Take Down Chapter 71: Secrets All Around

He dialed a number and pressed the phone to his ear, waiting for the person on the other end to pick up.

“It’s way past your bedtime,” the person on the other end teased the minute they picked up. 

“Could say the same for you, Hawks, dont birds go to sleep at sundown?” Hansu retorted with a smirk.

“Night hunting,” Hawks replied dryly, “anyway, what can I do for you?”

“How’s that little search coming along?” Hansu asked, “I just want to kick it up a few notches.”

“There are a lot of people who play RFO,” Hawks replied, “I’ve been searching as best I can but it’s taking some time.”

“I’d love to be able to tell you to take all the time you need but we don’t have time,” Hansu replied bluntly.

“Mmm,” Hawks hummed.

“I’ll contact the police tomorrow morning and up the ground search,” Hansu said, “I’ll be in contact when we have a smaller search location. For the time being, what areas have you marked off?”

The pair chatted for another 45 minutes, going over the areas that had been covered and checked- not that these areas were completely off the list but for now the unknown and unsearched areas were top priority. 

“Thank you, Hawks,” Hansu said, putting his pen down and looking over the information he had written down, “this is good.”

“Good luck,” Hawks said, “call me when you need me.”

“Will do.”

Both men hung up and Hansu said down at the desk, picking his pen up again to look things over as he wrote a few more things down.

After a few minutes of mulling, he turned to his top drawer and pulled out his ear piece that he had been working on before. With ease, he plugged it into his computer and opened the program, tapping away as he adapted the coding.

……………………………..

You were still pissed as you made your way home to have some food.

Angrily, you opened cupboards and drawers and pulled items out as you muttered to yourself. You couldn’t wait to get back into the game that night because something told you that the falling out with Hansu would mean that he would refuse to take you back into the game again as punishment.

“If he does refuse to take me in, that’s the final straw for me. The minute this thing is resolved I’m leaving the lab, and him, and moving on with my life.”

You grumpily slathered your spread of choice on the toast and lifted it up to take a bite then looked at the time on the kitchen wall.

“Another hour or so and I can go back into RFO and try to upskill as much as I can,” you thought, the food making you feel a little bit better as the flavor permeated your senses.

After having some food, you went to have a nap for a little bit, but you didn’t sleep very well, and were back up and awake the minute your alarm went off.

Eagerly, you left and made your way back to the lab. 

The trip there was very short because you were still in your own headspace, grumbling about Hansu, so you weren’t really paying attention when you unlocked the building door and entered.

It was only when you got upstairs that you saw light coming from the lab and slowed down. 

“Why is the light on? Did we forget to turn it off?”

You softly walked closer and listened before looking around the corner into the lab, and froze when you saw Hansu sitting at his computer with his back to you.

Your blood pressure went through the roof and you quickly stepped back and pressed your back to the hall wall.

“Shit! Why is he here? What’s he doing?” 

You looked up and down the empty hall then ducked into one of the rooms nearby to figure out what to do next.

“Should I go back home? I wasn’t expecting him to still be here. I thought he would have gone home straight away.”

You pulled your phone out of your pocket and checked the time.

“12:15am… I’ll wait for another half hour and if he’s still here I’ll leave. I probably need to sleep anyway.”

It was another 15 minutes wait then you heard Hansu packing up and preparing to leave.

“Is he going?” You listened intently.

The sound of footsteps got louder and you quickly ducked behind a desk as Hansu passed the office and headed down the hall then out of the building.

You crouched there, heart beat thumping in your ears as you panted with mouth open, the sudden spike in heart rate causing your breathing to become more heavy.

Not daring to move, you remained still for the longest time then slowly looked up and over the desk. 

All was dark.

Slowly, you moved out of your hiding place and tiptoed to the door and looked out.

All was quiet and still, so you walked quickly into the lab and rigged up your device that was still set up near the back door and prepared to dive.

Hansu was still in the back of your mind as your body was sucked into Rapid Fate, but you only had limited time left and you were determined to practice as much as you could before the mission started.

……………………………………

Now in game, you got up off the lounge and ran out of the house, calling forth Ægir as you raced off down the steps out the front.

Water rushed in from all directions as you tore down the steps and started to form your effervescent stallion, materializing just in front of you as you kept running.

Just as Ægir’s form has completed, you noticed that he had been formed in his cantering phase to keep pace with you and as the last water droplets came together, you jumped into the air and landed on his back.

“Go boy!” you shouted with glee, grabbing his mane and holding on for dear life as your stallion kicked up his heels and threw himself into a full gallop.

Off you went down to the teleport pad to explore level 7.

…………………………………….

Arriving on your newest unlocked level, you urged Ægir forward and down off the platform.

This level was a little darker than the others you had been on as there appeared to be a very large forested area that shaded everything and as you looked ahead, you could see an older style cobblestone township right in the middle of the clearing that looked similar to Dawn city on level 1.

“Shall we go into town?” you asked Ægir.

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