Chapter 382.
<strong>Chapter 382. Operation: Brainjack, Phase 2; Luring out the Brain (8/10)</strong>
<span style="font-weight:400">Vrrr. Vrrr. Vrrr.
<span style="font-weight:400">What the hell?
<span style="font-weight:400">Ten minutes had passed and I froze when I felt the vibrationsing from my pocket.
<span style="font-weight:400">I reached in and slowly pulled it out. It was a call.
<span style="font-weight:400">The caller was… Malory’s boyfriend.
<span style="font-weight:400">However, it wasn’ting in on Malory’s phone. It wasing in from one of the two she killed.
<span style="font-weight:400">I gulped and answered the call in dead silence while holding my breath.
<span style="font-weight:400">“...”
<span style="font-weight:400">“...”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... Diablo, you there?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah, boss.” I did my best to impersonate his voice.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? You sound a bit weird.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I’m a little sick.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I see... Anyway, I just wanted to verify something. You’re with Malory and Salem, right?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah. Why?” As expected, he was able to verify their current locations through their phones.
<span style="font-weight:400">“The person she’s caught, is it really who she ims it is?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes, it is.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Really?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes. There’s no doubt about it.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Mmmmm! Mmmmmm!”
<span style="font-weight:400">“What was that?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“We had to duct tape her mouth shut. She’s acting up and being loud.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I see. I want you and Salem to get out of there, now.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Howe?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You’re questioning my orders?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“No… it’s just… hehe, was hoping to get a piece of that ass…”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Don’t even think about getting near her. Top-quality goods like her are reserved for me and me alone.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Stingy bastard, you could at least share a little.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“What was that?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Nothing.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“It better be nothing.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Fuck, if I can’t have any, I’m going home. Might as well pick up a girl along the way and get my dick wet. This boner’s not gonna deal with itself.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You haven’t touched her, have you?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Of course not, I was waiting for you. Hehehe, maybe I should get a quick sample in before I go though.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“If you touch her before I get my hands on her, I’ll murder you. She’s mine.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Tsk.”
<span style="font-weight:400">He one-sidedly cut off the call after leaving me with that threat.
<span style="font-weight:400">My hand was shaking by the end of the call.
<span style="font-weight:400">That was… such a big gamble.
<span style="font-weight:400">He… seriously called one of hisckeys. He didn’t trust Malory even after the picture and audio recording I sent. If I hadn’t brought their phones, what would have happened?
<span style="font-weight:400">There were only about eight minutes left until he arrived.
<span style="font-weight:400">I turned on my two-way radio and asked, “Are you there?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah. I’m here. It’s about time you contact me.” Rosa grumbled over the radio.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Did something happen?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“No. We’re still good on our end. What about your end?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“He should be here in about eight minutes ording to the ETA he gave. Keep an eye out for him on the cameras.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“If we’re going with n A, when he’s almost at the door, I’m going to turn off the radio again.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Okay.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Currently, it was 11:40 PM. Time had really flown by.
<span style="font-weight:400">It was already almost the next day.
<span style="font-weight:400">Would I live to see it?
<span style="font-weight:400">I couldn’t help but ask myself that question.
<span style="font-weight:400">The seconds ticked by slowly.
<span style="font-weight:400">One minute.
<span style="font-weight:400">Two.
<span style="font-weight:400">Three.
<span style="font-weight:400">Four.
<span style="font-weight:400">Five.
<span style="font-weight:400">My heart was racing faster than ever despite how I tried to keep it in check.
<span style="font-weight:400">Six.
<span style="font-weight:400">I could hear my ragged breaths.
<span style="font-weight:400">Seven.
<span style="font-weight:400">“He’s arrived outside. He… really came alone… He should be up there in five minutes.”
<span style="font-weight:400">The time I’d been counting up toward suddenly transformed into a five-minute countdown.
<span style="font-weight:400">I could distinctly feel the cold sweat on my back soaking my clothes.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Four minutes.” Rosa counted out.
<span style="font-weight:400">A tingly sensation ran down my spine and rolled across my skin in waves.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Three minutes.”
<span style="font-weight:400">All the hair on my body stood up on ends.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Two minutes.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I had goosebumps.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hah… hah… hah… hah. Hah. Hah. Hah. HAH. HAH. HAH.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“One minute.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I’m cuttingmunications.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Roger that. Good luck.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I turned the radio off and held my breath.
<span style="font-weight:400">Perspiration umted on my forehead and slowly trickled down the side of my cheek and dropped onto the cor of the shirt I had on.
<span style="font-weight:400">It felt like everything around me was going dark. The only thing I could see was in front of me.
<span style="font-weight:400">I had the keychain in my left hand and the gun in my right.
<span style="font-weight:400">Holding my breath, the sound of my heartbeat was very distinct. And I could hear it growing even faster.
<span style="font-weight:400">Ba bump...
<span style="font-weight:400">Ba bump...
<span style="font-weight:400">Ba bump…
<span style="font-weight:400">Ba bump. Ba bump. Ba bump. Ba bump.
