"Sandra and Arsy are good. Though they were unable to contact us because they couldn't figure out the internet connection issue," Roy huffs as he dries his recently-showered hair with a towel. Throwing his dirty clothes into the laundry basket in the cave's narrow, stone-walled bathroom, he steps out and heads to his desk, casting disapproving glances at Mrs. Sybil's cosmetic products next to his inventions.

It was barely 7 AM when he returned. He woke us up with the drum-like claps of his hands. Being foolish enough to imagine ourselves in a soldiers' camp, all of us jerked up with a start, as if reporting to a commander.

"Are you listening?" He glances at me with a slight scowl as he turns on his old-style laptop. The newest model on the billboards is only made of glass, while his still has the metal frame and pop-up keyboards.

"Yeah. That's great." My concentration is slipping away, and I try to grab it like a beacon. "Have they met the president?"

If only Grand-Mad and Mrs. Sybil didn't go to the nearest convenience store to restock Roy's 'food warehouse' and get our daily supplies, and if only Xin-Yo and Miro weren't out to search for worms to feed these ungrateful Mantis shrimps... I wouldn't have felt this sleepy.

Sitting on his chair, Roy leans back with a small smile on his lips. "Not yet. They should've gone home by now, but the delay caused by the internet connection makes them stay for a few more days. Also, I knew nothing was going to be that smooth." He clicks his tongue as he fixes his eyes on the screen. "Beatrix must've told Ivon Fray about this. It's bad if he relays that to the president..."

At the mention of the two manipulative scorpions, I snap my eyes open. "Has he tried something?"

"Well, The Flagged House always stops them from meeting the president. Though I'm kind of worried." Roy opens and closes his mouth several times, his hand supporting his chin on the desk. "About the president. Beatrix said he couldn't care less about humanity issues..."

"We don't know for sure." It's getting humid inside the cave, and the suffocating air adds more to my anxiety. "Beatrix might be scaring us."

"Whatever that is, I told Sandra about it. She always can handle things like this."

I rest my back on the jagged wall as Auntie Morgan's discovery rushes to the front of my head. Since Roy's openness about his bad feelings last night, there seems to be no reason to keep this hidden anymore. "I called Auntie Morgan last night, by the way."

His narrowing eyes falter as his fingers dance on the keyboard. "What did she tell you?"

"There are about ten missing inmates in her section. A few days ago, a group of official scientists—possibly—came to the prison and looked around. But... don't you think it's strange?" My tone carries out heavy uncertainty. "They must be from the government, according to Auntie Morgan, since not everyone is allowed to the cells directly. And if that was true, what were they doing there? Are they connected to Sandra's dad's project too?"

The squeaking squirrels from the trees and the shrill chirps of the birds fill the dreary silence within the cave as Roy and I drown in our thoughts.

Whenever we solve a mystery, another one pops up. After we discovered how Ivon Fray is connected to Beatrix Kamal, and how they're using Jorge Zaragoza as an important pawn on their chessboard, now we must figure out which side the president is on.

As if that isn't enough, we still have to find out what these scientists are planning to do. Are they planning to stop on the Chiroquin, or are they trying to make something else? Why should they take those prisoners away?

What if they're testing Chiroquin on humans?

A blast of crowd's noise resounds from Roy's laptop, jerking me out of my rocketing thoughts. His eyes narrow at the screen and his lips are pursed into a deep scowl. "You must see this first."

I approach his desk with shaky legs.

The grand elevators and escalators of The Office rise behind Jorge, emphasizing the strength and control he already has over this city. His voice and the immediate silence make me shudder. "Good morning, dearest ladies and gentlemen of Dogson." Well, didn't he mean 'dearest ladies and gentlemen of Highlife' instead? "I'm here to acknowledge several incidents which have been happening in our city lately. Some which I'm yet to address... or clarify." He clasps his gloved hands together as his face turns grave.

As if this old urchin ever gives a thought for those who suffer.

"The first issue is regarding the Zoo-break Case. Despite already having some press conferences to clarify the rumors, Ornamental City Zoo still suffers some false accusations. The most common theory being how the accident was planned out by a group of people who wanted to cause chaos in Dogson City while targeting a certain part of the society." He exhales. "As a well-known zoo both in and out of the country, Ornamental City Zoo always lives up to its standards—as the Mayor of this city, I can assure you that."

As Jorge pauses to form his next words, a group of people shows up behind him, a bit blurred by the camera: the mouse-faced man and a young woman whose stuck-up nose might match Mrs. Sybil's, a couple of black-uniformed guards, and Beatrix Kamal, dressed in a polished office suit. There are some police officers as well, but there's no sign of Mr. Orion.

The sound of heavily crunched leaves snaps my head to the cave's entrance.

Roy's ears also perk up, his back straightening as his eyes leave the laptop's screen. "Tell me I'm not the only one who heard that."

