Somewhere in a government facility many officials were debating intensely.

“Are you sure about this?” said one man.

“Everyone please calm down.” said a generous voice.

“This is the best shot we got sir. We will not get another chance like this.” replied another one.

“But are you sure about this. Our one mistake could lead to a potential disaster. The guy we are about to mess with is dangerous.” An old guy said cautiously.

“Please let’s talk about this calmly.” The mysterious guy in a generous voice repeated himself.

“What are we afraid of? We have all the resources to carry out our mission and if something bad were to happen no one can trace it back to us.” said a man confidently.

“I SAID CALM DOWN!” The mysterious man yelled.

Everyone in the room got silent.

“I apologize for losing my temper but you guys forced me to do so. I appreciate that you all have gathered on such a short notice. First you all need to know everything about our mission. We all must have heard about the Scorpion Gang and their leader Andre Verlice. Those who haven’t must have read about the gang and the man in files given to you earlier.”

“You called us to tackle a mere gang sir?” questioned one official.

“If you gentlemen were honest men, minding their own business and serving people wholeheartedly without getting involved in any scandals then we would not have been having a meeting like this in the first place. But since you all are here after doing so much crimes then please keep your mouth shut or do you want me to show you your place. The government is protecting you guys because your acts are so heinous which if revealed will make people’s belief in government disappear. It can lead to a potential crisis. Do you understand major?” replied the mysterious man irritated.

“I understand sir.” replied the man terrified.

“Now Scorpion Gang is an ordinary gang with a little more brutality.” The mysterious man continued. “Time and time again many criminal organizations have been formed which foolishly tried to challenge the government. But we have subdued all of them, sometimes by peaceful negotiations and most of the times by using force. We cannot do the same thing to this gang, since they will not listen to any negotiations and we have been unable to bring them down politically. I have gathered all of you here to personally look into this matter.”

“But why can’t we use force on them sir?” questioned a man nervously.

“Wonderful. As expected from useless idiots like you. When I sent the files to all of you one day prior to the meeting then it means you have to read it. This is not your question paper in which you can ignore some points just because you don't understand them, it’s a file report which gives us an insight on some dangerous people.”

“I am sorry sir.”

“Assuming that none of you have read the files Andre Verlice is one of the survivors of Project Z. Now you guys must remember what it was since all of you were responsible for it.”

“But there were many survivors. Those fools are still trying to get justice by protesting.” replied one guy arrogantly. After a few moments he realized he was the only one laughing as others were gazing him in horror. “What happened? Why are you all looking at me like that?” asked the man confused.

Even before others could say something the mysterious guy stabbed the man with a butter knife right in his forehead. Nobody was able to do anything as they witnessed this horrible sight.

“I can accept that you guys are corrupt but being inhumane isn’t acceptable. Those people who are protesting have lost their everything in Project Z. Have some shame.”

Everyone in the room was too terrified by the splurging blood from the dead body that they couldn’t say anything. “Andre Verlice was one of the workers.” The man continued without any hesitation. “He has proofs of the whole agenda of Project Z. Nobody knows where he has kept the proofs though. We have tried to assassinate him on many occasions because we thought that the truth can be buried with his death.”

“So what’s the problem sir?” A man spoke. “We can always plan another assassination.”

“Yes we could earlier but not now. From his recent activities we have estimated that he is planning to enter politics. For that he has started on getting the good sides of many important people. Even if we kill him these people will question his death for sure since they all are getting huge benefits from him.”

“So what will we do sir? We cannot allow such a man to gain power since he can reveal the secret.”

“Precisely, we can never allow such thing. That’s why our trusted spies have told us that to enter into politics Andre will require a lot of funds and his gang doesn’t have that much.”

“Is he planning to rob the national bank located in the city?” said a man in trembling tone.

“No he is not that foolish. Such action would force the government to impose military. Instead he is turned to his only son for help.”

“If I remember correctly his boy must have been around 20 years of age. What can he do?” asked another man curiously.

“Robert Verlice is the reason why I have called you here. If the information is correct then he hates his father because of his wrongdoings. Our mission is to get on good side of Robert and make him take some wrong decisions which will hit the financial situation of the gang and will ultimately lead to its downfall.” replied the mysterious with a smile on his bloodied face. It gave chills to everyone in the room.

“But sir why will he help Andre in the first place if he hates him and why will he listen to us?”

“The answer to both of your questions is one person, Luna Verlice.”

