“Did your father teach you any manners?” Li says, speaking in Mandarin into the translating device around his neck. He remains remarkably calm. Since the moment the Chinese military escorted Jake and I from the massacre to the imperial palace, Li has remained smiling and all too eager to dig a sly comment into my ripped-up flesh.
“Don’t talk about my father.” I shake my head, scratching my arms. I feel so uncomfortable being alone in the same room as this man that I can feel my body physically responding. Increased heartbeat, excessive sweating, nausea. If I sound like I’m complaining, it’s because I am. I feel like I’m falling apart, and the fact that no one has even treated my knee except for wrapping it in bandages makes everything even more unbearable. “You never even knew him.”
“I knew enough about him to know that he had some things he never told anyone about.” Li smiles. “What did he tell you?”
“First, can I ask you a question?” I swallow. If I had the Chimera Cube on me, I would likely command it to blow up the entire palace and grab Jake, who is likely downstairs with the alcohol and working women that always seem to roam the floors.
“Certainly.”
“Did you seriously just have your military systematically kill ten thousand people?” I ask the question, already knowing the answer, but I want to see this man admit the horrible truth right to my face.
“You remember, don’t you?” he says innocently. He looks out the window behind his desk, the skyline of Beijing lighting up the night. Cars still drive around the streets as dozens walk the streets with masks on to block out the pollution. No one in this city knows that the tragedy of the Beijing Bombing is only a warm-up to what happened today during the Charity Tournament.
“All I remember is the sound of the bullets and the dozens of bodies covering every square inch of the stage,” I say, keeping my tone level. I don’t let the emotions surface on my face. I want him to think I am strong, that all of this doesn’t affect me.
But deep down inside, I feel traumatized.
I feel like all the hope I had in the world with the Chimera Cube is gone, it washing away along with the hundreds of liters of blood that will need to be power-washed off the stage.
“What are you talking about?” Li grins, turning back around in his swivel chair for his dark eyes to stare right at me.
“You know what I’m talking about.” I speak low, my voice deepening as I grip the desk with my hands shaking as I try to contain my anger.
“Your time with Chimera?” He acts surprised and outstretches his hand across the table. “That’s right, it’s all over the news! Good job on that one, my friend!”
I don’t respond to him; I only stare at him with the dirtiest expression I can possibly muster. He is only reminding me of my victory because he knows that it was stolen from me by the Syndicate, just like everything else in my life.
“My apologies.” His expression softens. He pulls back his hand as if the opportunity to shake it is a noble privilege. “I mean the charity tournament. Everyone is so happy for you, and the event ended up raising millions for the victims of the Beijing Bombing.”
“You son of a bitch.”
“The truth exists only in the minds of those who believe. The state media has controlled what the people of this country think for years. And it will remain that way forever.” He stands up, a distinct robotic motion to the way his hips swivel as he looks at the bookshelves that line his office. It is at the top floor of the palace, the same floor where I had the pleasure (just kidding, it sucked) of speaking with him the first time I met his ratlike face. Except this room is covered in dark wood paneling and is much tinier, no larger than a study. From the candles lit on the windowsill and notepads with symbols scribbled all over them, it is apparent that this is his personal office.
“No, the truth is what happened.” My skin crawls as he stands with his back toward me. Somehow, with his wide, imposing figure turned away from me, his menacing stare becomes even more frightening. “The truth is that ten thousand innocent people died. That’s the only thing that will be forever.”
“They weren’t innocent,” he says, his tone still level, but part of me would like to think that he is on the verge of breaking down. “Over eighty percent of them were part of the rén. They were part of the over hundred million Chinese who have been deemed as a danger to the state, all because they refuse to listen to the truth that our media tells them. They refuse to obey even when they are given no other option.”
“Mr. President Wang.” I puff out my chest, speaking pompously on purpose. I want him to explode to the point of physically harming me so that I have a chance to choke him. I want him to feel an ounce of the pain that everyone in that stadium felt. “Maybe they would listen to you if you gave them a reason besides fear.”
“Fear is the only thing that us humans respond to adequately. It is the only way we have been able to survive for hundreds of thousands of years, and those who can’t respond to fear deserve to be eliminated. It is the natural order of things.
“That’s not how it fucking works.” I put an extra emphasis on the word fucking in hopes that Li feels annoyed by it.
“That’s exactly how it works, and if you don’t start fearing me, I will end every bit of protection I have on you.” When he says that, I have to hold back a round of laughter. “The only reason you didn’t get shot by my soldiers in the first minute is that there was a chip embedded into your suit, and I gave them special orders not to shoot anywhere near the highlighted section of their vision. If you don’t do as I say, I will end you.”
“You are horrible. Truly horrible.” I shake my head and lean back in the chair, every hair standing up on my arm as his icy words wash over every one of my nerves. I’m not scared of him. I’m scared of whatever made him the way he is—I can’t ever end up the same.
“No more horrible than I have to be.”
