Love Began with the First Meeting

"Ambitious!" This was the only evaluation of Maggie that Daniel gave. "At times when it seems like she's going to give up, the moment she hears someone say that she can't do something, something comes over her and she becomes a different person capable of struggling through any hardship." As he spoke, he laughed, "Alas, what a pity! If she were male, I'd be bound to let her become a member of the Falcon Commando by all means. I have to admit she has potential." "Does a bullet have gender?"

Daniel was stunned by this strange question and said, "No. But it's a lot harder for a woman to make it in the military than a man."

Suddenly Daniel froze and stared at Edgar with wide-eyes. "Sir, do you mean..."

"I do not mean anything. We can not force her to make her decisions, but... If she would like to try, that would be a completely different matter,"

Edgar uttered these ambiguous words carefully.

Maggie was the only daughter of William. Although there was a plan to organize a women's commando, he did not believe that her father would ever allow her to join the commando. Granted that her father had given the green light, her mother, also a senior military officer, would certainly not permitted it.

"How are the preparations for the practise drill against Dragon Island going?"

Edgar asked again.

"No problems." Daniel replied confidently, "I've been thinking about how we could improve our training regime. Fortunately, ever since my brother-in-law came here, Cathy has managed to steal a lot of ideas from him."

"But never underestimate that man." Edgar took a sip from his tea cup. "I have dealt with Eric many times before, and there is always more than meets the eye with him."

Daniel could not agree more. Owing to the good relation he had with his sister, Molly, Daniel had contacted the members of the military base on the Dragon Island. He found out about the Dragon Island from his brother-in-law and he knew that the Dragon Island had enjoyed such a swift development, not by accident.

They chatted about the coming drill with the Dragon Island next month, oblivious to the passage of time. When they noticed that it was time to have dinner, they stood up and walked toward the dining hall. On the way, they continued the topic which they were just discussing.

Just as they were leaving the office, a soldier ran to them from the end of the corridor.

Edgar knitted his eyebrows slightly and Daniel also looked upset. No matter what happened to the troops, everyone in the camp had to comply with military discipline. But this soldier ran fast and openly disobeyed the discipline structures. It must have been urgent. "Report!" Standing in front of them, gasping for breath, the soldier could not wait for Edgar's words and hurriedly informed, "There was an explosion in the lab, Sir. Miss Maggie remained inside."

The soldier had not yet finished speaking, when Edgar set off. Without wasting any more time, Daniel gave the soldier new orders. "Notify the commando and prepare for a rescue operation!" After their discussion, he rushed toward the lab as well.

When Edgar arrived at the lab, some soldiers had already begun to prepare for a rescue. He grabbed a fire proof suit, some rescue equipment and put it on. He glanced at Elijah who was coughing from the explosion and asked, "What happened?"

"Elijah said that the two were just doing a test to change tracks. But he did not know how a spark could have burst the oxygen tanks and caused a fire," Cathy replied quickly and with a worried face added, "Then..."

The highly flammable dust was designed to be on the tracks. When the tracks had sparked, an explosion had suddenly occurred.

Edgar's face was heavy with concern. When he was fully dressed in the fire suit and had all the rescue equipment strapped on, he calmly asked several questions and prepared to enter the lab...

At this point, Daniel and the other soldiers had already made it to the scene, but Edgar left them outside. Maggie remained alone inside. Nobody knew what had happened inside at the moment. The more people that entered the site, the more trouble they could all be in. Special troops were famous for their fast reaction and extreme calmness. Although Daniel wanted to enter the lab as well, he knew that he should rather stay outside for now. Once the situation was assessed, he would be called upon to help.

Edgar settled his oxygen mask in place and enter the lab. The fire was so fierce that it was burning on the walls and ceiling too. The sounds of the fire engines' sirens came from afar. Although the lab was a separate building, the lab of fighting techniques was right next to it. Once the fire spread, it would soon be out of control.

As Edgar entered the lab, the fire engines arrived. Daniel calmly directed them while keeping an eye on the fire. Everyone was moving about effectively, though their faces were anxious due to the threatening fire. Soon the incident attracted the attention of the S Army's senior military officer. He drove there as fast as they could.

Seeing the fierce fire, William felt his heart being ripped apart. His daughter was still inside, and it was clear to everyone that he would be more than just worried. However, he had to feign calm and listened to the report.

People outside were nervous and inside was no better. Edgar started to search for Maggie based on what Elijah had said.

Elijah said that the two of them could have escaped from the lab at the very beginning, but when they reached the door, Maggie had pushed him out and gone back into the lab. Edgar guessed that she wanted to save the datum and other research data. Trying hard to remember the layout of the lab from the only time he came here, Edgar had a vague recollection of the floor plan of the lab. But when she began to work here, he never came here, so he did not know whether they had changed the layout of the lab or not. It did not mean that he did not care about the experiment. However he knew that Maggie had built up a psychological resistance to him, so he had stayed away from the lab and avoided meeting her, in case he negatively influenced the research.

"Maggie..." Edgar called out to her. As he saw the fire swallowing everything around him through the fire mask, he was even more worried. Fortunately, due to the lack of oxygen the fire wasn't able to spread throughout the entire floor, but the thick smoke that surrounded him could easily cause a person to choke to death.

"Maggie... Maggie... If you can hear me, please answer... Maggie..." He shouted with a muffled voice from under the mask, but he still managed to call her name and search for her calmly.

All of a sudden, Edgar widened his eyes, then he sprinted toward a corner.

"Maggie, Maggie..." Edgar shook Maggie's body as he called her name, but she did not react. He drew a deep breath of oxygen. Then he put his oxygen mask and another spare fire mask on Maggie's head. He carried her in his arms and prepared to leave the burning inferno.