Chapter 224 - :

Shock still, Lucie's mind was in turmoil. She had no idea how these two had met but she was sure that it couldn't be anything good. She also knew that she needed to butt in or their will be trouble ahead, especially for her. Shaking herself from her frozen state, she walk to Lina before putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Lina stop, I need to talk to Nathaniel, please." She said.

"Wait a minute Lucie, I need to finish this." Lina answer absentmindedly, writing the name on a piece of paper."

"No, it can't wait Lina, I need to talk to him, now!" Lucie infused some steel into her voice.

This time it seem it had an effect because Lina stop writing and look in her direction, surprised.

"What is so…" Lina start to say before she was interrupted again but this time it was from the person she was talking to on the phone. "Yes, it's her… how do you know?... Alright, alright." Lina said before giving Lucie her cellphone.

"I need to get my things, I leave you two alone." She said, raising one arm in annoyance before walking to the armory.

Taking the phone, she made sure that there was no one around before starting to speak.

"Nathaniel."

"Lucie, what can I do for you?" Nathaniel said pleasantly.

"Can I ask you how did you met the person you wanted information on? Brunhilde Herzog Von Bayern?"

"We met at a gala earlier tonight and there was something special about her that made me curious." Nathaniel answers.

Based on the carefully cultivated tone of his voice, Lucie knew there was much more to it that that. That was bad.

"She also closely showed me her elegant silvery belt." Nathaniel add as an afterthought.

That's even worse, Lucie thought. She knew very well the character of Brunhilde to be on the receiving end of it more time than not and knew how much she was proficient with her sword. She also knew that once on fighting mode, she was going all out with no care of injury to herself or to the one she was fighting.

"Are you alright?" Lucie asked with worry.

"Yes, you know I'm very hard to kill, unfortunately, my tuxedo isn't." Nathaniel said with humour.

"Yes, I know." Lucie said relieved before adding. "Can I ask you something?"

"You want me to drop it and not investigate her further." Nathaniel said.

"Yes."

"And you will not tell me why." Nathaniel add.

"Yes." She said again.

"I see. Are you trying to protect her from me or are you trying to protect me from her?" Nathaniel questioned.

"It's not as simple as that but to be honest, I will say both."

"Alright, I will not look into it further. I trust you Lucie, your teammates also trust you, don't start squandering that away. I also count on you to kept what we do quiet if someone was to came to you for information, are we understanding each other?"

"You don't understand what you are asking me to do Nathaniel." Lucie said, conflicted.

"Lucie, we made an agreement, if you think in the light of the last development, you can't respect it any longer, I encourage you to put Lina's phone down on the desk and leave the bunker right now." Nathaniel said with steel in his voice.

"But, but… We have a case." Lucie said weakly.

"You know how I respect you Lucie, as a person and as a member of this team but I prefer to not have you at all than having you but not trusting you to protect the team back or my own back when shit is going to hit the fan. Moreover, we all have family that depend on the secrecy of what we do to stay protected, I will not let you endanger that." Nathaniel voice had turn cold at the end.

He was right and Lucie knew it but it was still hard for her. What he was asking was going against everything that she was taught when she was young and everything that she learned since then. Her eyes flicker for a second in the direction of the armory where everyone was hurrying up to get ready. That's when she made her decision, her place was with them.

"I understand but I still need to tell her something if she asked or it will be worse."

"You can tell her everything you know about me but everything about the bunker need to stay hidden. Tell her we date or we met by chance one time and become friends, whatever you like, everything but the truth is good."

"Are you sure you want me to tell her everything I know about you?" She asked doubtfully.

Since they had met, Lucie has always been intrigued by Nathaniel and she have been observing him closely to find what he was hiding. She knew he had a secret and that was one of the thing that motivate her into accepting the job he offer to her. It was not the whole reason of course as she also that motivation to change things and help the people that nobody wanted to help. After the months that they trained together and the few times they gone into operation, she had gather a lot of information on him, information she doubt he would want someone he didn't know to learn.

"Yes. Come on Lucie, let's be honest with each other for a minute. I know that you investigate me the whole time that you have been on the team. You know I'm special. I also know that you are special, I also know that what made you special is also what made Brunhilde special even if I can tell she's more powerful than you are."

