June 13th, 2023,
Lucian tapped the doorbell and instantly a security guard came from the inner door. As Lucian was wearing a mask, the security guard instantly realizes he is the person Luther was talking about as he has already told him to let anyone enter who has a mask on, the rest is on Luther himself.
And on the outside, was standing Aria. A little tense, as she might need to jump into action soon. She was holding her mobile in her hands and had her eyes locked on the screen, waiting for Lucian's emergency rescue message.
"Right, so I'll just go to the upper room and then I'll have to jump down.", Aria started imagining the scenes and started making subtle movements with her fingers.
A hand came from beside her and covered her mouth, all of a sudden. There was enormous power behind it, and she could feel it, so much so, that the screams she made were all unhearable.
Not much time moved forward, and the second hand covered her eyes, turning everything in front of her black. The next time the darkness faded, she found herself inside of a long-black four-wheeler, sitting on the back seat.
Five men were sitting in front of her, all masked. One of them forwarded his hand and turned on a device, placing it in front of Aria's face, making her able to hear and say.
Her hands were tied up, as well as her legs. But her mouth was open, though she was completely silent, she spent that time rather observing her surroundings.
After a few moments, a voice finally came from that device, it was a manly voice, "Aria Volkov. We have a deal for you, not a choice, though. We have kidnapped your brother, Ivan Volkov!"
At the same time, in an unknown place at Harper Street, a man was also kidnapped by similar men, and he was also given a similar device in front of his face.
"Tell your sister whatever we told you to.", order came from one of those men.
"Aria, I'm your brother! Th-these men will use you only. Don't trust them! I have no worries about dying for you!", Ivan spoke up, with fear in his voice.
Aria was silent until then, but then finally uttered some words, "No, no, that can't be it!"
"Aria please listen to me-", Ivan was about to continue but another voice came from that device, "Enough of your sibling-talk. Just shut up and do as I say.", this voice was hearable to both Ivan and Aria.
"I'll kill both of you if you do not do what I say. Now, are you still ready to be a hero and sacrifice yourself? No use of that."
Both Aria and Ivan became silent, but Aria's eyes were filled with fear and the possibilities of the future.
Ivan was able to hear Aria through the device, but it stopped suddenly. The device on his side became completely silent, unlike on Aria's side.
"Now, Aria, go to Luther's apartment, and ask for a room. Then, go to your assigned room, and stay there for as long as we want. You'll not be allowed to go outside from there. And remember, we are always watching you and hearing you.", the voice faded and went to the other side, to Ivan's side.
"Listen, Detective Ralph, you are now assigned to the mission of hunting down 'The Ghost'. I'm pretty sure you know about it. We have created a team to do so, but you are needed for it the most. One of the members of this group is Nicolo, a veteran. He is going to be with you all the time. The group's name is 'TGC'. Did I forget something? No that's all."
Ralph's eyes were closed and he heard everything that came from the device, with pure precision.
Aria felt the car starting, and then accelerating, but saw nothing as she was blindfolded again. Sweats were visible on her face, as her hands were shaking through the tied ropes.
A few minutes later, she was thrown in front of Luther's apartment, with a knife.
She took the knife with her tied hands and after some struggle, cut all the ropes and proceeded towards the apartment. As she was going towards the door, she was wiping the tears off her cheek. While doing so, she felt an itch on her neck. She went towards the guards with her hand on her neck and said, "I'm the Ghost's theft partner, and I'm here to surrender. He is inside now. Can you please call Luther Kane?", her voice had a nervousness in it.
"We are not guards, but we understand your request.", one of them said before messaging Elias Blackwood.
After around 30 minutes,
Aria entered her assigned room and sat on the bed. She held her own head with hands and constantly looked downwards.
She clenched her fists and pulled her own hair while murmuring, "Why the hell did I do that!?"
Her teary eyes then looked around the room, which she at first completely ignored. She saw some furniture, a T.V. and overall a shiny and perfectly aligned room. After a while, she also noticed several cameras fit on the wall, high enough for anyone to not be able to reach.
"This is a hostage room, what did I expect?", Aria continued her murmuring.
"These must be the same cameras those masked men are using to watch me from above. But I can't do anything right now…..otherwise this act will break.", Aria clenched her fists again.
Current time,
"So it was really a plan all along?!", Elias was shocked, he looked towards Lucian, as the theory he made came out to be true!
Lucian, Elias and Aria were all sitting inside Elias's room, in Luther's apartment.
Aria became an iron body as soon as she saw Lucian, where he was the magnet.
She told her story as her head was resting on Lucian's shoulders.
Lucian's hands were going through her hair, but his face had a focused expression on it.
"You are right. It seems like my theory was true after all. But I'm now happy as I have gotten Aria back now.", Lucian looked towards Elias.
"B-But we didn't get the location of O3!", Elias was nervous.
"I'm sure we will get it.", Lucian assured again.
"What is he thinking? Was I right to trust him? God, don't tell me all of this was a waste!", Elias' head was becoming a mess, but right then and there another question emerged in his mind, and he didn't waste a single second, "But hey, what was Ralph talking about then? He said…'I win', what was that about?!"
"I'm trying to figure it out too.", Lucian suddenly looked towards Aria and tried to read her expression.
Her face was wet due to her tears after she was informed about Ralph's death, but currently her eyebrow rose a little bit.
"Who…..Is Ralph?", Aria asked all of sudden.
Elias answered immediately, "Ralph! You're brother! The detective who was after Lucian!"
"Detective?", Aria looked towards Lucian and said, "My brother wasn't a detective."
"What was his real name?", Elias asked again.
"My brother's name was…Ivan Volkov.", her head rose from Lucian's shoulders, "But he wasn't a detective though. He worked as an accountant as far as I know."
"You know what, Aria. A secret investigator wouldn't let someone know that they are one.", Lucian said with a surprisingly calm voice, "Elias, show her a picture of Ralph from the security cameras.", Lucian leaned towards Elias as he went through his phone.
"Here, this is a photo of Ralph….or Ivan, whatever.", Elias quickly found a photo Luther's cameras sent him, of Ralph.
Seeing the picture, Aria immediately responded with her eyebrows still in a weird position, "This is not my brother...