<span style="font-weight:400">BA BUMP BA BUMP BA BUMP BA BUMP BA BUMP BA BUMP.
<span style="font-weight:400">It was out of control.
<span style="font-weight:400">I felt lightheaded.
<span style="font-weight:400">I slowly exhaled out and took in my final breath.
<span style="font-weight:400">Everything suddenly stopped.
<span style="font-weight:400">My mind nked out.
<span style="font-weight:400">No, it became clear.
<span style="font-weight:400">I rxed the stiffened muscles in my body and closed my eyes.
<span style="font-weight:400">Knock. Knock. Knock.
<span style="font-weight:400">Those three knocks echoed out loud and clear like three powerful war drums inside my head.
<span style="font-weight:400">They signaled the beginning of the end.
<span style="font-weight:400">If I were writing a story and the end of a volume was this very moment, this would no doubt be the perfect ce to end it on a cliffhanger.
<span style="font-weight:400">But, this wasn’t a story I was writing. This was real life. Time would neither wait nor freeze for me like it would in a story. I couldn’t make corrections. What happened here, happened.
<span style="font-weight:400">I pressed the button on the keychain.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Come in, the door’s open.” Malory’s voice came from inside the living room.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Mmmm mmmmm mm!” That too was Malory, but he didn’t know that. From his perspective it was Ang.
<span style="font-weight:400">I opened my eyes.
<span style="font-weight:400">The door slowly creaked open as a man chuckled and stepped inside, “Hehehe, you shouldn’t leave the door unlocked like that when you’ve got such a valuable guest over. What would you do if some uninvited rats snuck in, Malory?”
<span style="font-weight:400">Was he being serious? Or was that a joke? I couldn’t tell since I was really hiding like a rat right now.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Mm m mmmm!” Malory had continually been trying to warn him, but her attempts were futile. In fact thanks to her, he’d quickly shut the door behind him to avoid the muffled cries for help from leaking out the room. He couldn’t see Malory in the chair either since the living room was around a corner.
<span style="font-weight:400">“That’s not good at all. Hehehe, we can’t wake the neighbors.”
<span style="font-weight:400">From the other side of the wall I was hidden behind, I heard him take a step. The second I saw his figure I didn’t hesitate at all.
<span style="font-weight:400">I raised the gun up in dead silence, took aim… and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
<span style="font-weight:400">Pew.
<span style="font-weight:400">Not once.
<span style="font-weight:400">Pew.
<span style="font-weight:400">Not twice.
<span style="font-weight:400">Pew.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Ahhh!”
<span style="font-weight:400">But three times in rapid session.
<span style="font-weight:400">With the suppressor on, it barely made a sound when the three bullets exited the barrel. At most, it was as loud as a stapler.
<span style="font-weight:400">The instant the bullets hit him from behind, his body fell forward and he copsed face-first onto the ground.
<span style="font-weight:400">I gulped nervously and took a step out from inside. I bent down beside him and rolled him over onto his back while I inspected his body and retrieved his phone and a few things on the ground. After I rolled him onto his back, a red crimson fluid spread across the ground and soaked into his clothes.
<span style="font-weight:400">I stuck the syringe into him and injected him with the rest of the drug I’d received from Rosa.
<span style="font-weight:400">Why go through the effort of doing that? Well, if nting this all on Malory, drugging him so he’d be knocked out would be a good cover-up for what really happened here. When the police had an autopsy done and they found this drug in his system, they’d think all of this chaos was an internal struggle for power within the gang stirred up by Malory who conspired with someone else that held a high position in the gang.
<span style="font-weight:400">With the gang leader’s phone in hand, victory was almost assured.
<span style="font-weight:400">Almost because… I still needed the passcode to get in.
<span style="font-weight:400">I headed over to Malory and stopped in front of her. She had a nk vacant expression like she couldn’t believe any of this was happening. I removed the duct tape from over her mouth.
<span style="font-weight:400">“What have you done?” That was the first thing she asked absentmindedly with a pale face.
<span style="font-weight:400">“What have I done? Why, I’ve shot him, of course. What else could it be but that?”
<span style="font-weight:400">Her head sunk down low. It was like she’d lost everything in one go.
<span style="font-weight:400">“What’s with your reaction? Are you actually mourning this guy’s death?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Mourning? For him? Never.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Then what are you pale-faced for? You look pretty lost right now.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“He was mine.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“What, then you actually do like the guy? Did he turn you into a masochist who enjoyed having your back carved up every day?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Of course not. He was mine to kill… the target of my hatred, but… just like that, you took that away from me.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I see, so that’s what this is about. Something so trivial.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Trivial! This isn’t trivial! For so many years I’ve had to live through this hell! What would you know about it! How dare you call it trivial!”
<span style="font-weight:400">She gnashed her teeth as she raised her head and looked at me with an unfathomable level of hatred in her eyes. All the feelings of resentment she felt toward the Swastika gang leader felt like it’d suddenly been redirected toward me in a second.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes, it is trivial. If you like, I can even bring him back from beyond the grave with a snap of my fingers. You’ll be able to kill him yourself that way...”