The Liberal Assassin

Contrary to Nash's prediction, it didn't even take two weeks. The simulation room was a lot easier to handle as compared to Nash's unconventional training methods so progress was faster. After the second day of my rehabilitation, the devil himself decided I was doing great and joined the fray of simulated chaos. Khronos played the devil's advocate and worked on the improving simulation system. He introduced new training gears that simulated the actual pain of getting hit by homing lasers.

Between dodging the devil's close combat attacks and deflecting homing lasers with Khronos' new prototype defence mechanism, I had no choice but to transcend and evolve past physical limitations. Although I was nowhere close to the inhuman physical capabilities or composition of either man, I could at least dodge and deflect homing lasers with enough time to make a getaway.

Neither of my trainers allowed me to leave the premise until I was able to increase my chances of survival by levelling up my reflex. Agility had always been something I had in me and I never knew I was able to match the speed of a homing laser being fired.

"Remember," Khronos watched me strap on the new gadget to my Night Walker suit, "you have zero point three seconds to dodge a homing laser and activate the defensive barrier. Your only chance of destroying the homing laser is to deflect the rays. The defensive barrier can only take so much damage before it will be you the lasers are tackling."

I nodded and put on the modified visor.

"Let's do a last check," he sighed and spoke into his headset.

Turning the volume up a little I nodded in affirmation. "Roger that. I read you loud and clear. Checking visuals…"

The visor was now equipped with a real-time feedback to Khronos' base and location tracking. The two-way communication had been established so he could assist me on the field in place of Kevin. Kevin was still there as a backup because I didn't feel comfortable without him around.

Nash gave me a pat on the back. "Come back alive, kid."

I smiled. "Yes, sir."

"We can't know for sure what they've planned. Be careful. Lilith may be a small fry but she has strong backing."

I readied myself and triple checked the coordinates set to Khronos' version of the charged orb.

"Wish me luck, I'll be back before you know it."

The scientist wasted no time and hit the enter button. The moment he did, I felt myself being carried away to Lilith's bedroom.

Crouching low on the floor, it was dark. Without even telling Khronos to switch to night vision, I found myself walking around the dark room with ease. Clearly, having a human assistant beats an artificial assistant. Sorry Kevin buddy, Khronos wins this round.

"What's the situation?"

I rolled my eyes as Nash's voice came over the system. The scientist g.r.o.a.n.e.d at my dad's motherly behaviour.

"He's fine. Titus is a big boy now who can dodge homing lasers."

The bedroom should be behind the door to my left according to the scans by Khronos' spy-bots earlier. The sound field had been set up and all that is left for me to do is lie and wait for the lady to return.

"Titus, I want to test if the field is working. Give me a shout from the room."

If a shout was what he wanted, I'll give him a shout for real. Taking a deep breath and making sure to be as loud as possible, I yelled into the microphone chip.

"BABY BLUE VERSION TWO!"

There was some feedback from the mic and I winced. It's a good thing Khronos thought of everything. I muted the receiving end for a while and let the system go crazy. That'll teach the man not to be so c.o.c.ky. We're may be partners but I'm still the leader.

After a minute or two had gone by, I reconnected to the system and heard Nash still cursing in the background.

"Loud enough for you?" I asked grinning in the dark like a maniac.

The scientist hissed and complained for the next five minutes about putting safety measures for sudden spikes in amplitudes.

As Nash and Khronos bickered back and forth, I waited for Lilith. According to the profile from the mad genius' database, Lilith was a vain woman with an aristocratic sense of fashion. Her hair was streaked with grey, always seen worn in a pouffe. How her hair stayed in position all day, I had no idea. My bets were placed on a wig. No human hair can stay that flawless after a whole day.

About thirty minutes of waiting in the dark room with only the conversation between Nash and Khronos to entertain me, the door finally swung open. Watching from behind the thick velvet curtains with x-ray vision, I tapped twice at the side of the visor to signal the target is on the move. Almost at once, the conversation stopped.

