391 Identity 4

Damien replayed the same two-second video clip of Katherine mouthing the two words before she was taken. "Find me"—she said, and the emotions bubbling inside him instantly changed from fear to anger real quick. Over and over he replayed the same two-second clip, his fingers frantically tapping the buttons. Play—stop—rewind—repeat.

"Boss?" Zero called his attention hesitantly while Felix placed a hand on Damien's shoulder, snapping him out of his trance.

"Where's the rest of the footage? Where did he take her?" Damien turned to Zero who immediately traced the rest of the clip. "Look for that woman she talked to earlier after she got out of the bathroom," he told the man next to Zero who was also quick with his fingers and eyes, following orders from his boss. If Margaret had anything to do with what was going on, he swore she'd see his wrath.

"Something's off," Felix commented.

"What?" Damien snapped his head towards Felix, reading the latter's expression to see what he was referring to.

"The way that man grabbed her. It's… He's skilled."

"Boss, we can only see him leave the building through the cargo exit. Here, he got in a black sedan with no plates. After that, he joined the traffic. It looked like he came in prepared, he bypassed the security and altered the feeds the entire time. I didn't even receive any notifs." Zero tried following the car but after the sedan turned at the intersection, his pace slowed down as he needed to access more secured city cameras. Damien cursed upon hearing what was said, "Why the hell was no one guarding that exit?!"

The room went quiet and the temperature dropped at the harshness of Damien's voice that even Felix could only keep his mouth shut. Damien didn't wait for answers when he told Zero, "Keep searching."

Turning to Felix, he ordered, "Round up Alpha, Beta, and Delta Team. Gear up and get ready. We'll move out as soon as we have a location."

"Understood." Felix didn't waste time and called the men to gather at the base. This was a serious matter that they couldn't afford to make any mistakes.

Damien quickly called Styles and the latter answered on the first ring. "Styles here. What can I do for you, my King?"

"Katherine has been taken." His voice was devoid of any emotions. Only impassive and iciness.

"Taken? As in 'taken' taken? Like the movie 'Taken'? How?!" Styles's panic-stricken voice was evident through the line. 

"I don't know. She…" Damien's eyes narrowed at a monitor where an image of Katherine from a paused clip was shown—a frozen screen where she was mouthing words at the camera. He wondered why she didn't fight back. The man was obviously taller and heavier than her but he believed that if she really wanted, she could most definitely get away. So why? Why did she let him take her? "She let him…" he muttered absent-mindedly.

"Huh?"

"Hold on. What are you talking about? Did you check the security feeds?"

Damien moved towards Zero and was about to coordinate the two together. "Yes. Can you access it from there? I'll grant you—"

"No need. I'm already in," Styles said in a serious tone. The wild tapping of the keyboard sounded through the speakers.

Damien didn't know if he should be thankful or wary that Styles was able to gain access to his security. Just how much was this man capable of? Brushing the thought aside, he went to replay the two-second clip again and rewound to a few seconds before that. 

Zooming in at her expression, it was clear that she was looking through the reflection on the decorative mirror in front of her. It looked as if she knew the man but judging by what she told her follower, it seemed that she asked who he was. This made Damien even more baffled.

'What's on your mind, Katherine?' he thought.

While Damien was busy deciphering the footage, Styles—who was at Golden Phoenix Residences—was already in contact with Zero—who was at Maverick Security. The two of them patched a two-way communication so they could talk freely to each other while Styles worked on the video footages remotely. Styles was able to find the part where Katherine was walking towards the end of the hall before she got taken and he watched carefully, taking in every detail of her movements.

Styles worked with Katherine back in Shadow on all of her missions, so he knew her pretty well with regards to strategies. 

Styles and Zero coordinated, looking for angles of the man from different cameras in the hallway. The hooded man was mostly careful but there was one footage that he wasn't able to avoid—showing his reflection on the mirror, enough for Styles to recognize him. "Holy shit," he bit out.

"What's wrong? What did you find?" Damien quickly searched the dozens of monitors in front of them, impatient to see what Styles found out.

Carefully, Styles muted his comms that's connected to Zero's and made sure that only Damien could hear him before he said, "I know who this is…"

Damien didn't say anything because with just the fact that Styles recognized the man, he already knew who was behind this.

"His name is Gus—one of Shadow's agents. If what I'm thinking is right, Parker must have ordered this agent to kidnap her to test her responses. Agents from Shadow were trained to withstand torture. I just hope Gus wouldn't do that to her."

Damien thought that Katherine must have wanted to keep her identity intact by letting herself get taken instead of fighting back. He clenched his hand in frustration. "Can you find her?" Damien was already fuming. They already knew that Shadow was targeting them, so he blamed himself for allowing this to happen.

"Ah yeah… If she's wearing that necklace, yes of course. I can find her."

"Necklace?"

"Ring. Or whatever. That ring she has that had black stones? She asked me to place the tracker there. But she doesn't wear it on her finger though. She got a long chain and used it as a pendant. Anyway, I'm sure you've seen that already. Let me just run the tracker." Styles started running the software on his computer and searched for Katherine's tracker.

Damien clenched his jaw as he listened to what Styles said. Of course he knew what ring Styles was talking about. He gave her that ring—the onyx ring. Thankful that she had that necklace with her, he could only hope that she was safe. Closing his eyes, he prayed that they would get her location as soon as possible.

"I got a ping. But I don't think she's still there. I lost the signal just before the tracker entered the outskirts of Harbor City. He might have used a signal jammer or something," said Styles.

Damien's eyes slowly fluttered open and he let out a long exhale. "Send me the last pinged location. We'll start moving. Search the area for any possibilities of where he could have taken her."

"Roger that."

"Styles?" Damien called the other's attention, his voice was a mixture of icy and anxiousness.

"Yes?"

"Hurry."

The call ended and Damien's eyes landed at the monitor where Katherine's image was frozen on the screen. Staring at those wistful eyes, he silently mumbled, "Don't worry, Love. I'm coming for you."