Chapter 27: Chapter 27: The Reds
"...what in Mother Mercy’s name is this?!" Raymond exclaimed in pure shock, his eyes widening by the second.
In one glance, he took in the whole room. He saw the window blasted apart, the table visibly shoved aside, the opened red box, and...
Raymond narrowed his eyes as he took in the dead body of Loris, his head blown apart, brain matter spilling out grotesquely onto the ground.
And beside the body was a young man, burned and wounded, struggling to breathe, struggling to open his eyes.
Raymond acted immediately.
First, though, he stepped out of the room and saw the restaurant workers running towards him, having heard the window shatter and the gunshot.
But there was no way he could let anyone into this crime scene.
"Don’t come any closer," Raymond said in a cold tone, his black eyes deep and unreadable, as if shadowed by something within. "This is now a crime scene under the jurisdiction of the Local Protectors of Paris. Stay where you are, don’t move, and don’t use your phones."
Aunt Lalie and the cook, Fat Joe, felt their hearts race at the coldness of Raymond’s voice. They could feel the power radiating off him, threatening them.
They obeyed, standing where they were without moving.
The first thought that crossed Aunt Lalie’s mind, in that instant, was that maybe Mars had done the unthinkable. But she crushed that thought as fast as it came.
’Marsy boy is a sweet boy! He... he can’t have done anything bad!’
Raymond, meanwhile, went back into the room and shut the door behind him.
The first thing he did was pull Mars away from the body. The boy was still breathing.
Raymond sighed in relief, pulling out a C-rank Health Serum and injecting it into Mars’s body.
While waiting for the serum to take effect and heal the boy, he took out his phone and looked at a contact titled ’Captain.’
He hesitated, gritting his teeth. "This is the second time I’ve messed up in three days. The second time."
Raymond knew, at this point, his chances of a promotion were dwindling. Since his divorce, his mind had been perpetually foggy, and he’d fallen back into his old drinking habit.
He knew it was the stupidest choice he could make, but he just couldn’t help it. He needed release. And only alcohol gave him that.
Now here he was. A murder on his fucking hands.
Raymond exhaled through gritted teeth before approaching Loris’s body. He saw the man’s hand still around a gun — a gun bearing the mark of a red, bleeding, grinning mouth.
He recognized it instantly.
The Reds. One of the six mafias that dominated the underworld, not just of New France, but of other continents and countries too.
’We were expecting drugs, but not to this level. And I missed it. Mother Mercy, I’m truly in trouble.’ He narrowed his eyes as he put on his black gloves and looked inside the red box.
He found a single white and pink pill deep inside. He held it up at eye level, studying it closely.
"Oh, Mother Mercy... this is far more serious than any of us would’ve thought," Raymond whispered, and knew he had no other choice.
He needed to call his captain. So he did.
He brought the phone to his ear and gritted his teeth, picking up his gilded steel staff, now bloodstained.
His captain answered fast, as always.
"Any news on the drugs?" The captain’s voice, stern and cold, came through the line.
"Yes, Captain," Raymond said, his eyes still fixed on Loris’s nightmarish remains. "But I think we’re dealing with something far beyond what we were expecting. Something far above our current level."
"In what way?"
"The Reds are involved."
There was a sharp, tense silence on the other end before the captain spoke again. "...Proof of your claim?"
"The proof is right in front of me, Captain. The owner of a restaurant on Rue Bauvary was killed with a gun marked with the Reds’ symbol. There are also traces of drugs left behind. Whoever did this knew about our operation and wanted to eliminate weak links."
"Something doesn’t smell right, Agent Raymond," the captain said. "Why would the Reds leave behind clear proof of their involvement, that gun?!"
Raymond paused at that. It was true he hadn’t thought of that.
Still...
"You know how these bastards are, Captain. They’re arrogant, and they don’t care about our authority," Raymond replied, frowning deeply. "The only reason I can think of is that they didn’t want to lose the drugs to us. It costs an astronomical amount to produce them, after all. These drugs can affect us — Gifters."
