~ Los Angeles, LA Medical Center ~
Tuesday
Sarah and Aiden were in Vasily's VIP room, discussing their status and next steps related to the Council.
Vasily's condition was stable but unchanged. That was a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. Good, because the surgery was successful. Bad, because he didn't wake up.
"This whole plan is based on the assumption that Akter Kim is dead.", Aiden said with concern in his voice.
Sarah agreed. "True. But even if he is not dead, he is hiding. Or maybe a captive. In any case, Albert is holding onto his medallion secretively. We already know that Albert's closet is full of skeletons, this is just one of them."
Aiden looked at Sarah and his lips slowly lifted into a smile. He loved their plan. And he loved even more that Sarah accepted to pull the strings from the background instead of going to the frontline herself. He wondered if this change is because of her pregnancy, or because she turned less impulsive with age (and experience).
Aiden was proud while thinking about what Sarah achieved with the Army of Chaos, from founding it, to growing it, fending off enemies, forging alliances... but he felt guilty as well. He fell into a coma for more than three months, leaving Sarah to shoulder her (and his) problems on her own.
He was supposed to learn his lesson, be more careful, pay attention to security, but then he got kidnapped and Sarah had to cross the world in order to find him... and she was pregnant.
Instead of protecting Sarah and sharing her burden, Aiden ended up adding on top of it. He was not sure if he could ever forgive himself. As part of making it up to Sarah, Aiden vowed silently to support her always.
"What do you think Albert is doing now?"
Sarah's question pulled Aiden out of his thoughts.
"What is he doing?", Aiden repeated. "Do you want to see?"
Sarah's eyes widened. "We can?"
Aiden smiled smugly and typed on his laptop like a lightning before turning it toward Sarah to see a video feed from Albert's office.
"You tapped in the security system of Switzerland's government?"
"It can't be traced.", Aiden said confidently.
Sarah looked at him with eyes full of adoration. "Sometimes I forget how awesome you are. My mighty Omega…"
His proud expression told her that he soaked in her words, every sound of them. Ah, Aiden always had a big ego, but he also has the skills to back it up.
Sarah leaned on Aiden who happily wrapped his arms around her as they watched Albert nervously issuing orders to his assistants from his office in Bern.
Albert's usual arrogance was gone, and the stress from the events of the previous few days was visible.
In the documents that were hidden in Albert's residences, Sarah and Aiden discovered that Albert was concealing incriminating information about his competitors, forcing them to be his supporters.
Sarah and Aiden contacted those people, informing them that they have their hands on that evidence and that it will be destroyed. Out of fourteen people they contacted, Sarah and Aiden confirmed that five started anti-Albert campaigns, damaging his reputation and eating away his power.
The public outrage was imminent as Albert's supporters turned hostile and started cursing him.
Albert is at his wit's end. When his properties were robbed, he thought that Sarah was behind the attacks, but now that the number of his enemies increased, he was not so sure anymore. Those people would never associate themselves with the Army of Chaos.
Aiden's eyes flashed with malice and he had a content smile on as he observed Albert.
Aiden will not allow anyone to scheme against Sarah and get a free pass.
Albert openly showed ill will toward Sarah, and if they don't take care of the problem completely, Albert would be a ticking bomb.
Sarah and Aiden didn't worry about Rance enough to make a move against him right away.
Rance is a greedy man, without the guts to act against Sarah. Albert instigated Rance to plan the attack against Sarah's mines, tempting him with collaboration, but now that Albert was too busy salvaging his career, Rance's part of the plan was put on hold.
That doesn't mean that Sarah and Aiden will leave Rance to do as he pleases. Rance is observing Albert's situation and trembling in fear because he has a strong hunch that he will be next. And he is not wrong about it.
"Why are you doing this here?", JoAnna grumbled as she entered Vasily's room to check on him.
"Are you saying that we are disturbing the patient?", Sarah asked sarcastically.
JoAnna smiled apologetically. "Sorry. A habit." She looked at Vasily. "I guess you should disturb him if it will get him to wake up."
JoAnna was looking at the monitors which showed brain activity. The steady curve indicated that his brain was working, but it was even and repetitive, a signal that it's doing something on auto-pilot without processing the events around him.
"When do you think he will wake up?", Sarah didn't want to ask IF he will wake up.
JoAnna shook her head and looked at Sarah. "I don't know, Sarah. No one does. You should probably do your business in the base instead of here. It could be today, or tomorrow, or next week, or next year, or…"
"How about now?", Aiden asked with his eyes glued on the monitor.
"Ah?", JoAnna followed his gaze and her eyes flashed in surprise when she saw that the curve changed pattern.
Sarah was next to Vasily's bed in an instant. "Is he waking up? Uncle? Vasily? Can you hear me?" She grabbed his hand. "Do you feel this? Can you move your fingers?"
JoAnna placed her hand on Sarah's shoulder. "Easy… easy… calm down. This is progress, but it doesn't mean that he is waking up."
Sarah's excitement dwindled. She knew that any change doesn't mean it's getting better. He could have bursts of activity and then go back to this steady nothingness, but Sarah couldn't stop herself.
After so many weeks of no improvement, this was something. Unless… "He is not worse, is he?"
"No. The curve would flatten with lower activity, and this is definitely increased…", JoAnna's voice trailed. "Sarah? Did you do something?"
Sarah didn't understand. "Huh?"
"You let go of his hand."
Sarah was not sure what to do. Was that a bad thing? She grabbed Vasily's hand again.
JoAnna's eyes lit up. "Look, the activity is increasing. He is responding to your touch."
"HA!", Sarah exclaimed and gave Vasily's hand a squeeze. "Uncle! Do you feel this? It's Sarah! Do you hear me? Wake up!"
JoAnna frowned at Sarah. Why was she shouting? "You can't just order a comatose patient to…"
JoAnna stared at the monitors which started showing activity. Even the heart rate monitor increased the frequency of beeping.
"Yell at him again…", JoAnna said to Sarah without removing her eyes from the monitors. "If anyone can pull this man back to life, that would be you."
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