Harry was sitting in the cargo bay along with his squadmates. Usually, when they returned to the base after each mission, the cargo bay of the aircraft would be filled with conversations and activities. They would talk about the missions, what they would do for their R&R period, and joke around to relax the mood.

  However, it was different for this trip. Everyone was quiet, and the air was filled with a complicated feeling. There was one very obvious reason why they were all acting like this, and the reason was sitting right next to Harry.

  M?, the young girl Harry saved, was sitting right next to him. She was wearing a headset that was just a bit bigger than comfortable for her while staring outside the window of the aircraft with a gleeful look on her face.

  Harry knew that despite the smile and wonder showing on her face, she was experiencing major trauma and PTSD. Either she was handling the trauma better than he thought, or she was just good at suppressing her trauma; Harry did not know, but one thing was certain: she definitely needed some therapy.

  “Harry, are you sure this is a good idea?” A voice broke his train of thought. It was Katrina.

  “No, Kat, I’m not sure, but what choice did I have? She was clinging to me the entire time.”

  “You could have just left her to the Vietnamese officials to deal with.”

  “I know, I could have. But my conscience wouldn’t let me do that, just leaving a traumatized girl to be left alone in an orphanage somewhere.”

  “Well, it already happened. Now, the most worrying thing we have to deal with is the higher-ups,” Victor chimed in.

  “I know, I’ll deal with that without dragging you guys down.”

  Harry looked back at the young girl who was still standing in her seat, staring outside the window.

  “Ok, M?, please sit down, it’s not safe to stand, and we’re almost there,” Harry spoke to her in his broken Vietnamese accent.

  M? nodded at him and sat down in her seat. Harry had to lean over to buckle her belt.

  The aircraft creaked and groaned as it changed from airphane mode to helicopter mode. After a short while, the aircraft landed on the helipad.

  Harry helped M? with her belt before gathering his belongings. He led the young girl out of the aircraft while she squinted and adjusted her sight to the sudden return light. As soon as her eyes adjusted, she marveled at the sight.

  They were currently standing on a helipad on top of an offshore rig in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with a lot more rigs connected to the one they were currently on.

  Each rig had a unique building design, with the base of the rig being hexagonal. There were asphalt roads connected between each rig, wide enough for multiple land vehicles to travel in multiple lanes. A few of the rigs even have facilities for warships to dock and a runway for planes to take off or land. This base was a literal fortress in the middle of the ocean, one that countries would start conflicts to claim.

  M? looked around in wonder and turned back to Harry.

  “Uncle Harry, this place looks amazing. Where are we?”

  “Don’t worry about it, kid, you don’t need to know now.”

  “Can I go and see all these places?”

  “Maybe… One day,” Harry patted her head. “Now, be a good girl and follow Uncle Th?ng! I have to go talk to someone, I’ll be back, ok?”

  “Ok, I’ll follow Uncle Th?ng,” M? nodded and ran off to Victor, who was waiting in the shade.

  “Take care of her, Victor. I’ll be back after I’m done talking to our boss.” Harry nodded to Victor.

  Victor nodded before taking the young girl into the building. Harry observed them from behind and let out a sigh as soon as they were out of sight.

  While Harry had already made up his mind about being the young girl’s guardian, he didn’t think that far ahead. He had no idea how to take care of a child since he had been and still was single. His decision to let M? follow them all the way to the PMC’s headquarters was a spur-of-the-moment decision. For a brief moment, he wondered if he made the correct decision to become M?’s guardian.

  He shook his head and dispelled the thought.

  ‘There’s no going back now, Harry. You’ll just talk to the big boss. You’ll deal with the consequences, whatever they are.’ Harry thought to himself.

  His contemplation was broken again after an open-top jeep stopped right in front of him. The driver turned to Harry and saluted, which Harry promptly returned.

  “First Lieutenant, you are expected by the boss. I was sent to take you to the headquarters,” said the driver.

  Harry nodded and got into the shotgun seat. Without a word, the driver headed toward the headquarters of the base. He just knew that this was going to be one hell of a talk.

  The office was as quiet as usual. Luzia was comfortable with this quietness, a lot better than being surrounded by greedy businessmen with fake smiles on their faces and nothing but money on their minds.

  She finished reading the reports for all the missions that her private military company, Black Angels Division, recently completed. Everything seemed normal, just the usual standard procedures and results reported.

