[C h a p t e r 5 6]

“I still don’t agree with your plan,” said Henry in displeasure for what Amber believed to be the hundredth time. She resisted rolling her eyes in exasperation as she continued to watch men from the Syndicate patrol the grounds outside the warehouse she had spent several months in with Xaphan. They were hidden behind a large, industrial dumpster, having parked Henry’s motorcycle some distance away to avoid being heard.

“I’m not going to argue with you anymore, Xian Hua. I’ve already explained to you that I’m the one they want, not you. I’ll create a distraction while you try to get around their security and kill off those holding Kris captive directly.” Amber checked her blades one last time, pulling one out in her left hand while she removed her gun with her right.

Henry eyed her warily, still feeling worried over the whole deal. If they were to go through with Amber’s plan, then it would mean that she would be greatly exposed. But he also knew that there was no way he could change Amber’s mind once it was set, and it would be no different over this matter too. Turning back to stare at the guards, he too removed his gun.

“Then I’ll help you deal with some of these guys first. But promise me you will be very careful and return to me unharmed,” said Henry sternly, not turning to look at her again lest he truly does something drastic to stop her from going out there.

Amber smiled softly as she turned to look at him. “I promise,” she said, giving him a light kiss on the cheek before sneaking off in the shadows towards the end of the nearest warehouse from their hiding spot. Henry turned to look at her in surprise, but she was no longer near him having quickly and quietly reached the corner of the warehouse before slipping around the corner. The way she moved so stealthily reminded him that she was an assassin, leaving an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He decided not to think about it any further and returned to staring out over the dumpster, readying his gun for when he would hear Amber’s gun shots.

Several minutes passed by before he finally heard the first shot from Amber’s gun. At that precise moment, he levelled his gun over the dumpster, quickly joining her in the assault of bullets at the unsuspecting guards. Once the field was clear, Henry then shot off towards the back of the warehouse Kris was in, sticking to the shadows the other warehouses offered in the dark night.

Amber ejected her empty magazine, swiftly inserting the next with an expert move. Although her preferred method of killing was the blade, her gun skills were still second to none. One hapless guard fell down after the other as she slowly made her way towards the entrance of the warehouse, casually slitting the throats of the ones who came near enough or refused to die with one bullet. Again her magazine was empty and she hugged the warehouse wall as she reloaded her gun.

Reaching the front entrance, Amber poked her head around the corner, quickly taking aim at several of Lee Soo Man’s men before they were able to react and shower her with a rain of bullets. Amber quickly hid back behind the corner, waiting for a break in the volley. As soon as she received one, she quickly jumped out from behind the corner, immediately sending bullets into the few unlucky men who happened to be unshielded as she went to hide behind a pile of wooden cargo boxes. The sound of bullets driving their way into the wood soon followed as Amber reloaded her final magazine.

Sneaking through the warehouse and lodging a bullet into the brains of those she came across, Amber soon found herself staring at the same scene she had seen in her mobile phone. Kris sat strapped to the chair, but this time, besides the blood that oozed from his fingertips and small cuts on his skin, he was no longer clothed but stark . Huge, long, ugly red welts lined his arms, legs and chest, wounds that appeared to have been inflicted by a whip. Her mind briefly drifted to a time when she was thirteen, experiencing the cruel sting of the whip when she refused to disembowel a live dog before Xaphan.

Suddenly, the sound of clapping emanated from across the room and Amber saw Lee Soo Man emerge from behind a pile of boxes, Xaphan smiling cruelly not too far behind him. The grip on Amber’s gun tightened as she saw the smiles they had plastered on their faces, but she was more upset at the fact that she had once worked so long for such a horrible and cruel man, doing similar unspeakable acts as they were now doing on Kris. Kris, who had once been his most trusted man.

“Well, well, Amber… I knew you would probably clean up most of my men, but I never thought you would actually manage to clean them up without a scratch on you. You truly are a master assassin, just the way I had wanted to make you.” Amber watched from her hiding position behind several crates as he and Xaphan approached Kris with several other men in tow. “Too bad I never managed to knock that weakness out of you, even after I made you spend several months in dear Xaphan’s care.”

Xaphan gave out a deep, chortling sound, which Amber had come to learn was his way of laughing. The sound sent chills down her back, for that sound meant he would be having more fun soon with his torture.

Lee Soo Man reached out a hand to grip Kris’s matted hair, pulling him back roughly so that he almost fell backward out of the chair. Kris let out a groan, although it was obvious that he was barely conscious. “You and Kris both have defected from me… it was actually the last thing I had expected. Our dearly departed Zhou was actually the one who was supposed to be having fun with this weakling, after kindly extracting the information from your driver on that day you snuck away to see that boy from your past.”

He suddenly shoved Kris’s head away, causing him to fall to the ground. He lifted his foot, bringing it down to gradually press it hard against Kris’s face and the man let out a gasp of pain. “For some time now, I’ve sensed that something was wrong with you. You were becoming strangely resistant towards the tasks, although you never openly showed those feelings. It wasn’t until recently that I found out you and Kris had begun associating with those in your past, which you should know equates to betrayal of the Syndicate.”