"Sounds logical. But we need more than logic when dealing with these people," she retorted. "I take it the culprit escaped?"
He looked at the blasted window and the footprints suggesting someone had jumped out of it, and nodded slowly, cursing himself. "I believe so, Captain. I’ll call the others to seal the perimeter and search extensively."
"Alright. Any witnesses at the scene?"
Raymond turned his head and watched the boy he’d saved slowly struggle to his feet, his eyes wide with fear, body shaking violently.
He clutched his head as if it might split open at any moment, tears streaming down his face.
"Yeah, Captain," Raymond nodded, looking at the poor boy. "We have a witness."
"Bring him to the Protectors’ Office. Now."
"Yes, ma’am."
...
Three hours had passed since Loris’s death, and Mars’s head felt like it was splitting apart. The pain was excruciating, and he struggled to hold back his tears.
This wasn’t the first time Mars had been in this kind of state. It wasn’t the first time his emotions had shut off after his mother was insulted in front of him.
It had happened fairly often in the past, but never this severely.
Mars had come to learn that once that state — which he called Zero State — switched off, he’d suffer a backlash, his mind flooding back with all the suppressed emotions at once.
So after waking from the Health Serum, he found himself reliving the fear of standing up to Loris, the anger of Loris insulting his mother, the cruelty he’d inflicted, and the burning sensation of Solaris’s fire on his body.
And most of all, he was hit with the full weight of what he’d done: he’d killed someone.
All of it hit him at once, and he felt like he was going to lose his mind.
Him. Mars Fox, 18 years old. Had killed another human being.
That thought kept repeating in his mind, over and over, sending chills through him and nightmares even with his eyes wide open.
He hadn’t gone there to kill anyone. That wasn’t the plan. Yet he had.
The guilt threatened to swallow him whole, even though Mars knew he’d had no choice, and that he’d do it again if the same situation happened.
Not because he wanted to. But because his wife had been in danger, and when his wife was in danger... he was in danger.
Now here he was, in a soundproofed room made of hard steel, with only a table and two chairs facing each other.
Mars sat in one of the chairs, head bowed, hands cuffed, waiting for the Protectors to arrive.
His heart was racing, but he tried to calm himself, not wanting to make things worse.
After waiting a few more minutes, the door opened and someone stepped inside. It was a woman, average height, looking to be around 23 to 26 years old.
She wore the Protectors’ uniform, with one star on her chest, marking her rank as captain.
She had silver hair cut short in a pixie-like shape, and cold black eyes.
Without a word, she sat across from Mars and laid several documents in front of her.
She picked one up and began to read aloud. "Mars Fox, 18 years old, orphan. Awakened just a few days ago with a D-rank Gift. His father, named Alexander Samael, once worked as a servant for a ’rich’ family. Died before Mars was born. Cause of death: killed during a Warren breach.
"His mother, named Catherine Jolie, once worked as a high-ranking courtesan at a brothel called the Pink Lotus, in the Red Street of Paris. Died when Mars was 12. Cause of death: lung cancer, due to excessive smoking."
Mars’s body trembled at those words, but he said nothing. He only kept his head down, silently begging for it all to be over already.
But the woman wasn’t finished.
"Mars dropped out of school at 12 to work, in order to pay off the debts his mother left behind and cover his own living expenses. He was taken in by Loris de Chapel, and worked for him for six years." The captain lifted her black eyes to stare at Mars. "Until today, when, according to witnesses working at the restaurant, Mars Fox came in with a woman he called his girlfriend, in order to resign."
She narrowed her eyes. "That’s interesting, Mars Fox. Suddenly, you want to resign. And you did it with a woman you called your ’girlfriend,’ who hasn’t been seen anywhere since what happened today."
She tilted her head, tapping one long, sharp, silver-manicured nail on the steel table. "Now lift your head and talk to me, Mars Fox."
Mars obeyed and lifted his head, looking at the captain, whose eyes were like unsheathed swords — sharp and lethal.
"Tell me who that woman was, and how you know her."
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