qFrancesca's place was quite some distance away from the airport, so she had to speed
down the road the entire journey. Only then would she be able to make it to the airport in
under thirty minutes.
I have to hurry, or that lunatic, Chrono, might do something crazy.
Francesca thought about the explosion at the orphanage and felt her heart aching.
She was moving out of the way of a truck when Anthony called her. Hence, she didn't pick
up. It wasn't until she was on the highway and things were much calmer that she finally
returned his call.
“Hey.”
“Where are you?”
It was noisy on Anthony's side, and she could hear children crying.
“I'm at the airport. How are things at the orphanage? Are there any casualties? Is anybody
hurt?”
Francesca's heart clenched as she spoke,
“The explosion happened in the parking lot near the orphanage. It didn't take place in the
orphanage itself, and a few kids fell out of their bunk beds because they were scared.
Other than that, no one was injured.”
“The parking lot?” asked Francesca. She was temporarily stunned. “Then the kids are all
okay?”
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt
Francesca sighed a breath of relief. Thank the heavens that Chrono isn't a total monster
and didn't actually go after the kids.
Still, I bet that little conscience he has will fade away if I didn't show up at the airport on
time.
“Where are you now? Come here quick,” said Anthony in a worried tone. “Chrono must be
trying to force your hand by threatening the kids' safety...”
The line was cut off before he could finish talking.
Francesca didn't pay much attention to that. She assumed that it was because he was too
busy and accidentally hit the button that ended the call. It was also possible that the
signal was poor, so she wasn't overly worried.
She simply grabbed her bag and her phone, then hurried into the airport.
The departure hall was filled with tourists at the time, but Chrono was nowhere to be
found.
Francesca was confused and was just starting to wonder what was going on when she
suddenly sensed a hostile aura closing in on her. She turned around immediately.
A woman in an all-black outfit, a cap, and a face mask was standing right behind her. The
former had a pair of eyes that glowed with menace.
Francesca narrowed her eyes a little to scan the person in front of her. She looked into her
opponent's eyes. “It's you?”
She is Chrono's ally, the assassin who faked being a doctor when we met at the hospital.
“Nice. You have great observational skills,” said the assassin, who smiled soon after.
“Here. We got your plane ticket ready. Let's go.”
She was going to force Francesca to check in for departure right away.
“Where is Chrono? Why isn't he here?” demanded Francesca. She could somewhat sense
that something was off.
“Why does that matter? I, alone, am enough to accomplish this mission,” replied the
assassin before she shoved Francesca a little. “Go check in right now.”
“No, that's not right,” murmured Francesca while scanning the assassin suspiciously. “The
two of you... You're not trying to lure me out of the way, are you?”
The glow in the assassin's eyes shifted a little, and Francesca got what that meant right
away. “So your target has always been...”
Francesca turned pale. She ran toward the parking lot immediately.
The assassin quickly chased after her.
The two of them made it all the way to the parking lot before the assassin fired a bullet
that dug deep into the ground beside Francesca's foot. “Hold it right there.”
Francesca was about to retaliate when a group of men suddenly emerged from the
shadows and fought the assassin.
It took Francesca some time to recognize those men. Turned out that her saviors were
Sloan and his men. Ah, so they never left.
She didn't have much time to wonder what was going on though, so she got into her car
and sped away a moment later.
“Ms. Felch!”
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmSloan called out to Francesca, but she never even turned back. She kept her foot on the
gas.
Sloan and his men apprehended the assassin soon enough and rendered her unconscious.
He had the bodyguards take her away and brought two men with him when he got into the
car to chase after Francesca.
“Gordon and the others aren't here yet. Do we have enough men with us?”
“I don't know. Let's cross that bridge when we get there.”
“Understood.”
While driving to the orphanage, Francesca called Anthony's number, but she simply
couldn't get the line through.
She called the orphanage's employees after that, but their phones were unreachable as
well.
Panic coursed through her veins and burned her heart. She stomped on the gas pedal and
was driving so fast that the car almost flew in the air when she hit the speed bumps.
A bad feeling crept up on her. Chrono isn't going to do something even crueler, is he?
She was still panicking and overthinking the situation when someone called her. It was
William. Francesca picked up the call right away. “William!”
“Francesca, is something wrong?”
“Something bad might be unfolding at the orphanage, William. I'm on my way now, but
can you...?”
“I'll send my men over right away.”