Secret Scent Of Lavender

Into the Wood

Early in the morning, before the sun rose, Rith jogged around the hotel with his earphones connected. He wore sport outfit to

“All set?” He asked softly while panting. The other line hummed as a response, earning a satisfied smirk from the secret agent.

‘It is a beautiful garden, don’t you think so?’

“It is, indeed. Anyway, how’s Kaiden doing?”

‘He’s flying to Korea as you suggest. He might be able to discover something there.”

“That’s it. Anyway, I can’t stay here any longer as it’s getting odd.”

‘Mark will help you out. He’s going there at nine o’clock.’

“Awesome. Then I’m hanging up,” Rith said, turning the corner. He then jogged out of the gate of the hotel, he ran toward the smaller path right next to the hotel’s gate which he was sure would lead to the forest behind the place. Along the road, there was green grass and smaller trees. The morning briefly smelled so nice and he felt relaxed. No wonder many people liked to come to the hotel, it was peaceful.

Rith started to question himself what his main purpose was in chasing Violet. He simply just followed his instinct that told him something about her that had to do with his father’s death. It was ten years already, yet he never forgot about it even once. Before he was sure she was clean, he would invest anything to prove whether she was related to the case or not.

He reached the end of the hotel’s gate and stopped in front of a small path leading into the forest. On the left side, there was a high concrete gate which was a bit taller than him. Rith tiptoed to see what was inside. Everything was normal, it seemed to be too normal. There was no one there, yet the flowers looked way too well cared for and that’s it. That was the case.

Rith’s feet were ready to move toward the forest after making sure no one was around and aware of his presence. It looked like those orange trees tried to grow by themselves or the farmer was too lazy to plant them in rows. They looked like a typical forest with thick bushes of grass under the trees. The smell of orange blossom hit the visitor’s nose and he couldn’t help but to exhale it, too good to deny. His eyes scanned around the area while enjoying the soft natural aroma in the morning, just like the scent in his hotel room. He suddenly felt familiar.

After spending half an hour at the orange farm, Rith came back without any clues. The land was wide and he couldn’t roam around the entire place within an hour. Yet, he wouldn’t give up easily because he believed something was off about the place.

The breakfast was nice and Rith cleared his doubts about why people liked to come to the hotel. Although it was a bit far, it’s worth traveling.

At nine, as punctual as a clock, Mark walked into the hotel with a black hand-bag. His dress code showed him off as a businessman with a high profile, yet no name to be exactly addressed. He announced his appointment with Rithy Joan and the staff showed him the way to the hotel café, where he thanked him with a nod. Mark pushed his glasses up his nose bridge as he spotted his friend at a corner. Formally, he took Rith’s hand and they settled themselves.

“Nice place.” He mumbled and wandered his eyes around. Rith smiled, straightening his back before handing Mark a brown file.

“I’ve been waiting for you, Mr. Grazell. Finally, you have time for me. And I can’t be happier. This is our new plan. This time we come up with the latest development for new products which will be very successful.” Rith started the topic with his confident smile. The waiter came to serve them their coffee as Mark opened the file and read thoroughly. The act continued until they made sure no one was observing.

“I see. This is brilliant. Anyway, do you have any samples?” Mark aske, still in his new role.

“Definitely,” Rith nodded before taking his tablet out. He turned it to Mark and leaned closer to his groupmate.

“This is where the control room is located. I’ve checked and found the security is not so tight. We have to act fast to get through all the CCTVs…”

“Although the security is not tight, as I observe, this place is well protected. Don’t you think so?” Mark remarked.

“I see. But this is the only way out.”

“This is odd. This looks too safe.” Mark expressed his concern, staring at the picture on the tablet. There’s a sign of hesitation.

“Has any of our target CCTV gotten out of your hand yet?”

“There’s always an end to anything.”

“Come on…”

“Fine. Let me try.” Rith smirked as his friend confirmed the move.

Mark rented a room for himself, a floor higher than Rith’s. With his charm, he got a receptionist’s number along with the room card. He didn’t forget to express how beautiful the hotel was, but it couldn’t compare to her beauty. Rith, on the other hand, chuckled at his friend’s playfulness. Mark was always useful for any communication. He’s one of a kind who will likely get out of any situation because of his speaking skills.

Mark was known as a keyboard master. Back then, when they were training, Mark often skipped physical training to enjoy his new keyboard game and it always dragged all his teammates to be punished along with him, too. He never failed to make his friends involved with any of his tricks. They were always amazed by his intelligence at playing dirty. In terms of martial arts, he’s not bad, he just stated that it was tiring. He chose to work on his keyboard rather than use a g*n.

Mark was an orphan. He lived with his grandmother in a small town and at the age of ten he was adopted by their boss. For short, Mark was their boss’ adopted son. Since then, Mark started his new life with his friends, his life-long buddies, in a private training academy.

