She felt a metallic taste on her lips. Brushing her fingers against them, she saw blood.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes." Her head was dizzy, and her face hurt.

"You need to check your nose. It's bleeding heavily."

She nodded and looked at the body in front of her. His blonde hair fell lifeless on the ground, the smirk was still on his face, but a big, red circle was now on his shirt.

Axel bent his knees and reach for his neck. "He's dead."

Alba noticed how the fight had stopped in the room. Most of the enemies had fallen or were in handcuffs.

All she remembered was holding the gun and preparing herself to shoot Neva.

"Hey, we'll be okay. Neva is gone. You missed Neva for a few millimeters, but I managed to hit. Thankfully, his gun stopped working, and he couldn't shoot."

"My dad. Where's my dad?" She looked at his hazel eyes and searched for answers.

"I don't know. You should see a doctor."

"I'm fine," she insisted, but the loss of balance said otherwise.

"Come on." He took the gun that had fallen on the ground after shooting Neva and put it on his belt, next to his. "Someone take away the body and the gun," he ordered to no one in particular.

He led her to the doctor's office that looked like an earthquake had hit the place.

"Sir, can you check on her?"

The doctor smiled and neared Alba. "Let's stop the bleeding first, and then, I'll have to examine your eye. It's red and irritated."

"Find my father. He was in the interrogation room." She almost didn't listen to the doctor's words.

"I will," Axel reassured her and left her with the doctor.

The doctor stopped the bleeding and cleaned her face from the dry and fresh blood.

"I'll give you some drops for the eye. You'll put two drops twice a day. If you stop seeing or if you feel pain, you'll come to me. Does it bother you?"

"A little," she admitted.

"It's natural. That guy hit you hard."

"You should see him too."

The doctor chuckled. "Take care of your eye, Agent."

"I will," she said as she took the small bottle with the eye drops.

Alba didn't know where else to go, so she walked straight to the last place she saw her father. The previous empty corridors were now full of agents, assessing the damages, helping injured people, or cleaning the place from the enemies' weapons and the blood.

He's alive. Alaric is dead, but my dad is alive. He must be. Neva probably locked his somewhere or kept him tied. He thought I killed Alaric so maybe, my dad is still unconscious.

The interrogation room she was looking for was a few meters away from her. Outside of it, was a stretcher, a white sheet covering a body.

Certain that this wasn't her father, she confidently removed the sheet. Alaric's dead body was staring at her, the scar on his face still intimidating.

That's good. That's really good.

She exhaled the breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Clean the corridor before the second stretcher arrives," a voice said from inside the interrogation room.

She lowered her head and looked to the dusty ground. The light of the room reached her legs, the bright lights falling against her dark boots.

Turning around, she saw two figures, one of them standing above a body. A fallen body. A body of a man.

"Alba, I'm sorry," one of them said.

Her lips trembled as she walked toward the dead man. Firstly, she saw his black boots, then his grey hair, and then the closed eyelids that hid the brown eyes.

"He told me to run," she mumbled. "He told me to run, and I left. I heard the gunshot, and I still ran."

"It's not your fault."

"It is! He could be alive, he was supposed to kill me, but I wanted to live. And then, he put himself in front of him, and again and again, until I left the room."

"He could never leave you, and you know it." This time a louder voice spoke. "Look at me!" He grabbed her shoulders and made her turn around. He put one of his hands under her chin and lifted it until her eyes met his.

"I should have stayed."

"No, you shouldn't. If you didn't run, maybe I would still be on the ground, and Neva and that traitor would use the implant on more people. You ran because you knew that you were the only one who could get me inside the base."

"I didn't really get to know him. He was friendly, funny sometimes, but I never appreciated him as much as I should. I even tried to find evidence against him. Oh my God! I wasted so much time."

Her body was shaking between Axel's arms. "How could you know? He wasn't planning to tell you the truth."

"Truth," she whispered. "Isn't it funny? We are always trying to hide the truth, and for what? For what?" she screamed and escaped from Axel's grip.

She looked at the other agent in the room, the red-haired woman who had helped her earlier.

"I had amnesia. I still don't remember everything. But if I had said that, then maybe, we could discover the traitor faster. And this man here-" she pointed Axel- "lied to me about my birth father and his own father. And you... I don't know you, but you are an Agent. So, of course, you are lying. What's the point of lying if we can't protect our people?" She looked back to Axel, her eyes dripping fast, her red eye starting to annoy her more than before.

"She doesn't know." Axel tried to stop her from revealing everything, but she was out of her mind.

"She does now. What's your name?" she asked the woman.

"I'm Agent 65."

"Your real name."

"I-"

Alba started pacing in the room. "I'm Alba. The Chief was my father. I learned the truth a few hours ago. And now he's dead. See?" She flashed a smile. "It's easy to reveal the truth. What's your name?"

The woman looked at Axel and then back to Alba. "Susan."

