The silence in Ayn's office was ultimately broken by her sigh itself.
"Alright. I'll allow you to meet him. I won't let him leave the cell, though. You can take a laptop to his cell and have him help you."
She stopped using her powers. Xander also stopped at the same time.
"He would not help you for no reason, though," She muttered as she placed her fingers on her chin.
"Leave that to me. I'll handle that. All you need to do is let me enter his cell and turn off the cameras for as long as I'm inside," Xander said with a subtle smile on his face.
"Alright."
Ayn tapped a button that was on her table while she simultaneously opened a drawer, bringing a laptop out of it.
"One of my men will take you to the cell. I will turn off the cameras from here after you get in the cell. Here, you can use this laptop. It has a masked ID; the Military won't be able to track it even if they find the hack," She said as she gave Xander the laptop.
"I appreciate it."
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
"Come on in."
The door opened, revealing a black-clothed man.
"You called for me, Captain?" the man asked Ayn.
"Yeah, Take Captain Xander to Drak's cell. He needs to talk to him in private. No one will disturb him inside the room until he comes out of his own," Ayn commanded the man, who nodded in return.
Xander left the room, following behind that black-robed man.
...
After walking through the long corridors of the floor, Xander soon reached a lift and entered it with the black-clothed man who in turn pressed a number in the lift.
The lift started going down and only stopped as it reached a certain floor.
As the door opened, the two of them stepped out of the lift together.
The black-robed man escorted Xander to the cell where a person known as Drak was being kept. The cell had a large iron door with no opening to stop anyone from looking outside or inside.
The dark-clothed man pressed a code on the number pad, placed beside the door while simultaneously using his other hand to give his fingerprint on a different machine.
Beep...
After the process was completed, the door unlocked with a beeping sound.
"You can go in now. I'll wait outside," the Dark Haired man told Xander.
Pushing the metallic door open, Xander stepped inside.
The door was closed behind him to give Xander privacy.
...
A man who looked like he was only in his 20s was lying on a bed, with one of his legs resting above another. He had a book in his hand and reading glasses on his face which made him look like a studious youngster.
The youngster glanced at Xander but didn't stand up.
Looking at his face and the naive look he had, no one could have guessed that he was actually a Knight class Variant who Awakened with a physical ability that had annoyed the heck out of APF once upon a time.
After his awakening, the man called Drak realized that he was able to hack things as long as he had a laptop in his hands. He had hacked the database of many government organizations and leaked them to the public just for the fun of it. No amount of encryption could keep him out.
At first, people used to think that the hacker was a normal human with a good brain but only later was it exposed that it was actually a Variant.
Since this matter involved some high-profile people, the Beta team of APF personally handled it. After plenty of effort and a decent amount of time spent on this case, Ayn and her team managed to catch Drak. It had only been a month since Drak was caught.
"Who might you be? It's the first time I'm seeing you," Drak asked lazily. "Are you the new food delivery guy?"
"I am Xander Blake from the Delta Team. I came here because I need your help. I want you to hack into a government database for me and get me a video," Xander told Drak as he stood before him.
"Is this a joke? You guys imprisoned me for hacking, and now you want me to do the same for you?" Drak inquired in disbelief. "I am beyond shocked at this hypocrisy."
Drak rolled his eyes as he snorted. He didn't even look at Xander.
"It is really important. The future of the world might depend on this one hacking of yours," Xander insisted.
Drak looked towards Xander again, noticing the seriousness in his eyes.
"Alright. I'll do it, but on one condition," he said. "You must do something for me in exchange."
"What do you want in exchange?"
With a cheeky smile, Drak finally sat up and slid to the edge of the Hard Mattress.
With his legs hanging from the bed, he said, "You must get them to drop all the charges on me and let me walk out of here like an innocent man."
"APF should be able to do that if they want to save the world," he added.
Xander didn't even take a moment before he shook his head, rejecting that request right away.
"I can't do that. This is not under our control. As I said, I'm from the Delta Team, and you're in the Custody of the Beta Forces. The charges have already been filed, and this thing is in the eyes of higher-ups already. It's impossible to drop your charges, and it's even impossible to let you walk out of here."
"Why should I care then? If I'm going to spend the rest of my life in a cell, then I might as well have it end soon and let the world be destroyed," Drak chuckled as he shook his head. "Go away. I don't want to help you."
Xander didn't like the response, but he didn't get angry. He placed his hand inside his pocket and brought a picture out.
"Really? So you don't care about your sister and your mother?"
