Heartbeats

Chapter 22 : Curious hearts

Sasha opened her eyes eagerly the next day.

The moment she woke up, she checked her email in the hopes that Gavril had something for her. True to his word, what awaited her were the documents she requested. They were all encrypted and sent from an untraceable source, as expected of the ever-so-careful Commander of hers.

The long list of notifications made Sasha a bit giddy and very happy. She opened the files and started decrypting them using the passkey that Gavril had given her last night before they parted.

The morning sun began to rise and filled the room with its warm sunshine, but Sasha didn't even notice it. She was already busy reading the files that had finished decrypting. With a glass pad on her hand, she did not care or notice the passing of time.

The knock on the door was the only sound that brought Sasha's mind back to the four corners of her room.

"Sasha? Are you there?"

Sasha looked at the door and to the window. The sun was up and she wondered how long had she been reading. She shrugged it off and went to the door. She opened it and saw August.

"Were you here the whole time?" August asked, "I thought you'd be working out when I woke up?"

Sasha slightly turned her eyes inside her room. She eyed the sinful pad that caused her to lose track of time. When her eyes went back to August, she looked down and could not seem to look at him straight in the eyes, "I was busy."

"I see." August said to fill in the dead air, "but you can't be too busy for breakfast."

"I guess." Sasha muttered, "I'll follow you in a minute."

The door then closed before August, and then he knew that he had no other choice but to wait for her to be ready.

Sasha went to the table after a few minutes. From the wetness of her hair, she had already taken a bath and was dressed in her usual casual wear.

Daniel had already eaten half of his plate when she arrived.

It was another bountiful breakfast with scrambled eggs and ham. August placed a cup of warm coffee beside Sasha's plate the moment she settled down on her seat. August had finished eating a long while ago and was now onto cleaning the pans he used.

"I heard you'll be going outside with August today." Daniel choked the words out. He really wanted to stop them, "be careful."

"This is me you are talking about. When am I not careful?" Sasha's voice felt like she stated the statement as fact.

Daniel just laughed.

"Bring my hunting knives just in case. You still can't use guns, right?"

"Don't make me sound like I'm weak without bullets. I have other means to survive."

"Survive..." August chuckled as he stood in front of the sink, "we're just going to pick plants and herbs outside. It's not like we'll be going on a mission."

Daniel nodded as August laughed. Both then looked at the girl and expected a response from like their usual banter. Yet, she did not respond. She just looked at her plate while she poked and probed the scrambled egg.

Sasha was distracted. The only thing she wanted to do today was to lock herself inside her room and study Gavril's files. Her mind was already wondering on to what those files contained. She already set up a queue to decrypt the files automatically and she was sure they'd be all done by the time she finished breakfast. She won't be meeting with Henry tonight so she still had time to prepare all the files before bothering him with clarifications and more information.