Jack Harlow let out a sigh of relief when his portable vibrated, screen lighting up with Baekhyun’s name and coordinates. The boy had finally given a sign of life and the area he was at so his mentor and the Superiors at the city could safely come and get him and the girl. This mission had gone through too many escape plans and Harlow was wondering why exactly William, the first Superior, had been dealing with this mission like this.

First, because it usually wasn’t him that would directly come to the mentor to give him the orders. He would assign any of the other Superiors to deal with the missions from afar, giving close to complete freedom to a mentor and their students. This time, though, everything seemed to be handled by the First Superior himself.

Jack Harlow knew that when he didn’t know all the details to a mission, something was hidden for either the security of the whole species or for some darker reasons…

The mentor wrote down the coordinates on his computer, looking at Baekhyun and the girl’s exact position. They wouldn’t be too far from the city, so it wouldn’t be too complicated to reach them by car. What bothered him a bit, though, was how close they were to-

“Heh, not important.” Jack mumbled to himself, taking his phone and tablet and standing from his chair, pushing his long grey hair behind his shoulders and heading to the door. The best he could do was to warn William about the arrival of his so precious guest so they could immediately prepare the convoy to get them.

The man wasn’t so sure either about how William wasn’t so scared of letting the two kids in the forest for a night knowing that people with wrong intentions were probably roaming the island in search of the girl. It was something out of his range of knowledge and he knew his limits, so he simply would bow his head to the First Superior and keep his thoughts for himself.

Jack walked in the empty corridors of the government’s building, his steps echoing on the white marble floor. He would greet with a polite nod of his head whoever would cross his path before looking in front of him again. He took a few turns left or right in the direction of William’s personal office until he stopped abruptly, recognizing the voice of the man a few doors ahead.

“He must be holding a conference…” The mentor said to himself, taking a few quieter steps to the cracked opened door. He usually wasn’t one to peek, but he rested against the wall near to the doorframe anyway, thinking that, maybe, the First Superior was almost done so he could share the great news about Baekhyun to him right away.

“…and considering the girl will be arriving soon, we will be able to proceed with the examination. We have waited long enough, and if she really is what we fear she is, we will dispose of her in complete safety. This is a serious matter that can’t be dealt differently, we all discussed this when we first learned about her identity.”

Harlow’s eyes widened, looking down at his tablet and staring at the shocked reflection of his face through the screen. What was this meeting about?

There seemed to have a few people mumbling in the other room and William was quick to clear his throat and catch everyone’s attention. “If our discoveries are true and she is Eunhyuk’s lost daughter, then she is a danger to this community. This is something that we can’t avoid doing.”

Harlow swallowed the lump in his throat, recognizing the First Superior’s imposing tone. If it usually made him nod and agree with the man’s decisions, this time, it instead brought a shiver running down his spine.

“What about the agent bringing her?” A voice from the crowd raised from the silence. Harlow couldn’t put a face on that one, but he assumed he was one of the Superiors. There was a heavy silence until the First Superior spoke again.

“If he knows too much, there isn’t much we can d-“

“He’s one of our best agents, William, we can’t think so lightly about him!”

This time, Harlow recognized the voice that cut the First Superior short. He was the one usually dealing with the important missions and the mentor worked with him several times. The mention of Baekhyun tickled something in Jack’s mind and he waited for the rest. There was a bad feeling coiling in his stomach and he was ready to hurry back to his office at any seconds.

”The boy is a so-called singer very popular in Korea and around the globe, too. The girl is Korean, so she probably knew about him. It was our only way she would follow him. We didn’t have a choice, and we have many more skilled agents to replace him.”

The fact that William seemed so unphased by the loss of one of his best agent made Jack want to throw up. The other people in the room all seemingly agreed with the First Superior’s words as no more complaints were brought out loud.

This was all the mentor needed to take a decision that would probably add him up on the disposable list. He took large but quiet steps back to the main hallway and, once he was far enough, he rushed to his own office, turning on the screen of his phone to call his agent.

Jack Harlow knew that when he didn’t know all the details to a mission, something was hidden for either the security of the whole species or for some darker reasons…

In this case, apparently, it was both, except the darker reasons overthrew all the security in the mentor’s eyes. It was a sharp turn in already great matters. If he was told the girl had to be brought to the city for her own security to protect her from the bad intentions, he wasn’t so sure it was still the case anymore. There was something wrong with William’s words. There was something wrong with the man himself and the decisions he was taking.

Harlow had learned, in all his hundred years of training, that there wasn’t a time for wonders when everything turned upside down. There was only time for actions. As he ran in the hallway before closing the door to his office, though, he did take a few seconds to wonder. Why was he going to call Baekhyun and tell him to escape as fast as possible? Out of care for a man he would often send on missions that could lead to his death?

Was it personal care, or was it out of compassion for a fellow? Or for the girl?

Harlow sat back at his desk and pushed open the lid of his computer, the screen turning on to a beeping point on a map, beside it the area he feared only a few minutes prior. “Eunhyuk’s daughter, huh…”

The man swiped his finger on the screen and the face of the girl appeared, the words Eunji Kang written beside. He never knew the doctor’s family name, but he figured there could be a few similar traits on the girl’s features. What hit the most, though, was the deepness of her eyes, the look of innocence Harlow could so easily find in her dark brown irises. Just like the ones of her mother.

That was the last argument he needed to make his decision.

***

The first th