The decision was to travel by ship so as to not gain too much attention. The helicopter would be too loud in a place so isolated as the mass of sea ice that the Victoria's crew were traveling.
The ship would dock from afar and have the teams approach the sea ice on row boats. Once they landed, Harker would be the first to travel and infiltrate the area as one of the bodyguards or the scientists. Then, he'd disarm everyone and send a signal that would make their own team surround Victoria's for an easy victory.
It was a clean, strategic plan, courtesy of Roland himself. But as he laid out the plan, Joan and Mina raised their hands.
"We want in too. We'll go with Harker and go undercover with him." Joan said.
Mina nodded. "This is the same place where An Xin is headed. I can feel it. Whatever Joan's after, they're after it too."
Harker's eyes lit up as he heard this. So he wasn't the only one who had this feeling in his gut telling him that all the current events were connected somehow.
He implored Roland: "Let them join in. They can use my Shapeshifting cells since I shared DNA with them."
Roland couldn't help but sigh as he knew that three were too stubborn to reason with. "Then if you're going, I'm going. I know Mina's tendencies to go off on her own straight into danger, it's almost as bad as Harker's. If she does that again, this plan would most likely fail."
Harker guffawed. "Hahaha! What!? I don't go off straight to danger—"
"Best not to argue with boss man, love." Joan shushed him. "He's right anyway. I feel more comfortable in this spy mission if he's watching over us."
Roland shrugged. "That's what I do. It's basically my raison d'etre to watch over all Harker shenanigans."
With that all settled they packed up their things to travel. The ship they boarded was owned by one of the Faust's business partners in the UK, who was happy to let them borrow it as long as Roland put in a good word to have his father buy a few more stocks from them.
They even sent a package for whale harpooning or catching fish, as they assumed that was what they were after by sailing off into the upper regions of the arctic on a private ship without having any records.
"I'm not too keen on whaling." Joan said. "Should we return it to them?"
"No, they're gifts." Mina said. "Roland told me that between the upper class, you can't return gifts or it'll be considered as an insult and an affront to them.
Roland opened the box and scoffed when he saw it filled with nets, fishing rods, worms for fish bait, and a harpoon.
"This one might come in handy. Can you keep it, Harker?" Roland asked, showing the harpoon with red camellias painted on it.
Harker looked at the harpoon quizzically. "Keep it how?"
Roland blinked. "Oh, I saw him keep weapons… I just assumed you could keep it inside your body since you can have your cells move and give space to it, right?"
Harker knew who he meant by 'he', and felt that uneasy feeling again he had when he had tea together on the balcony. He didn't question it and instead tried the trick of keeping weapons within his body. Soon, his cells did gave way for the long harpoon and swallowed it whole to store for future use.
"As for the rest…. Well, Alejandro can keep them if he wants to try his hand at fishing. Might get us some fresh seafood during our trip up north." Roland said, looking at the worms in disdain as it reminded him of that man.
Alejandro chuckled. "It's been a while since I went fishing, I'm a bit rusty. If anyone's interested, I could relearn the trade by teaching a student."
Harker raised his hand. "I'd go! Their journey's still too far away, right? If you don't catch any fish, I can just catch it for us so we don't go hungry during dinnertime."
Joan nodded. "I'll watch you boys do it."
Mina joined in too. "I can actually call out to several sea animals in their language, though I'm also a bit rusty in them as well. I'd try not to have a whale accidentally swallow us whole."
And so, that only left Roland, who went to his own bunker in the ship to plan out their encounter with Victoria more. He also did some of his work on the case he would be handling in the future. After scribbling endlessly for hours, he suddenly received a call from his Nogia communicator.
It was an unknown number. Roland frowned, and hung up.
The number called again, this time also sending a message that showed on the block of plastic's green screen. Upon seeing the message, Roland accepted the call and extended the antenna to gain more signal.
"Paul Pheme. What is it?" Roland grumbled.
Paul chuckled on the other side of the line. His voice was still a little choppy. "I thought you'd never pick it up. I'm new to using these things, they feel too small in my hands compared to a telephone. Anyway, how are you Little Faust?"
"I don't believe that you'd just call me just to ask that, Paul." Roland spat out.
"What, I can't ask how my junior is doing? But yes, I suppose small talk is pointless. I heard you'll be taking the Garcia murder case?"
Roland furrowed his brows. "What's it to you if I will?"
This man really has ears everywhere, being able to learn this news so fast. And he wasn't even a public defendant like Roland, he works for a firm known to ask for twice the reasonable amount of money for any case. Though they do have a staggering 98% win rate, which Roland was sure wasn't due to honest talent knowing Paul Pheme's track record.
"I know that it's tempting at first. College student, just a poor young Latino freshman being accused of murdering a white girl and peeling the skin off her face. Evidence is lacking, boy is an obvious scapegoat as he was an exemplary student with no signs of mental illness. But Faust…."
Paul Pheme's voice was serious. "You shouldn't take this case. It's too complicated, even for a genius like you. If you defend this boy in court, you're as good as dead."
Roland was unfazed by the threats. "I know you sometimes take up prosecution. If you're going to be prosecuting on behalf of the victim's family, then I don't think sending death threats to your opposition would be of any help to your—"
"Hahaha! I wouldn't touch that case even if it's a sure win for the prosecution's side." Paul Pheme said. "It's a friendly warning. You don't like that I'm watching out for you? Fine. But whatever verbal scuffle we may have had, Little Faust, I don't have anything personal against you. I just…. I don't want it to happen again."
"What?"
He was silent for a while, before saying.
"Look up the Wade Dalton case three years ago. That's all I have left to say about the matter. Hope it saves you some face."
His tone with that last sentence was ominous enough to send shivers on Roland's spine. Paul Pheme hanged up, and Roland was left pondering about this when—
"Who's that?"
Harker was suddenly by his open door, causing Roland to jump a little at his voice.
Roland shook his head. "Just someone from work. I've had some stuff to take care of in court."
Harker frowned. "You're busy? Why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't have let you get into this mission too if you still have things to take care of."
Roland waved his hand. "It's fine. Anyway, I thought you were fishing with Alejandro and the girls. Are you done?"
"Oh, not yet. I just thought of checking up on you. I thought I saw you pass by on the docks earlier.... I must have imagined it."
Harker left, and Roland was left frowning as he watched him go….
And when he looked back at his table, there was a red camellia drawing on his notes. Roland looked at the red pen on his hand, and frowned.
"Since when did I draw this…..?"
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