Kris let out a loud, painful shout as Lee Soo Man put more weight into the foot that was on his face and Amber couldn’t take it any longer. She stepped out from her hiding place, quickly strolling over with her gun levelled at Lee Soo Man’s head. The other men quickly pointed their guns at Amber, a total of five.

Lee Soo Man smiled innocently as he pulled his foot off Kris’s head. He smiled leeringly at Amber, shaking his head. “Amber, Amber, Amber… See where your feelings have led you to? If you didn’t care about Kris, you wouldn’t be in such a predicament. You wouldn’t have stepped out of your hiding place, and what more, you wouldn’t have even been here!” He spread his arms, as if inviting Amber to fire at him. “So? What are you waiting for? “

Amber cocked back the safety on her gun, levelling it squarely at Lee Soo Man’s head. “I’m not afraid of dying here tonight, if only you go down with me,” smiled Amber, her anger blocking out any other thought besides seeing Lee Soo Man dead on the floor before her.

A gun suddenly fired and all heads turned to see one of the men fall to the ground from a bullet to the back. As the others tried to look for the source of the gunshot, Amber took advantage of the situation to try and fire her gun at Lee Soo Man, but her gun was knocked to the ground by Xaphan, whose attention had not left her. He slapped her roughly as she made to pull one of her knives, two of the other men falling to ground as a result of the hidden assailant, who Amber realised must be Henry. As a kick was delivered to her stomach however, Amber could faintly make out the sounds of a struggle from behind several of the crates, before the sound of crashing boxes revealed Henry having been knocked to the ground by none other than Key.

Key loomed above Henry, a faint displeased smile touching his lips as he strolled over towards him, pausing only to pick up the gun Henry had dropped earlier. He roughly went to pull Henry up by the back of his shirt, promptly embracing him in a headlock as he pointed the gun into Henry’s side.

“Here’s your gunman, Father,” said Key calmly, dragging Henry over to the others. Amber twisted on the ground to peer at Henry, who struggled every now and then, only to have Key remind him that a gun was pointed at him by digging it into his side.

“Good work, Key…” smiled Lee Soo Man as he watched his son drag Henry over to watch while he stepped over to where Amber lay on the floor, clutching her stomach as she tried to muster the strength to get back on her feet. “After seeing you go to such lengths to protect this boy, I never thought you would let him follow you here, Amber.” He knelt down on the ground next to her, roughly gripping her by the hair as he yanked her head painfully back. “Just letting me have one hostage is not enough for you? You want me to hold two?”

Again, he pulled her hair further back and a small gasp of pain escaped Amber’s lips as she was forced to stare up into Lee Soo Man’s mocking eyes. “Where have I gone wrong, Amber? Where did I fail?”

A sneer crept its way across Amber’s face before she suddenly spat into Lee Soo Man’s eyes. “You failed ever since you laid eyes on me that night ten years ago.”

Amber did not have the time to revel in the glow of her retort as she was slapped roughly across the face by the enraged Lee Soo Man. Henry struggled against Key’s hold as he watched what Lee Soo Man was doing, but his effort was only rewarded with a hit to the head by the of the gun Key had in his hand. Amber let out a shout as she lunged in their direction, only to be yanked backwards once more by Lee Soo Man.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk… You two can’t stand watching each other get hurt, now can you?” He slapped her once more, splitting her lip. Henry again struggled against Key, shouting out at Lee Soo Man to stop what he was doing along with several curses before he was knocked back into silence by Key. Amber again shouted at Key, but Lee Soo Man only shoved her head towards the ground, releasing her as he stood to deliver a kick to her abdomen, winding her momentarily. Amber curled up on the ground as she clutched her stomach, her eyes blurring with unshed tears of pain.

Lee Soo Man smiled, satisfied with what he had done. He stood there peering down at her pitifully curled form, shaking his head. “What a shame it has come to this, Amber. You should have realised how much I always cared for you, how much you meant to me while you were still useful. But you had to go and throw it all away on the basis of that weakness you call ‘feelings’. You wouldn’t be in this mess if you had learned your lessons properly.”

Amber closed her eyes as she struggled to regain her breath, slowly feeling her way across her abdomen towards the dagger hidden on her side beneath. Lee Soo Man never noticed the small movement she made as she closed her fingers around the hilt, instead kneeling down once more to Amber’s face tenderly.

“You have always been a favourite of mine. Both you and Kris. But I think now is the time to end my favour on you both. Xaphan!” he shouted, not removing his eyes from Amber’s. “I give this little vermin to you to play with. Do as you please with her, and preferably before that boy’s eyes over there,” he said cruelly, glancing over in Henry’s direction.

“NO!!!” shouted Henry again, struggling against Key.

Lee Soo Man released Amber’s face and was about to stand up when suddenly, Amber sprang up and gripped him by the neck, driving the dagger she had secretly grabbed deep into his abdomen. She quickly pulled the blade out as the others watched in awe, bringing up the blood-coated silver to press close to Lee Soo Man’s throat.

“I won’t let you get away with all you have done to Kris. I won’t let you off for offering me the chance to become the assassin I am now. And I won’t let you off for trying to kill me and every other innocent involved with my life,” breathed Amber into Lee Soo Man’s ear, finally pulling the blade across his throat before he could utter another word, sending the man deep into the afterlife once and for all.

tbc.