Is this destiny?

~ Los Angeles, Cliffside Villa ~

On the sixth level underground, Sophia, JoAnna and Sarah are standing in front of an oversized iron-like door.

Sarah gave final reminder to her sisters before opening the door: "Don't forget, whatever you see in the room is not real. Don't try to pick up things or interact with them because that will expose that they don't exist. Rats will run away if you approach them, but the rest is static. Other than the prisoners and the fact that they are tied up to the floor, everything else is Virtual Reality. OK?"

"Prisoners?", Sophia was entertained by Sarah's choice of words.

Sarah shrugged. "How else would you call them?"

JoAnna was impatient to get in. "Come on. Now we are just giving them truth serum and it will take a minute or so to work."

"Oh, you improved it?", Sarah remembered that they needed to wait two to three minutes last time they used it.

JoAnna grinned in response and gestured to open the door.

Sarah opened the door and all three sisters grimaced.

"Close it!", Sophia almost screamed while holding her nose.

"What was that?", Sophia asked when the door was closed, and she took few steps back.

JoAnna didn't need to think before answering: "Someone defecated." After several years of working in the hospital, she has seen people in all kinds of unsanitary conditions. She turned to Sarah. "Improve ventilation… and probably add some drainage if you don't have any."

"Note taken… now what?" Sarah almost wept while thinking that she has some high quality equipment within those floor tiles. And now those scums relieved themselves… she can only hope that everything will be working fine after a good sanitizing scrub.

"I take back my offer to interrogate them." Sophia took few more steps back and waved her arms in front of her. "There is no way I'm going in there. It stinks."

"Wait… I got something…" JoAnna went through her bag and pulled a small box while explaining: "You attach it to the cartilage between nostrils, and it neutralizes odors while giving off a nice scent. I have… lavender, mint and spring breeze."

Sarah looked at JoAnna in awe. "You are prepared!"

JoAnna rolled her eyes. "I work in the hospital. You have no idea with what kind of stench I need to deal sometimes. I always have these handy, don't make a big deal of it. Now, which scent you want?"

…

Sisters put the odor-blockers from JoAnna on and headed inside.

After injecting four people with truth serum, they watched their frightened prisoners in silence.

The four people are mentally exhausted, hungry, thirsty, each of them relieved themselves at least once while fully clothed… they are stuck in a middle-age dungeon with rats and human bones. On top of all that now they have all three Milena's daughters standing in front of them and observing them silently. It's absolutely… terrifying.

The fact that JoAnna was glancing at the time every few seconds only made them tenser.

"We are sorry we tried messing with you!", Mari almost screamed and started sobbing.

JoAnna glanced at the time and shook her head while looking at her sisters. "It's still early.", she was referring to the time when truth potion becomes effective.

After another twenty seconds passed, JoAnna looked at Mari. "You were saying?"

"We are really sorry that we tried messing with you!", Mari repeated.

JoAnna gave a satisfying smile and gestured to Sophia to take over.

Sarah and JoAnna took two steps back and observed Sophia who circled around four people on the floor before standing directly in front of Lazo. She remembers that in the hospital others looked at him for decision making, so she knows that he is the leader.

"Who are you?", Sophia asked.

All four of them started talking at the same time, and Sophia had to shush them.

"Only he talks...", she pointed at Lazo. "…or we will release extra rats into this room!"

Four people shrunk. They definitely don't want more rats.

Lazo responded weakly: "Lazar Volkov."

"How about others?"

Lazo glanced sideways at his companions while speaking: "Pavle Volkov. Simo Volkov. Marina Volkov."

Sophia was slightly surprised. "You are a family?"

"We are all from the Volkov family, yes." Lazo confirmed.

Sophia remembered how in Russia it's common for females to take their husband's last name. Based on their last name, she can conclude that three men are blood related, while Mari could be either their relative who is not married, or she married in the Volkov family and took their last name.

Sophia thought how this is some form of a family business. "Tell me about your family."

Lazo spoke about members and the structure and many other things, but his words that got Sophia's attention are: "We are a branch family for Lebedev clan…"

"Lebedev? Tell me about them."

Lazo frowned slightly. This is the point he doesn't want to talk about. Not because of secrecy, but because he does not know much, and he is ashamed of that. As low ranking members of the branch family, they don't have much information about Lebedev family. "My knowledge of Lebedev's is limited. Our family reports to them. We get assignments and execute them. My team does not have high enough ranking to know about Lebedev family. We get assignments from our contacts in Volkov family."

Sophia listened to Lazo and thought how it's a pity that these are not higher up the food chain so that they can give them more information.

"Do you know about a person named King?"

Lazo nodded. "Everyone knows King. He is one of the big shots in Lebedev family."

Mari sneered at Sophia, unable to control herself. "Why are you asking us about Lebedev family? Shouldn't you know more than us?"

Sophia was confused by Mari's questions. "What do you mean?"

Mari answered in all-important-tone: "As Milena's daughters, shouldn't you know ins-and-outs of Lebedev family? After all, she is their star member, right? Everyone knows not to mess around with Milena, or her daughters." She glared at Lazo while speaking through her teeth: "And if not for this airhead's stupidity, we would not end up here!"

Sophia continued her questioning, and they concluded that these four don't know much more than that.

But Hill sisters still found out several very important facts. Their mother's name given at birth is Milena Lebedev. Their maternal family is the main family in a web of probably several dozen families. Branch families do errands and dirty jobs for the main family in return for resources and protection, and only high ranking members of branch families have access to information about the main family and other branch families. Lazo's team is low in ranking, so they get only information related to their missions. King is a big shot in Lebedev family, maybe an Elder.

They also found out that these four made their move to kidnap Sophia and beat up her husband (Felix) without an order from their superiors. They acted on their own with desire to prove themselves and rise within family ranks. Another useful information is that Lazo found out about Sophia coming to LA Medical Center from a nurse who works there, Mila Pavlovic.

Hearing name Mila Pavlovic made JoAnna sneer. She knows the woman as a friendly coworker and a capable nurse. And now she also knows her as a spy for Eastern European family who is watching them.

…

"Are you going to leave them like this?", JoAnna asked Sarah when three of them exited the room.

"What do you suggest?", Sarah responded with a question.

JoAnna thought for a second before saying: "We might have more questions for them later, but they should at least have a way to clean up and to drink some water."

"Eve!", Sarah called. "Start the rain shower in the VR room."

"That will work." Sophia approved Sarah's decision.. "Water to drink and to clean up at the same time."