"Lights out in five."

I gave one tap to the visor as rehearsed and began my silent count.

On the fourth second, I moved into position just before the lights went out, it was action time.

In a flash, the woman was pinned to the wall as I injected the tranquiliser followed by the truth serum. Lilith hyperventilated while I waited for the effects to set in. According to Khronos, the serum detects if a person is lying by the brain waves. The moment she relaxed, I released my hold on her and set her down on the bed.

The first test was to find out if the truth serum was working the way it should.

"You've been injected with a truth serum. If you lie, the truth serum will cause you a lot of pain until you tell the truth. The antidote is with me and I will only give it to you when I have my answers. Should you not answer within two hours, you will die from the side effects of it in your system. Answer my first question now. Are you a Parliament member?"

With fear in her eyes and tears flowing down her cheeks, Lilith nodded.

"Do you know about the human experimentation project?"

Lilith paused and shook her head. Immediately she screamed when the drug detected the lie. It wasn't until she gave the accurate answer that the pain stopped.

I settled for a smug look that indicated 'I told you so' as the woman coughed.

"Who are the people involved in the human experimentation project?" I tried. If Khronos is correct, the subject would need specific keywords for answers.

Lilith kept quiet and I sighed. This was the flaw in the truth serum. It would activate when the subject lied but not when they remained silent. How troublesome.

"If you don't talk," I took out a knife and traced it lightly across her cheek. A thin cut appeared as ruby liquid threatened to spill. "I can be very creative."

A spark of fear showed in her eyes but Lilith was stubborn. She held back a whimper as I trailed the knife down to her fingers, never breaking eye contact.

"Your fellow Parliament members sold you out. I got your names from them. Surely you don't want to continue keeping a secret that they didn't bother risking their lives for. Tell me who they are and I'll leave you alone. If you don't tell me before the time runs out, you'll be missing your fingers first then your toes. I will remove them joint by joint as I did with Thrusher. I'm sure you saw his body."

"I don't know who is coordinating this! I swear I don't know! All I know is that I was assigned to coordinate the resources for this project. I contacted Raoul Harper for Pantiumite resources that the project required but he's dead now."

My eyes narrowed. Raoul was dead and he was where I had gotten the lead. This can't be a dead end. There is a missing link somewhere.

"Who are your other contacts?"

"Bluetonium Research and Development, Centurion and Luna Cryonics. I don't know anything else I promise."

I growled. "Last question. How many Parliament members are on this project?"

Lilith narrowed her eyes and warning bells went off in my head. The tranquillizer had worn out faster than we anticipated and before I could restrain her, she reached into her shirt to pull out what seemed like a cylinder device on a necklace. Cursing my mistake, I caught a glimpse of Luna Security's logo engraved on the metal when Khronos yelled at me.

"Get away! It's a self-destruct mechanism."

My body acted faster than my mind could as Lilith Malfoy grinned in victory.

"This is the end, Night Walker! Rion will catch you as soon as I press this trigger, you have no escape."

My eyes widened as she cackled madly. "No! Don't do it, it's…"

… a trap. The unspoken words died on my lips when time slowed to a halt.

After Lilith pressed the button, everything stilled. Nothing seemed out of place but after that split second, I felt it before I understood what was happening. Unsure if I could survive this, my body moved on instinct, jumping backwards and creating as much distance as I could from Lilith who still had the triumph smile, slow to understand Rion's betrayal.

The floor rumbled with the force of a land quake. Things collapsed and were blown off by an invisible force, debris flying everywhere as I watched the destruction. It was strange how silent the scene that played before me was despite the chaos. Lilith's eyes widened in horror as her body convulsed and exploded into bits of flesh. Blood painted the room like an abstract masterpiece while I felt the air knocked out of my lungs.

Something wet trickled down my ears and I raised a shaky hand to touch it. The visor wasn't working too well as the world became pitch black again.

Sound waves.

