Nemesis drove Thanatos to the center of town, not far from their personal dock along with the floating hangar.
Thanatos got off the motorcycle and stowed his helmet in the back box near the seat. At that moment, Nemesis sent her brother an air kiss and said, — I gave you the checklist. Be sure to check all the items with the supervisor, and then call me on the phone. I'll take you home, okay?
Thanatos nodded, and then watched as Nemesis closed her helmet and raced on her motorcycle to go about her business.
Brother wasn't worried about his sister's secretive travels. She often went off to different states on work matters.
Thanatos used to have little suspicion that perhaps Nemesis was hiding some kind of lover from him, but after today's incident, all suspicion and worry vanished.
«It can't be true, because I have full access to her correspondence. She easily reads my messages whenever she wants and I read hers. Sure, she might have another phone for secret affairs, but hiding something like that, she wouldn't do it from me. She's not a sneaky person,» Thanatos believed confidently.
Thanatos leaned more toward the theory that Nemesis was running an underground business, «She's probably doing some illegal business involving supplying drugs or medical equipment for a big payday, but that doesn't bother me.»
The tall, blue-eyed guy sighed and decided to make a run for their expensive yacht. He remembered that his sister had spent more than $600 million a couple of years ago to buy a water transportation. They spent a couple of weeks vacationing on it, hiring a crew of 50 on the yacht.
The sporting jog proved very beneficial to Thanatos as he was able to calm his disorderly thoughts.
Within 15 minutes Thanatos approached their marina and saw from afar a tall garage on the water. He was blocked by a locked gate of reinforced concrete construction, but he had keys and access cards.
He quietly entered the private marina and approached the hangar. The main structure was over 330 feet tall and 550 feet (170 meters) long. The hangar itself was quite narrow, as it was only designed for one giga-yacht.
When Thanatos passed through the security system and entered the hangar, he was immediately greeted by the contractor in charge.
— Hello, I'm James Campbell. And when will Miss Pierce arrive?
Thanatos shook the man's hand with decent vigor and said, — There won't be a sister. I have the checklist. Let's not waste time and confirm all the items.
The man did not ask unnecessary questions. Instead, they walked through the iron corridor straight to the yacht, which was surrounded by a hangar and was standing on the water.
— What the hell! — shouted Thanatos when he saw, instead of a yacht, an armored mini-tanker.
His reaction was exaggerated, for it was still a yacht. He hadn't seen it in a little over a year and thought his sister just wanted to make the yacht faster and a little more comfortable. Instead, Thanatos noticed guns of various sizes mounted on each deck, and there were six decks. The hull itself was protected in many places by plates of unknown alloys.
— Did Miss Pierce not bring you up to speed? Our crews worked at different times, on different blueprints that she drew up and gave us. Only I understand the big picture and have access to the hangar, — James explained calmly to him, not realizing how cancerous his words were.
Thanatos followed him with his mouth open. They quickly made their way up to the deck of the giga-yacht, and only then did he begin to look carefully at the checklist. He glimpsed the first page and could not believe what was happening.
«What is Nemesis getting ready for! Why would she need such a fancy and secure yacht?» Thanatos did not understand his sister's motives. She was hiding much more than he had originally assumed.
For the first thirty minutes, Thanatos nodded dumbly at the words of James, who was giving him a tour of the yacht. He was just ticking off a checklist, making sure the new installations and improvements were working.
The main innovations were huge plasma weapons that don't work and are just plain decoration. This is strange, considering that the guns were elaborate in mechanism and every detail.
— You know that plasma rifles and barrels are fantasy fiction. Though made from your sister's designs, they have no power source or compressed gas ammunition, ha-ha-ha, — the man laughed as he escorted Thanatos to the enormous quarters.
Thanatos smiled falsely. James' words raised even more doubts about how well he knew his sister.
«Nemesis herself drew up most of the blueprints for the new elements on the giga-yacht? I don't believe it! How does she know all this! When did she have time to learn?» Thanatos asked a multitude of questions into the void, the answers to which he had none.
— In all, Miss Pierce spent over $925 million on repairs and installation of innovations, — James continued his explanation.
