Love Began with the First Meeting

It could detect almost any living thing within fifty meters of her, whether it was a man or a dog. This device alone made a big difference in this mission.

As there were interference units around, Maggie and Edgar could not communicate with each other at all. Both of them had to act as they had planned while hoping that nothing unexpected would catch them off-guard.

While Maggie moved forward slowly, Edgar had already gotten close to the abandoned factory swiftly. He hid himself behind a tree and cocked his head out a little to observe his surroundings. The searchlight moved from side to side following its assigned pattern. Every time it passed by his direction Edgar would duck and hide himself behind the tree.

After studying its movement a couple of times Edgar figured out the pattern. As soon as the lights came and left again, he jumped out of cover and made a run for it. Soon, Edgar arrived at the foot of the high wall where the searchlight could no longer reach. After catching his breath, he stopped to listen carefully whether there was sound coming from the sensor stick close to his ears. It was dead silent. Edgar started to feel a little worried as he wondered how Maggie was doing on her side.

However, at that moment, he did not have much time to think about anything else. Edgar took out a grappling gun from his backpack and observed his surroundings with the heat-sensitive sensor to find a suitable place to shoot the hook to attach to the rope. Having found a safe spot, he shot the hook, climbed on the wall and jumped off...

Fortunately, the information Brian had given him was accurate. This was the weakest point in the enemy's defense. This was due to the fact that their opponents never thought that anyone would make past the searchlights.

Edgar hid himself in the shadows, evading the attention of the patrolmen carefully. All the while, he was dreadfully nervous, until he heard the sound of Morse code in his ears. This assured him of Maggie's position.

He replied to Maggie with Morse code and carried on to the next step of the plan. While Maggie was trying to recall the map of the factory she had memorized in her mind, she walked to the place where the most important people were, with the utmost caution. Maggie was so nervous that she almost forgot to breathe. Although Maggie had all the skills needed to succeed in a mission like this, it was the first time she had to put her knowledge into practice in a real mission. Previously, all she had done were just training simulations. The stakes right now were obviously higher, because if she were to get caught, there would be no coming back from it.

This time her life was on the line.

Maggie followed the high wall carefully, just as they had planned. Although she had gotten very familiar with the place, she still ran into small groups of people every now and then. Fortunately, she had manage to take them out quickly and silently before they could sound the alarms.

When Maggie reached the main control room where the enemy's host computer was kept, she felt a little relieved, even though her mission wasn't even halfway over. She hid herself in a small room where they kept all the cleaning supplies and sent a message to Edgar in Morse code. Everything was going according to their plans.

After receiving the messages that Maggie had arrived at the target place, Edgar took a deep breath and wiped the sweat off his brows. Now it was his turn to act. It was time for him to draw the attention of the people towards him long enough for Maggie to finish her job, while making sure that he did not get caught by the enemy.

Maggie swallowed the lump that had gathered in her throat when she heard the alarms go off. Without wasting another second, she took out a mini-sized computer and got to work on it. Meanwhile, the enemy had discovered Edgar and he fought with them bravely as Maggie anxiously watched the anti-tracing firewall and the trap programs. She knew it would take a while before she could get through everything and the longer she took the longer Edgar's life was in danger. Every second counted.

Having no other choice, Maggie sent signals to Edgar about her situation, telling him that she needed at least half an hour to complete the task. That was twice as long as they had expected, and even then perhaps it wouldn't be enough. This was the unexpected situation they both were dreading. After all, everything Brian gave them was only enough to tackle the problems outside and secure their passage inside. They couldn't have anticipated the situation comprehensively.

When Maggie did not get a reply from Edgar, she concluded that he must have not had the time to respond, which would mean that he was busy doing his part of the plan properly.

Maggie tried to calm herself down and soon her fingers were dancing swiftly on the keyboard. The sound of gunshots from the monitors disrupted her focus a few times. But Maggie still insisted on keeping the monitor on as it was the only way for her to tell whether Edgar had been captured or not. Her heart tightened inside her chest and she had difficulty breathing. What had happened between her and Edgar before the mission started had disappeared from her mind and the only thing that mattered was to finish the mission and get out of there as soon as possible. In other words, she just hoped that Edgar would be safe.

