The Traps of Black Swan

At Skyarc,

When Aarvi entered Shawn\'s penthouse, her gaze shifted to the study room where lights were brightly lit. She went there and saw Shawn nodding off on the chair with his hand still on the keyboard of his laptop.

She went closer calling his name, "Shawn!?" She was shocked the next second when he opened his eyes in alertness.

She closed his laptop as she coaxed, "Go to your room and sleep. Don\'t strain yourself."

Shawn stretched his neck as he stood up. Aarvi held his arm and took him out hearing his apology again, "I am sorry, I should have been calmer."

Aarvi shook her head hearing his self-blame, "Shawn, everyone has some dark past that leaves strong imprints on us. It doesn\'t go away just like that. It takes a lot of time. You don\'t have to be sorry for it, Shawn. I and Dax willingly came to you, it wasn\'t your mistake."

Shawn thought Aaron was with Aarvi, Tia was at work, Dax didn\'t want to take a chance going to the local hospital, "Why did Brother Zain also come?"

"Apple Pie got video footage where Dax was struggling to stand and his hand had bloodstains. He took the mobile Clinic and reached. It wasn\'t because of you or me."

She turned him to face her when they reached the stairs, "Don\'t be stressed out. We love you as you are."

He finally flashed her his signature smirk, pinched her cheeks, "Good night, Sister-in-law." 

Aarvi corrected him grumpily, "Little Heart."

Shawn chuckled and went upstairs without making her embarrassed by pointing the glaring love bite on her neck.

"Go to bed, Shawn. I will check on you." She hoped he could catch some sleep.

Aarvi gently knocked on the door of the guest room and pushed it open. She smiled looking at Dax sleeping on his right with Tia in his arms. Without making any noise, she closed the door and left. 

If Dax had woken up and dozed off, Aarvi hoped there would be no complication with the wound or to his body.

----------

In a forest area,

Nico Burton and his team had covered the villa from four sides. Their aim wasn\'t the attack as Aarvi had thought. They wanted to gather as much information about the place and confirm some illegal activities are going on. 

Since the area could be dangerous, they were also equipped with their weapons and night glasses. If they could get the place under their control with just the eight members, they were also prepared for it.

They were just a hundred meters away in the woods when they could clearly see the tall, brawny men enjoying their drinks in the night while guarding the place.

If they were new to work, they would have assumed there was nobody else but a man reported soon, "Don\'t go any closer. There are landmines and sensors."

Nico looked down at the land. Even though leaves had covered the place, he could easily point out where the landmines were. Coming to the sensors that alert the movements in the wood, he noticed some that were a few trees away.

"Err… Everybody, hide. I have crossed the sensor."

Everyone quickly reacted and hid behind the trees and rocks. Nico zoomed his binoculars and spotted, "Night vision camera… Rife...."

Nico didn\'t complete his words when he saw a circular hole near the window. He started running as fast as he could, commanding his comrades, "Retreat."

\'Boom\'

The place Nico was hiding before exploded whooping off the complete tree.

Nico didn\'t go right or left, he traced the side tree that was falling and kept running calculating how far the night vision cameras and firearms could last.

Nico heard the firing sounds twice but on the other side. He passed the commands, "Disperse. Reach everyone at the check post. Send me the signals if you are in danger."

"Copied." Nico counted the voices who responded to him. There were seven and he was relieved. 

He had really doubted the information he received from Aarvi. Before reporting to higher-ups, he needed to confirm she wasn\'t fooling them or she wasn\'t misled by somebody else. He couldn\'t take her name as an informant so he wanted to be careful about his steps. 

He hadn\'t expected Aarvi to be able to find such a dangerous place filled with traps and deadly firearms. If he had stayed a few seconds in his place, the shoulder-fired grenade would have exploded him without a trace.

One, they had to escape from there and two, plan out how to report to the higher-ups to size the place. It wouldn\'t be as easy as just going with armed men. They need full support, otherwise, it would be futile to attack.

Once he confirmed his team members were safe, Nico got on the truck that was on the way to the city. Since he wasn\'t in uniform the truck driver didn\'t notice anything. 

His satellite device vibrated in his pocket. He checked it as it could be from his base. The truck driver laughed looking at the small device in Nico\'s hand, "Oh boy, do you still use a pager? You look well off, why don\'t you have a mobile?"

Nico lied while reading the message, "I am going to buy a new one."

He saw the message, [Report to Base Toren with your team.] Reading the name of the base, Nico couldn\'t understand why the different base was reaching his team.

He got off at the check post and saw five safe and sound, discussing the place. They waited for the last person to reach and he had fallen and sprained his leg. It was too common for them so they took their car and left the base, Toren.

-----

At Base Toren,

A ground soldier greeted him and led him and his team to an office. There aren\'t many military families in Mocon so Nico knew Major Louis. However, since he asked to report them, he gave a salute to Major with his team, "Major." Their voice, firm, heavy with respect.

Louis put his pen down and looked at everyone safe. He cued the rest to leave asking Nico to sit, "Nico, take a seat."

The rest went out and Nico sat down, "Uncle Louis, is there any work?"

Louis placed a file in front of Nico as he asked, "Did any of you get hurt?"

Nico\'s brows sharply raised hearing the question. Then he recalled that Louis and Rivas are relatives. "We are safe. We went for an inspection."

Louis nodded in appreciation to Nico\'s planning. However, it was still dangerous. 

Nico opened the file and read the details. It was about the illegal activities happening at the port of Coasta. Then the information of the international criminals who are in contact with the Country\'s citizens.

Every detail was present excluding one. The person who was supporting it. "Leon Harmon, wasn\'t he?" Nico kept the file back.

Major Louis nodded. "You can\'t control Leon Harmon this way. Drop your plans if you are thinking you could quickly plan and attack that villa."

Nico would have retorted if he hadn\'t checked the file. He scorned mockingly, "That\'s the power of the law and country."

Major Louis could understand what he meant. Despite knowing the person, they could do nothing. "You can\'t help Aarvi. She will handle Leon herself."

"So this wasn\'t in her plans before." He weirdly knew Major Louis knew more than what he was speaking.

As Nico expected, "No." He paused, took the file, reached the shredding machine, and destroyed the confidential data. "Her plan for you isn\'t in Mocon. You have to go to Country D…"

Nico suspiciously looked at Major so the latter nodded, "This is what I improved from Aarvi\'s plan." Of course, she didn\'t have any connections in different countries.

"To keep her out of the limelight." So that Leon doesn\'t get suspicious of Aarvi or Aaron.

"Any problem?"

"I will do it."

Then the two discussed the whole modified plans of Aarvi. It was Aaron who spoke about it with Major Louis and the latter made drastic changes that Aarvi didn\'t even know.

Sometimes, Major Louis thought Aarvi was too smart to believe. Then he felt she was too simple for the dirty world. Since he was achieving the goal of getting rid of Leon, he was willing to support her by talking for her on her behalf.

------

Meanwhile, at Harmon\'s mansion. Leon breathed in relief when he got to know everyone ran away and guessed as it might be some random boys becoming curious about the place. 

However, he didn\'t want to take a chance so overnight he was shifting the whole goods from that place to a different one under the assistance of Dylan.