The yacht was almost entirely self-sufficient after all the improvements: two helipads, a dining room, a SPA-center, saunas, bars, a dance room, massage rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, outdoor and indoor pools, exercise rooms, hangars for small boats, rooms for various leisure activities, a greenhouse farm, a room to filter salt water into fresh water, an elevator, technical rooms and several spare rooms for all kinds of activities.
The main problem with the Giga-Yacht was the lack of a constant source of energy, but in many places with energy consumption there were empty pods and cells under some elements, similar to spherical cores. Thanatos didn't know what it was for. He wasn't really interested in it.
One of the last items on the checklist was to check the large induction melting furnace in the technical room.
As they went down to the lower deck and into the room, James said, — Now the furnace is remelting a small batch of base metal for the inspection. As you can see, all the soot and smoke is coming into the vent and coming out through the pipe to the outside. But you can open the safe part and look inside. Any metal or alloy can be tossed in through a special window with no problem.
James began to climb the ladder straight up to the center of the furnace. Thanatos followed him up, but paid more attention to the checklist. Specifically, the very last item on the last page.
— Throw James Campbell into the induction furnace while it's still hot... — Thanatos muttered aloud, not immediately understanding what he was reading.
— WHAT? What did you say, boy? — James wondered, turning toward the source of the sound. At that moment he was standing at the open window of the induction furnace. He could feel the heat coming in, as well as the heat of his body that rose after the words were spoken.
Thanatos frowned, looked up at the contractor in charge, and stated as written, — It says I have to kill you.
James swallowed his saliva and took the piece of paper, which Thanatos calmly handed him. The 17-year-old himself didn't know what to do.
«Is my sister forcing me to commit a felony? Why didn't she tell me anything about it! THIS IS BREAKING! How could I kill a man? I've never killed ... but ... but maybe he knows too much and it threatens my sister? If so, if I get scared and show weakness, what happens then? I don't want her to get hurt,» Thanatos pondered intensely.
He could not just kill a man on her orders. He was not prepared for such cruelty, so Thanatos began to force himself to think in this way, that James was a threat to his sister and family. Only in that way could he decide to commit a crime. Especially when Nemesis had so cleverly arranged the items on the checklist, and now he could commit murder without immediate consequences.
— Thanatos... Mister Pierce! You can't follow that checklist! — James shouted hysterically, huddling against the staircase fence.
Thanatos rose to his level. He was several heads taller than the man. He asked with a complicated expression, — Why can't I do it? I think you know too much... you said yourself that you are the only one who has a complete picture of the giga-yacht, and also has direct access to it.
— Oh, I... I won't say anything to anybody, I swear! I'm just doing my job! I have a wife, children... please, I beg you. I'll leave the country, I promise! — James was squishy, and he knew he couldn't overpower Thanatos, so he began looking for alternatives to save his life.
Thanatos shook his head, — I'm sorry. I will make Nemesis secretly support your family, but right now I must follow the task at hand. She told me to close the checklist completely, and it's a mandatory requirement.
James started screaming and asking for help, crying and begging. Thanatos, on the other hand, had a hard time spitting common sense. If it weren't for tonight's intimacy with Nemesis, he would have thought a hundred times before killing an innocent man. But after their sexual intimacy, he decided to believe in Nemesis.
— Aa-a-r-rgh! NO! HELP! — A frightened James grabbed a random steel bar and pounced on Thanatos with it.
Thanatos easily caught the hand with the rod, took it away, and pierced the man's stomach. Thanatos then quickly threw James into the induction furnace and closed the window.
— CRaaah-ah! — For about ten more seconds, the man's shrieks were heard, which turned into grunts and then silence. The man merged with eternity and the colored metal.
— Fuck! Fucking fuck! Nemesis! You better have an ironclad excuse for killing James, or I swear to God, I'll lock you in the basement and start intensive psychological treatment! — Thanatos began to shout in panic. He was left alone with himself and could allow his emotions to come out.
His hands were shaking like crazy. He climbed down the stairs and lay on the floor, trying to catch his breath. Thanatos closed his eyes to make it easier for him to control the mess of breathing.
