He stared at the message blankly, with several thoughts on his mind.
It could be a trap. It could be a setup. Which ever it was, he had to play it smart and not act irrationally.
'It's possible someone got hold of a transcribe and sent me this because a mission is never called off for any reason.'
So, for now, he would keep the message at the back of his mind while still trying to reach out to his commanding headquarters to confirm the information.
But as an undercover agent in another country, he was at a disadvantage if he was to believe every piece of information he received with the intention that it was from the capital.
"Where the hell is my walkie-talkie?!. I always forget where I keep that stuff." He grumbled, placing the transcribe back in its placement and heading towards his room to look for his walkie-talkie.
Arnold had been on several missions, and for no reason has he ever had to abandon the mission. Even when a knife was placed on his throat, he didn't have a choice to forfeit the mission.
It was either he died doing the mission or came back victorious to try again another day.
His commander always placed the command to their hearing, that no matter what happened, they should never abandon their mission to return to the capital.
The completion of the mission is their first priority, afterwards, supporting their country will come in line. But for no reason should they forfeit a mission and return unless they wanted to be killed for treason.
'So it doesn't make sense that he asks me to return to the capital. Does he think my mission has been completed?.' He guessed, still looking between his clothes and equipment.
After a long while of thoughts and thorough searching, he found his walkie-talkie, and like he expected, the battery was dead.
'Communication was banned to avoid the enemy tracing calls and signals to find us, hence the reason for me abandoning this, but now I need it, and I don't have a battery for it.' He sighed, tossing it onto the mattress of his bed.
Then, at that moment, a thought struck his cranium, and he immediately reached for the hotel phone and called the room service.
"Excuse me, but do you by chance have double A batteries in your store below? Or can you please help me check if they do have it?." He requested politely for better interaction and reply.
"We don't have, but I will tell someone to head over and check, sir. I will reach out to you when the person returns." The person in charge of the room service answered over the phone.
It was a lady, and her voice soothed his ear drums.
"Okay then, thank you a lot." He responded with careful words.
The call ended, and he placed the phone back on the caller.
"For now, I will continue planning for my ongoing mission until I hear from the capital. If there is no response, I will take it as a definite code red and return to the capital to have a look for myself." He scratched the hairs on his chin to ease the itch.
He walked back to the living room and sat back on the chair with the centre table placed before it, and his coffee still sat beside it, untouched.
'Right, my coffee. Don't want it getting cold, or it won't taste right anymore.'
Rubbing his eyes, he took a seat on the chair and yawned, stretching his body for a while before opening the bag and bringing out the coffee.
It was in an espresso cup, with a box of sugar accompanied beside it. Bringing out the next item, he found milk in it as well.
'They've grown to know my preference on how I like my coffee, that means I've stayed here too long.' He placed his folded fist on his lips and coughed.
"If this turns out to be false, I will have to change location immediately. These people have already started getting to know me a bit too much, and I can't stay here anymore." He contemplated when the room service phone started buzzing in his room.
He rushed over with the thought that it was the room service, but when he answered it, another voice spoke through the phone.
He didn't answer immediately. He waited for the voice to speak first like he always did, to avoid being tailed.
"Agent Arnold, return to your country. Your capital has been captured, and your help is needed in setting it free." The deep voice said slowly over the phone.
It seemed extremely calm, and also, for some reason, sounded like it knew him and where he currently was.
Arnold glanced out the window to see if anyone was watching, but there weren't any eyes or anything unusual.
"Keeping quiet won't help, but I've warned you already. Now you have to do the needful, or be ready to bear the consequences." The voice went deeper, like he was sitting on his stomach or has loss of air.
From his observations, the background noise showed the speaker was at a park. The children playing in the background, the noise of animals and birds chirping, and overall the sounds of a parent in the background.
Though the parents' voice wasn't loud, he could hear a tiny hint from the sound of the words she pronounced over the phone.
"Katy, we're at the south ver—-- park like you asked. Don't be so hasty, there are a lot of people here so you don't get lost" The parent at the background voiced while the speakers voice went silent for some seconds.
'A park with the pronunciation of ver,' he racked his brain to recall, but in the meantime, he answered the speaker with little words.
"Firstly, how do you know my name. Who I'm I speaking with, any birth name given to you?." He asked with a clear voice.
The speaker scoffed before chuckling loudly, enough for Arnold to hear.
"I am a well wisher, and my identity should remain anonymous. Until your new mission has been fulfilled, I will keep calling and informing you of several changes."
"Your only job is to save your capital from the impending doom looming over it, especially the activation of project holiday." the speaker whispered the last part, like he didn't want anyone else to know.
Arnold kept his cool because that name was only called within the capital, and only a few people used it.
"I see, I will confirm your information then. And stay safe at Vermin Park, you wouldn't want to get caught now, would you?" Arnold smirked, finally recalling where he heard the name of the park.
"I will, good luck." The speaker said lastly before ending the call.
One thing Arnold noticed before the speaker ended the call was that he panicked a bit at the mention of the park, which meant something, but he couldn't get his hands on it.
Another call came on the phone, and he answered it again, but this time, it was a call he was expecting.