Violet repeated her routine as usual. After walking around the hotel to observe everything, she went to the pool. Her long black hair was tied into a high bun showing her stunning side profile and it was perfect, every feature was placed perfectly on that beautiful face. The dress was light pink yet it carried a slightly purple shade at every edge of the piece. Mr. Jim, her secretary, approached her in his neat suit. His head went lower to show his respect. Violet turned to give him a little nod as if she asked him to say whatever he was about to do.

“He seems to be a new businessman. His partner is also here today and they discuss their work for hours. Their backgrounds are clean and they’re just doing business after graduating from college.” Mr. Jim reported. She blinked her bright eyes in thinking.

“Fine then.”

“And,” Mr. Jim hesitated. It seemed he had something to say but didn’t dare to. She didn’t have to make much effort to notice his worries while writing all over his wrinkled face, but he had got no nerve to let it out at all because he knew even if he asked her to stop or made a serious statement, she wouldn’t even budge.

“Say it,” With her cold, sturdy tone, she urged him. It was like encouragement with a powerful demand.

“I think this is getting serious, my lady.” Despite his concern, he tried to sound as relaxed as possible and sure enough she could feel him.

“You sound so relaxed and it’s a good thing. Relax more and wear a facial mask regularly. You have gained countless wrinkles recently. It makes you look older than your actual age…” With that, she raised her phone to take a picture of his face and showed him.

“See? And if you need a short vacation, feel free to tell me.” Mr. Jim almost gave himself a hard face-palming. He couldn’t laugh either at her joke, since it was too lame with her poker face. He then sighed after giving her a stressed expression as Violet walked away.

As night came and the people were already in their deep sleep -only the on-duty staff were awake, Mark and Rith set out for their mission. Rith successfully escaped the camera’s eyes and met Mark at a corner of the basement where the control room was.

“They don’t have extra security guards here. There are three pairs of guards in charge, always changing their shift every three hours. So, without alerting them, we can only make them sleep while you’re working on it. Of course, they’ll be alert when they wake up, but this is the only way,” Rith explained, with his eyes on the door. The young agent took out a canister of sleeping gas.

“They’ll be asleep in one minute and you have half an hour. If something comes up, you know our code, right?” When it came to plan and techniques, Rith made the best choice and he’s very detailed.

“It doesn’t have to be that much…” Mark tried to show off as Rith walked toward the door and carefully squatted down to place the small container on the floor before releasing the gas into the room through the lower gap between the marble floor and the metal door. Both of them waited for five minutes and decided to go in. Mark gave Rith an OK sign before getting into the room where the video wall displayed every corner of the hotel. Two male guards were drugged on their chair, completely unconscious. Mark started his job, connecting the main monitor to his phone and file. He was having fun playing with the software system. The reflection of the code running on his glasses was crazy and it made him excited. An expert like him, it was just a piece of cake, and in ten minutes he had controlled it 80 percent already, no need to rush it. Meanwhile, Rith paid close attention to the surroundings. It was death silent in that area. If there was a flying bee, we could even hear its buzz and the chilling night made it even scarier.

Finally, Mark came out with his satisfied smirk at the corner of his lips. Rith knew it just by seeing his friend’s expression.

“Something interesting happened there.” Mark whispered as they walked out of the basement.

“What is it?”

“Someone, I think he’s a manager or whatever, made an order to shut down the view of CCTV in the backyard garden.”

“Did you do it?”

“Of course, yes. If there is no response, they will suspect something’s wrong in that room. I’m not that stupid.”

“Then get your smart a*s to your room first. I’ll check the garden, something fishy.” Rith said, rushing his steps, leaving his friend behind, wondering why his buddy became furious suddenly.

Instead of going to his room, Mark turned his feet and made his way toward the hotel bar at the top floor. The soft music greeted the young man as he walked in. The atmosphere was so comfortable, the scent, and the temperament were just right. A glass of alcohol was served and Mark silently enjoyed his whiskey while trying to notice here and there around the place. The group’s strong point was observation. The members had to learn and improve that skill. It helped them a lot, especially when the information was beyond the scene, which required them to take extra notes.

Meanwhile, Rith made his way into the garden in his black suit, blended well in the darkness in the middle of the night while his glasses helped him see through the dark. The summer wind chilled through his bangs under his black cap. Rith wasted no time, aimlessly leading his tall figure into the wood where he believed something was happening behind those thick forests, since the situation in the garden seemed to be normal.

The deeper he went into the wood the shorter his breath became. He thought he had lost but he didn’t care. A short break was needed to re-concentrate. Since the vision couldn’t help him out, he closed it and let his ears work. The surroundings got quieter as he blocked his view. It took him a few seconds to be able to hear a faint sound of footsteps from ahead, at least one hundred meters from where he was. The young agent proceeded toward the source of the sound.

He speeded up while trying to make it as quiet as possible, afraid that he might alert them.

Rith put his expectations high for some clues, but when he got there, not even a single living object could be seen. A sigh escaped from his nose as the disappointment hit him hard. He closed his eyes again, hoping to chase after the footsteps he had heard earlier. But what he could sense were leaves hitting each other, the wild animals’ growl and the wind, no footstep.

He came back with frustration but also with some hope. At least he got to know something had been hiding there, deep in the forest.