The Story of Blood and Roses

Over the next few days, the mansion was flooded with what seemed like the whole hacking and tech team, who usually stayed in the computer room, but occasionally came out to grab some food or go to the washroom. I was pretty sure that something big was happening. Anthony no longer sat in his office as he didn't get the time to walk past the great hall and enter the room. People flocked to him to supply him with details of any new development or lack thereof. I, on the other hand, enjoyed watching him being in action. It was entertaining to be at his side constantly gathering the information I needed.

I hadn't left Anthony's side for the whole duration, apart from when we had to take care of personal business. He had avoided talking to me apart from when he needed me to look over important information. We had, in the beginning, been butting heads about everything. We were constantly bickering over every step of the plan.

["Anthony, I think we should keep the field workers at bay, for now," I suggested calmly as we went over files.

"Mia, I don't think that's a viable option." And that was supposedly the end of the conversation.

"They will clearly do something to give our plans away. We can't risk it," I said, aggravated by his blasé attitude. He was being reckless, and I thought it was very unlike him. I was yet to understand if this was a ploy to do... something. He was a private man even when it came to the circle of people he supposedly trusted.

"We don't have the time to be slow."

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"We must make the time or else... This is Darcy we are talking about. He's been in the game as long as you, hell, even longer. You might be making the same mistakes as he is making!" His eyes snapped up to mine and he looked furious.

"I understand that you appreciate the man and his lethal charisma, but you work for me. I would appreciate some level of confidence in me from you," he deadpanned. He was beyond furious, I was led to believe and it was quite appropriate to the situation.

"I'm not underestimating you! I just want this mission to be perfect." I sighed. "At least, let them be inconspicuous. We spoke about this and agreed that going door to door and attracting the attention of civilians was dangerous-" his hand raised as he signaled me to stop. As if on reflex, I shut my mouth and grumbled to myself in my mind.

"No one is going door to door. We're just going to keep track of Darcy's men." I huffed, realizing that there was no use trying to make him see sense. I went back to reading the file and didn't spare him a glance.

"Mia?" he called out my name. I looked up, not wanting to look as defiant or irritated as I felt. "What do you think about this?" he leaned forward pointing at a specific space on the file he was looking through. I scanned through it and looked up in a few moments.

"It seems interesting," I said. With that, I went back to my own file.

"Your thoughts?" he pressed. I looked up again, gauging his reaction, and then shrugged. His eyes flashed in anger and he mumbled something I couldn't catch. I didn't give him much time to do anything else as I went back to work. He didn't speak to me for a few hours after that, but I could feel that he was growing angrier with each moment that passed.

He had been brooding since then, and I hadn't minded the occasional grunts and sighs that came from his direction. I was quite enjoying it. It was after a few hours that he snapped. He turned to me and asked for my opinion again.

"Mia, they have received another code that we need to figure out." I nodded and scooted closer to him so that I could look over the Morse and change it into an understandable notice. It took me more than a while to figure it out. The whole message was the longest I had come across. I was astounded by the number of dots and dashes scribbled throughout the sheet. Someone had taken the time to copy it down and leave it in front of us. I was horrified at what I saw.

A bit intimidated, I produced a pencil and a paper and started to write down the English equivalents to the Morse code. It seemed to like it would take hours to finish. I kept slipping as people hollered about insignificant things and broke my concentration.

After about fifteen minutes of starting over from the beginning, because I slipped up. I groaned in frustration. Someone, I had no clue as to who it was, burst into the room and shouted out for someone else. In that very moment, I lost it.

"Ask your employees to calm down," I hissed. Anthony turned to me with what seemed like an amused expression and it made my blood boil. "Don't smirk at me, boss. This code isn't going to solve itself on its own, so ask them to calm the fuck down and work like civilized people!" I knew that my voice grew louder with each word I uttered. I was pretty sure that anyone who was on the same floor or on the floor above could hear me by the end of my angry demand.

Anthony looked stunned. I was pleased but seething. The man who had made me snap shuffled out of the room hastily and I saw no sign of him since then. But Anthony, he seemed to snap as well.

"You are the one screaming, here. Obviously, you're not interested in working on this. Maybe you should go back home and do whatever the fuck you were doing while all the others were working their asses off to get the information that built the base of this plan." He looked serious, and that was what offended me the most.]