The Ring of Rebirth

He glanced at his watch. 12:27. Good, the Commander is leaving his office for lunch soon.

Nick pressed himself harder against the wall, squeezing into the shade. Actually, Tiff bought him this watch using her mission fee during a mission they collaborated on. How sweet of her. But now she’s being targeted by the Organisation because of him. His curiosity. It’s his damn fault!

Nick closed his eyes and signed. No. He needs to stop thinking about this. This has been tormenting him for the last month. He didn’t even get a single good night’s sleep. He needs to calm down and focus on the task at hand.

Here he stands, around the corner of the corridor, so near to the office but can still back away if he wants to. Should he really break into the office? Nick knew that if he did so and get found out, the only thing waiting for him will be a death sentence. Well, he’s going to die within a year because of the fricking secret anyway, so he doesn’t care about himself anymore. But if he’s dead too soon, he won’t be able to figure out how to save Tiff. Though again, he had been ravaging his brain for weeks but couldn’t come up with a single effective idea. He needs more information to plan, and the Commander’s office is the place to go despite the risk.

The heavy door creaked open, the man walked out of it and left. This is easy. Now, he’s got around half an hour. Nick came out of the shade and roamed along the corridor, pretending to be passing by while making sure no one was around.

“What are you doing here?” A servant emerged from one end of the corridor.

Nick jolted slightly at the sudden appearance of the voice.

He squinted at the man and spoke sternly, “I’ve been assigned to guard the Commander’s office. What are you doing here?”

“Me, too. Don’t the Commander usually give servants this task?” He studied Nick suspiciously.

“Yep. Though have you heard the children have been practicing on police officers again? Servants are urgently needed there right now to clean up the bodies. The post is empty, and since I’m between missions, I was assigned for this.” Nick twisted his fingers behind him, praying this could work.

“Ok.” He shrugged, “Then I suppose I need to head off now. May I know your name?”

“Balint Wolowoltz.”

Then, the servant left. Nick exhaled. This incident took five minutes out of his time. He darted to the door and put on two rubber gloves and a shower cap. Gloves for his fingerprint and the cap for his hair. He took a deep breath to slow his heart rate, though in vain. His heart still thundered.

He pushed the door aside and stepped in, closing it behind him. It was pitch black in the office. He blinked a few times to adjust his eyes. Nick then took a plastic stick from his belt and extended it. He tapped it on the floor around him to test for any abnormalities. There were none.

He traced the stick along the wall and found a little bump. There’s no window in the room to let the light escape, so why not make his job easier? He pressed it and the light was turned on. Nick squinted under the brilliance. When his vision returned to him, he approached the wooden desk.

This is awfully easy. He frowned. Something felt off. At that very instant, he heard a faint tick at his left, and he front flipped onto the empty desk with a thump. He slid across it and nearly fell from the edge when he steadied himself. Nick scrambled up in a hurry and saw a beam of laser across the office, passing where he was standing.

He snatched a tissue from a tissue box beside him and tossed it toward the laser beam. It glided in the air before making contact with it and was burnt into nothingness. As soon as the laser destroyed something, it disappeared.

He sucked in a cold breath. Phew! That was so close. Nick’s shoulder throbbed where he had landed on. Well, no time to care for that. He pressed the Commander’s chair with the stick while tightly fixing his eyes upon it. Nothing came. He then sat on it and roamed the office. Where is it likely for the Commander to store the mission information?

He soon found a huge cabinet engraved in the desk. No wonder the desk is as big as a bed. Nick bent down and rattled the chain in front of it. It was locked. He peeped at his watch. He needs to be quicker. Even though the Commander may not come back so fast, the dose of poison he gave to the servants in the monitor room can only paralyze them for thirty minutes.

Nick took a tiny hook and a metal wire from his pocket. He prodded those into the lock to detect the inner structure and knocked on it to hear the sound it’s sending back. He hit some parts of the lock to feel its vibration. He has never thanked his Intelligence Personnel Training so much in his life.

A few minutes later, the lock clicked and opened. Nick smiled to himself and dug his head into the cabinet. Thousands of files were stacked in there alphabetical. The Ring of Rebirth. So, T… He traced his stick to where it is. Yes! So close. He extended his hand in to grab it.

Beep! Beep! The cabinet shrieked. A surge of adrenaline flowed through Nick as he jerked his hand back. The alarm then ceased abruptly. He stared at the door. Did anyone hear it? Will anybody come and check the office? Minutes passed in silence. He’s safe so far.

Nick gazed at the cabinet. So, he can’t touch the file? For all the trouble he went through and those abysmal risks he has taken, all he can do is looking at it? He can’t give up. Tiff needs to live. Maybe he can reach it with the plastic stick? Would it make a difference? If the alarm wail again, then he’s doomed. But wouldn’t he be still so, if he can’t get the information he needs?

Nick took a deep breath and jabbed the stick at it. It made contact with the file without the siren wailing. Yes! There must be some heat detector in the cabinet that can sense his body temperature. That must be why. He took another plastic stick out and used the two like chopsticks. He got the gist some minutes after and the file was out.

“The Ring of Rebirth. The price offered: $120 million!” Nick muttered under his breath as he avidly read, “Effect: Give one’s life back in unnatural dying situations if one completes a mission proposed by the ring. After one has completed the mission, one will be given two options— either go back to one’s original world or stay in the mission world. Time limit: 1 year. Mission fee given in total: a million. Assigned to: Nick & Tiffany.”

At the bottom of the page, he found a messy written line: Send somebody to trail behind them two months before the deadline. Get the ring and get rid of them.

Nick gulped and shut his eyes. He was right. He had told himself thousands of times that the Organisation is going to finish them, but he still froze when it’s confirmed. He supposed he has always had a hint of hope left. And it said ‘them’, him and Tiff together, just like he had dreaded.

Nick glanced at the time. Not even five minutes left. He had to leave. After thrusting the file back into the cabinet with the stick, he put everything back to where it belongs. Then, he turned off the light and slipped out of the door.