"Evening everyone"
Cathalina stood in front of her team as they all assembled in the living room.
"Evening" some answered in drowsy, loud whispers.
"A few great changes have been made in regards to our focal point of protection", "Nevertheless, our proceedings remain unchanged"
"Excuse me" Estephania interrupted,
"- I'm not done" Cathalina's authoritative tone threw the room into a stifling chill.
Now, everyone in the living room became aware to her certain state of mind, giving them a hint into the nature of the announcement she was about to make.
"3 members of this Delta 14 team will be deployed over to protect Athena Fionn, the sister to our client, Yehezkel Fionn" she paused, "Our formation around the client and at designated place points remains similar, however", pause "I will need volunteers for this batch of 3 and if there is none, I and Nick will discuss further and get back to you before the end of tomorrow"
Apparently, Mr. Fionn had no schedule due the next day and so, it was basically an unofficial 24hr off shift.
"Can I ask my question now?" Estephania spoke
Cathalina nodded firmly before giving her listening ears.
"Wouldn't this change shorten our manpower?"
"It was pointed out, but countered"
Nick glanced at Cathalina as she spoke. 'Ah, Mr. Fionn knew the risk to the team and still enforced his decision irrespective'.
"Would this not mean overtime?" Ron asked, his shoulders slouched forward as he sat on the rug beneath the long couch, tussling about a Rubiks cube.
"Not necessarily, because, while the 1st three surround and follow Yehezkel, the other three walk with Athena and this is all happening simultaneously around working hours"
Paul and Penny watched the others silently, somewhat eager to leave.
"Alright", "Who volunteers?"
Without haste, "I'll go" Estephania raised her lower arm
Ron as well.
"And as your second captain, I'll lead the new team" Nick spoke as he stood at a corner, leaning against and edge of the wall with folded arms.
Cathalina glanced at him, meeting his gaze,
"Everyone dismissed" she said while her eyes said steady on Nick.
A few of them stood to leave, some unwilling while the rest fled without haste to continue the rest of whatever activity they had on, before Nick and Cathalina came by with the news.
"Nick" she called softly as he walked over to her, apparently her mood had grown calm.
He smiled, "Surprised to see me actually willing to participate and do my job as the second captain?"
She nodded with a small smile, "That's one", "Except now, I'm disappointed that I won't get to see you as much"
Nick chuckled, "You sound like you miss me"
"Can you not"
The pair shared a small fit of giggles before Nick walked away and now, she headed towards Penny.
"You're still here" she took a seat beside, "This must mean you have something to say or maybe, something's on your mind"
Slowly, Penny entwinned her fingers into each other as she leaned forward,
"We won't make it", "Nunez has great shooting aim, Ron is the strongest while Nick is the smartest and fast too", "We…, we can't do this without them"
"So how about you, I and Paul?"
"You're strong and smart but better at close combat irrespective of your good shooting aim, I'm somewhat fast, barely strong with average aim while Paul is the fastest but somewhat lacking in strength"
Cathalina smiled, "Maybe you don't know or have decided to ignore it but", "After Nick being the smartest, you are"
"…", "It's… It's not enough"
"Sorry?"
Penny shook her head with a steady yet slightly rigorous force.
"It won't be enough, we won't be enough"
Cathalina held her firmly,
"What are you scared off, what kind of attack, what's the scale?"
Even though the words left her lips, she knew that Penny wouldn't be able to speak and this was how it was.
Whenever Penny envisioned something bad, there was a possibility of some sort that it was likely to happen. Not always, but sometimes.
Irrespective of the shaking and hushed whispers, Penny withdrew her fingers from Cathalina's grip, stood to her feet and walked away and that was the end of their conversation and so, Cathalina took up her things and walked out of the living room and into her own bedroom.
It really was a hectic day, all the way from the golf course, to the living room discuss and now finally, it was time to rest.
…
Nick sat behind his small desk in his room.
To many among the team, he was the captain who was never really cut out to be captain or just didn't care enough to fill his role, irrespective, they knew how smart he was -and, could be.
'Athena Fionn'.
He had seen her back on the golf course with Yehezkel and his friends and he came to understand that by the way she spoke casually, yet shyly, it must be that she knew them but was still unfamiliar with a few.
He could be wrong, he admitted in his thoughts but he was going to find out anyway, the same way he found out Yehezkel's schedule before it became a thing to worry about.
Although he never truly went by the books, Nick was a result-oriented man and while everyone believed him to be sort of a nerd, he ventured down paths that gave him answers to whatever may have puzzled him or even so little as to draw his attention.
Athena Fionn, drew his attention.
'What was Yehezkel so frantic about that made him draw a solid conclusion that this young woman needed protection?' he thought within.
But of course, they were the indeed the upper class and so 'protection' was a common topic nevertheless, Nick believed that whenever a situation was involved with the elite class of families, it was never a clean issue.
Either messy, disastrous or plainly grim and disturbing.
With all that in mind and out of the way, he was ready for the rabbit hole irrespective.
Nick took a long while on his laptop and before he knew it, the skies had gone dim. Standing up to take a stroll, he wandered out into the back yard poolside.
The night was dark, almost no trace of a star and the moon had hidden behind foggy clouds.
Quickly, he took a small shower by the taps at a corner in the yard before taking off his clothes and jumping into the pool.
"Aren't you tired?"
Nick turned to see Cathalina, who had already taken a seat with a bottle of wine and two wine glasses to her side, on a small table while in a fitted chemise and some faded pair of pajamas.
He smiled before swimming over to where she sat.
"I feel" Nick began, "If I don't swim now, …there may be no time later"
Cathalina sat quiet, falling into a moment of thought.
"What is it?" he asked
"…" she smacked her teeth against her lower lip, "I don't know" she began, "Penny's grown scared that the division plan will bring harm to the team and the client because danger may come soon" pause, "Now you too, you feel like things are going to get busy"
Nick nodded "Well", "It would be odd if everything's quiet for someone we're meant to protect right?" shrug "Why else are we here?"
Even as Cathalina listened to his reasoning, she couldn't help but wonder the gravitas of the situation they were going to handle which led her back to her curiosity.
Who is Yehezkel Fionn?
What kind of enemies has he made?
What where they up against?
Even though she believed in the strength of herself and her team, these were the upper class, the magnitude of whatever war they fought was definitely on a different scale than regular people.
Could Yehezkel survive it?
It was a given that he was smart but what about the mental and physical strength to go on?
He was pale, poise yet fatigued, seemed to have never held a gun, much less a knife, throwing a fist or slap also seemed unlikely and with a short smile, she remembered how he pinpointed the mentality behind her reasoning, something she had yet to discover herself.
Nick watched Cathalina and before he knew it, she went from a smile to a sigh and he could somewhat tell that she was already overthinking the magnitude of things, especially as much was yet to be made clear.
His insides toiled with excitement.