“This is all a choice, don’t make it sound like murdering ten thousand people is a necessity.” I sigh, the anger boiling over inside me. I don’t even know the meaning of life anymore. After seeing something so horrific, all I want to do is unleash the Chimera Cube upon his whole regime and watch it fall. “What even made you this way in the first place?”
“Words couldn’t ever describe what I’ve been through.” He faces me again, his thin lips pursed together and rigid stance more tensed than usual. “They can’t even come close to showing you what makes me who I am.”
“Well, at least let me understand a little bit. Give me an idea of what makes you this fucked up, this vile. I’ve always been curious to know whether truly evil people like you are born or made.”
“I’m not evil, and if you understood me, you would know that.” For the first time in the conversation, Li’s voice is harsher. “I have beliefs that I will never back down from. I have desires that I will never be able to satisfy. But I am not evil. I only know one evil man who has existed.”
“Who is that?”
“I always forget his first name.” Li puts a hand on his chin and looks up at the ceiling. The dim lights on the walls fail to reach the wood paneling on the ceiling, leaving it covered in darkness. “James, I think it was. Yeah, James Bennet.”
“You bastard.” I can’t help but let the anger seep into my voice. “You don’t know a thing about him. A single thing.”
“I know how much people his company ended up killing. I know how many lives he willingly tossed into the acid, knowing that it would surmount to nothing.” He smirks and rests one of his hands on the desk, his bony fingers akin to the legs of a spider. “He even knew that what he was doing would end up with his wife killed and his son too. For those reasons and more he is the one evil man I know.”
“You have no idea.” I stand up and slam my fist on the desk. The old wooden structure has no give in it, causing a sharp pain to reverberate throughout my entire arm. My knee feels like it’s going to collapse as I put pressure on it, but the anger pushes me through. “He
is the best man you will ever meet. He was a better man than you could imagine.”
“Oh, I forgot.” He holds a hand up in a passive-aggressive manner that makes me want to take his fingers and bend them back until they break. “We like men who are strong. Who keep everything inside. Who never even share some of the biggest secrets of their life with their loved ones, secrets that will end up with them and millions more getting killed.”
“You don’t know about any secrets.” I step to the side of the desk. I don’t care about the security cameras anymore. I can tell this man is manipulating me. I have dealt with people like him in the Syndicate and my own father on way too many occasions.
I am onto his game. And I want to end him.
“I know your dad was part of the Syndicate. I know your dad killed his best friend years back. And I know your dad’s mentor was Isaac Savery, the leader of the Protocol 00 research program.” He smiles, meeting my angry eyes with nothing more than a cheery glow. “There is no telling what else I know. There is no telling me anything.”
“You should fear me,” I say, keeping my expression and tone as cryptic as possible.
I can’t fight this guy.
Even if I manage to beat him to death before anyone comes in, I will spend the rest of my days in jail. The Chimera Cube won’t even matter anymore.
But right now, I feel attacked. That’s a lie—I am being attacked.
And I need this man to know that he can never try and hurt me again. I don’t give a shit about what I can and can’t do anymore.
I need to break him.
“You should finally begin to cooperate. You should open your eyes to the power that we could have if we join forces. Our might will make our little showing yesterday nothing more than a warm-up. With our might, we can defeat the U.S. Military overnight. You flying down to the Earth on that hoverboard will be nothing more than an everyday occurrence soon. Once we unleash our power, the world will be ours.”
“I don’t need half a brain to know you don’t give a shit about me.” I step closer to him, not backing down despite the fact that the lights are dimming even lower in the room to the point that his entire face is cast in an ominous shadow. “You care about your power, not mine. And once you have all of it, you will dispose of me.”
He stares me down with his lips parting slowly as he lets the silence marinate into my bones. “If that’s true, I wouldn’t be any different from your father.”
When he says this, I lose it.
I know that’s exactly what he wants me to do.
He wants me to freak out. He wants me to try and hurt him. He wants me to make a fool out of myself.
But after watching ten thousand people die right in front of me, the trauma has forced me past the point of shock and to the level of sheer insanity.
I don’t want this man to fear me.
I want this man to remember me as the last person he ever sees.
I don’t bullshit around with any jabs to his gut or face, or a harsh push against the wall. In no time, both my hands are around his bony neck. It is so rigid that it doesn’t even constrict as I wrap both my hands around it, but I know that there is no way the life isn’t being squeezed out of him.
To my surprise, he doesn’t struggle. I feel a short breath of air escape from his mouth, but after that, all I can feel is his heartbeat racing against my body. I have successfully constricted his airway to the point that no air can travel in or out.
But I want his face to turn purple.
I want the life to leave his eyes.
I slam him onto the ground. Despite him being extremely buff, his body feels oddly light when I put my weight behind throwing him down. Now I am on top of him, my entire body doing everything it can to prevent the inevitable explosion. He has still shown no signs of struggling. Even with the beads in the carpet beneath him digging into his back, his body remains remarkably calm. He wants to show me that he has nothing to fear.
He wants to lunge forward and try to evoke the same pain upon me.
