The Identity Of The Sinful Miracle

~ N I N E ~

∽ m i r a c l e ∽

It was a new day. It was a gloomy day. And at the same time, it was a boring day. Why did I have to be caged in this four-cornered classroom and got stuck with this instructor with her boring lessons?

I sighed. I missed my secret life. I missed the rush. I missed the adrenaline.

Two more subjects, then it would be our lunch break. Gosh, I couldn't wait to go out of here. Sighing again, I averted my eyes to Elli. She was attentively listening, but I could see that she was not in the right mood. Well, maybe because she was still mad about the fact that Sean was pestering my life. He was just being friendly, and I didn't get why she was pissed about that.

Then I darted my eyes to my left, where Chance was. It seemed like he sensed my gazes and he met mine. His eyes were questioning, asking me what. I only shook my head saying nothing.

Then we both returned our look to the teacher. I wished I could escape.

Minutes later, someone knocked on the door. Our current instructor opened it and a beautiful lady came inside.

"Oh, Ma'am Steinfeld! What a surprise!" my teacher exclaimed. The Supervisor of this school was here, who wouldn't be surprised? "Do you need something, Ma’am?"

The Supervisor smiled and I got a little shock in my system when she directly eyed me. "I wouldn't be here if I don't," she answers with an eloquent voice. "I only want to summon Miss Natsumi Montero to assist me in my work, would that be a bother to you?"

I only knitted my brows. What did she want from me? Assist her to what?

The Supervisor gestured me to stand up and followed her. I, being an obedient person of the universe, ceded to follow her command. She told me to bring my things, I took my bag and get out of the room.

She started walking and I was walking behind her. The only thing I noticed to this lady was that she didn't make any noises as she walked her five-inches round toe pumps.

I immediately got her intentions.

"Okay, Miss Supervisor, what's the catch?" I smirked with a huff while clasping my both hands to my chest.

I heard her chuckle as she gave me a brief look. "Finally meeting you in the flesh, Your Highness. I'll tell you in my office."

Shrugging, I agreed with her. Assumably, she was a harmless person in her corporate clothes as the Supervisor of this school. I knew because I trusted my instincts.

Once we got into her office, two persons greeted me.

"Nice to see you again, Little Summer," said the man on the side.

I knew him. "Same to you, Kuya Ivan." I smiled at my cousin, then looked to the girl next to him. I was thinking that she was my age.

"She's Little Lion." I frowned. He liked giving a nickname to those people he trusted. Like mine, he called me 'Little Summer' because of my 'Natsumi' name, which meant 'beautiful summer' in English translation. And this Little Lion he pertained must be a friend or something to him.

I only grinned sideways and sat beside them on the couches. Miss Supervisor was sitting on my right. Kuya Ivan had these gadgets for hacking, transmitting, and other more on the table.

What were these technologies all about? Something must be happening.

"First of all," Kuya Ivan prompted. "We are here for a mission. The woman beside you, Little Summer, is Valentine Steinfeld, she's my partner in every mission, an undercover agent, and working as the Supervisor of this school."

Oh, I see. Recently, Kuya Ivan finished his work in Gaza as an intelligence agent for counter-terrorism. And it was all about bombing and mass murders. He successfully captured the terrorists and disarmed the high-class kinds of bombs with his partner. I never knew not until now that his partner was a woman. Kuya Ivan was currently a CIA Agent, but they didn't know that he was only using the CIA to cover all the works of the White Nation.

"Yeah," Miss Valentine said shortly after Kuya Ivan. "And based in our intel office, there's an exchange student who has secretly entered this school, that came from Lebanon and has connections to the extremists." Then she handed me a folder that revealed the identity of the student terrorist. And it surprised me he was a nineteen-year-old college student. "He plans to kill a hundred or more students in just one assault."

"He plans to murder them not using a huge explosion that causes great destruction," Kuya Ivan added. "He is using VX nerve gas—a chemical weapon—which can lead to death once it is inhaled."

I only nodded redundantly. "Sounds fun. So? What's the point of telling me this?"

My cousin smiled enigmatically. "I'm giving you this mission, along with Little Lion here."

"I'm no bomb expert," I snorted.

"I know, but like what I have said, you have Little Lion here," stated my persistent cousin. "She's Valentine's young accomplice and we decided to give this mission to you two. What you only have to do is to catch the perpetrator, find the bomb, Little Lion will disarm it, and surrender the bomb to us for further examination."

Sounded really exciting, but, "What if Kuya Mike found about this? I'm in my normal-person mode, y’know."

He laughed. "He won't know it unless you tell him."

"Okay, I'm in." Of course, I’d agree. I missed adrenaline, and here was my moment to do something to make me feel the blood-pumping spirit.

We changed clothes, geared up, and before we started the mission, Kuya Ivan gave us the important things to remember. "This is not a drill. Don't draw any suspicious attention. Don't blow your cover, and always remember that this mission is covert."

Kuya Ivan was the analyst of this mission. He told us where was the location of the bomber.

