"You saw someone that looked like her mother?"

Cyprian’s eyes shot up from Shikera’s body when she heard Ethan speaking to her. Her mouth opened and closed, but no words came out of it as she didn’t have anything to say.

Cyprian didn’t know if it was because she was currently staring at Ethan DeLoach, face to face, or if it was because he was talking to her. To her, his facemask had become part of his identity so to be suddenly seeing his face now made it feel like she was talking to a stranger.

"Cyprian," Raymond’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts and she nodded.

"I’m not sure it was Kera’s mother, but the woman did look like the portrait in Shikera’s house. I am very sure of that," she said.

"Where did you spot her?" Ethan asked again. He didn’t know why he was feeling like the appearance of this woman who looked a lot like Shikera’s mother, would change a lot of things in their present life style. And if anything, he never ignored his gut feeling.

"We went to a seafood restaurant and then I excused myself to visit the restroom..."

"Send Ray the name and location of the restaurant. Thanks for your help," Ethan interrupted her. He gave Ethan a slight nod and was about to walk out of the ward when Ruth stopped him.

"Uhm...you are not wearing your facemask," she informed him, extending a black facemask to him.

Ethan stopped dead in his tracks, and he turned to stare at Cyprian who hurriedly raised up her two hands.

"I have no phone with me and my mouth is zipped shut. I didn’t even see you today, no, I have never seen you since I was born!" she blabbered on, and only stopped when Raymond laughed out loud.

"What?" she glared at him.

The smile quickly disappeared from Raymond’s lips and his face returned to its former somber expression.

Ethan was the one who answered her.

"We will have to revise the contract, Miss Leigh. Raymond will send it to you in a few days when everything is settled," he said in an authoritative tone, that Cyprian could not even think of asking any question not to talk of refusing.

"I will wait for him," she agreed.

Ethan walked out of the room with Raymond and Enoch following closely behind him. They were almost at the elevator when Ethan noticed he was only hearing two footsteps following him, and not three. He could make out those who were behind him from their footsteps so he asked straightaway without turning, "Did Ruth stay behind?"

"She did," Enoch replied, noticing how Ethan had just called her Ruth without a steely voice. It seemed his personality has switched.

They stepped into the elevator and Ethan pressed the button leading to the rooftop, causing Enoch and Raymond behind him to exchange glances. They thought they were going back to work...or that Ethan wanted to assign work to them. But they had been wrong.

They got to the rooftop in no time and Ethan walked to the edge, staring down at the vehicles and humans down on the ground.

"She was here the day I first saw her," he whispered.

"And this hospital was meant to be destroyed just two days later. They had a stupid medical director who didn’t believe the words of a 20 year old insane kid, but I could not let her die because of that. What did I do, Raymond?" he asked, an evil smirk hidden beneath his facemask.

Raymond was startled. Why was Ethan asking him a question that he could not answer? However, he had to try to answer so he looked around. The hospital was still standing and not yet destroyed so it meant that nothing happened then.

"Did you find out the plan of the terrorists beforehand, and ambushed them?" Raymond guessed.

"Not that. There’s nothing to find out when I actually hatched that plan in exchange for my freedom, so I simply confused them. Killed them all with their own traps and resumed hiding behind my facemask. Wasn’t that a brilliant plan?"

Raymond had no choice but to agree with the Ethan standing before him right now, as he didn’t want to join the terrorists wherever they were.

"It was," Raymond replied.

"I did save her, right?" he asked again.

"You did."

"And I can do it again, yes? If I could face a hundred terrorist then and conquer them all because I was privy to their plan, I should be able to do the same with that man up there, right?"

Raymond hesitated in answering this time, following Ethan’s gaze to look up into the sky.

"You should," he whispered in answer.

★★★

Hazel pushed the shopping cart through the crowd, trying to get away from... nothing. She had this feeling since she got to this mall that she was being watched, but she also knew that she was not that attention catching for anyone to be watching her so intently.

Except if it was Shikera’s ghost!

’But I didn’t kill her! I tried to help her but she was already dead..." she chanted over and over in her head, like one planning the testimony to give in court.

She looked around the mall which was crowded for no particular reason that afternoon, and walked towards the fresh vegetables section. As soon as she approached in the distance, the attendant standing at the vegetables section hurriedly began picking some veggies Hazel bought regularly.

The attendant was particularly delighted as she picked them up while taking extra care that there was no rotten leaves among it. She was doing all this because she knew that this particular customer would give her a tip of three times the real price of the vegetables.

Hazel got there just then and seeing the familiar vegetables, she almost ran back the same way she came. But she knew that if she failed to buy the main thing Shikera usually ate, then she would be suspected of knowing that the latter was already dead.

So she faked a bright smile and gave the attendant double the tip she usually gave, watching as the young man’s face transformed into a shocked expression.

"This...this is six times the price of the vegetables," the man almost stuttered.

"It’s alright. I feel like my mistress is really going to enjoy her meal today," she answered.

"I have been noticing you for a while now. Does your mistress only eat vegetables?"

A voice from behind her made Hazel turn, and her eyes widened in shock at the face of the person she saw.