Hearing that, Lucie shocked on her breathe. She thought that she was being discreet but all this time he knew about it and he did nothing to stop her. She also had purposely hiding some of her ability to him and the team to not gather attention and seem as inconspicuous as possible. Well, as much as it was possible to do so among a team of geniuses.

"You are really too smart for your own good." She sighed. "How did you find out about me and why did you never stop me for looking into you?"

"Yeah, that's what my grandfather is always saying. For the rest, the more you looked into me and my life, the more I learn about what you could really do. It was a good trade of." Lucie could tell that he was smiling on the other end.

"How can you tell that me and her are special in the same way?" Lucie asked.

"Well, you are the spy, you should know by now." Nathaniel laugh before adding. "Now go, this case is important, I want you at the top of your game. I need to get going, the President is going to make his speech. We will see each other in two hours Lucie. Good flight."

Without giving her the time to answers, Nathaniel hang up on her. Putting the phone of Lina back to the desk, she found the piece of paper containing half of Brunhilde name write on it. Taking it between her fingers, she start shredding it to pieces before throwing it to the trash bin.

Breathing slowly to calm herself, she start thinking about the entire matter more carefully. Knowing Brunhilde, she knew that she was an extremely cold demeanor and not a lot of things could catch her interest. If the two had fight, she would have won and she had no respect for the people that she beat, Lucie who have been beaten by her more time than she could count knew that. Even if in her case that was slightly better than most since she was a member of the Five and that was something Brunhilde had respect for.

Once that was sorted and feeling better, she start moving to the armory to get her things. That's exactly when her own cell phone start to ring. Getting a bad feeling about this, she got her phone slowly out of her back pocket and saw the caller ID.

"Putain de merde!" She swear out loud in french.

Hearing her phone ring again, she was hesitating at taking the call or not until she realized that it would not help to ignore it, Brunhilde didn't like to be kept waiting by anyone.

"Hello?"

"Hello Lucie, It's been a while." Brunhilde said in a pleasant voice.

"It have been, what owe me the pleasure of this phone call Duchess?" Lucie asked.

"What is going on cousin? You are not happy to hear from me?"

"Not at all but I know full well that you don't do social call so I'm wondering why you would call me out of the blue like that." Lucie answers.

"Well, if you insist I have indeed a question for you. I met an interesting young man and I believe you know him. Nathaniel Lyndon?"

"I do indeed know him." Lucie did not even try to deny it.

"How is that?"

"Well, he came to me with a work proposal at the end of last year and I accepted. Since then, we have been working with each others. Can I ask you why you want information to this young man in particular? I know that few people managed to get your attention Duchess." Lucie ask.

"I just met him and we have a bit of a fight, that made me curious." She answers with a neutral tone.

"You are not that curious normally, especially to a young man who you beat." Lucie probed.

"Who I beat?" She laughed. "No, he beat me."

"He beat you?" Lucie was dumbstruck. "That's not possible."

"That's why I'm curious. Of course, I was wearing a long gown to the gala so I was not at my full strength but there was many time while we were fighting where he could have cut me or my dress and he didn't go for it. Maybe he didn't want to harm me or embarass me or both but in either case, it means he was not giving his all to win and he still beat me. Is he like us?" Brunhilde ask.

"No, he's not a member of the Five. I did go back in his history, I found nothing that could explain his skills. I even took some of his DNA to make sure I had his correct family history and the result show that it was. He's gifted, there is no doubt about this in my mind but whatever it is, it's nothing like our own gift." Lucie explain.

"Why didn't you tell anyone about this Lucie? That's something we need to discuss with the council."

"I was waiting to have evidence and answers before calling the council." Lucie lied.

"That decision does not belong to you." Brunhilde rebuked.

"It was concerning me so I made it mine." Lucie did not back down, she then saw the rest of the team come back with their stuff. "I need to get going Duchess."

"This conversation is not over Lucie, we will see each other soon." Brunhilde said before hanging up.

In her Hotel room, after cutting the call, Brunhilde start tapping her phone on her chin slowly.

"She's hiding something." She said in a low voice before turning to her protector. "Did you know where she is?"

Looking at the two laptop they used to trace the call, the two men did not know what to answers right now. They had her location but it didn't make sense.

"Yes Duchess but that's weird."

"What do you mean it's weird? Do you have it or not?" Brunhilde frowned.

"Based on what we got, she's currently at 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield in Missouri."

"What so weird about it?" Brunhilde asked.

"There is no street to that name in this city."

"What!?"