374 Trouble is Brewing

As soon as Chris left Parker's office, he looked for Gus and found him in his apartment which was several blocks away from Castle. Agent Gus was packing his things, preparing himself for a trip to Esmea by taking with him several identity cards and passports along with his weapons and other essentials. Chris knocked and Gus opened the door for him.

"Augustine..." Chris muttered when he entered the other's room, taking in what his agent was doing.

"Sir," Gus straightened up and greeted his mentor. He was already aware of what Chris's reason was for visiting him.

"You're going to Harbor City for Agent Queen," Chris stated and saw Gus nodded. "What do you plan to do?"

"I will do as I was told, Sir. It's Parker's orders."

"And what exactly are Parker's orders?" Chris lowered his voice.

Agent Gus glanced at the door behind Chris out of habit before he answered, "He wants me to test Agent Queen. See how she reacts to certain situations…"

"To see if she's lying…"

Gus nodded and continued to pack his duffel bag. He didn't own much and his duffel bag could hold all of the things that he needed for the trip.

"Gus…"

Gus paused and balled his hands into fists. "Is what they're saying true? Is Queen really..."

Chris studied Gus's pained expression. Back then, Katherine and Gus were sort of rivals in Shadow. The two were always in competition from a simple gun assembly or one-to-one sparring to how many cases they cleared in one month. Gus was like the male version of Katherine—and it was probably why the duo was Chris's favorite.

Katherine only saw Gus as a rival or a colleague and nothing more. Despite the fact that Gus always kept to himself, Chris knew that he saw Katherine as a woman. But because rules are rules, Gus never did anything to cross that line.

He was sent to longer missions so he was away more often. And at the time of the bombing, he was on an overseas mission and when he came back, Shadow already had a new base. Until a few days ago, he hadn't heard anything about Katherine. For the entire five years, he had only asked about her once. And thinking that she had died, he moved on. Now, Parker's orders brought him into a difficult situation.

"Parker said she's a rogue agent," Gus added. "Why? What's the truth?"

Chris didn't think that there was a need for him to discuss Katherine with anyone else in Shadow for whatever reason. That will only complicate things more. Seeing as Gus questioned him this, Chris could see that the other was having a hard time accepting the truth. Whether or not Katherine was in the right, the truth of the matter was that she was indeed a rogue agent.

Leaning against the wall, Chris crossed his arms. "Did you like Agent Queen?"

"She's great at her job."

"That's not my question, Gus."

Chris suppressed a chuckle but he didn't call the other out. "What do you think of Shadow, Agent Gus?"

"I… I don't know how to answer that question, Sir."

Nodding, Chris straightened up and walked towards Gus, digging his hands in his pockets as he said, "Forget it. When you get to Harbor City… Call me."

Gus thought that Chris would stop him from going and was surprised to hear what he just said. "You're not even stopping me? Should I take that as a hint that Queen really is a rogue agent?"

Clenching his jaw, Chris took a deep breath and looked at Gus in the eye as he told him, "Augustine… When you meet your friend, look at her in the eye and follow what your gut tells you to do. I trust your judgment."

Agents were meant to follow orders from the higher-ups. And just like Katherine, Gus was used to following orders. For a couple of times now, Chris had him make decisions for some things and it felt weird—at the same time liberating. There was something more to the story about Parker's order and judging by Chris's parting words, his gut was telling him to follow his mentor. And that's exactly what he was going to do.

When Gus left, Chris drove back to his place and packed his things too. He trusted that Gus wouldn't do anything reckless but he could never be too sure as he couldn't really trust anybody 100% these days—he could only trust himself. After packing, he pulled out one of his extra phones and searched for Katherine's new phone number that he had acquired just recently then dialed.

Rings sounded from the other line but no one picked up. He wanted to warn her about what was coming but he guessed that she must have filtered out unknown phone numbers. When his call wasn't answered, he ended the call and was about to send her a text only to receive another phone call from one of his men, interrupting his plans.

…

Meanwhile, back at West Bespoke Tailor...

Katherine was busy being measured from head to toe. Ava was very thorough about all the measurements to make sure that her gown will fit her like a glove. She stood on a platform while Ava worked on her. Damien, on the other hand, sat on an armchair behind a curtain that separated them and waited.

Despite the distance, Katherine heard a buzzing sound that came from her purse which was on Damien's lap—he was sitting several feet away—and she tilted her head towards the curtain to ask him, "Damien, can you check that for me?"

"Sure." He opened her purse and took out her phone. Just then, the ringing stopped but he was able to see an unknown number on the screen. "Call stopped. The number's not saved. Were you expecting a call from someone?"

Knitting her brows, Katherine thought about it for a second and replied, "No… not really."

He was just about to put her phone back to her purse when she received a text message from an unknown number. "You have a text."

"From who?"

"I don't know. It's not saved."

"Will you check it for me, please? It might be important."

Opening the message, it was his brows that furrowed this time when he read the text.

[Unknown Number: This is Matty. I had to change my number again. Save this and delete the old one.]

Damien couldn't tell if the text message was real, wondering why Matthew changed phone numbers 'again' like he said when he just called Katherine earlier. He stared at the message as if he was trying to decipher it when he heard her ask, "Well?" She whisked the curtain aside and came out of the room.

Katherine thanked Ava as she casually combed her hair with her fingers. Ava gave a polite bow before leaving the two. Picking up her fluffy cap and gloves, she wore them on her and repeated her question, "Well? Who is it?"

He glanced at the phone in his hands again and told her what he found. "Jeong texted, saying he changed numbers. I cross-checked and it's not the same number who called just now." He took out his phone and copied the number who called earlier and decided to have it checked later.