I thought quickly for the best way to keep my life and if possible to diffuse the potential problem between the Gate of Heaven and the Truth Seekers. I know that my life being in immediate danger should be my primary concern but depending on how bad the problem becomes I might be executed to appease the relations.
Off the top of my mind, I thought of throwing some random person under the bus as the orchestrator of this whole event.
I would not even grace the thought of giving up Antoine, while I may not be a loyal person but I would not do this to a friend. Plus he has quite a bit of dirt on me, so besides being a friend, I might just fall with him.
I casually caught his attention by clicking my tongue and giving him a message using morse code. I started off with a tapping that said eyes then I blinked as I made casual conversation with one of the guards masquerading as a nurse.
I said that he was held in some facility and that I was hired to act out my part. I said I would help him escape but he must spare me.
Not the best bargain I have thought of but I should be able to keep my life for the time being. Also, I did not exactly blink for so long so I summarized it into that, ‘You are captured. I will help you. You do not kill me.’ A little bit of a childish message but time was ticking and he will not wait for me to bat my eyelids for long.
He smiled slightly, not in a savage manner but I felt intense danger and bolted for the door. I had not taken three steps before I heard a squelching sound like something had punctured a bag followed by a light gasp.
The nurse most likely died and based on how fast the body dropped she was certainly dead. I had no idea where he got a sharp object that would make such a puncturing sound but I favored surviving than satisfying my curiosity.
I did not turn around, knowing that every second counted. While the guards outside would not be able to stop him, I hoped they can delay him for a minute. That was the time I would take to get to the guest room to escape via a secret door with Antoine.
My hand had just touched the door handle when I sensed intense bloodlust aimed at me. This is not an illusion, normal people cannot sense that neither can the best of soldiers, only the most gifted and sensitive can. Luckily, I fell among those sensitive gifted souls.
I knew I was out of time so I brushed the door handle with my hand hoping it might be unlocked that way while it helped redirect my movement to lean sideways. It was the correct call as I saw a scalpel brushing by me where my head was.
“I can help you escape. There is a labyrinth after this door,” I yelled as I rolled on the floor to face him. The door was one step away to my left side, luckily that light tap on the handle had opened it.
I only needed one chance to run. I secretly clicked the button hidden in a fake moral in my mouth, alerting the guards to a situation inside. There were cameras everywhere so the Hall of Chambers should be aware of what is going on. I only hoped it would not be too late.
Normally the camera feed is only for the guards under the owner of the Chamber but with that button press, I alerted my guards and the Hall guards as well as granting access to the watchers to the cameras in my chamber. They should be here within three minutes.
I looked at the soon-to-escape ninja who was standing at the foot of the bed. He had a stoic expression with slight anger.
“You think I cannot differentiate injuries from a crash from fake injuries caused by acupuncture needles? The arrogance is appalling.”
He talked in a chiding tone. His voice was slightly more hoarse. His body language was not poised for action, rather he seemed to be relaxed or maybe he was undoing what I did to him. Fake injuries or not, dislocated joints and abrasions are still inconvenient.
I said: “Look, I am as much of a victim as you. I get hired to do odd jobs like those and I had no idea someone of your caliber was here. I never get involved with combat specialized secret organizations like yours.”
“Although I am unsure what organization you are from, torturers like you would never delegate their prey to another. Especially a hired spineless goon like you.”
It double stung being made like that not to mention being called spineless.
My eyes were darting around while my mind was going into overdrive to figure out how to get out of this situation. Keeping him talking would be a great strategy for now since guards should be on their way.
I edged nearer to the door by slightly shifting my weight from one foot to another, I had no illusion that this would go unnoticed but since he had not killed me yet indicated a possible non-violent resolution. Although one of my guards lying in his blood on the opposite side of the bed spoke otherwise.
“Ah!” I exclaimed, “You figured me out, but since you know about torturers then you know this was nothing but a job. It was nothing personal, I hope you look at this professionally as well.”
He squinted his eyes slightly and said, “You seem unaware that you were but a mere pawn so they can figure out the degree of my ‘amnesia’”, he said the word mockingly.
“They have been unsure for so long and now I got made thanks to you. I have to admit that the set up was thoughtful and the lack of limb dismemberment is the one thing that stopped me from tearing you apart.”
