The Alchemists

"Sir?" Pavel's question moved Alaric from his reverie.

Alaric then shook his head in a tired voice, "No need, just Mischa and Kai is enough."

He had disbanded Rhionen Assassins anyway, and so he did not want to further involve them in his personal life. If he now encountered mysterious and dangerous enemies, he should not sacrifice and destroy their lives for his mistakes.

Takeshi and Rosalien were already involved, while Kai and Mischa had arrived in Singapore. After all, the four people were not just his regular assassins, they also were his foster children. Before he founded Rhionen Industries, he had traveled all over the world and took on many assignments with Rhionen Assassins.

The earth was his home and the sky was the roof. It was during his journey that he met several new members of the assassin whom he later recruited as his crew, and that included the four impressive young children he rescued.

He saved Takeshi in Japan from amidst a war between two yakuza groups. Takeshi's entire family had been slaughtered and the child would have faced the same fate if Alaric hadn't been around. With his survival instinct and thirst for revenge, Takeshi begged Alaric to take him and he would swear his loyalty forever.

When Alaric saw Takeshi's determined pair of eyes, he was reminded of himself when he was the child's age and his gentle heart was touched. Takeshi had been with him for almost 20 years and had always kept his word.

Kai was his foster son from Korea who nearly drowned when his family failed to escape the clutches of the North Korean government. Mischa was rescued when he almost died, tortured by his alcoholic parents in Lithuania.

And lastly, Rosalien, was the hard-headed little girl from New York, who had lived many years on the streets and was not afraid of anything, including death, shown when she bravely faced a gang of thugs who wanted to rape her. Alaric passed by at the right time and saved the girl and took her under his wings.

Alaric saw himself in the four children and he loved them because they gave him family. But until now, he always kept his distance because he knew that he should not be too close to anyone, because they were all ordinary people who would one day die and leave him behind.

Only for Aleksis was he willing to open his heart, because the girl was very stubborn in loving him and she never gave up.

He really missed Aleksis.

***

Pavel made sure that Takeshi was not followed and there were no trackers on his body. Only then he took the young man to Alaric's place. When Alaric saw his foster son in such a pathetic condition, he could not hold himself and hugged Takeshi worriedly.

Takeshi briefly explained what had happened. Alaric tried to think about people who might be connected to the mysterious group who had held Takeshi captive.

"Did Sisqo get any clues?" he asked Pavel. His assistant just shook his head.

"Not enough clues."

"Hmmm ... but what is clear is that one of your captors are Billie Yves's security chief, so she must have something to do with those people, or at least someone close to her." Alaric said again. "I want all information about Billie Yves."

Pavel brought his tablet and showed Alaric all information he had about Billie Yves collected by Sisqo. Alaric scanned the information quickly and his gaze fell on the photograph of Billie Yves and her boyfriend, Jean Pierre Wang, taken last year before they decided to separate.

These two people were too charming, and their appearance looked too young for being in their 40's.

Ordinary people might be deceived by their statements that they were on a strict diet and exercise plan, or even numerous gossip that both of them underwent many plastic surgeries.

However, Alaric already knew the secret of the Alchemists who could live forever, and he now knew that there were people like him out there. These two people might be Alchemists.

He studied the picture, then looked at the next pictures attentively. He noticed that aside from having different hair color and style, both Jean and Billie never actually aged.

Were these two Alchemists too?

Were the people who captured Takeshi and were now targeting Rhionen Assassins people from the Alchemist clan? If so ... who? What were their goals?

Alaric remembered that Kurt Van Der Ven worked for the Schneider family ... Were these people using Aleksis to target the Schneider family because of the relationship between the Van Der Ven family and that family?

He could not let anyone make Aleksis a pawn in their game. He must save the girl and take her far away.

"Where are Billie and Jean now?" Alaric asked later.

"They stay at the Continental Hotel," Pavel said.

They were all aware that the Continental Building was one of the buildings with the best security in the world. That was also the reason they chose to have an office there. Now that he knew a little about the Alchemist community, Alaric had heard enough about the Schneider family and now he understood why the Continental Hotel was very safe.

It would be difficult for them to penetrate it. He had to think of other ways to meet the two men and find out what their relationship was with Aleksis.

"Uhm ... Sir, there's one more piece of information ..." Pavel showed a news article on Splitz about Billie Yves's concert in Singapore and Alaric was immediately interested in seeing Terry's picture in the crowd. He recognized Terry from various photos he had seen when he was with Aleksis. He remembered that Aleksis had mentioned Terry as her brother.

He must meet Terry and find out what had happened. Who exactly took Aleksis and what they wanted!

"Look for Terry Chan and bring him to me," Alaric said, observing Aleksis' photo with Terry and Nicolae on campus. He wanted to know where Nicolae was as well.