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  She scrolled down the pages on her tablet and finally reached the report of the recent Search and Rescue mission. She had previously taken more interest in this mission since the client was a high-profile conglomerate family that had their child kidnapped while on a trip to Vietnam.

  The mission was already unusual from the start. The kidnappers were heavily armed, knew the security details and route, grabbed and napped the child, and then transported her all the way to the biggest hub in the middle of the jungle.

  Since the client did not disclose any reason why they targeted the young girl, Luzia assumed that they were being targeted by their rivals or a crime syndicate that wanted to blackmail and extort the Emerson conglomerate.

  Her suspicion immediately changed the moment her operators entered the facility. Military-grade equipment from China, all types of drugs and chemicals, human trafficking and slavery. All of this could only point toward one syndicate that was powerful enough to do this.

  ‘Poseidon Trident… up to no good yet again.’ Luzia tapped her finger on the desk.

  Poseidon Trident, PT syndicate for short, was a crime syndicate formed by former PLA soldiers after the Third World War. At first, it was a crime syndicate that was just composed of soldiers that somehow commandeered a few of the Chinese ships and began terrorizing the South China Sea. That was before they grew large enough to take over the Spratly Islands and make it their base of operation.

  Somehow, they eventually managed to absorb or work together with other syndicates in the world, basically creating the world’s first super syndicate.

  Though if there was one thing that the PT syndicate was good for was encouraging the world to create more PMCs to combat the rampant organized crime. Black Angels Division was one of the largest PMCs to be created out of this era of syndicates and mercenaries.

  ‘There’s going to be a lot of work in the future,’ Luzia let out a deep sigh.

  Suddenly, a call rang from her tablet and brought her attention back to the device. She adjusted herself before answering the call.

  “Hello, ma’am. First Lieutenant Armstrong is waiting for you,” It was Luzia’s secretary.

  “Let him in.”

  “Understood, ma’am.”

  The call was cut short. Just then, the door to Luzia’s office slid open to reveal that Harrison was standing at attention. He saluted her before stepping into the office, letting the door close behind him.

  “You called for me, Minerva?”

  “Yes, I did. Please have a seat,” Luzia gestured to the chair in front of her desk.

  Harrison nodded and seated himself in front of Luzia. She could tell that he was tense, judging by the way he was sitting upright, more than his usual stance.

  “So, Harrison, what do you think about it?”

  “About what, Minerva?” Harrison tilted his head slightly.

  “The hub that you cleared. I had my suspicion and wanted to confirm it with someone who was there.”

  “Ah, right. It’s just as you suspected. The place is filled with both surplus and military-grade equipment from China. All of those equipments are unmarked, but I suspected that the PT is involved, directly or not.”

  “Yes, there is no other syndicate out there that could provide thermal camo for their operations, let alone top-of-the-line optical camo.”

  “Yes, ma’am, those Vietnamese officials that I had to talk to seemed real excited to get their hands on some of that tech.”

  “Who wouldn’t?” Luzia sighed and rested her chin on her hand, “My contacts from all those intelligence agencies are rearing my ass about getting their grubby hands on the tech.”

  “Oh, that’s rough, ma’am. I don’t envy you.”

  “It’s still better than having a meeting with a bunch of pretentious businessmen. Also, I told you to stop calling me ma’am or Minerva when it’s just between us. We know each other long enough to be formal or secretive here.”

  “You know me… I’m just not used to it. Especially since you’re still my superior.”

  “I know.”

  Luzia turned to her computer and started working on her reports. Harrison thought it strange that Luzia hadn’t dismissed him yet, or even talked to him about the young girl, since she knew everything that happened in the base.

  Just when he was about to make the first move, Luzia stopped typing and looked at him.

  “One more thing, Harrison. What is this about you bringing a child here to the base?”

  Harrison was caught off guard, although he did notice that Luzia still used his name despite sporting a serious look on her face. He leaned forward, his elbow resting on his knee for support.

  “I rescued the girl from the hub. Her mother was presumably raped and killed shortly before we got to her, and when I got there, the kid already killed the bandit, pretty brutal too.”

  Harrison paused for a moment, and Luzia didn’t say anything, so he took it as a sign to continue.

  “When we tried hand her over to the Vietnamese officials, she clung onto me and made quite a ruckus, so I decided it would be best if she followed me for now, and we’ll see what happens.”

  “So… you decided it would be best to bring an outsider to our base and risk revealing the location?” Luzia asked with her eyebrows raised.