«Whew! Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale! Thanatos, pull yourself together. We have to go to my sister's right now. But I won't call her. I'll just look up her geolocation and catch her red-handed,» Thanatos decided.
He didn't know what his sister was up to, so he decided to find out without warning. He wanted an explanation. Thanatos wanted an excuse for his criminal offense, so he decided to catch her off guard and interrogate her when he met her.
First Thanatos turned off the furnace as instructed, and then he left the technical rooms and went up to the exit of the yacht.
After taking one last look around the great yacht, he exited the floating hangar and locked it securely with electronic locks. Fortunately, the door consists of steel and is very thick. It would be difficult to sneak in undetected, given that there are many surveillance cameras on the private dock.
Thanatos peeked into his phone and looked up his older sister's location. After that, he went into the garage near the exit of the marina. Inside were several regular cars, one of which belonged to the murdered James.
«Shit, we'll have to get rid of the car. But I'll leave that task to Nemesis,» Thanatos pondered, getting into his old Ford.
...
POV Thanatos.
It was about an hour before I reached the garage sector. In one of the garages was my sister, responsible for the murder of a common laborer.
I want answers, and I intend to get them!
I tried not to think about murder, since we had plenty of money and connections. The body was gone anyway, so it would be easy enough to get me off.
I parked the car near the right garage and turned off the engine. Then I got out of the car and cautiously approached the two-story garage. It was slightly ajar, so I heard men screaming.
There were desperate shrieks coming from there, as if a family of farmers had decided to slaughter a live Thanksgiving turkey.
It's also a private storage area, so it's not crowded.
When I went inside, I saw Nemesis beating a man to death with a sharp little dagger held by a ring worn on his middle finger. And there were about 8 other men's corpses lying there, cut to pieces!
— N-Nemesis, oh my God! Honey, what happened to you? — I was shocked. I didn't know what to say. How to say it. How to respond to her horrible, criminal actions. My beloved girl was covered in blood from head to toe.
— Brother, are you done yet? Why didn't you call me? I told you to call me after closing the checklist! — Nemesis spoke with a wicked smile, finishing off the last man.
The man let out death screams and finally died. There was blood everywhere.
My first thought was that maybe they had molested Nemesis and she had killed them all in self-defense and revenge?
— Nemesis, did they... did they molest you? Did they try to rape or kill you? You were just defending yourself, right? — I asked cautiously, coming up close to Nemesis.
She, with a smile on her face, took the axe in her hands and began to chop the man, saying in surprise, — Are you completely stupid? No of course not, I wouldn't let them touch me! I only bloom for you, Thanatos. They were just a burden, getting in the way of our plans. Especially since they knew too much about my projects, and so did James, so they had to be eliminated on the last day of peace.
I glanced around the entire garage to fully analyze the situation. My older sister had chopped up their limbs and heads, and there were black bags next to the body parts. Apparently she wanted to clean up after the carnage.
Her first words brought a happy smile to my face, but her last sentences, on the contrary, frightened me. I don't know what her goals are, and what's the last day of peace?
I touched my sister's snow-white hair and asked, — Sister, can you explain what's going on? Is something coming? Is someone threatening us?
— You could say that, — she nodded evasively. Then the smile disappeared from Nemesis' face, and she yelled at me, — Thanatos! Now that you're here, either help me put the mincemeat in the bags, or get out! Go home if you're weak.
I thought for about ten seconds before I made an important decision. Nodding, I put on my tight gloves and bent down to pick up the man's severed leg and shove it into the black bag. It was a disgusting sight, and I tried to restrain myself from spitting my morning breakfast out.
God Almighty, who is my sister really? She is very quietly killing people! I try to emulate her because I am afraid to show weakness in her presence. She's always pushing me with this.
Oh, okay. I'll just do what she asks me to do and then try to find out as much information as I can in a quiet environment. My sister is probably not at all the person I knew her to be. Whether that's good or bad, I'll only know after I figure out all the nuances and variables.
In absolute silence, Nemesis and I spent about an hour arranging the parts of the dead bodies into bags, to throw them into the trunk of the jeep. I had nothing to say to my older sister in such an oppressive and disgusting environment.