Criminal Genius

The Gun

While Roman was home thinking of ways to outsmart Cerebrum, the criminal was watching him. He had set up cameras in Prince's apartment before he ever woke up in the dungeon. Not because he wanted to spy on him later, he never planned on actually letting Roman go. The cameras were like a calling card. If the police found them in the house of a kidnapped person, they automatically knew that it was Cerebrum. However, the police thought they were placed there because the criminal spied on his victims before he captured them. Which is completely false. He didn't need to spy on the famous to know they were guilty. Everybody in the Sanders City should have been arrested at one point, but he chooses to go after the higher ups because they usually have committed the worse crimes.

Take Declan Knight for example. He was a magician who exclusively did shows in the West side, even though he lived in the Center. Everybody in the city thought he was a hero, bringing joy to the poverty stricken. But they didn't know the truth. While preforming acts, he would make women that resided in the West disappear. Literally. He would always ask a young girl to come up on stage and then make them disappear through a casket, then a couple weeks later they would end up on the missing persons list. The police did nothing about it because they were residents in West, meaning they aren't official citizens because they live below the poverty line. So Cerebrum brought justice to Knight. Simple as that.

He had originally taken Prince because of his criminal record. Three years ago Roman Prince paid the mafia to "dispose" of a rival of his. Cerebrum was never able to discover who that person was, but that doesn't necessarily matter. He never meant for Roman to leave that dungeon alive, but after further inspection of his "character profile", it would be a tremendous help to keep him alive. But watching him right now might be contradicting that conclusion.

Honestly, he couldn't believe that a simpleton such as Roman could even hope to outsmart him. Cerebrum had already calculated exactly what Roman would do and when he would do it. Roman was just too easy to read. In five minutes, Prince would take a shower to try to calm down and clear his head. Then, he would lay in bed for a couple hours before finally falling asleep around midnight. He would wake up the next morning and he would realize that Cerebrum would not have given him his gun back unless it was important. Leading him to the next clue in his puzzle.  All he had to do was wait and watch.

And just as Cerebrum thought, Roman hoped in the shower. Roman's mind was still reeling with questions, but he need to calm down so he could sleep. If he ever wanted to beat Cerebrum, he had to be rested. So he decided the best way to calm down was to take a shower. He turned on the shower and started strip down while he waited for the water to warm up.

Cerebrum turned off the camera in the bathroom to give Roman some privacy. He may be a criminal genius but he's not a fucking pervert.

Roman hoped in the shower and started to wash off. He was covered in grime and dirt from walking through the West.

As he cleaned himself he couldn't help but question everything. He tried desperately to shut off his brain but nothing had worked so far. So, he let his thought consume him. He sat on the floor of the shower and just thought. It must had been almost an hour when he finally came back to reality because the water had turned frigid.

He turned off the water and stepped out, still captivated by his thoughts. Wrapping a towel around his waist, he walked to his room and laid back down on his bed. There was just one question he couldn't get over. Why give him a gun? Roman clearly didn't need it and when he tried to fire it, it got jammed. Unless it was jammed on purpose.

Roman practically fell out of bed from how fast he stood up. When he finally stood back up, he ran into the kitchen where he left the gun. He picked it up and started to inspect it. After a few minutes realized that the locking mechanism that keeps the gun cocked was missing completely. He couldn't have fired even if he wanted to. Cerebrum had most definitely tampered with his gun.

Roman started to take apart his gun, if Cerebrum had tampered with it then it must be important. He took out the cartridge and dismantled the casing. When the gun was in pieces across Roman's kitchen table, he took a step back and looked at them.

It took awhile for Roman to spot the difference but he was proud when he did. A slit had been carved into his cartridge. It was just big enough to show that a ten digit number had been scratched into the bottom of the bullets.

Cerebrum was impressed. It had only taken Prince a couple hours to solve his puzzle instead of the twelve he had guessed. Well, it looks like he need to give the actor a call.

900 words