Alberu hears multiple footsteps following him from behind. His pace sped up until everyone had arrived in the room. 

And the first thing they see is a monitor, showing Cale's movement.

"That's commander right?" Bud questions, stepping forward, scrutinizing. Bud got smack from behind his head. 

"Why are you asking something obvious huh? Of course it's commander!" Eruhaben withdrew the hand he had smacked Bud with. 

His eyes rolled at the same time, muttering inwardly; 'So obvious, still needed to ask?' If Bud can hear his thoughts, he would roll up his sleeves there and then. 

Bud ignores him. 

After a few seconds passed, the frame of Cale shrunk, and beside it put on view the same hair color of their commander. The features are identical but at the same time not. The man smiles.

"I did not expect you to rescue Cale Henituse."

"Nonsense." Choi Han snaps.

"Oh, chill Choi Han. He's not dead yet. See?" The man gestures a hand beside him. 

"Stop delaying, will you?" Witira impatiently asks, arms cross. 

The man shakes his head, a light chuckle escaping from his lips as if seeing their actions are funny to him. 

"Alright then. If you want to know where your commander is, you must shut up, okay?" The smile of the man is gone. 

"Cut me off one more time and the next thing you know, the location where Cale is would explode." 

That statement made them freeze. Heartbeat quickening at the sheer thought of their commander exploding because of their willful actions. 

They must not irritate the man. 

Something stuck in Alberu's throat. He could not swallow, fear befalling him. Cale dying? 

No. He won't make that happen. That's impossible. 

Cale Henituse will not die. Alberu would make sure of it. 

From the moment the culprit appeared, he knew him right away. 

Cale Barrow. 

The famous person who got dismissed from his position. This piece of information was widely spread at that time. Rumors circulating on why he got dismissed. 

Some say he caught the wrong culprit in his case, some say he had offended someone powerful and the last rumor was impactful: he was the reason why the subordinates under him were annihilated by the crime lord and he was the only one who remained alive from the operation. 

Rumors are rumors. Those cannot be trusted fully. String of words flows from one's lips to another. Taking out and adding some information. 

What really happened? He does not want to know. His main mission is to rescue Cale from their hands. That's it. 

"Such good seedlings you are. Pity you're not on our side." A sigh came out from his lips. 

"Let me introduce myself, alright? I am Cale Barrow, alias White Star, the head of the organization you are trying to capture." Barrow did not let this information sink in to them. 

Right away, he laid down his intention with no time to spare. He wants to finish this once and for all. 

"Crack the codes and you will find Cale there. You only have ten minutes to do this. If you can't, well, say goodbye to your Commander. I'll make sure to be present at his funeral." With a curt nod and lips curving upwards forming a smirk, the monitor turns into blue.

It flashes twice before the codes they need to decipher reveal on the monitor. 

The codes are:

E4 B5 E8 E7

B2 E6 B9 B12 B4 B9 M2 B7

30, 27, 21, 18…

C I R R U

101100

"What the fuck!" Bud cusses, huffing and eye twitching seeing the codes. 

Mary pinches the bridge of her nose, she stretches her arms and a loud cracking sound can be heard. No one speaks. 

"I'll do the bottom part. It's binary code, I know this." Lock comments fast. 

"Damn. Then I'll do the second code." Bud declares. 

"I'll do the third one." Mary volunteers. 

Many nod in agreement. The timer starts now. The countdown of ten minutes starts now. 

"Let's be quick." Alberu speaks, his full attention on the screen, focusing and thinking how they could crack the code and find Cale quickly. 

Everyone had eye contact at each other except for Alver, determination seeping in. 

Alver prays Cale is safe and can wait for them to rescue him. 

***

Barrow leans back on his chair exhausted. He rubs his temples with his fingers then tilts his head towards the window after. He watches the view for a while, his mood becoming better.

"Such nice weather to die." Barrow mutters in his swivel chair. 

A knock came out from the door, announcing his presence. 

"Come in."

The door opens, and Barrow asks a question to his subordinate. 

"Is she?" He did not elaborate further because his subordinate already knew who's he's asking for.

"Yes." His subordinate confirms. 

