Hotel Selten

Continuing the Goal

“Now, how we will track down the doctor?” 

Thilda asked as she stares at her trusty map. “Again, France is big, we can’t just see him in the corner of our eyes.” Blaise thinks as he gobbles down his pork & beans breakfast. “Hey Hibi, do you know if that crazy lover of yours has another lair?” Hibi shrugged, “But, I know he can be somewhere the lairs that his organization have.” Her face enlightens in a second, “Let’s go back to the laboratory, we can also invade that now and call it home.” 

As they all finished their breakfast, they went back to the laboratory and checked it. Some of the rescued people were still there and it became their home. The lab has a sufficient amount of rations of food for everyone stranded there. “We really don’t have any home to return or some of us don’t know the way back.” One answered as they asked why are they still here. 

“Well, it’s cozy to be a home,” Hugo said as Blaise checks the tech in the place. “Come here!” Hibi exclaimed as she entered a room. They all followed her. It was a room full of flat-screen televisions and some big keyboards around the space. Hibi approached the bar of buttons and switches, even a touch-enabled panel. “Damn…”

“Hey Blaise, you are great with technology right?” Hibi sets aside as Blaise froze and looks at the big technology in front of him. He started to click some buttons and even manipulated the touchscreen panel. He found an interesting application, he tapped on it. On the big screens, they can see some dots and a radar-like line just circling the screen like a clock hand. 

“Well, in our location, we have a dot here, maybe it’s Hibi…” He zoomed out for a bigger map as they see the whole of France just in front of their eyes. “I can see a dot, right here!” Hibi exclaimed as she points out a blinking dot in the middle of the upper part of France. Blaise zoomed in on the dot and taps the place where it is. He looks for information about the place. “He’s in Paris…” 

“That’s so far from us!” Peony exclaimed as they look in amazement at how cool this thing was. “Wait, we can hear him right? Just like how he did to Hibi. Now he will get to taste his own medicine.” He taps and clicks some buttons in the panel as a small rectangle appeared on the screen with a line in its middle. It loaded as they starting to hear some static and gibberish.

“I am glad that you escaped.” A masculine voice said, but it was not Asante’s. The line started to be like a sound frequency meter. “Yeah, and even the police.” A familiar voice responded and it was the doctor. “Don’t worry, they won’t hunt for you.” The one he is talking to laughs as they heard a patting sound. “I am glad that I spared you.”

“Do you want to talk about something?” The doctor asked that made the other guy confused. His laugh can be heard again, “Alright, alright, you got me. Well, I was—” The doctor caught him, “Excuse me for a while, sir.” He said, pausing for a minute. “I think this conversation needs to be private.”

Suddenly, the rectangular pop-up window pops out of the screen. “What happened?” He tried it to Hibi, which he can hear some of their voices. He exited from it as he swipes across the map and the dot which signifies where the doctor is slowly fading away until it didn’t exist anymore. Blaise groaned, “He knew it!”

“The place is in Paris. Don’t worry, he won’t move there.” Thilda said as she traces the map. “Well, he just cut the connection. It was better!” Blaise whines as Ophelia looks at him. “Forget it, we just need to go find him, okay?” She said to comfort him as he sighs, “Fine, it’s our goal anyway.” He noticed something as he taps again in the panel. “Did you found something?” Hugo asked as Blaise smirks. A loading window can be seen on the screen. They waited for some minute.

Blaise taps again as noise from the bar of the room. Blaise crouched as he caught a USB-like thing in mid-air and draws his tablet. He puts in it and taps several times. A map with a specified itinerary popped on his screen. “Don’t worry Thilda, we got some detailed map right here.” He said as draws his tablet back. “Let’s go, our business is done here.”

They went out of the laboratory and went back in the truck. “We found him, Miss Eve,” Blaise said as he sits on the truck’s floor. “He’s in Paris, which is pretty far.” The lady sighs, “Well, I have an idea… But, I am afraid to do it.” The fighters look at her, “Spill it miss.” Thilda said as they compressed around her. “Well, I want to leave the others in the laboratory.”

They all look at each other, “Are you sure miss?” Ophelia said as the lady nods. “I am already getting pity with others. I am sure they are safe at the laboratory.” Ophelia thinks, “Maybe you can check the laboratory if it passed your safety standards.” The lady agreed as they went to the laboratory, leaving the others behind. It was only Hugo, Thilda, the lady, and her. 

The lady looked around the place. She met the others there. “I am Marivic.” A blonde-haired girl was introduced. “I am Aubrey.” Another one was introduced. Miss Eve knew another set of names, Earna, Antoine, Lennard, Daimon, Logan, and Meganne. There were other people too, there is a total of 15 people in the laboratory. They still have a nice stock of food in the kitchen.

