Huan groaned, unable to see anything. He was sure his body was being dragged into a car. The sll of leather seats assaulted his nose.
Who were they?!
The darkness behind the blindfold was thick and suffocating. His body still ached, as if his bones were broken in several places. Every breath was painful, his chest tight. He was sure the impact from the crash had turned his ribcage into a jagged cage of splintered bone.
Huan tried to map the movent of his captors through the vibration of their footsteps or their voices. But they were silent, moving without a sound. He was sure they were professionals.
At that mont, Huan began to feel afraid. He felt that this was serious. Whoever they were, he was sure they had been after him.
Damn! His heart was beating very fast. But he still had hope. He had never failed to get through a problem. How many tis had he almost died when he was with Alexander? In fact, he was still alive now.
He still believed he would not die that easily. After all, why would they kill him?
His mind raced, searching for who was really behind all this.
Athena Argonne? It was the logical choice, yet it felt wrong. The woman was cruel but calculating. He was sure she knew the consequences of killing him. If she wanted Alexander, she shouldn’t have touched him.
But if it wasn’t her, then who else? Alexander had many enemies, but none were strong enough to challenge him. Everyone knew he was like a diamond in Alexander’s hands. He was the man’s weakness. That ant they had to be prepared to die to kill him.
Huan still couldn’t find the answer. He heard movent. He knew it was useless to scream or struggle. He tried to understand the situation, but until the end, they didn’t make a sound.
Huan felt the car stop. He heard footsteps, and a hand pulled him roughly, but carefully enough not to let him hit the roof of the car.
Huan tried to sll their perfu. Who knew, maybe they were one of Alexander’s people. Could it be Alexander himself who wanted to kill him? At tis like this, wild thoughts were truly terrifying.
They pulled him forward to walk. Huan felt his feet hit the snow. It was cold. The crunch of snow gave way to the gritty texture of dry earth, and then to the slipperiness of marble tiles.
The biting winter wind was cut off by a heavy door, he heard it. The cold was replaced by a low hum and warmth. So he knew he was in a house. A house with more than one floor, because he felt them entering an elevator.
It couldn’t be Alexander. The man, though sotis cruel, wouldn’t hurt him. He knew that.
Alexander...
The na was a prayer he was ashad to mutter now. But he hoped the man would co at this mont. It seed that just this morning he could still be arrogant toward him. But now, he was completely helpless.
He just realized how weak he was. He struggled for a mont to confirm their movents, and they quickly tightened their grip on his arms.
Huan slled antiseptic. Sothing that never ended well.
Please. Not like this. I don’t want to die!
The hands holding him were iron-strong. They shoved him into a chair, the leather straps clicking into place around his wrists and ankles. Suddenly, the blindfold was ripped away.
The light was blinding. A series of high-intensity surgical lamps burned overhead, turning the world into a wash of sterile white. As his eyes adjusted, he saw him. Standing there, clad in a pristine white lab coat that looked like a shroud, was a large, bald man with eyes as vacant as a winter sky.
Huan recognized the man.
"Jimmy!" Huan gasped, his voice a gravelly wreck.
Jimmy, the "Angel of Death" within the Salazar network, didn’t flinch. He was the man the underworld called when they needed a death to be perfect.
Huan tried to lunge forward, but the two n flanking him pinned him flat against a tal table. They hoisted his weight up, securing additional shackles.
"Hi, Huan," Jimmy said, his voice disturbingly calm. He reached for a syringe filled with a translucent amber fluid. "I didn’t expect to see you as a corpse so soon."
"What? Jimmy, you won’t kill , right? Who asked you to do this? Why?!" Huan’s heart hamred against his bruised ribs.
Jimmy didn’t answer. He looked at Huan’s arm, searching for a vein with the detached focus of a chanic.
"Change his clothes," Jimmy ordered. "We need his belongings intact. We have to show them to Alexander. If we don’t provide proof, he will burn the continent looking for him. We need him to believe the end has co."
