THE BOSS AGENT

38. IT'S OKAY TO BE YOU.

Eighteen's POV:

"I found out where the coordinates are," I say with a smile.

Now all I have to do is to make sure the potential information of the location of the coordinates must not get in the wrong hands.

"You do?" Alex questions still astonished by the possibility of us knowing about the coordinates which we had been hunting for years.

I smile and nod my head. He grins cheerfully in return. A sudden roar of the incoming car breaks my joyous moment.

We snap our head to see chief get out of the car. My expression turns neutral when he looks at me.

"My office when you are done talking," he orders as we nod in return.

"Why did he sound so angry?" Alex quizzes.

"We would find out soon," I say marching after chief.

***

The team gathered in chief's office and the news which he had for us is making me take every ounce of self-control not to snap.

".... But the defense minister isn't listening to me. He wants Antonio and Meghan to be shifted immediately to the central jail," chief complained.

"Try to explain to him that it's lethal," I snapped.

"What do you think? I told him that Antonio's men are waiting for us to get out of the agency's perimeter so they could kill us. I tried but he isn't listening," he yelled.

"Then try harder," I retorted.

"Elena-",

"Don't. Don't you dare call me that. It's agent eighteen for you," I hiss in anger. He glares at me for few seconds before letting out a heavy sigh.

"Listen well agent eighteen. The defense minister has been asking me to get Antonio to the central prison the day we got hold of him. I have been trying my best from past a week to hold off from making a shift of Antonio cuz I know very well what's gonna happen. All I could do is to make sure more security force and backup plan is made before we leave. You people need to get ready too. We will be leaving tomorrow. And once we reach there, no one can get hold of Antonio," he states calmly, all frustration drained out. But I was still fuming with anger.

"Once we reach there! That's the point. Are you sure we are gonna reach central prison in one piece?" I hiss, my eyes blazing lasers at him.

"I told you we will be fine. I am not a fan of repeating myself," he grumbles as my glare turns ten times worse.

"Can you buy us some more time chief?" Jen mumbles slowly.

"I don't think I can," he says. "And Benjamin," he turns towards Ben.

The Ben who was leaning back casually on the seat with a pack of popcorn, sits erect as soon as chief calls him.

"Yeah?"

"You aren't coming with us."

"What? No way. I am coming dad," he whines.

"It's an order and not up for negotiation," he says in a deadpan tone.

"Then Liam must stay too," he says crossing his arm in mock anger.

"I don't see a valid reason behind it. He has completely recovered and fine," Ben glares at Liam then at chief and chunks a hand full of popcorn at chief. He swats the popcorn away like a fly. I roll my eyes. Only Ben can make a dead serious situation into a farce.

"Get some good sleep," he looks at me, "we have a big day tomorrow."

"Yes chief," we chorus. He gets up from his seat and walks towards the door.

"And yes," he pauses near the door with his hand on the handle, "I personally pulled few good hits at Antonio."

My eyes widen. "Is he dead?" I ask my question. Chief had been holding back his anger and he had been waiting to get hold of Antonio to release his anger.

"Not yet."

With that, he slammed the door.

Everybody leaves the office to get to their rooms. I huff and get up from the seat and walk towards the window.

"Penny for your thought?"

I turn around to meet Alex's expecting gaze.

"There's a lot. Which one do you wanna hear?" I murmur leaning against the window.

"The one that's stressing you out," he says.

"Tomorrow," I mumble, "The fact that anything can happen tomorrow... scares me," I duck my head lightly.

"You don't have to worry-"

"How could I not?" I cut him off, "His gang has gone insane. They are waiting for a chance to kill us and save him and then this shift-" I let out a heavy sigh.

"You know sometimes things may or may not work out the way we plan but the possibility of the failure in the future must not stop you in the present from trying," he states. I look at him and nod in agreement.

"Alright. It's late. Let's go. We need to go through the plans again tomorrow morning," I say and try to walk towards the door but Alex blocks my way. I look up to see his puzzled expression. I raise my eyebrow.

"Can I ask you something?" he hesitated. I nod in return asking him to go on.

"I never asked you this before and you don't have to answer me if you don't want to...why did you prohibit us from calling you by your real name?"

My eyes widen for a fraction of a second before I recompose myself. The memories still fresh in my mind, reappears like a flash. I take in a sharp breath and let it out.

"The day my mum died, a part of me died that day," I mumble.

"But eighteen, you can't just stop Elena from resurfacing," Alex retorts slowly.

"Elena had to die Alex. So, eighteen can take her place. Elena was weak, someone strong as eighteen must take over."

"Elena was never weak. And you have been barricading her but either way, I just want you to know, it's okay to be Elena. It's okay to be you," he encourages with a light smile before leaving the room.

I stood there gaping at his words, still trying to fathom out what he meant by 'It's okay to be me'.