Dante opened the door to see a beautiful woman with a warm smile standing before him. She was dressed in a neat maid uniform, and her eyes sparkled with kindness.
"Good evening, sir. I hope you're enjoying your stay at the Royal Oasis. I've brought some wine and snacks for you. Would you like me to set them up for you?" She offered with a harmless wave towards the goodies on the tray.
Dante smile as he glanced at the stuff and did not see a problem on the surface. "Thank you. That would be lovely."
He gestured for her to enter, impressed by her poise and polite demeanor despite her true identity. She was clearly a true professional at this. Had he not known, he would not have suspected a thing with his meager 21 years of life experience.
The woman smiled gently. "My pleasure, sir."
She gracefully entered the suite and began setting up the smaller tray on a small table near the balcony. Dante watched her work, appreciating the skill and finesse with which she arranged the items. As she finished, she turned to him with a warm smile.
Once done, she bowed and asked: "Is there anything else I can assist you with, sir?"
Dante sniggered in his mind but maintained a light smile as he sat down. "Actually, yes."
She was surprised since the question was mostly a token one, but she had to maintain her guise properly. "What would that be, sir?"
"Oh, its just two things. Firstly, I checked the details of the service plan for my suite and the complimentary snack service is an hour early." Dante stated without even looking at the maid, casually pouring himself some juice.
"Secondly, you set the tray up on the balcony seating, not in the living area nor the kitchen. How did you know I would be seated here since you cannot see the balcony from outside?"
The woman froze and the other operatives who were listening through her earpiece had their expressions changed greatly. They did not dare speak because they assumed that Dante was a superhuman too, which was even why they bothered with this elaborate operation.
As such, they could not give her any orders or advice, she was on her own. She also could not engage Dante because this operation was supposed to be secret. If they began fighting and he exposed cataclysmic superpowers, they would be fucked.
This put her in a tough spot, but she quickly thought and responded.
"In terms of being early, we don't always strict operate by timing. For example, today the chef prepared and served dinner at 5:30 pm rather than 6:30, a whole hour earlier because he had to return home due to an emergency."
"We cannot always be perfect due to human error, so I hope sir will forgive me if I ruined your plans by being early." She explained with an apologetic tone.
Oh?
Dante was impressed by her quick thinking, for he knew this to be true. No organization could always maintain perfect times and dates like that, especially not after years of operation.
He nodded thoughtfully on the surface to show that he had accepted her excuse, which made the woman breathe a sigh of relief. However, she was not done yet and she forged on bravely.
"As for setting up on the balcony, I noticed that the balcony window was open when I entered, so it seemed to me like you had either used it or visited it since you took up lodging. Thinking that you'd prefer your meal with a lovely skyline as the back view, I chose as I did."
"If I was wrong or impudent in doing so, I apologize to sir." She explained with a deep curtsy.
Dante's AI told him that this was true, he had left the balcony window open when moving to open the door. After all, he planned to attack at first but changed his mind halfway to toy with this agent to death.
He smiled and sniffed his juice like it was wine, making the eyes of the woman narrow and a hint of sweat form on her brow.
"As for setting up, I have some things to say about that, but I don't like to bully hardworking servants. Besides, it might just be me acting weird, right?" Dante replied with a laugh.
The woman forced a smile and nodded. "May I leave now, sir?"
Dante waved a hand. "Of course, of course."
She bowed once more and began to push the cart out, but Dante suddenly spoke when she was near the door and about to open it.
"Yulian's Sorrow. A very underground yet potent poison known to be able to knock out even an animal the size of three elephants for a week. Its supposedly colorless and formless, tasteless and odorless, but one can identity when tis mixed into a drink by looking at the weird perspiration on the cup's brim."
When she heard this, the maid heart sank to her toes while the men on the radio couldn't care less about maintaining radio silence."
"Amina, get out of there!" The other sleek woman on the roof who was meant to capture and make away with the sleeping Dante roared.
In just the span of a few moments, many things happened at once.
The Sniper on the rooftop was given the order to fire, and she shot a silenced tranquilizer round that would strike Dante in the neck. Its needle was crafted from titanium so that even if Dante had the superpower of hardened skin, it would still break through.
Meanwhile, the other lady on the rooftop leaped downwards like a bullet, aiming to land on the perch of Dante's balcony and then distract or reinforce his teammate if necessary. The tech specialist was doing his best to suppress anything that could leak the operation on the spot, like silencing alarms, cutting out electricity to certain places, and raising the volume in others to muffle the sound.
They were working as a well-oiled unit and their skill, as well as their expertise, showed at this moment.
However, as they always say, before absolute strength, all manner of tricks are useless.
The maid turned around and removed a pistol from the strap of her thought and spun to fire on Dante while using her other hand to grab the doorknob and turn it. It was a swift and clever action, but futile.
Dante grabbed the incoming projectile from the snipe and then used his pinky finger to fire it at the maid. The moment she fired her silenced pistol that had a smaller tranquilizer in it, she was struck by the bigger one right where her heart was.
She only had a second to gasp before her eyes rolled back and she slumped on the floor. Dante then grabbed the one she fired at him and then activated his bionics slightly - only to a multiplier of 2x - before flicking it towards the sniper.
The sniper was still processing the sight of Dante grabbing his shot right in the middle of its flight and throwing it at someone else through his scope before he saw a smaller one rush at him faster than he could react.
It struck him right in the neck and he also fainted right there and then.
The lithe woman landed on the balcony and surveyed the room as if to know what to do next but only saw a collapsed maid by the door and no Dante. Immediately, her senses screamed that she was in danger and she tried to dodge to the side desperately.
However, she only managed to mobilize the thought when her neck was gripped by a pair of firm hands. Just as she was about to beg and try to delay the matter, Dante squeezed and brought his face near her earpiece.
"Tell your team leader to meet me by the sea. We ought to have a good and long chat." Dante whispered sinisterly.
He flicked the temple of the woman and knocked her out, he then held her easily on one hand like she was garbage and then picked up the maid using the other one. Dante activated his bionics and leaped through the wind to where the sniper was posted and grabbed him as well.
Dante stood on the roof of this high-rise building and looked down at the lit and bustling city below. His heart was surprisingly calm and unmoved, because this was the effect of having power, knowing the breadth of your power, and having the capability to mobilize it after training.
He then disappeared from where he stood as he manifested his exosuit and flew above the cloud layer towards the beach. The journey was short and not very pleasant for his passengers who were beaten by the wind pressure and the thin air up in the sky.
When Dante landed, he threw them to the floor casually, not caring about their life or death. After all, they would not survive the night anyway.
None of their team will.
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