Huan’s eyes widened. His struggle beca feral. He thrashed against the leather, the pain in his broken leg blinding him. He looked past Jimmy’s shoulder and saw it: a heavy iron door to an industrial incinerator. The pilot light flickered within, a low, orange growl.
They will burn him?
"No! No, Jimmy, you can’t do this without telling who asked you to kill !"
The needle pierced his skin before he could finish.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then a cold fire spread from his elbow, rushing through his veins like liquid nitrogen. He realized it was a paralytic.
Within seconds, the connection between his brain and his muscles was severed. His head slumped, his mouth falling open, but his eyes remained wide, fixed on the white ceiling.
He could feel everything. But he couldn’t move any part of his body.
The rough hands of the guards unzipped his jacket. He felt the cold air as they stripped him, treating his body like a carcass. They dressed him in a thin blue hospital gown, a garnt for the dying.
Inside, Huan was screaming. A silent, internal roar of betrayal. He was locked in. He could hear the hum of the machines and the scrape of Jimmy’s shoes.
Jimmy leaned over him, his face a moon-like mask of clinical indifference.
"It will not hurt, Huan. I will ensure you don’t feel the pain. We will burn your body and send your ashes to your master in a silver jar. It is the cleanest way."
He sighed. "I don’t know what brought you here. But I hope you can find it in yourself to forgive them."
Them. The word echoed. Was Alexander really involved? Who really wanted him dead? He didn’t want to die.
No...
Huan’s breathing slowed. The drug depressed his respiratory system, forcing his lungs into a shallow, chanical crawl.
He saw out of the corner of his eye that Jimmy reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a gold coin keychain, a gift from Alexander.
"Put this with his clothes," Jimmy ordered.
Huan’s vision began to tunnel. The paralysis was total, he couldn’t even blink to moisten his drying eyes. He was a spectator at his own execution.
Alexander... He poured his remaining consciousness into that na. He didn’t care about pride anymore. He just wanted the man to co and save him.
He was sure this wasn’t Alexander’s order.
Alexander, please, save ... I’m still here. Don’t let them kill . Please...
He still hoped for a miracle. He had never been on the verge of death. Alexander always protected him.
Alexander... He couldn’t move his eyes, but his heart still found it difficult to accept leaving this world. Leaving that man forever. The thought of Alexander going mad without him made him unable to contain his feelings.
His heart was still beating, his chest still felt tight. Without realizing it, warm liquid flowed from the corners of his eyes, hot, flowing down his forehead.
The miracle he was waiting for didn’t seem to be coming this ti.
The table began to move. He felt the vibration as the gurney was wheeled toward the iron door. The heat began to radiate against his skin, a dry, hungry warmth.
The last thing Huan saw before the heavy iron door swung shut was the glint of the gold coin in Jimmy’s hand.
Huan regretted not being able to say it.
Until the end, I still love you, Alexander...
The furnace door closed with a heavy tallic boom, and the world beca a roaring orange nightmare of heat and silence.
Jimmy recorded everything.
***
Alexander felt sothing was wrong. He put his pride aside and asked Jack to track down Huan.
At the sa ti, he received news from Adam that they had found a car with a license plate registered to Salazar, burned at the edge of a cliff.
It didn’t take him long to confirm it with his own eyes. Huan’s car was burned to a crisp.
Alexander felt his heart pounding. He still didn’t want to believe it.
"Where is Huan? Where is his body?" He was too scared at that mont.
The police were still there, the atmosphere crowded and tense. No one had found a body inside the car.
Alexander should have been able to breathe a sigh of relief, but the next day, he received a parcel.
Jack, who brought the package, handed it over with trembling hands.
"What?" Alexander, who hadn’t slept all night searching for information about Huan, glared at him.
Jack looked like he was about to cry. A bodyguard who was used to being ruthless was now on the verge of tears.
"Huan, Boss..."
Reviews
All reviews (0)