"Susan." She didn't move for a few seconds, and she looked as if she was considering something. "Thank you, Susan, for coming and saving my life. Please, take good care of my father and find a good place to bury him."

"We usually bury the agents in a common cemetery," Susan said.

Alba looked at Axel, unable to remember that information.

"It's true," Axel answered her unspoken question.

"I guess we can make an exception. Figure it out," she said to Susan and turned to look at her father.

She bent her knees and brought her face next to his. Brushing his hair, she suppressed the need to cry again. "I'd like to have known you better. Maybe, I'll remember more of our moments together. It might help me understand you. If you see my parents, tell them that I love them. If you see my mother, Estelle, I hope you'll be together. You better go to the same place with them. Because I believe they are in Heaven." She wiped away the single tear that ran on her cheek, and with a sigh, she stood up.

A monotonous sound was heard from the corridor.

"They brought the second stretcher," Susan announced after checking the corridor.

"Come on, we still have work to do. The tall guy is still out there."

She walked toward the exit, but Axel stopped her by holding her hand by the wrist. "We have no idea where he or the labs are. And we have too many issues here."

Alba smiled wickedly. "Who said we don't know where he is?" She raised her right eyebrow.

"You mean that you have his location?"

"Not yet. But if you let me go, yes." She looked at their hands, how his skin touched hers, how his burn mark shined under the light.

Not now, later, she said to her brain while putting away a question she wanted to ask.

"Alright, Agent 23. Show me your tricks."

They left Susan to deal with the two bodies of the men who once coordinated an entire agent-base themselves.

She needed a computer, and the best place was the electronics room.

I just hope that no one was hurt, she thought, the image of the guns aiming at Agent 19 and Agent 16-E still clear in her mind.

The door was open as someone was carrying a body outside. It was one of the agents.

But whose side was she on?

She walked inside and stared relieved at a familiar figure. Her suit was dusty, and a few drops of blood were on her trousers, but she didn't look hurt or injured.

"I'm so glad you are okay."

"You did some crazy stuff, Agent. You were reckless and an idiot, if you ask me."

Alba opened her mouth, but Agent 16-E raised her hand. "But you saved both me and Agent 19. Thank you." The woman finished her sentence and extended her hand.

A handshake? Really? At least, the girl is alive.

"You are welcome." She shook the woman's hand. "I need a computer and the satellite."

"Use whatever you want. I'll help clean the place and get Agent 19 to a doctor."

The two women and Axel, who hadn't uttered a word, looked to the left where Agent 19 was. She was sitting on the floor, her back touching the wall, the legs curled in front of her chest. Next to her was a man's body.

The cute guy! Oh, no.

"He was a traitor. When Neva's men tried to find you, everyone saw how irritated Neva was. When you-" she looked at Axel- "entered the base, that was it. He stormed out, our agents found an opportunity, and Agent 19 realized that it was him or her. She chose to live."

"First death?" Axel asked, and the woman nodded. "Take her somewhere else. Away from that blood. A doctor should see her."

"I will. Sir?"

"Yes?" Axel asked, perplexed with the title.

"I understand that both the Chief and Agent O are dead."

"That's correct."

"The base doesn't have a leader. And we need someone now. I believe you should be our leader. For now," she added hastily, seeing his look.

"I agree." Alba's eyes were serious and determined.

"Alright. For now," he agreed and let the woman go.

"Now, that's settled, follow me." Alba sat in front of a computer while Axel brought a chair and sat at her left. "I took a location tracker from the Chief's office. I put it in Nat's boot during my fight with the tall guy. If nothing wrong happened, we'll know their location in a few seconds."

Axel smirked.

"Eyes on the screen, Agent," she said, and Axel's eyes left her face. "In 3, 2, 1." She pressed one more computer key, and a map appeared in front of them. A red dot was shining in the middle of the screen.

"They are above the ocean."

"Yup. They must have just departed. He's going to Europe. I'll keep tracking him."

"That's too late. We need a lot of hours to reach him even with our fastest jet. It might be too late by the time he reaches his destination."

"The only thing I can do is to try to narrow the possible destinations the closest he gets to Europe. But he can always take a second plane or another vehicle. We won't be sure until he stops traveling."

"Keep tracking him. He doesn't know we are checking him. I believe he won't want to waste more time."

"But why did he take Nat?"

"Maybe he believed that she knew all your father's secrets. Maybe he needs all her information on governments, the base, or other organizations. I don't know."

She put her hand on his knee, stopping his tremor. "I'll find him. And then, we'll stop him and their plan."

"I don't want to stop him. I want to make sure that no one will remember his name," he said, and his eyes glowed.

Alba's lips parted slightly, but she didn't talk. Neva's words from his interrogation were always in her mind.

"You can't escape your past. No matter how many fires you start, you cannot change your blood."

His father was a Neva, and something in his past was still hidden from her. She believed that he wouldn't betray her, but she couldn't shush the tiny voice in her head that told her to run.