"How about the other three?" 

"They are safe and sound." 

"That's good." 

This time Barrow grins genuinely. Not the smile he flaunts to others, but the smile reserved only for one person who is dead already. 

"When I'm dead, they'll be the one who will carry on my legacy." 

"My liege, are you sure?"

Barrow hums, standing up, he runs a hand through his hair and smoothing his wrinkle clothes at the same time. 

"I am sure. Besides, it's time for me to pass it to them. I am tired." Barrow retorts walking towards the door and behind him, his subordinate follows in tow. 

His subordinate opens his mouth to try to convince Barrow however he did not have the chance to do so when Barrow started to talk.

"You can't convince me anymore. I am dead set on with my decision." 

His subordinate can only helplessly shut his mouth. 

They continue striding until they reach the secret passage they installed in the enormous room. It is divided into two and only separating them is a wall. 

In front of it, they both see Cale looking around again in the room he's in and after that, he dazely stare at the bomb in front of him. 

The other side of it is empty, only the mannequin and the same bomb like Cale has is inside. 

"Go. Leave me behind. I can handle this. Serve them well." Barrow waves off his subordinate. His subordinate half-bows to him. 

"Thank you for your sacrifice, my liege. This will be remembered." 

Barrow laughs it off, craning his neck to his direction, watching his subordinate walk away leaving him behind, alone.

He feels stuffy yet this must be done. His plan is almost complete and this is the last step before the curtains are drawn close. 

In preparation to step down from the play he had created and let the new generation handle the organization. 

Everything is under control on his palm. Not even his former partner knows this or the spy, Fredo, knows. 

A glint sparkles in his eyes and he whispers through the air his next words, that no one hears. 

"ARM will continue on even without me."

Because he had raised his heirs secretly, away from the prying eyes of their enemies. 

***

Nine minutes are left. That one minute, they listed down the codes they are assigned to. Beads of sweat slide down on everyone's forehead, as they continue being busy cracking the code. 

Alberu wipes his forehead, his eyes narrowing towards the paper he held in his hands. The alphabet is written on it. His glance flick to the direction of the monitor then back to the paper. 

Alberu, Choi Han, Rosalyn and Eruhaben are having a hard time deciphering the clue. At least, they came to a conclusion. First clue must be where the location of the building Cale is held hostage. 

Eruhaben had suggested it might be connected to the alphabet. So here they are, trying their hardest to think of the connection between the two. 

Lock had successfully decoded the binary code. He turns his head to Mary, leaning a bit to see her brows furrowed in concentration. He decides to let her be for a while before he would help. 

He takes multiple steps to reach Eruhaben, patting his shoulder for him to know he needs his attention. Alberu lifts his head up in time. 

"Did you finish decoding it?" He asks loudly. The others did not raise their heads up, occupied with the clue they are working on. 

Lock abandons Eruhaben, not needing his attention right now since their captain needs to know the progress of the clue. Morever, even he had pat Eruhaben on the shoulder, the man itself ignore it or he is just engross in solving. 

He does not mind, besides the faster everyone crack it, the faster they can save commander from the clutches of the organization. 

Taking long strides, he went up to his captain, a piece of paper is given to Alberu. 

"Captain, the binary code is 44. "

"44?"

"Hmmmm." Lock hums in answer. It is easy for him to decode this since he specialize too in computer. Binary code is the easiest from all the codes he had learned. 

Good thing he was taught by Cale hands on, if not, they will be struggling this time. The lesson still integrated into his mind courtesy of their commander. Trivial things and not trivial things are taught to them in the years they are in service. 

There are times he thought it was useless however, time to time, he was proven wrong. Commander never teaches something unnecessary, everything is necessary in their line of work. 

He mulls over the fact that commander had prepared so much. Does he ever think situations like this can happen? Might be. Since, currently, it came in handy. 

"Then, captain, I'll help the others." 

Lock moves and sit beside Mary. He starts to talk softly in which Mary responds, nodding her head along. 

Alberu took off his gaze from the duo and focus on the paper. 

44. What it can be? 

He concentrates in thinking. These codes given to them are connected. He is sure of this. Alberu needs more clue. 