“Andre’s wife. But how does she fit in the image. Is she a criminal too?”

“No, quite the opposite. She is one of the most charming lady. I have the honor of personally meeting her on one occasion. Her smile made all of my worries go away in that moment.” The mysterious man got lost in his memories and didn’t say anything for few moments. “We once planned an assassination to settle everything for once. For that we hired the best.”

“No way, you are talking about him.” said a man astonished.

“We don’t know yet if the assassin is he or she but we will use ‘he’ because you all are sexist bastards. We were informed by the assassin that an artificial poison was created just in case. According to our intel Andre was to return via Terminal One in a black car which was specifically used by him. We gave simple instructions to the assassin that he has to kill the person inside the car. It completely slipped our mind that Luna can also access the car in case of an emergency. The assassin targeted her but luckily missed. However, the arrow grazed her resulting in her getting poisoned instead of Andre. Now her condition is getting worse day by day. In return of healing her Andre will force Robert to help him.”

“What an animal. He is using his wife’s condition to blackmail his son.” said one man agitated.

“Well I will not comment on his actions since we are about to do the same. We will tell Robert that we captured the assassin and took antidote from him. If he is willing to help the government then we can heal his mother easily.”

“Then we have solved our problem sir. He will agree with us to save his mother.”

“Here comes our first hurdle. Since it was an artificial poison we can’t create an antidote. Only its creator has that kind of luxury. We will lie to Robert about the antidote. We are still trying to get in contact with the assassin but we haven’t succeeded yet. I am confident though that we can obtain the antidote since mercenaries like these die every day. Nobody will be able to question our actions.”

“We will prepare everything sir. Our mission will be successful. But you said ‘First Hurdle’. Are there more?”

“Yes. The second and the most dangerous hurdle, Robert Verlice himself.” said the mysterious man in a serious tone.

“Why do we need to be aware of a little boy?”

“Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Do you remember Sergeant Spike?”

“Yes sir. He was one of our finest member of the team and was also a part of the Project Z. I was so sad when it was revealed that he was involved in human trafficking and was executed secretly.” replied a guy.

“That was not it. Truth be told we still don’t know where he is.”

“Huh! What are you saying sir?” questioned the man astonished.

“Sergeant Spike was assigned to find and steal that evidence which Andre has since we assumed it would have been in his house. He was to disguise himself as a member of the party. He wasn’t able to find the evidence but instead he got drunk. Since he was a womanizer he made female’s in that party uncomfortable. Luckily Andre wasn’t there because he could have traced it back to us.”

“Then what happened to him?”

“Robert was in that party with his mother. In his drunken state he tried his luck on Luna. When he got rejected he insulted her quite a lot for being the wife of a gangster. Robert, being an educated fellow, quietly told him to leave the party. Instead leaving peacefully that fool tried to attack him and Luna got a little bruise during their hustle. Luckily our backup was there too, disguised, so they were able to get Sergeant Spike out of the party.”

“We never heard about it sir. Wouldn’t Andre have killed him and his whole family if his wife got hurt? He would have thrown their dead bodies in front of the parliament.”

“He would have done that if he knew where he was.”

“What do you mean sir?”

“On the next day Sergeant Spike and his whole family disappeared without a trace.”

“WHAT!” Everyone in the room jumped up from their seats.

“I know it’s hard to believe but they all just vanished without a trace. Neither we nor Andre could find them. It’s like they never existed. We had to make a fake crime and a fake execution so that no one would get to know the truth. If officials would come to know that our government couldn’t protect them from a kid, there would have been an uproar.”

“Can’t we punish him for that?” questioned a guy hesitatingly.

“No we can’t because first, he is Andre’s son and a potential future for the Scorpion Gang. The second is that there is no proof against him.”

“Then how does we know that he is responsible for it?”

“Because that’s the only possibility we could find. Andre has tried to kill our officials before and we were able to foil his plans every time. This is something that we have never seen before.”

There was a sudden silence in the room. Everyone was in a dilemma. If they don’t stop Andre, then they all will be doomed but if they try to meddle and something wrong happened then they might just vanish. Nobody will ever know what happened to them or their family.

“Listen everyone.” The mysterious man spoke again. “The second and the most important hurdle is Robert Verlice. The government will be able to protect you even if you were to slap Andre childishly and run away but don’t mess with Robert. If Andre is an animal, then Robert is a demon whom we can’t control. At any rate we can’t let him know what Project Z was, because we don’t know what will he do with that information. Don’t mess this up.”