It is good to know that at least part of the plan was good. As for me being a pawn, I am not surprised at all. Being among the truth seeker as a torturer is an ancient and well-respected job but so is being a prostitute. At the end of the day if you call someone else as the boss then you ought to know that you are a pawn.
“Good to know my merciful approach to extracting the truth is applauded from your side. I am unsure what you will do next, care to share?”
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Mere tricks will not go well, I am outgunned, outsmarted and apparently misinformed. This was no low-class ninja, and most certainly not an amnesic one.
“You were keeping me talking or at least thinking you were doing so in hopes of your guards coming soon. Ironically I was waiting for your guards too.”
I visibly flinched just to satiate his feeling of being in power. It seemed he was underestimating us if he was actually waiting for our guards.
I smiled in triumph as the door burst open, I threw myself to the corner of the room to the right of the door to get our of whoever was entering way.
All I saw after the door opened was a shadow speeding towards my guest. The shadow was so fast that the guest had not reacted except when the shadow was one step away from him.
It seemed like he will be caught but he dodged the shadow’s attack by jumping to the head of the bed. He literally walked on the ceiling as he somersaulted away. The shadow was having none of that, it threw something towards the lights taking it out.
The shift from light to darkness will effectively blind anyone in the room for the time the eye takes to readjust itself, the time varies from one person to another. I would not even bother to remember the average time the eye would take to reorient itself as clearly those two were utter monsters in human skin.
I stayed in my corner widening my eyes to see anything. While I saw nothing, I heard a lot, there was the sound of the bed breaking apart. Pretty impressive since it was made of metal. I heard a light footstep followed by a whoosh of air heading right at me.
My eyes were almost used to the darkness and the lights of the hallway helped me to see as the guest was rushing at me with a shadow on his heels.
I knew he was going for me, I did not need to fight him off just stalling will do. It seemed I have been on the back foot the whole time, as much as this hurt my pride living to see the sunrise mattered more than a bruised pride.
I was squatting in the corner poised to act but as I had no vision I figured staying put was the smarter choice. Now that I can see them, my actions will be less of a guess and more of a decision.
I kicked the wall launching myself towards the door for the third time. I stayed low, careful to keep my arms and legs close to me so I can attempt dodging any projectiles. Although I doubted my reflexes will help much against this kind of opponent, a part of me refused to be so helpless; probably my pride.
I was now so close to the open door, with the guest on my heels and the shadow on his heels. I knew the shadow was one of the ninjas we contracted to guard the facility. I was just unsure if he was on my family’s or the Truth Seekers' chamber's side.
Regardless of which side he was on I should be safe but if he was on the chamber’s side, the odds are he will care more about the escapee than me being injured. He will make sure I survive but he will not give a fuck if I am missing an arm or a leg. Ninjas are notoriously bad as guards almost as good as they are as assassins.
I go past the door and run towards the elevator. There were guards everywhere pointing at me with their guns, I hoped they knew who to shoot in this situation. I did not stop running even as I saw them. I was not too confident if their aim would be any better than storm troopers since they had a ninja as an opponent.
The shooting started as I passed the first guard. The guards stood spaced out along the tunnel, almost like an execution squad but as the tunnel was only 3 meters wide there were 4 guards standing at the front donning some kind of advanced techie armor with riot shields and helmets. The guards right behind them had rifles pointing above their crouched buddies.
The guards were between the elevator and the door. The other entrance which leads to and from the main hall of Chamber of Truth was left unguarded but I was sure there was a small squad behind the door ready for whatever happens.
I did not turn around until I was at the elevator which they had disabled, a procedure followed in case of an escape attempt. As I turned around I was reintroduced to the terror of ninjas. This was no movie like Matrix where the protagonist can just lean back and dodge bullets but this was even scarier.
The two ninjas were so nimble that gravity seemed like a mere inconvenience rather than a physics law. They ran on the ground at times, on the walls at others, and occasionally on the ceiling. I pitied the guards for no amount of shooting practice included the target moving like that.
The two ninjas had already gone among the guards so there was no point shooting lest they hit one another. So they had to whip out their electric batons and that went as well as you can imagine. The escapee did not care to kill, just to minimize the amount of action to disable the guards and to keep them between him and the other ninja.
