Rage and Ruin | 2

1 | 3

A R L O

It was music to my ears, the President giving in to my demands. Glad that my showcasing of the true depths of my insanity hadn't been pointless, I kept the smile plastered on my face.

      "When he said that we wanted to hear everything, he meant everything," Finn warned him. "Don't leave anything out."

      "If you do, you'll regret it," I said in a sing-song tone. I spun the knife around in one hand while resting the top of the blade on one of my fingers. The President's pouchy eyes watched a thin line of blood trail down my finger. A bead of sweat ran down his forehead.

      Though it was meant to be a threat, I wasn't actually going to kill him. I glanced to my left, where Jake, Delphinium and Jaxon stood. I'd leave the killing to the more murderous people on the crew.

      I'd finished my job.

      So I patted the President's arm comfortingly. "Someone else is going to take care of you now. Don't worry, you're in good hands." Keeping my eyes on him, I walked backwards until I was enveloped in the darkness. Delphinium and Gigi took center stage.

      "Speak," Delphinium ordered. "Tell us everything you know about Imperium."

"Okay," the President agreed quickly. He'd already been broken down through my tactics and now he had to face the wrath of Delphinium Tesla. She'd almost killed him once and it seemed that he wasn't eager for her to try again.

"Only after Imperium fell did the world governments become aware of it. It happened in my own country so they blamed Romania for its rise. Of course, its existence was not publicized for the common people; only a select few world leaders knew and decided to deal with the problem."

I suppressed a yawn. The torturing part of the interrogation had been exciting. The Romanian droning on like this, however, was not. Necessary as the information was, I was not good at sitting still and listening.

"They came over my country's borders and went to the place where the fortress had been. They explored and learned as much as they could about it. Once the investigators were through, they left my country and told me that I legally had control over the area."

      "The ONNT counsel was right, after all," Finn muttered to himself next to me.

      "The next few weeks were quiet. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. After so much time had passed with the investigation, I had not been expecting for anything to happen."

      "But something did happen," Gigi said, more of a statement than a question.

      The President's eyes travelled hesitantly across all eight of us before answering. "Yes, something happened. Late one night I went back home after a long day of press conferences. I was alone. So I was startled to hear someone else in the house with me. I went to turn on the lights, but I heard a man's voice telling me to keep them off. I turned around and saw him standing there, half of his body illuminated by the outside light."

      "Describe him," Delphinium commanded.

      "Oh...I do not - All I remember was the weapons he carried: two guns. I thought that he was about to assassinate me."

      "Did you see his face?" Gigi questioned, looking serious.

      "No, I hardly even saw him. It all happened so fast."

      "Was he wearing a mask of iron?" Delphinium asked gravely. The air in the room seemed to still.

      The President frowned. "As a matter of fact, yes, he was." He looked into the assassin's face curiously. "How did you know?"