"Alert me of any approaching patrol-bots."
"Yes, sir."
The door slid open and I stepped into Raoul's bedroom. The lump underneath the duvet lay unmoving, soundly asleep. It was freezing outside and being under warm covers sounded nice.
Just before reaching out to the sleeping figure on the bed, I felt a taser pen point to my jugular and an arm holding me in a chokehold fashion. The movement was swift and my reflexes were dull from exhaustion. A taser pen or two wouldn't knock me out, courtesy of Nash's training. However, being in a situation as such certainly wasn't thrilling.
"What is the Night Walker doing in my room in the middle of the night?" my assailant hissed.
"Well, it looks like I've been found out! Who would have thought Raoul Harper was capable of subduing a criminal? I guess you're not as fragile as you appear to be."
Snarling, the chokehold tightened and I gasped.
"Is this the best 'the most troublesome criminal' can do? The Patrol Guards certainly are fooling around."
Raoul became livid when I didn't rise to his bait. Seriously, was that supposed to make me feel offended? The chokehold became tighter when I scoffed.
"To whom do I owe the honour of your visit? Clearly, there is something you want. I've heard the rumours, you know? Somebody has been giving Pantiumite to the trash in the Slums. Thanks to you, the last batch of Pantiumite meant to convince a client had gone completely wrong. How would you compensate for that?"
Before I could give a snarky reply, a painful jolt of electricity shocked me. I had zero control over my muscles and the air from my lungs was forced out when electricity was pumped through my blood.
Lying limp in my nemesis' arms, I struggled to recover from the surprise attack.
Raoul looked impressed at his handiwork and I mentally cursed. No ordinary taser pen would have rendered me immobile after my training with Nash, Raoul must have modified it. While I had no idea about that crazy ex-hitman's tolerance level, I had subjected myself to training to withstand up to twice the tolerance of an ordinary person.
The training had been painful but worth it seeing as it was finally paying off. Raoul looked very smug when I groaned in pain.
"Speak. Why are you here?"
There it was… that condescending look. Slowly but surely, the feelings returned to my fingertips and was able to coordinate my movements better. Just to buy time, I continued taking drastic intakes of air despite the lack of burn in my lungs. It was terrible acting but Raoul was way too dumb to be able to call my bluff.
Displeased with my lack of answer, he went for my neck. The air supply to my lungs was abruptly cut off and I stared right into his eyes. "Answer me before I call the Patrol Guards over."
"Ig-Ignacio…"
Unsurprisingly, the change was immediate. The condescending look morphed into one of fury as the grip on my throat tightened. Before I could twist my way out of it, a jab from the taser pen reached my side.
The effects were immediate and a yelp tore through my vocal chords at the sudden shock. Despite being less intense than the first attack, it hurt enough to numb the feelings in my fingertips again. I must be getting used to it.
Taking the momentary drop in Raoul's guard with my scream, I grabbed the opportunity to slam him onto the floor and pin his arms backwards. Restraining the man had been a struggle as I had to wrestle the taser pen from his iron-like grip. It didn't help that he tried to buck me off while one of my hands was preoccupied with getting a gadget out.
Why is this so difficult? All I needed was for Raoul to sign this stupid fake document while Cain hacked into Raoul's system to transfer his credits into Ignacio's account!
"Sign here," I hissed while Raoul continued to struggle and yell.
"Never!"
I rolled my eyes at his stubborn insistence. "Suit yourself."
Before he could retort, a smacking sound was heard. Head thudding onto the floor, I glanced at my handiwork. That ought to put him out for a while. Why sign when I can just copy it? Surely he has to have some document archived with his signature.
Time-consuming was an understatement. I celebrated for a while when I finally found it and had Kevin make a copy of Raoul's signature. During the short celebration, my vision was suddenly cut off by an unknown attacker from behind.
Years of training made me flip the assailant over my shoulder. The move was a success and I managed to throw the man off. Realising that Raoul had woken up sooner than expected, I despaired. To complicate matters more, my visor had slipped over my head in the scuffle.
Time slowed as we stared at each other in horror and shock. When it finally unfroze, I felt the full impact of high voltage running through my body. Rendered immobile, Raoul took the opportunity to dial for the Patrol Guards.