  “She’s a kid who had been in captivity for god knows how long, and who just witnessed her mother’s murder. I don’t think she’s a risk to the PMC’s security.”

  “That still doesn’t change the fact that you brought her to a military base. The best course of action would still have been to hand her over to the government to deal with.”

  Harrison sighed as he looked at Luzia.

  “Luzia…” Harrison hesitated.

  Luzia was a bit surprised since she had never heard the man use her name before. She managed to maintain her poker face and wait for Harrison to continue.

  “You know damm well enough that these orphanages really can’t provide a future for anyone that found themselves there. Maybe orphanages before the war might have been a viable option… But as it is, there are just way too many orphans and not enough people wanting to adopt them. There’s literally no viable future for these poor kids.”

  Harrison took another deep breath before he looked back at Luzia.

  “You’d know, right? After all, your family company did build several orphanages for charity.”

  Luzia did not reply, but Harrison could tell that she was thinking about it.

  “When I… saw the kid… the state that she was in, I couldn't help but feel something.”

  Luzia maintained her poker face, but shifted herself to lean back onto her chair. Harrison really couldn’t tell what the woman was thinking, since she would always have a poker face on herself.

  “You know me enough after all these years, Luzia. Just one favor. Let me adopt the kid.”

  Harrison said what he wanted to say. It was up to Luzia to make her decision now.

  It was the longest period of quiet that Harrison had ever experienced. It was quiet enough for him to hear his own heart pumping in his chest. It didn’t help that Luzia had the appearance of a cold and calculated woman, and she was staring into his soul.

  After what seemed to be forever, Luzia finally broke the silence.

  “I’ll see what I can do to have you adopt her legally through the Vietnamese government. I should be able to pull some string to make it happen.”

  “Thank you, Luzia,” Harrison let out a sigh he didn’t know he was holding.

  “However, there are conditions, and they are non-negotiable.”

  Harrison nodded, signalling Luzia to continue.

  “One, she will stay out of certain facilities. Two, you will take care of her and teach her everything you know. Three, when she is eighteen, she must join the PMC. These are non-negotiable.”

  “Wait… join the PMC? That’s insane!” Harrison raised his voice.

  “Harrison, think for a second. Do you plan to coddle her forever? Eventually, she will need to get a job to support herself, and the only jobs that a kid who grew up with no proper education can get are low-paying jobs where she gets exploited, or the army. Mind you, she is still legally a Vietnamese citizen, not a U.S. citizen. She won’t be able to get any of those fancy benefits or a sign-on bonus and a Dodge Charger to go with. The Vietnamese army doesn’t have that kind of budget. And I didn’t even mention the possibility of her being dragged into a life of crime. There are a lot of documented cases of orphans being used and trained by syndicates or pirates, or worse. Can you guarantee that she would be fine out there?”

  Harrison was about to argue, but then took a moment to rethink the option. He couldn’t refute Luzia’s argument, as much as he hated the thought of putting a traumatized girl into a future where she could be harmed. It was not a decision that he could make easily.

  “If it helps you make the decision faster, she will gain access to all the benefits that my company offers, and you should know how good it is compared to most companies. I’ll also make an exception and offer these benefits, and any help she might need, to her before she officially joins the company. You will also get extra PTO and paid parental leave on top of that.”

  Harrison was quite surprised by Luzia’s offer. There weren’t a lot of bosses out there that would go this far just to offer help to an employee in need.

  “That’s… quite a generous offer,” Harrison uttered. “Although I couldn’t help but think that this might come with some caveat.”

  “Think of it like this: this is just my way of convincing one of my best operators not to leave the company.”

  Harrison couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. For someone with a reputation of being cold-hearted and logical, Luzia seemed more human to him right now, and he was confident in his capability of reading and understanding people.

  “Alright, I’ll let her know.” Harry nodded. He stood up to leave the room.

  Just as he reached the door, however, Luzia’s voice rang out from behind him.

  “Good luck…with the parenthood.”

  “Thank you, Luzia.” He replied before leaving the room.

  Luzia was all alone again. She rested her back on the chair and stared absent-mindedly at the ceiling.

  ‘A kid, huh?’ She muttered to herself. ‘Good for him.’

  She closed her eyes, letting her train of thought continue.

  ‘If what they reported about her is true, then she’ll do just fine as a merc.’

  Little did Luzia know that having the young girl join her PMC would bring turbulence and chaos to the future.