

"What happened?"

He looked around. His intuition was usually on point about these things.

After a few seconds of examination, he couldn't find anyone.

"Nothing."

He turned around, and Johann continued to lead the way.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

"He could sense me from there. There is no way he isn't trained."

He made his mind and decided to follow them.

Merging his presence seamlessly into the crowd, he tailed them for about 3 minutes. After that, they got into a grocery shop.

He decided to wait for a minute before getting in himself.

----------------------------------------------------------------

"Welcome to Market Convenience."

The shop assistant was a young woman.

"Excuse me. Does Elliot Connery work here?"

Johann asked in a soft manner.

The woman looked at him and said,

"The manager is on a break now. Is there something you need?"

He placed a paper on the desk and said,

"Show this to him. And if you like your job, do not attempt to read it."

He manipulated his vocal chords to relay his threat as effectively as possible.

Her psyche had been tossed up for a second. After that second passed, she picked up the paper an hurried herself towards the break room.

Suddenly, the door at the entrance opened. A brown haired kid dressed in a hoodie and a pair of blue jeans walked into the store, busy listening to a pop song on his Ipod.

Yuya looked at him, and scanned his posture and movement from head to toe. He seemed like an average kid.

The boy walked towards the kids section, grabbed a pack of chewing gum, and walked back towards the counter.

He was bopping his head to the music.

Soon, the woman walked out of the breakroom and arrived back at the counter.

"The manager wants to see you. You can go inside."

The boy placed the 3 pounds on the register and flashed his pack of gums.

She took the three pounds and placed it into the register.

"Sorry for the delay. Do you want a receipt?"

Still bopping his head, the boy turned around and left the shop. Johann and Yuya then followed the woman into the breakroom.

----------------------------------------------------------

"Yeah. They are definitely here to kill someone."

That level of alertness over a teenager was all he needed to come to that conclusion. As soon as he walked into the store, Alex could feel that they were ready to jump at him at a moment's notice.

"Johann Berger. Class A assassin from the now defunct Berger family. Current affiliation, Strauss Foundation, an assassin group that has connections to the major mafia families."

Aglaya came up with that as soon as he sent her a picture.

"What about the kid?"

"Yuya Berger, his disciple. Half-German, Half-Japanese. No actual combat data is available, but suspected to be a C-class assassin or higher. Also affiliated to the Strauss foundation."

A confirmation. His next targets.

"Do you plan to engage?"

"Not yet. I need you to check one more thing."

They were here to meet the manager.

"Do you have information on the owner of this shop?"

She checked her database.

"Registered under the name of Jaishanker Rao. Nephew of Manish Rao, the CEO of Macrosign."

One of the companies colluding with Laura for the money.

"Noted. Thank you for the input."

"Your welcome."

He disconnected the call.