They were like two wolves among a flock of sheep. The guards were not bad at all but it did not matter, they were out skilled and being bereft of their rifles this was one fight they will not win.
The escapee as good as he was, started to bleed. A combination of the guards’ effort as minimal and inefficient as they were and the ninja. He was slowing down and it showed. The riot shield guards had lost two of their lives and one had lost everything below his left knee. The remaining ones were starting to box him in.
His acrobatic skills did him no good as the rifle bearing guards shot at the spot above him in an offbeat rhythm in case they cannot react fast enough to his movements. His escape was looking to have failed.
Until it did fail, he slipped and was struck by one flying dagger of the ninja which was followed by one hell of a beatdown by the riot shield guards. He was taken alive but beat within an inch of his life. The dagger had struck his Achilles heel, not sure if it was good skill on the ninja’s part or the escapee’s bad luck.
I watched as the ninja walked up to the escapee and tied him up in such a way that if he tries to move he will choke himself. From my vantage point, it seemed like he tied both the escapee’s arms together at the elbows and the wrists then tied both his knees together all followed with a good old noose around his neck.
I was not proficient in such tying skills so it looked mystifying not to mention how fast he tied them. Well, aside from that cluster fuck, all is well for now.
At least until I get questioned about why the fuck I was interrogating a ninja in the chamber without informing the main hall about it or at least the Truth Seekers’ approval of it.
I stood beside the elevator as I watched the escapee get escorted into the Hall of chambers wondering how the higherups will deal with this. The ninja approached me, as he walked up to me I saw him clearly for the first time.
It was a very regular ninja costume, black clothes with the face covered by a black cloth mask that only showed the eyes. His or her eyes were brown with the whites very clear, they had this glance of indifference as they got to me.
They said, “Follow me!”
I complied, after what I had seen I had no urge for a snappy comeback. The ninja walked to the same entrance they had taken the escapee from. I call it an entrance because it cannot be an exit, as it had a gate that was more like a safe than a door. It can only be opened from the other side.
All the private chambers had gates leading to the main hall and all of them opened from the other side only. It was a safety concern as well as to remind us who is the boss. I do not think anyone would mistake themselves as more than fancy pawns if they have ever seen the council or had studied about secret organizations.
We walked past the gate into a big lobby. There was a lot of traffic today, thanks to my incident. I saw more veteran guards, the ones hired and trained by the Truth Seekers’ directly. We had a contract with an organization based in Italy, they handled defenses. However, Russia had the best mercenaries but the organization favored loyalty over skill.
The lobby looked like a grand hotel lobby. Although it was filled with guards, it increased its intimidation and grandiose. There was a gigantic chandelier hung from the ceiling which was exaggeratedly higher than needed. You could see two floors above the gate I stood at if one stood under the chandelier.
All the gates were at ground level, the upper floors were for private rooms, meeting rooms and rooms you had no business knowing about. We walked to the stairs leading to the second floor, at this point it was just me and the ninja.
It was obvious I will be meeting someone who would proceed to spank me about this. I had no idea what they would do to Antoine but I was sure they would not kill him. There would be no clients executed unless there was proof they had intended to harm the organization itself, the harm extended to personnel, reputation, or staff.
The second floor had a long red carpet that I knew continued to the stairs on the other side. The lobby had a shiny granite floor, while the second floor had a brown wooden floor. The floor did not creak but it had that homely feeling.
We passed six doors and then got to the seventh one, we were not even halfway through the second floor. The door had a plaque with the name, Fear.
This did not bode well for me, Fear was the name of the Italian guard organization. It seemed this was their office. The ninja opened the door to an office, the room was big but had normal proportions. No high ceiling this time, there was a desk opposite the door, the door was at the exact center of the wall and so was the desk. The desk was light brown as were most of the chairs in the room. There was a window behind the desk, as it was night time I could not see anything from it.
Regardless of the room what caught my eyes was the woman sitting behind the desk. She was a middle-aged woman with blonde hair and a burn mark on her left side of her face. The burn mark ate up most of the face although I knew it was just an old scar it still looked hideous. It was a light brownish color just like the desk and the chairs.
She was sitting in an armchair behind the desk, reading a report. I hoped it was not about me as she was frowning while reading it. It did not matter though since I knew her. She was an old friend of my father, same temper, and mannerism. I knew I was completely and utterly fucked.