Rion knew I would approach one of the remaining Parliament members and set a trap for me, not caring if he sacrificed the other members. I wasn't that mad that I walked right into it. I was mad at Rion for causing an unnecessary death.

Adjusting to the darkness, I tried to move my limbs. My left arm worked fine but the right one won't move. My legs were shaky and hurt way too much to be normal but at least they functioned.

After an inventory check, the situation proved direr than I thought. The device must have alerted Rion about Night Walker's location and there was no doubt about it. The man would be here within five minutes, I have to get out.

The first thing that came to mind was the charged orb. However, the device wouldn't power up no matter how many times I tried. The shattered screen should be indication enough that it was broken. I was about to pull out another device when a thought hit me. All my gadgets must have been shattered too.

I was handicapped.

Only the blades and firearms survived the blast. I wanted to update Khronos of my situation but lamented at how it would be pointless. I've lost my sense of hearing along with that blast. It's a critical situation but not the worst.

Think Titus! Think! What would Nash have done in a situation like this? I couldn't go far. There were only some blades and weapons and time was limited. As helplessness welled up, I felt myself losing grip on the logical part of me. Understanding my mental state of distress brought me back to reality. With difficulty, I managed to suppress the rising emotions with a breathing technique.

There has to be a way out of this. I didn't have to do make a flawless plan. I just had to do my best and have faith in the team. Looking around the room, I tried to recall anything that Khronos might have mentioned in case of an emergency escape. Nothing came to mind.

Four minutes left.

I looked around. The room wasn't the only thing wrecked, half of Lilith's apartment suffered from the explosion. The bots maintaining the sound barrier outside must have been destroyed with such an extensive damage. Luna would have heard the explosion if it weren't for the bots.

I rewound my thoughts. That's it!

A time check told me I had only three and a half minutes left. As the saying goes, if you can't win them you join them. In this case, I'll at least need to confuse or distract them while Nash and Khronos do what they can. If I can't escape, I'll simply hide in plain sight. Ignacio and Rush can sort out the mess I'm about to create.

Ditching the Night Walker garments for some casual clothes lying around in the half-destroyed closet, I changed. Thankful for my petite frame and Lilith's casual clothes, I gathered whatever explosives left in my possession and set to work. The suit served me well but it's time to say goodbye.

Two minutes and forty seconds left. I can do this.

Ignoring the pain, I ran to where the lift shafts should be. Thankfully Khronos made me memorise the blueprint of Lilith's home before letting me go. As I had limited explosives, simply placing them around wouldn't be enough to cause the commotion I needed. Luna Security may move fast but if anything, the emergency bots in the city moved faster. The life shafts were connected to the main power system in any apartment building. Damaging it will cause a power shut down and trigger the emergency alert that will hinder Rion.

In normal situations, I would try to avoid involving innocent people but desperate times called for desperate measures. Hands busy, the explosives were planted quickly in the lift shaft. With only a minute left to get into position, I got in the lift and started the countdown. With this, it was impossible to link Titus Crowley the unfortunate victim and Lilith Malfoy the assassinated Parliament member.

If Kevin were here I would ask about the chances of survival for a person trapped in a lift explosion. Then again, knowing the number wouldn't do anything for me at this point. It's all up to luck and if I survived, we are definitely going to make Rion pay.

Five.

I thought about Nash and how I hadn't told him how much I loved him. True, we had the issue clarified but I wish I had more opportunities to call him dad.

Three.

Will Rush be angry that I never agreed to let him be my nightly chauffeur? Maybe I should reconsider his offer if I survived this.

One.

Would Mia hate me for what I have done? She's probably more sad than angry. Tonight I caused the death of another person. Why is it so hard to stop killing once I started? I really intended to let Lilith live.

There was no point thinking about anything anymore. A flash of white light and fire was seen from the corner of my hazy vision and the floor rumbled once again. Somewhere at the back of my mind, I knew I was falling. Tossed from side to side, bones might have been broken as the lift plummeted. In the disorientation, something metal hit me on the back of my head and then everything went black.