Chapter 22

"Remember, we're going in disguise as the bodyguards he hired online, oh, and we're not going be protecting just him, he has two sons," Ida explained as they gathered their stuff while the car slowly drove into the compound.

"Zeno and Jasper, you two are assigned to each of his sons, while I and Cody will stick with him,"

Zeno nodded in understanding.

"So, when do we get to expose him?" Zeno asked.

"We don't," Jasper replied.

"Our job is just to make him trust us enough and take us to his hideout where he stores his drugs and women, the recording will do the rest. And, for exposing him... We'll leave it to the boss," Ida explained.

"Ok, understood," Zeno was starting to understand the mission bit by bit.

"Let's go," Cody said, opening the door.

"Hey, wait," Ida quickly grabbed Cody's arm.

"What?" Cody asked impatiently. He seemed to be in high spirits from the mission.

"Everyone needs to wear this all the time, unless when sleeping and bathing of course. Turn your recorders on, and, take these too; these are our fake IDs. Don't worry, when they check it, it'll look authentic," Ida said, handing each of them a black baseball cap and their designed IDs.

"Um, I already have one on," Zeno said, pointing at his head and pocketing the fake ID.

"I know, Mr. Handsome, but you need to wear this one," Jasper turned to Zeno's side carefully took off Zeno's cap, and gently placed the new one on his head.

He tilted Zeno's head up and smiled at him, "Perfect."

Zeno raised a questioning brow at him and subtly removed his face from Jasper's hands.

"Oh, come on, hombre, now is not time for feeling cute and shit," Cody rolled his eyes at Jasper.

"Let's go," Ida said, finally stepping out of the car.

Zeno followed Cody behind as they walked through the serene-looking compound.

Flowers and gardens were planted in front of the three-storey yellow house, a few cars parked by the side of the house, with a water fountain in the middle of the compound.

Zeno felt quite relaxed, contrary to how he thought he would feel in the enemy's home. He wasn't even this relaxed at Sebastian's beautiful mansion.

"Why's no one outside?" Cody asked.

"Because he'd just fired his bodyguards for trying to sabotage him," Jasper replied.

"Oh... That's where we come in as the new bodyguards," Cody mused.

"Hey," Zeno tapped Cody's shoulder as they climbed the stairs leading to a black door.

"Yeah," Cody turned his head to look at Zeno.

"What's this cap for?" Zeno asked, pointing to his head.

No one really told him why they needed to wear caps all the time. He was sure it wasn't due to hiding their faces, because, they would have added face masks if it were for hiding their identity.

"It's a camera," Cody replied in a whisper.

Zeno raised his brows in amusement. He was really impressed by how Sebastian was so up-to-date and efficient with technology but had Zero scores in other things.

"Shh," Ida shushed them as he pressed the bell button on the door.

"See this, it's connected to our phones," Cody whispered, bringing out his phone from his pocket and placing it in front of Zeno.

"Wow, this is sick," Zeno said as he stared at the clear image of his face displayed on Cody's phone.

"Yeah, it automatically saves itself after every hour of recording then it starts again," Cody told him, turning to the door when he heard footsteps approaching the door.

Zeno suddenly remembered that he hadn't put in his phone since he collected it from Jasper yesterday and he knew he needed to be able to record his videos.

He fished it out from his pocket and powered it on.

The door opened to reveal a beautiful young woman in her middle thirties, wearing a blue suit.

"Identifications please," She said the moment she opened the door, no greetings, no familiarisation.

Zeno couldn't stop staring at the lady; he felt that the woman's face looked extremely familiar yet not familiar enough.

"Here," Ida provided his ID, followed by the others.

The lady scanned it in some kind of handy electronic device before returning it to them and stepping aside for them to enter.

Zeno looked at the lady's face one last time before walking into the house.

"Follow me," The lady said and walked across the waiting room and into the living room, but that wasn't their final destination.

"Your items," She walked over to what seemed like a shelf in the living room and pushed down what seemed to be a small lever, making the shelf open, stand ding out compartments.

Zeno and his friends reluctantly walked over to the shelf and dropped their bags into the opened compartments.

She moved towards a short passage and pressed a white button on the wall, causing a part of what seemed to have been the wall to slide open to reveal a dimly lit spiral staircase that led up to somewhere.

Zeno and his colleagues cautiously followed her up the stairs, looking around but not seeing anything to catch their eyes on the empty walls.

They finally reached the topmost floor and came to a stop in front of a glass door. They could easily make out the shape of a man sitting in front of his desk, working on his computer.

"Go in," The lady said, standing beside the door.

Ida was the first to go forward, the door automatically opened as it sensed people walking towards it.

"Welcome, boys," The middle-aged man stood from his chair and walked around his table to greet his guests.

