Chapter 131

Chapter 131: Why?

Half an hour before Fade and John were pointing their rifles at each other, Catherine Walker was safely tucked in her panic room. Inside the panic room were numerous monitors that show every corner of the building she was in. There was also a computer that controlled the various things inside the building.

Catherine was feeling extremely agitated as she was thinking of the reason Fade choose to kill her first among the other big bosses. Among the remaining big bosses she was the lesser evil, so then why was she chosen to die?

To distract herself from her thoughts Catherine looked at the monitors. When she saw her numerous guards patrolling the building she felt a bit better. Then when she thought of the Elegant Scorpion who was in the Dark Rankings that they hired to deal with Fade, she was finally able to calm down. It was at that moment when she felt calmer, there was a blackout. It took a few seconds before the backup power turned on. The guards on the monitor started to become vigilant.

‘He’s here?! Did the Elegant Scorpion lose?! What should I do, what should I do?!’ As her thoughts were all over the place and her heart racing, Catherine noticed that one by one the monitors were blacking out. She stumbled backward as the fear she was suppressing suddenly burst out. She crawled towards the side of the room took out a hidden gun and scurried into the corner shakily pointing the gun towards the only door into the panic room.

...

Catherine’s guard POV:

I thought that today would be like any other uneventful day, but out of nowhere the boss suddenly went into the panic room, that could only mean one thing, Fade was after her. I and the other guards were now patrolling the area in groups of five, and I was warily looking at every corner.

.....

“Hey, why are you being so fidgety?”

When I heard the team leader’s voice I almost jumped backward, the others were looking at me with smiles on their faces.

“Calm down man.”

“How can I calm down, you guys do know that Fade is after our boss, right?”

“We know that, but like you said he’s after our boss, not us. Everyone knows that Fade doesn’t kill people that aren’t his targets. The worse he could do is send us all to the hospital.”

As I was about to respond the lights suddenly turned off, the five of us went into formation covering each other’s blindspots after activating our night vision goggles. I then heard a sound coming from behind me, but even though I was curious I could not break formation and look back. I needed to trust my comrades with their spots while I deal with my assigned spot.

“I have no visual of the enemy.” The team leader spoke in which we responded in the same way except for Holand who was silent.

“Holand, why aren’t you responding?” The team leader asked but then I heard another sound. It then became silent again. No longer able to stop my curiosity I turned around, it seems like the others had the same idea as we were now looking at each other.

“Where’s Holand and the team leader?” Raymond asked but then out of nowhere, I saw something appearing behind him. I quickly lifted my gun and was going to warn him but before I could do anything, Raymond suddenly collapsed.

I looked at my last remaining companion and before I could even get a word out he too had disappeared. I knew I was next, but instead of trying to fight, I fled. I tossed my equipment away to lighten myself so I could run faster.

I kept on running and no matter what noise I heard or what I saw I did not bother with it and continued running. I used the stairs and headed down. After a few minutes, I was on the first floor and darted towards the exit, once out of the building I did not dare feel relief as I continued to run while looking for a taxi.

Once I got into a taxi, I headed home. The journey back to my apartment was uneventful but I remained vigilant as I looked around. Once I was inside my apartment I checked every nook and cranny, and when I was done I finally felt relief as I sat on my sofa collapsing from exhaustion.

...

Catherine could not hear what was happening outside, but now that all the monitors were showing nothing she had a pretty good guess as to what was happening.

‘It’s alright, even if he does manage to defeat all my guards he can’t get into this panic room.’

The panic room Catherine was in was located on a floor that doesn’t exist in the blueprint of the building. Even if Fade does find the room, only Catherine can open it. If Fade forces his way in, he would find it difficult as the room could withstand an attack of several rocket launchers.

Catherine waited as she was expecting Fade to try and force himself in that is if he ever finds the panic room. Yet that wasn’t what happened, the door to the panic room opened without being forced. A man clad in pure black entered the room, a white mask covering his face. Catherine who had a gun pointed at Fade didn’t even fire as she started crying.

“Why?! I thought that you only kill those that deserve it! I’m not evil, I do not deserve to die like this! I just wanted the underworld to change, I wanted to change it for the better. You do not know how much I struggled, how much I endured! So why are you going to kill me?! Who gave you the right to judge me, when you yourself are the same as me!”

Fade who was slowly approaching Catherine stopped. He then removed his mask showing his face. Catherine was surprised to see that such a young man was the legendary assassin that shook Leim city’s underworld. Fade stared at Catherine in silence for a few seconds before speaking.

“You say that you tried to change the underworld, that you have endured and struggled. Yet in the end, the underworld did not change, it was you who had changed. If you have remained true to your ideals, I would not have tried to kill you, even if somebody hired me to do so. I know of your struggles, and what you have endured. I know that you understood that you could not eliminate prostitution or human trafficking, even if you tried, so you did the next best thing. You tried to control it, to limit it, you tried to help but in the end, you could not share your ideals with those that follow you and they wanted to dethrone you. So to keep your position you went against the very ideals that you fought for, the very ideals that you endured and suffered for, and now you tell me that have done nothing wrong? You and I are not the same, even if others don’t believe in my way, even if the whole world opposes me I will never go against my own ideals.”

Catherine could not understand it but Fade’s voice sounded tranquil, hypnotic even, it was as if the sound of his voice soothed her very soul. Listening to him, Catherine was shaken to her core, she then recalled a time when she was truly trying to change the underworld. The people she helped back then where were they now? Most of them were now six feet under, rotting in their graves. She kept saying that she would help them once her position stabilized, but that never happened. She just kept on fooling herself, she wanted to free the others but in the end, it was she who got trapped in her position.

When that dawned on her Catherine started crying again but this time for a different reason. She looked at the young man called Fade and spoke in a hoarse and defeated tone.

“Thank you, for making me realize the truth in the end... I wish that I was able to remain true to my ideals, but unlike you I was weak. Hey... I know that this might be too much to ask, but can you promise me that you would always be true to your ideals...”

“There’s no need to promise you that, I already made that promise to someone important to me and I will keep true to that promise until the end.”

“I see... Then I hope that your heart remains true to the very end.”

Catherine smiled with a look of serenity on her face. Fade then wore his mask as he took out a needle and threw it piercing Catherine’s head killing her in one swift blow.

“I hope that in the next life you no longer need to struggle or endure, that you may find... Happiness.”