Vindicated (Camren)

Chapter 16: Surrender

• • •

Blue wiped off the beads of sweat crawling down all over his face and even on the surface of his bald head before going back to his strenuous job of thrusting his shovel into the ground and lifting off the unwanted element. It's been almost an hour of digging out here and there at the backyard of Smolensk's Cathedral of the Assumption, and nothing was found but dirt. He briefly looked over at his partner in crime, Red, and was relieved to see the same picture of hopelessness and exhaustion on his face. At least he wasn't the only one. A bowl of hot soup, a bottle of water, and a decent sleep - those were the only things they truly cherished at the moment yet so out of their reach. However, the loud shout booming out of Alejandro Cabello's mouth told them to move and super fast.

"Nobody is going to stop until you find something essential! So come on, people! Move, move, move!"

Blue took a deep breath and hoped for the best that his brief moment of surrender would pass by unnoticed. He gripped on his shovel tighter than the previous instance in fear that it might accidentally slip away, and then thrust it once more into the ground. Clunk. He froze into place, and so did Red who gave him a look immediately. Clearly, the shovel came in contact with something, but the particular sound suggested it wasn't soil. It could be a rock. But no, it was different.

"What are you two idiots still doing? Pull it out from there!" Alejandro ordered as he walked towards the pair of bald men.

Blue and Red hurriedly cleared the surrounding area with their shovels until they could finally pull the thing out in a struggle even with the help of the rest of the team. A vault. Indeed, it was another vault, and it looked exactly like the one they found in Saint Petersburg.

"Horan, boy, the passcode," the Head demanded.

"4-1-7-2-4-5."

Alejandro carefully punched in the numbers while he listened to Niall through the earpiece as the young man slowly dictated the passcode specifically provided in the map for the destination. The three tiny lights attached to the electronic lock simultaneously flashed green signifying that the code was in fact correct. The oldest Cabello automatically turned the knob to open, and for the second time that day, he was looking right into a vault filled with cash - again, twenty plastic packets each containing ten bundles of $100 bills were neatly stockpiled inside the vault just like the first one they had found in Saint Petersburg earlier that same day. Looking at it, it had to amount to another twenty million dollars doubling the sum of money they already had.

The Phoenixes rejoiced, dropped their respective shovels on the ground, raised their victorious fists up in the air, and freely hugged their nearest comrades - the feelings of hunger and fatigued were suddenly forgotten in the middle of the celebration. Niall himself was also celebrating in his own way back at the Pandemonium. Their leader, on the other hand, remained quiet and unsatisfied. It wasn't enough. Alejandro knew that what they had found still wasn't enough.

• • •

"I don't know what happened, but I know there's something wrong."

Camila bravely stared back at the evil glare Normani Kordei was intently throwing at her direction. She did not bother to sharpen her eyes anymore as she would normally do because she knew she deserved the hate anyway.

"What is going on, Mila?"

The girl in question let out a small huff as she briefly looked away to at least let her partner in crime know that she had totally messed up in general. Besides, there were just no words to explain what happened the day before. The situation would speak for itself already, and nothing would change the fact that Camila was the bad guy in all of this. But if you look at it in all honesty, it was so unfair.