The trip took a few hours. Soren had spent his time gazing at the Norwegian scenery he loved so much, and Akyo, meanwhile, was lost in his thoughts.
They finally arrived in the surroudings of Bergen, the helicopter landed for a few minutes while they got out. When they had both disembarked, Akyo waved to the pilot, and the helicopter took off to return to the base.
"Hello?"
A voice came from Akyo's earpiece. "Hello Nicolo? Can you hear me?"
"Yes, no problem."
"Who is he talking to?" Soren wondered. Akyo held out his hand to him, and in his palm was a small device. Soren grabbed it and examined it. Akyo motioned with his hand for him to put it in his ear. So Soren placed the small black object in it, and he heard:
"Is he wearing it now?"
"Yeah, it's on," Akyo replied. He looked at Soren. "You can talk, he'll hear you," he explained.
Soren tried, "Hello?"
"Ah, there we go! So, how was the trip?"
"Pretty nice," Soren answered.
"Great. Alright, Akyo, I sent you the location of your hotel. Gellahan should arrive in the city soon. He has a reservation in a well-known hotel in town. Yours is right next to it, and way less nice."
While Nicolo was talking, Akyo received a message on his phone containing where they needed to go.
"I got everything. We'll head out. We'll get back in touch later."
"No problem, see you soon, guys."
The transmission cut. "Shall we go, then?" Soren asked.
"Yeah," Akyo replied briefly. They started walking, and a little ten minutes later, they entered the city and headed for their hotel.
They arrived in front of a tall, black building. "Wow, that's creepy," Soren thought. "We're sleeping here?"
"Apparently" Akyo replied, also surprised by how sinister the place looked.
They went inside and reached the reception desk. "Good evening, we have a reservation under the name Akyo."
The man at the desk was slumped in his chair. He slowly raised his head toward Akyo. "Ok."
'Ok?' Akyo thought. "Would it be possible to get, maybe, the keys? To the room, I mean?"
"Ah, yeah" The man stretched out his arm under the counter. Even that slight movement seemed like a real effort for him. He searched with his hand for a good twenty seconds. Neither Soren nor Akyo dared speak, both of them embarrassed by the situation. The man finally grabbed the keys and put them in front of Akyo, without saying a word.
Akyo took the keys and headed toward the room number written on them.
'He couldn't have found a better hotel?' Soren thought as he followed him.
Akyo arrived at a room and went inside, Soren closed the door behind him. It was a very small room, with a bed and a bathroom.
"We're going to sleep here?" Soren asked. "There's only one bed, and it's really not big."
"That won't be a problem. We should avoid sleeping at the same time anyway, to make sure we don't miss a transmission."
"I see. Can I start? I'm not tired at all."
"No problem. Wake me up in the middle of the night, I'll take your place," Akyo replied.
He set his things down, lay on the bed, closed his eyes, and drifted into his thoughts before falling asleep.
The night went by normally. Around 2 a.m., Soren and Akyo switched places, and he kept watch until early morning.
It was about 8 a.m. when Soren woke up. Akyo was sitting on the floor. "Did we get anything?" Soren asked quietly, his voice still sleepy.
"Nothing at all for now. Get ready, we never know when something might come in," Akyo said.
"Okay" Soren replied. He got up, put his clothes on, and sat back on the bed.
Neither of them spoke for several minutes. 'Should I talk to him?' Soren wondered. 'I'd like to know more about him, but I'm not sure he wants to talk about that kind of stuff.' Soren hesitated for a moment, then made up his mind. He turned toward Akyo and asked, "Say, you never talk about yourself. Would it be possible to know more about your pas—"
"Hello? Can you hear me?"
Soren was cut off by a transmission from Nicolo. "Yes, we hear you," Akyo announced.
'I'll ask him another time,' Soren thought.
"Perfect. It looks like things are starting to move on Gellahan's side. Get ready to follow him. Don't lose sight of him, alright?"
"We'll do that," Soren replied. He was looking out the window toward the hotel where Gellahan was staying, located across from them. Soren saw a man walk out of the building's grounds. "Isn't that him?" he asked, pointing at the man.
Akyo looked as well. "Yeah, I think it is we'll be able to follow him, looks like." While he was speaking, Soren had already opened the window wide. "What are you planning to—?" Soren jumped out of the window, several meters above the ground. 'Good thing we were told not to get noticed' Akyo sighed before jumping out after him.
They followed Gellahan, who was strolling through the streets of the city early in the morning. They kept a reasonable distance so as not to raise suspicion.
"Where is he going like that?" Soren asked.
Around them, several groups of people were walking in the same direction, and the number of people kept increasing.
"Is it normal for so many people to follow him?" Soren asked.
"Don't tell me…" Akyo thought as he pulled out his phone. "That's it" he confirmed. "It's almost 9 a.m."
"And what does that mean?"
"The famous Bergen Fish Market is about to open. Gellahan's going to treat himself, it seems. And all the people around us are probably going there too," Akyo explained.
"All these people? But there will be a huge crowd. How are we going to follow him?"
"I don't know, but maybe it's a good thing. I can use the crowd to stick the bug on him," he said, holding the tiny device in his hand.
—----
"What is all this crowd?" Soren wondered, having never seen so many people in one place at once.
"From what I know, it's a very famous market that has existed in the city since 1276. And I think this time of year is when it attracts the most people," Akyo explained. He had apparently had to research the city the first time he had come here.
Gellahan began to slip into the crowd. Akyo grabbed Soren's arm. "We can't lose sight of him." He pulled Soren with him into the crowd.
"I don't need you to drag me like that," Soren snapped, pulling his arm free from Akyo's grip. He started following again, but the more time passed, the farther he got from Akyo, until he couldn't see him at all. "Damn it, I totally lost him"
Akyo kept following Gellahan. "I need to get close enough to stick the bug on him," he thought, struggling through the crowd, trying to catch up to Gellahan. Akyo moved forward with difficulty, squeezed among the people around him. "All these people just for fish" he grumbled internally while weaving between bodies.
Then he saw Gellahan stop in front of a stand. "This is the moment!" he thought, and hurried even more than before. "Just a bit closer" He was getting nearer and nearer, until he finally managed to lightly place the bug on Gellahan's shoulder with his fingertips. Feeling someone tap his shoulder, Gellahan turned around and asked:
"Yes? Do we know each other?"
'Damn' Akyo thought. "Oops, I'm really sorry, I mistook you for a friend. Really sorry," Akyo said, not being a very good liar at all. 'Please let him believe it' Soren prayed mentally.
"No problem, young man. Have a good day," Gellahan replied briefly before walking off.
'We got lucky' Akyo thought before looking in the direction where he thought Soren was. "Wait, where is he?" He realized they had lost each other. "Damn it, I have to go find him, but we'll lose Gellahan." he sighed, "Worst case, Nicolo will locate him," he thought before going to look for Soren.
Soren, meanwhile, was also trying to find Akyo. "Where did he go?" he muttered. "This isn't pos—"
He stopped as he bumped into someone. He bent down and offered a hand to the young woman who had fallen. "I'm really sorry," he said.
She patted her blue and white dress. "No, I'm really sorry, it's my faul—" she began, raising her head before suddenly freezing. She stared at Soren, wide-eyed. Her expression was filled with fear.
When Soren looked at her, he realized he had seen her before, and this woman clearly remembered him too, betrayed by the terror on her face.