Chapter 76 - Is This Goodbye?

Halia rushed out of the lab, holding onto her phone in a panic. When she finally got reception, she realized she had 10 missed calls from Sean that morning as well as some unread messages.

[Halia, are you OK?]

[Halia, were you at the deal?]

[Halia, what happened? Did you lie to me?]

Halia looked at the messages as she felt her eyes tear up. The messages weren't 100% clear, but she had a feeling she knew what happened.

Jackson had somehow tricked her into believing the deal was at a later time and snuck off to meet Remy on his own.

At that time, there was some commotion from the entrance of the karaoke bar as a team of police forced their way in, led by Sean. Since he couldn't contact Halia, he had a feeling she was still at the karaoke bar, but he wasn't sure if she was safe. When he saw her, he felt a sense of relief. He immediately rushed over and pulled the teary woman into his arms.

"You didn't know, did you?" he said.

"Where's Jackson?" Halia asked in shock.

"We were notified at 9am this morning that he had met with Remy at the cabin and undergone the bomb exchange. But, unbeknownst to us, Interpol and the Ministry of State Security had actually been following Remy Durand in secret for some time. It turns out, the French authorities had been hunting down Remy Durand for years and finally asked Interpol to step in and help them. So, the deal was interrupted halfway by a team of intelligence officers," Sean explained.

"What happened to Jackson?" Halia asked.

Sean felt a little uncomfortable that Halia kept asking about Jackson, but he knew she deserved to know what happened to the target that she had lost, "Jackson Wu, Remy Durand and Pierre Caron were officially apprehended by Interpol at 9:30am local time and they are due to be extradited back to France for trial."

"Back to France?" Halia asked in surprise.

"It turns out, Jackson holds a French citizenship and he's wanted for a few minor crimes in France. He wasn't a fugitive like Remy Durand, but the French authorities asked for him to be extradited too. They will be catching a flight out of China this afternoon," Sean explained.

Halia felt her heart break when she heard this. If he was being sent back to France for trial, was she going to ever see him again? She didn't even get a chance to say goodbye...

"I need to speak to him," she said as she stared into Sean's eyes.

"I'm sorry, Halia. He is with Interpol; it's completely out of our jurisdiction."

When Halia heard this, she collapsed on the floor and started crying.

Sean looked at the woman and felt his heart break. Why was she so upset? She had simply lost a target. At most, she had lost a friend.

Halia glanced at the bracelet on her wrist; the one that Jackson had made her. She should have tried harder to hold onto him. Did he lie to her because he had somehow seen through her? She then stood up. "Is my mission over now?" she asked between sobs.

Sean nodded his head curiously.

Halia then stood up and left without a word.

...

Meanwhile, at Beijing Capital International Airport, a team of officers were heavily guarding Jackson, Remy and Pierre as they waited for their flight in the terminal. There were still 2 hours until boarding and Jackson was getting a little restless. He didn't expect to be extradited back to France as a criminal; he didn't even get the chance to speak to Halia yet.

"Officer, I need to use the bathroom," Jackson grumbled as he leaned back lazily in his chair.

The head officer, stood up and grabbed Jackson. "Hurry up," he said as he dragged him towards the bathroom.

"Gently," Jackson complained.

"Get used to it, the prisons in France are going to be tougher than this," the officer smirked.

Jackson followed the officer into a disabled toilet that fit both of them. Obviously, the officer couldn't take his eyes off such an important criminal.

But...as soon as the door locked. The officer looked at Jackson, raised a hand to his head and saluted him with respect, "Sorry, Agent Wu, is something wrong?"

...

Over the past few days, Halia had gotten to know Max quite well and knew that he was in the process of opening a restaurant.

Filled with confusion and unable to contact Jackson, Halia decided to look for Max.

As expected, he was busily signing papers and giving instructions in the new restaurant.

"Max!" Halia cried when she saw the man, "Why did you lie to me? Jackson's being extradited. What's going to happen to him?"

Max quickly hugged Halia to comfort her. "Jackson didn't want you to get hurt or involved, so he asked me to lie to you," he answered. "Don't worry, he'll be fine. He always finds a way out of things," Max reassured.

However, Halia did not believe him. They were dealing with Interpol, not a local police station. Things did not look good.

At that moment, Max handed Halia a key, "Jackson said to give this to you if anything happened to him. It's the keys to his apartment. He said to keep it clean until he got back."

Halia looked down at the keys and frowned. Until he got back? When was he ever coming back?!