Fear and panic gripped me. Is this the end? It can't be! I still had to avenge Mia and do something about Luna's corrupted system!
Raoul pulled me up by the hood and flashed me a shit-eating grin. "Is this the Patrol Guards? Yes, this is Raoul Harper calling from Centurion. I have caught an unexpected visitor in my room tonight and I think you'll like to see him yourself. He's rather famous for pulling stunts after all. Ten minutes? Sure! I'll be waiting for your arrival."
After the call ended, Raoul dropped me back to the ground and kicked me hard in the stomach.
"Well well, it looks like game over for you. Just before I never see you again, I'll let you in on a small secret. The human experiment that killed that Slum girl was done by my client who wanted to test the Pantiumite Efficiency theory. You thought you could play the hero and destroy this balance? Think again. As long as the Parliament is in power, there is nothing you can do. I'm going to ride this wave of power with Slum boy and you are going to confinement."
The human experiment that killed Mia was done by Raoul's client? The experiment had been about Pantiumite Efficiency and Raoul was involved…
Moving faster than my mind could understand the situation, I slammed Raoul against the wall who was too shocked to react.
"Who is that client of yours?"
The question came out as an inhuman growl and sounded foreign even to my ears. I'll get my answers one way or another, consequences be damned!
Despite shaking in fear, Raoul refused to relent. He smirked shakily and mocked, "Why do you care so much for the Slum woman? I should have known you didn't belong in the Inner City. You're nothing more than a fake."
There was no room for patience, I needed answers. "Let's try this again," I hissed. A blood chilling scream tore from my nemesis' throat as a finger snapped. Satisfied that I got the message across, I smiled.
"Who was involved?"
Unable to keep up with the false bravado, Raoul gave a name. I smirked and let go of the traumatised scientist. Lilith Malfoy. That was all I needed. It didn't matter if it was a personal agenda or a plot by the Parliament, everyone related to this messed up project will be going down!
For the third time that night I was on the receiving end of that damned taser pen. Only this time, I managed to land a particularly hard kick at the attacker. A sickening crack was heard but I didn't have the time to let the horror of my deed fully set in. The sound of sirens and Kevin's voice were more pressing matters to attend to.
I took one last look at Raoul before grabbing my fallen visor and leaping off the window ledge.
Frozen in shock with his neck bending at an impossible angle, his eyes that lacked life stared straight at me as if blaming me. Raoul Harper was dead and I killed him.
Duty called and I had to lock away all emotions. The dialler connected and Nash's grumpy voice answered.
"What is it? The night is for sleeping you know?"
I leapt from another roof and apologised. "I need your help, no time to explain. Please help me house the person I'm bringing over."
Puzzled, Nash demanded details.
"Ask him the details yourself. I have a lot to deal with right now. As for the proxy, you don't need to search anymore."
"What do you mean by that?" Nash snapped. Being woken up at two in the morning certainly made him cranky. "Do you know how hard I've been searching?"
"Sorry," I panted as I ran along the wall. "You'll understand when you meet him."
Grumbling could be heard but Nash eventually agreed. "I want all the details when you sort out your mess, understood?"
"Yes, sir." I breathed before ending the call just in time before reaching the ledge of the window. My tongue felt numb in my mouth.
Tapping twice, I waited for Ignacio to slid open the window. "Where are the belongings you have packed?"
The man held a single heavy backpack and I didn't comment on it. "Ready?"
Ignacio took a look at me and frowned.
"He's dead."
It wasn't a question. There was no need to cover the truth of what happened either. I simply nodded, not daring to look into warm hazel eyes. I couldn't deal with the pitying looks, not now.
As if he understood, he pat me gently on the back and told me he was ready.
"Hold onto it. We're going to take the shortcut." I threw the backpack to him while reaching for the charged orb.
Before Ignacio could ask, I had already started the charged orb and locked on a destination. In a flash, we were in front of Nash's house.
"I'll leave him to you," I told Nash who was already awaiting our arrival. Before he had the chance to speak, I had teleported back to my office.
Once in the familiar space, I sunk down in the chair and closed my eyes in complete exhaustion. There will be no sleeping tonight with how those soulless eyes burned into my memory.
The final step that Nash hadn't taught me – taking a life, I had taught myself. This was it, there's no going back now.