Driven by my curiosity, I tiptoe to the entrance, hiding behind the thick curtain of vines. As I peek through the narrow gaps, a man with an ankle-length coat, a brown bowler hat, and a pair of sunglasses stops right in front of me, his chin tilted upwards.

I grip the vines to support my shaking body. Who is he and what does he want?

"This can't be good," Roy mutters next to me, making me jump back to the wall.

How long has he been there?

Skittering to the opposite wall, Roy opens a box, which blends in with the black-and-bluish cave, and hisses as Roy taps a series of buttons on it. The cave goes hotter than before. Did he activate a shield or something?

"You just said that out loud again, Allice. And this isn't a shield," he murmurs as he dashes to the rear side of the cave—to his chest of weapons. There's a little clatter as he fusses about its contents. "I'm returning the cave to its original condition. The man might leave if he realizes how this is just an ordinary cave." Grabbing a short-handled sickle, he narrows his eyes at its bloodied blade.

Whose blood is that? Did he use this when he fought against his father?

"If you think he'll leave, why are you taking a weapon? Also, who do you think that"—wait, is that some platinum hair, peeking out from his bowler hat?—"Roy, it's your father."

His eyes widen at this, and he clenches his jaw, while his grip on his sickle turns his knuckles more accentuated than before.

At the same time, Mr. Orion treads slowly to the curtain of vines. With a straight line to decorate his mouth, he snaps his fingers. Another silhouette—a limping, platinum-haired girl with a jacket to cover her bandages—leaves the trees' shade.

"Are you sure, Dad? You know how thick your son's skull is."

"Also yours," Mr. Orion hisses, his fingers now grasping the leaves.

It won't take long for him to discover us.

"He won't listen to us. He always feels like he's the best—"

"Won't you please shut up, Irene?" Mr. Orion rifles through the vines, tugging each of them. "He might as well eavesdrop from now on—"

"What if we fail?"

"At least we've tried."

Now he's got the right vine. The one that if pulled, might reveal the opening of this cave...

"What will you try?" Roy's voice echoes loud and clear, carrying an air of threat.

My eyes widen at the sight of him pointing his sickle to his father and sister. His guests lift their chins toward him, and their similarity—apart from their platinum hair—makes me gasp.

How can all of them wear that authoritative pose at the same time?

"Good thing you showed up earlier than I expected." Mr. Orion removes his sunglasses and tucks them inside his coat's pocket. "It'll make our job quicker."

"What do you want?" Roy's sickle-bearing hand shakes as his tone rises slowly. "You too." He glares at Lin-Irene, who's picking on her nails. "If you'll try to make me go home again"—he snaps his head to Mr. Orion—"then you're wasting your time. Or if you're coming for the shrimps, you'd better leave now."

"We're not here for that." Mr. Orion's frown makes the wrinkles on his face clearer than before. "If I'm here for a business trip, why would I disguise myself like this?"

"You call that disguising?" Roy scoffs. "Is that what the police department taught you all this time? No, Dad, you're like a penguin strutting in Dogson's streets. Just... brown-colored."

"See? I told you, a complicated outfit won't guarantee your cover-up. I bet Allice wouldn't recognize who I was at first weren't it for these bandages... right, Allice?" Lin-Irene wears a small smile, emphasizing the bruise on her cheekbone. "We're also here to talk to you. So don't think you can hide as if you have nothing to do with us." She approaches the cave's entrance, and despite the frantic beating of my heart, I can't move away.

Mr. Orion treads into the cave with quick steps, barely glancing at me. Roy follows behind him, his cheeks burning red, and his lips slightly opened, as if ready to spout more insults. As he touches the black-and-bluish box again, the air slightly cools down, letting me breathe more freely.

The high tension, however, remains.

"Your sister and I are here for different reasons." Mr. Orion stands stiffly next to Roy's desk. Black circles glare like shadows under his eyes, and the scars both Argus and Roy marked him with are still on his exposed skin. "I'm here to warn you. Beatrix saw your friends running away from Ivon Fray's treehouse that day." When his chilling black eyes rest upon me, I gulp in discomfort. "Your friends must've thought she was gone the moment she left the treehouse. But she wasn't."

No wonder she still sees us as kids, oblivious to all the dangers around us.

"Secondly, I want to apologize for what happened."

Mr. Orion's words are like a sudden typhoon that swirls inside the cave. Did he say that?

Roy quirks his eyebrow as he leans on the wall next to me, his arms crossed across his chest, with his sickle peeking from the middle. From this distance, the quiver of his lips is visible. It's like he wants to say something, yet his brain is chaining those words up. "Which one?"

Mr. Orion sighs. "Both. For attacking you and Argus"—his face scrunches up at this as if he just chews a sour lemon—"and for what Jorge asked Austin to do: activate the suicide bomber."

A bone-chilling silence wraps around the cave, stopping each ongoing movement at once. Even Lin-Irene stops her nonchalant act, twisting her lips into a mournful frown.