Maggie felt as though this was the longest thirty minutes of her entire life. She imagined that perhaps it was the same for Edgar. Edgar was fighting against more than twenty well-trained mercenaries. He had to evade bullets while fighting those close to him. If he could make the fight last even a minute longer, Maggie would have one more minute to complete her task. Stalling the enemy was his objective, not killing them.

Maggie felt like her heart was going to explode. The only goal in her mind was to delete those files as fast as she possibly could.

However, she had completely forgotten that even though they broke in relatively easily, getting out of there safely was another thing.

Beep! Beep! Beep... Suddenly, she heard a beeping noise on the monitor as she stared at the progress bar intensely without even blinking once.

"Boss, something terrible has happened. We've been hacked..."

The sound of people screaming came in through the monitor and made Maggie feel more nervous. She became aware that the enemy had realized someone was hacking their system. If they found out where she was before the progress bar finished, everything they had done would be in vain.

"Bang!"

The sound of single gunshot came out of the monitor as Maggie sat there, stiffened. She had been hearing the sound of gunshots since the moment Edgar started fighting, but this time everything fell silent after that one gunshot. The progress bar was at 99%. She was so close and she could almost taste victory. Maggie seemed to have frozen in her place, her eyes widened, completely immersed into the screen. Just a few more seconds.... 'Come on, come on, please... Be quicker...' Maggie prayed with all her heart, and her breathing came in shallow, uneven gasps. Her mind raced between thinking about Edgar and waiting for the progress bar to finish. "Di-di-"

Finally! Just the sound she had been waiting to hear. As she looked at the 100% on the screen, Maggie heard a voice on the monitor, "Can the deleted files be recovered?"

Maggie did not have time to think about anything else as she put away her computer and ran out of the room with her backpack. Fortunately, as Edgar had lured most of the guards out of the main building Maggie managed to get away scot-free. After fighting off a couple of the guards she finally arrived at the rendezvous point.

Suddenly, standing at a distance, Maggie's body froze. Her mind went blank at the sight of the man lying on the ground with blood all over his body.

"No, no..." Maggie murmured, "You are the captain of our team. You cannot die! No!" In that moment, an indescribable pain flowed through her body and her heart squeezed tight. There was nothing that could prepare her for this pain as she looked at the lifeless man, unwilling to accept the truth.

All of a sudden, someone appeared in front of her. Before Maggie could realize what was happening, she saw the gun pointed straight at her. Maggie, bereft of all fear and sense, walked forward as if she no longer cared about the gun pointed at her.

The man holding the rifle was startled by Maggie's reaction. He planned to take her hostage so he could extract information from her.

"Are you the one who hacked into our system and deleted our files?" He raised his voice to her as he loaded a bullet into the chamber. With one pull of the trigger he could end her life, then and there.

Maggie, however, did not respond to him as she kept walking towards Edgar. The image of his face covered in blood was all that occupied her mind. His body was covered in blood. She couldn't even tell whether it was from him or someone else. The only thing Maggie knew was that there was a lifeless body lying on the ground.

Disregarding the man with the gun, Maggie dropped to the floor. All she had was a tranquillizer gun, and the man she loved deeply for so many years was lying in a pool of blood.

"Uncle Three..." Maggie called Edgar, with a vacant look in her eyes, subconsciously by the nickname she had given him,, "Uncle Three..."

But there was no response. Maggie shook his body, but Edgar was still there lifeless. Her lungs heaved and she knew there was no cure for her heart.

The man was now just a few inches away from her but her tears filled her eyes and blocked her vision. Out of sheer instinct, she turned her grief into anger and raised her hand to seize the gun and kicked the man down.

"Ah..." Maggie turned the gun around and pointed it to his face. Tears ran down her face while she screamed at him with all her might, "You give me back my Uncle Three..."

"Bam!" Just before Maggie pulled the trigger, she heard the sound of a gunshot. Then everything became still, as silence filled the cold air.. 00000000