Zeno noted again that he looked nothing like what they made him seem. His scattering grey hairs made him look a bit older than he should, he was of average height and had a well-maintained body like he visited the gym every once in a while.

"Thank you, Mr. Glen. We're pleased to work for you for this shirt period," Ida responded, greeting Mr. Glen with a polite handshake.

"Ah, please, sit," Mr. Glen said with a fatherly smile, pointing them to the chairs in front of his table.

"Thank you, sir," Jasper responded.

They went ahead and sat down, each on high alert for the slightest odd movement.

"Here, just so I can remember your names, you know? Old age," Mr. Glen said as he handed Ida four black name tags.

Ida took it and handed them out according to their names.

"Much better, So, you're Ida, Cody, Zeno, and Jasper," Mr. Glen smiled brightly.

"Yes, sir," Cody nodded.

"Great, makes it easier for me. Oh! Please excuse me," Mr. Glen said and took out his phone to call someone.

"Come in with the keys, Lucia," He spoke into the phone.

The door immediately opened and revealed the lady in the blue suit.

The four bodyguards exchanged a secret look. They've just learned that the name of the lady boss was Lucia.

Lucia came in and handed Mr. Glen two keycards.

"Thank you, Lucia. Please ask Julia to prepare something for lunch," He said to Lucia.

"Yes, sir," Lucia nodded and left immediately.

"Ah, I'm sure you've met my niece, she's not a talker, please do not be offended by her attitude," Mr. Glen apologized on behalf of Lucia.

"That's alright, sir. We're only here for your security," Ida replied formally.

He started thinking that this was a test, maybe Mr. Glen wanted them to loosen up by treating them in a homely manner so he could get one of them to slip up.

He knew men like Mr. Glen, they never trusted anyone, even their siblings and offspring were a threat to them.

"Oh, how nice. Here," He handed Ida and Zeno the cards.

"These are the keys to your rooms on the last floor, I'm sorry for the discomfort but I only have two rooms to spare," Mr. Glen explained.

"It's alright, we could share," Jasper said.

He put his hand on Zeno's lap and slowly drummed it with his fingers.

Zeno sat still, not wanting others to know what was happening, if not, he would have flung Jasper's hand away angrily.

"Awesome!" Mr. Glen clapped his hands together.

"Then let's go, we'll have lunch then I'll have Lucia show you to your rooms," He stood and walked towards the door, the four guards following him behind.

Taking the same route down the dark spiraling stairs, they came out into the living room again, but instead of going through the living room, they were led through the short passageway.

Mr. Glen pushed open a wooden door by the wall and walked in.

When they followed him inside, they realized it was a dining room.

Zeno wondered why everything Mr. Glen did seemed as if he was hiding from someone.

He used a secret passage to get to his office, now, he has his dining located inside an unnoticed small passage.

He started to get some weird feelings about the said kind man.

"Take your seats, please," Mr. Glen said as he went to the head table and lowered himself on the chair.

Zeno was the last to sit, taking his time to look around the moderately decorated dining room.

Zeno went and sat between Ida and Cody, avoiding Jasper, he didn't want anyone touching him at the moment, he needed to keep his head clear and mind focused. He was starting to feel uncomfortable around Mr. Glen.

"Juliia, serve the food," Mr. Glen said.

A moment later, a wooden door at the corner of the room opened to reveal a light-skinned girl with black curls, wearing a chef's uniform. She was carrying a tray of food in each hand, walking steadily towards them.

"Woah," Cody gaped at the girl.

"Shut it, Cody, not here," Ida shunned.

"Let the boy be, he's only admiring something beautiful," Mr. Glen said, looking weirdly at Julia.

Zeno discreetly noticed that Mr. Glen had his eyes locked on Julia's chest as he spoke, and he noticed the way the girl's eyes avoided meeting him as she placed his food in front of him.

Zeno watched the girl's movements carefully, she seemed tense.

Zeno kept watching Julia as she slowly walked over to him to place his food in front of him on the table.

"Thank-"

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" Julia quickly bent over to retry the fork that slipped to the floor through her slim fingers.

"It's alright," Zeno said as Julia replaced it with another fork from the tray she carried.

She bowed her head apologetically at Zeno before moving to the next person.

"Forgive her, Zeno, Julia seems to be jumpy most of the time," Mr. Glen said, flashing Zeno a believable apologetic kind smile.

"It's okay, sir," Zeno replied.

He noticed how Julia became physically frozen as Mr. Glen was apologizing to him on her behalf.

He quietly sighed and placed his hand on his lap, just for him to feel something in his lap. He didn't remember putting something in his lap.

He looked down and was surprised to find a small folded paper on his lap, he quickly grabbed it in his hand and placed it into his pocket.

He looked up to find Jasper staring meaningfully at him, an unvoiced understanding relayed through their eyes.

Mr. Glen wasn't what he portrayed himself to be.