The terrorist was planning to execute his evil scheme where many students were gathered up. We analyzed that he'd take it to the Student's Groove, where most of the college students stayed during their free time. In that place, because it would be less suspicious.

The Little Lion and I quickly found him. We were disguised as college students.

Okay, time to move. I walked towards where he was sitting. He was alone, which was a perfect time for me.

When I reached him, I said, "Excuse me," and he looked at me. I smiled sweetly, "Hi, you're Mister Amari, right?"

Mister Amari, the surname of the perpetrator, had quizzical expressions. He was slightly nervy and had dark glares painted around his eyes.

"Uhm, I'm Yanna Rodriguez," I stated my undercover name still with a sweet smile. "I actually know a lot about you." Without words, I sat beside him, snuggling closer to make him knew that I was flirting. "A top Electrical Engineering student in your section, and because of your intelligence, UdS recruited you to study here, and those are enough to make me like you." I intentionally bit my lips innocently.

His face flustered as he heard my sudden confession. Well, if it wasn't with my mission I wouldn't do this. Flirting was one of the tricks to make your prey fall for the trap.

"Nice acting, Little Summer," I heard Kuya Ivan smirk on my hidden micro-speaker on my ear. "Keep it up."

Tch. There will be a payment to this, I swear!

"So, I, uh, like you, Mister Amari," I told him, "What will you say?"

"I still don't know who you are," he politely, yet harshly, said.

"I'm also an Electrical Engineering student from the other section, you see." I feigned a nervous laugh. "But I don't draw too much attention, because I like silence."

He sighed. "You want something, don't you? Tell me."

I never let my (fake) sheepish smile falters as I tuck some loosened hair to my ear. "No, I want you to do me a little favor. I'm not only here to tell you that I have a huge crush on you, but also, I want you to teach me," I paused, secretly preparing my knife to my free hand and pointed it to his stomach, "where did you hide the bomb."

He stilled and his face got paled. I chuckled demonically, "Answer me before I shred your guts up into pieces."

He was not answering, but I could see that he was sweating so hard.

"Natsumi, listen." Kuya Ivan called me by name. It must be important. "Most of the terrorists are suicidal. Make him sleep before he drinks the poison hidden inside his mouth!"

I got alarmed to his warning, and before this perpetrator moved, I pushed the vitals in his suprascapular nerves and he instantly fells asleep.

Little Lion came running towards me as I hid my knife. Together, we searched for his things, rummaging his bag.

The only thing that pissed me off was finding out that his bag was empty!

Little Lion started searching for his pocket. Then she got something. It was a remote control with a tiny red light blinking continuously.

"This is the detonator," she muttered.

"Drat," I cursed loudly. "I didn't notice that he had already pressed it on."

Little Lion still had an easy and calm look. "Don't worry, it's just the timer. We still have time to find and disarm it."

"What if there will be only a very short time? And the gas might start leaking before we could find it."

She sighed, "Just think, Natsumi." and told me.

My heart started to pound in fear. I couldn't lose this mission and let innocent people die because of my stupidity. Where did he put it? This place was huge and we couldn't just search for every facility one by one!

Yes, we were a family of sinners, and saving people was not really our job, but we could protect them if we wanted to. We were not the extremists, doing bad things was something we could do best.

Unbeknownst to me, I looked at my wristwatch. "It's almost time for the lunch break." and muttered under my breath.

Little Lion gazed at me as if she realized something. "That's it. Students will all gather in the University Food Center for the lunch break, meaning the bomber place it there, because the many students are there, the many students may be killed."

Damn, how could I not realize sooner?!

We both made our way to the food center or the cafeteria. Good thing, there weren't many people around. Kuya Ivan told us that Miss Valentine Steinfeld would take care of the perpetrator.

"Now where we gonna start?" I asked the Little Lion.

"Most of the bombers like putting exploding weapons in a place where there's a cool and dry place because these bombs they make are designed to stand whatever kinds of temperature," she explained to me. "So I'll say in the kitchen."

After hearing her words, we entered the kitchen. And it was because there were people around (the cooks), we both made them lose their consciousness.

We searched for the bomb and found it hidden in the air-conditioning system of this cafeteria. We sighed in relief when we still had seventeen minutes before it would explode.

Little Lion picked all her tools on how to disarm a bomb. We were both crouching down on our knees. She was very serious about her work and I was only watching her. I could hear my heartbeat tapping against my ears. We two were sweating so hard.

She opened the cover of the bomb and saw different kinds of wires and cells. I recognized a certain type of bomb, a C4. And on top of a C4 bomb, there were four spray canisters. It must be the VX nerve agent gas.

Little Lion started working. Cutting some wires and such. And I was clueless here. She was very careful, but the time was still winding down. She was holding two types of wires and she was not moving. She was sweating the same as I was.

"Is everything fine?" I asked her, trying to make my voice calm and relaxed.

"It's not stopping. And I can't let my hands off of these wires, it may fasten the time to tick off," she said exasperatingly. "C-Can you open the small cartilage on the middle part?"