“Would you mind if I leave some of my people here?” Miss Eve asked Marivic, which seems the one who is leading them. “Just 11 people.” The blonde girl thinks as she nods, “Sure, I think we can handle them. What’s your name again?” The lady smiles, “I am Eve, most preferably Miss Eve.” 

“Sure, Miss Eve. We can accommodate them here.” Miss Eve was happy, “Thank you, we will get back to them as soon we track down the mastermind of this.” Marivic smiles, “I am happy to help. Take it as an exchange for our gratitude for saving us from that evil doctor.”

“Hey, I found a lot of stock of food in the basement!” Hugo said as he went upstairs to them. “Oh really? Let me see!” Marivic said as she follows Hugo to the basement, checking the food out. “I will fetch the others now.” Miss Eve said as Ophelia accompanied her. 

They went to the truck and accompanied others. They made the other residents wear some clothing on the parts that may look weird at the other humans. They split up so they wouldn’t have so many eyes on them. Ophelia went first along with the residents the same age as her or even older than her. Miss Eve follows her with the children by her side. 

They went to the cathedral one by one as they secretly went in the secret door to the laboratory. They went in as the others were amazed by the lab. “This is so cool!” An 11-year old child exclaimed. “Hey, be careful of the tech here, some might harm you,” Blaise said as he opens the other doors that were closed. The children were excited about this new place and start to run back and forth, room to room. 

“Aww,” Marivic said as she watches the children play with some harmless technology, as Blaise labeled them. “I hope you can handle them. I am really really thankful that they will have some nice place to stay, away from this dangerous thing we are pursuing.” The blonde girl giggles, “I can do it, I am not the only one who will guide them. But, I promise you, I will make sure they are safe and sound.” 

Hugo came back to the basement with other boys carrying boxes of rations of food. “Let’s have our lunch.” He distributed them to others and spend their lunch in the laboratory. Hugo gets some rations of food for them on their journey. “I guess this is fine. Let’s go.” They were gonna leave as they realize one person is still missing.

“Blaise!” They all called. “Just don’t touch things in this list and you can allow this in this list, understand?” “Blaise!” They called again, Blaise gave one last piece of advice to Logan who he trusted to look out for the gadgets in the lab. “Coming!” He said as he ran to them, “I am just making sure that they wouldn’t get harmed or harm the things here, okay?” They went out of the laboratory one by one, not raising suspicion to people coming into the cathedral. 

While walking, Ophelia felt something. She feels someone was looking at her, stalking her. She looks around keenly as she tries to answer the question. In a distance, she saw a familiar figure. She looked at her friends as she promptly went to the man standing afar. She grabbed them on the shoulder as she saw a non-familiar face. “Quoi? Pourquoi m'avez-vous touché? Je vous connais?” The man said as Ophelia walked backward. “I am sorry!” She ran in embarrassment back to her friends. “Quelle fille bizarre.”

She kept up the pace with her friends. Alice looked at her and noticed her face is red. “Darling, what happened to you?” She asked as the others look at them. “N-nothing just encountered someone. It was embarrassing.” The black-haired girl with curly on its end nods, “Alrighty, just say if you feel something weird.”

They went back to the truck and places the ration of food in the farthest back of the truck. They board the truck as Blaise went into the driver’s seat and Thilda sat next to him. “To Paris!” He said as he started the engine and goes out of the parking lot. Blaise turned to a music radio that made their trip a little less boring. 

“Our destination is some kind of museum in Paris,” Blaise said as they went on their road trip. “Why they always pick some famous places and build a secret lair there? Museums in Paris are famous and tourists are always there.” Ophelia said, resting her head on the wall of the truck. “I mean, they should have built somewhere more hidden. Because it will be discovered somehow.”

“Maybe they are building on some famous places so they can capture some like us that has weird stuff going on that are from other countries?” Arabella said which others agree. “And, they seem to have a higher chance of secrecy since they can have some connections to the authorities and stuff like that,” Blaise said as he places his tablet on the front of the car. 

“Well, they really have connections. They are even connected to a general, what more can they do? They might have someone in the government. Since their activities can raise human suspicion. It will be drastic damage if humans knew about it since one, they will be arrested of some sort, and two, the humans will get revealed on some sort of supernaturality.” Hibi explained which made Ophelia look at her.

“Well, they already saw some beasts.” Miss Eve sighs, “Humans have already known the existence of us, but since technology came up, their thoughts of us are fading away but the incident just days ago made it worse for us.” “I bet there are already groups forming investigating about this matters. You know, like those in the movies.” Melvin said as he giggles at the thought of that. “Well, that will be a threat to us, but it’s the least of our problems.”

“And, Ophelia.” Ophelia looks at the lady, “Yes miss?”

“Are you seeing someone?”