Bud with a pen on his hand, writes something on the paper. His nose scrunches up, a thoughtful expression on his face. 

Math. A sequence. 

30, 27, 21, 18, 15, 12, 9…

Biting his lips, he tries remembering what had been taught to him in his school years. A moment, he needed a moment to sort of his messy thoughts. 

To concentrate more, he flutters his eyes close. His habit whenever he needs to think. He let himself remain calm and not let the surroundings disrupt his thinking. 

Then, it came. 

He immediately open his eyes, lips curving upwards and excitement rising within. Bud knows! 

Three. 

The numbers are multiples of three, additionally, after nine is three. So, he is sure the clue is three. 

"Captain!" Bud calls out. Alberu cranes his neck to Bud's direction, waiting for him to speak; full attention on him. 

Bud held up three fingers to Alberu, and speaks at the same time. 

"Three. The answer is three to the code." 

After saying the sentence he needs to say, Bud huddle over to Mary and Lock, having the responsibility to help his members out. 

Alberu cannot help himself but to pinch the bridge of his nose. Two out of four codes have been decipher. Two more, the location of where Cale might be is getting clear. 

44 and 3. In a sullen state, he thinks of this numbers. Cannot come up with possible answer with only this two numbers, Alberu thinks over something he disregarded. 

He knows, in this large scale of land, there are abandon buildings and houses. From his observation on stepping foot on this land, Cale must be inside in one of the infrastructure but which?

Thinking in this perspective, the number 44 might be the room number. Relief washes over him. At long last, even it is just one thought of process, he finally got it. 

Next thing Alberu needs to do is to think what 3 might be.

Mary knew the alphabet is require to solve this. She had listed down the letters on the paper, tapping the pen in her hand as she consider what is the line connected between it. 

She tilts her head towards Bud when a thought came into her mind. 

"What clue did you got?" 

"Three. Why? Did you thought of something?" Bud inquires. Both he and Lock gives their full attention on Mary. 

"Hmmmm, I think I know what the answer is. Wait, let me just." She did not finish her next words. Action speaks louder that words. 

Bud and Lock stare at the piece of paper. They did not see anything because Mary has written so fast their eyes cannot keep up. The duo even sees after images of hand movements from Mary. 

Lock getting dizzy from watching avert his gaze and sees the timer. 

Six minutes left. Four minutes were consumed already. Lock took a deep breathe. It is not the time to panic. 

Three. If thinking C similar to a decimal point, Mary moves it towards the left reaching the letter F. To the letter I, she did the same and got L. 

FL

There are two letter R, this indicates they are the same letter. Doing the same thing she had done, she obtains the letter O.

FLOO

The last letter does not necessary require to decipher anymore. Obvious, so obvious right at the moment. 

It is R.

FLOOR. The word Mary attained. 

"Captain, I obtain the word Floor." Mary states, a bright expression painted on her face. Her lips quirking up in faint joy. 

Enlightment descends unto Alberu. He got it. Finally, he can piece the three clues together. 

44

3

Floor

He follows the format at the time they were given the code.

3

Floor

44

3rd floor, room 44. 

"We only need to know which building Cale is in. Rosalyn, are you guys almost finish solving it?"

"Yes, captain. Give us one minute. We are almost half way there."

Eruhaben had said the E, B, and M are letters that indicate something. 

Choi Han had suggested E must be End, B is beginning, and M is middle. 

Thinking in this direction, A to L is the beginning, M and N is the middle, and P to Z is the end. Her hand move fast until the trio ulimately arrive to the answer. 

"West Building." The trio raise their heads in a sychronize manner, the other three also stare at their captain.

Piecing the clues together, Alberu reaches the outcome. The location of Cale is right in front of him. 

"West building, 3rd floor, room 44." Alberu announces, getting up and rushing towards the door.

The others come after Alberu, hot in his heels. Their footsteps urgent until they reached where the others were waiting for the Ancient Oldies. 

The timer they had not have the leisurely to look at, stops at two minutes. 

Barrow who is vigilant to their movements sees it on the mobile phone he held in his grasp. 

"Not bad." He praises. 

Barrow patiently waits for them to arrive.