"This?" I asked, pointing the cartilage she was pertaining.

She clipped a nod. "Open it and find a red wire."

I did what I had been told. Carefully opening the cover, I started finding a red wire. There were a lot of wires in different colors, "but I can't see a red wire here!"

That damned bomber was a smart one!

Little Lion was already shaking a little bit, "Find the blue and violet wires."

Fortunately, there were blue and violet wires. "What will I do?"

"Get a pair of scissors and cut them."

"What if these are not the right wires?" I inquired silently.

"We won't know unless we try," she replied. "But I have the intuition that those are the right wires. It's always a gamble, Natsumi . . . are you prepared to die?"

That made shut up. Was I ready to die?

"Hell, of course not!" I exclaimed through gritted teeth. "I'm not going to die just because of this scummy little bomb."

She smiled sideways, "What are you going to do? Are you going to run away?"

I sighed, "No. My instinct is telling me to trust your instincts. My instinct never fails my trust, so I'll trust yours."

"Then cut 'em out at the same time."

I took a deep breath. I could still hear my chest beating so hard. Although my intuition was telling me the right thing, there was a part of my mind that . . . what if it was the wrong thing? Could I take the risk? Could I carry the weight of those people who would die after this?

Why in the first place that we should do this? The government had a special unit for bomb schemes. Drat this Iverson Angelo Twain as known as Ivan.

With shaky hands, I put the blue and violet wires together and cut them out with the scissors.

Our breaths ran put as we were watching what would the bomb react.

We both got our breaths back in our lungs when the time stopped counting down. After the massively intense panic, I subconsciously fell my back on the tiled floor.

That was a heart-pounding moment! Adrenaline was gushing throughout my brain!

"Ah, crap. I was considering to study everything about bombs, I thought it is cool, but now . . . damn, I don't want it."

Yeah, this was the adrenaline. At the back of my mind, I had fun. I loved the thrills. Maybe I would reconsider my thought. I wanted to learn about these bombs. I would ask Kuya Ivan about this.

Little Lion chuckled, "I only hate the risk when it is already in the actual situation."

Meanwhile, Kuya Ivan commanded us to go back to the office of the Supervisor with the VX nerve gas attached to a C4. After bringing it to them, we started to leave. I bought snacks and we went to the rooftop to breathe some fresh air.

"That was cool, y'know, Little Lion," I said to her as we stayed on the rooftop.

"Agape," she spoke. "My name is Agape Lionheart."

"What a nice name," I gave her a compliment with an honest smile. The name Little Lion fitted her well, because of what she did a while ago. It was bravery.

"Yours too, Miracle." Agape returned with a half-smirk.

"So you also know about me?" I queried.

"Yeah, not just Valentine introduced you to me, anyone who has the connection with the immorality, of course, I know you, too."

"Oh, so you work for a mafia?"

Agape or Little Lion nodded her head. "We’re basically enemies."

"Then why are you working with Valentine Steinfeld?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "She recruited me and said that she sees a potential in me, but I don't think so."

She doubted herself. I understood her. Doubts were mostly caused by some mistakes that happened in that past. She must have rejections and failures that lurked at the back of her mind.

"So what's your greatest guilt, Agape?"

She shot me a fast look before looking up to the sky. I witnessed the hurt in her eyes. She drew a sigh before talking. "Last year, they gave me a task where I had to clear a bomb in a government command center and there were thirty-two hostages, five extremists locked inside that building."

I was listening attentively to her.

"I was young and inexperienced, yet they gave me that mission," she continued and drunk the soda in a can. "I was afraid . . . anxious, and uneasy. Those reasons were enough to run away and let alone my mission fail."

"Y-You don't mean . . ." I stuttered, realizing what she had done.

"Yes, Miracle," she admitted. "I escaped from that building and because of my cowardice, those thirty-two innocent civilians died. And I consider them as my first thirty-two kill. I’m just seventeen, a murderer."

"Well, the same on me," I said out of loneliness. "At the age of twelve, I have already started killing people. I am eighteen now and worse than you."

We both looked down. The students were having their own world, not knowing that there was a grave threat a while ago.

"But come to think of it, Agape," I stated, averting my eyes back to her. "You have saved people more than you realize."

"That's right," she grinned melancholically. "But regrets do not disappear." Then she stands up, starting to leave this place. "Unlike I am . . .  from this conversation."

I laughed wholeheartedly. "Are we going to meet again, Agape?"

"Yeah, in some other time." She smiled, before turning her back, she waved a hand to say goodbye.

Too bad, I already liked her to be my friend. But I had the feeling that this would be first and last time we'd see again. Too unfortunate.

And I had decided, I would cut class again and go home to have my mini-hibernation mode. After all the brain-rushing state of emergency, I deserved to rest. I would just contact Kuya Ivan for the payment of my work. My talent is not for free! Especially the disgusting acting I did to that terrorist.

Darn, this was one hell of a day.

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