But he never gets the chance. I sigh, the strength in my arms fleeing as the last of the life escapes from his body. I can feel the rigid feel to his muscular structure give out instantly as his eyelids shut.
Li’s heart rate cuts off from the lack of oxygen and his entire body appears a shade paler.
At first, I feel a rush of such adrenaline and dopamine from the high of beating him that the reality that I killed one of the most powerful people in the world doesn’t cross my mind. Then, for only a split second I think about what this means outside of the moment and realize I am screwed.
The silence drives my mind to a degree of paranoia it has never experienced before. Suddenly, every inch of my skin is buzzing with energy, and as I lift my own hands off his neck, they don’t even feel like they belong to me.
I am in shock.
I look up at the window, wondering if I can throw my body out of it and run away before any members of the imperial guard burst open this door.
Right as I jerk my body forward, digging my knee into the lifeless corpse, the double doors behind me leading back out to the main staircase of the palace burst open.
The lights immediately increase in intensity to illuminate every dusty nook and cranny on the bookshelves that line either wall. The person who walks in is the person who I least expect it to be out of everyone in the world.
It is Li Wang.
And he is holding a backpack in his hand while smiling. The same backpack my dad gave me. The same backpack that holds the Chimera Cube. An army of guards stands right behind him, all with their guns raised.
Not to be that annoying complainer, but this would only happen in my life.
I have no idea what just happened.
But I messed up big time.
Chapter 12
I am strapped to a table. The cold metal bolts rub against my back, causing a series of chills to course down my spine. My eyes are closed, my corneas unable to handle the blinding light shining down from directly above me.
For the last few minutes there have been no sounds. It’s just been me and my terrified thoughts all alone in the cold operation room that has dozens of bright fluorescent lights all for the purpose of torturing me.
The thing is I know they are here.
I know they are staring right at me. I can feel the energy of their eyeballs slicing through my clothes, trying to dissect the truth of what is in that bag out of my inner being. They know that if they are silent, they will only let the tension and paranoia build inside me until I explode. But I won’t let them win.
My hands form tight fists, my fingers clenched so hard that my wrists shake and joints ache. I won’t let them force me into opening that bag. I will let them saw off my hands if they have to. I will let them kill me before I let them see what’s inside.
“This is your final chance.” It’s the voice of Li. Calm and sinister as usual. It will be impossible for me to know whether this is another humanoid robot version of him or his actual self unless I try and kill him. And the second I do that, the guards in this room will pummel me into submission and forcibly pry my hands open so that I can unlock the indestructible bag containing the Chimera Cube.
They have already tried burning the bag, boiling it in acid, and cutting it apart with the world’s finest military-grade knifes, yet nothing has been strong enough to tear apart the tightly bound nanoparticles that constitute the bag. I am the only one that can open it.
And the second I do that, I will make sure they are all dead.
“Shut the fuck up.” I shake my head. My eyes remain closed even as I feel his presence hover directly above my head. I make a point of not struggling in the dozen restraints around my body even when he places a finger on the side of my face. He has a dark energy to him, the kind that lets you know he has only fallen victim to a cycle of abuse from something in his past that he will carry on for generations.
“Don’t worry,” he says. I open my eyes, and his f
ace blocks all the light from hitting my body, leaving me blanketed in a cold shadow. I have never seen someone who looks creepier in my life. His neck is huge, likely from his steroid use, and thick black hairs extend from his nostrils. “You will be the only one who is talking very soon.”
The silence of the room is shattered.
The guards lining the periphery of the torture chamber, which is fittingly located on the top floor of the palace across from Li’s private quarters, all approach the table.
I jerk forward to try and break free from the restraints, but they are clenched so tight around my body that my muscles aren’t even able to fully tense, never mind propel my body forward.
“Get off me!” I scream, knowing it will do no use, but I don’t want to go down without a fight. I feel cold, slimy pads stick to my hair and the skin on my neck and ears. Then the imperial guards all circle me, Li’s face above mine unmoving.
With this weird show of power, I am too distracted to notice the needle in the corner of my vision until it digs directly into my forehead.
The pain is at first indescribable. But then the sensation turns into nothing to describe at all. A second passes by that feels both like years and like it never happened at all.
I open my eyes, but I am no longer in the operation room. The smell of male body odor and antiseptics morphs into one of human excrement. Li’s face has disappeared from my vision along with the light. Now I am staring at a group of children playing in a school yard. It is an autumn day, and the clouds in the gray sky above move in sync with the cold breeze that meanders back and forth.
The children are all no older than eight years old, each with the smile and joy that characterizes the innocence of youth. I wish I could go back to those times in my own life. I wish I could be one of them, where playing tag on an old, rusted playset was all I needed to feel like this world is a magical place.
I cry at the sight, and I don’t even know why. Maybe it is something about the faint smell of chlorine that brings me melancholy. Or maybe it is watching the children run around in circles, oblivious to the shift that is going on around them as millions of dead leaves fall to the ground.
The Conspiracy Chronicles Boxset 2 Page 10