"Listen! I am telling you, this is all a big misunderstanding. I am not the bad guy here. You have to let me go!" John pleaded with the guards who were taking him somewhere in an armored jeep.
"The real criminal is out there who has taken hundreds and thousands of lives of innocents and kids. Such a criminal shouldn't be roaming free in the world. You have to—"
"There is no such person on this island. Only the renowned are invited here, and you clearly are not one of them."
John gritted his teeth in frustration and asked, "So where are you asking me? The Mafia Lord or something? If you want to kill me, kill me here and be done with it."
"Master is going to ask you some questions about how you managed to invade the island."
"I didn't invade anything. I had a pass."
"Where is it then?"
"It's… I dropped it somewhere when you all were chasing me."
John couldn't say it was with Cassandra, or the guards would have tried to chase her down. Not knowing that she was already being chased by the other Under Blades.
'I hope Cassy managed to get off this island safely! Still, there is nothing but the sea surrounding this island. We came on a yacht with the other guests from the port. It was guarded by the same uniform guards, so there is no way she can return to the same yacht.
She would need to contact the headquarters and ask for a copter, but… she would be caught by the guards. I knew coming here was a bad idea, but she didn't listen. Only if there was an acquaintance on the island… we would have asked for help.'
Suddenly, the jeep hit the brake and lost control. It almost hit the tree but stopped a second before— as though someone had grabbed it.
The guards got out of the jeep with their weapons and glanced around, but they turned their weapons down when they saw Rudy.
He was wearing a mask, but the Under Blades easily recognized him.
He pulled John out of the jeep while saying, "I am taking him with me."
"Wha— who are you?!" John tried to break free. "Is he the master you mentioned?!"
"..."
"Hey, Listen, whoever you are. You can't let that criminal escape. Cassy and I have a personal involvement in this case, and that criminal must be captured. We can't let the past repeat itself."
"Calm down, mister. The criminal has been captured and executed. But you need to leave now."
"Wha—! How did you find that criminal? I need full details. I will have to make a report and present it to the high authorities!"
"Your country makes its own rules and expects the citizens to follow them. What other countries do is none of their damn business. So the same goes for this island. Its judiciary and rules are different. We don't have to cooperate or provide anything to you. If you don't want to leave, we can imprison you for a lifetime."
Rudy asserted in a loud and crisp voice, suitable for a leader.
"What about my partner?"
"She is safe and waiting for you."
Rudy jumped in the air while grabbing John with one hand and landed on the beach.
"Wait by the helipad. Your partner should be there too. I will send someone to drop you two off."
After saying that, Rudy flew away, while John watched him with a baffled look on his face.
"What the— was he flying?!"
John rushed to the helipad and saw Cassandra doing something on her phone.
"Cassy!" he called out to her.
"Jonny! Thank god you are safe." She glanced around as though she was looking for someone.
"Don't worry. No one is following me."
"Where is Rudy?"
"Rudy…? Why would he be here?"
"He is the one who saved me from the guards earlier… What about you? I sent him to save you."
"I… don't know. You won't believe me even if I tell the truth."
"And that is…?"
"Someone grabbed me and flew… me in the sky. I don't know if I was hallucinating, but… Underworld is scary…"
"Judging by the technology I witnessed at the auction, I wouldn't be surprised if they also have a working jetpack for the guards."
"But… he wasn't wearing anything… maybe I missed it because it's dark. Anyway, what were you doing on the phone?"
"I was trying to reach you! Where is your phone?"
John checked his pockets and let out a sigh.
"I must have dropped it somewhere. Ask the IT team to block my phone and remotely erase all the data inside. I am sure the mafia has a technology to decrypt our most secure encryption, let it be software or hardware."
"Yeah, I did that already. I thought you would be dead by now."
"That would have been a lame death. And why did you wear their party dress? What if it has a tracker or something?"
"I checked before wearing. And I wore it, thinking it would be easy to blend in with the other girls, but who knew their security management would be so tight."
"The person who dropped me here said that the criminal has been executed. Do you believe it, or do you think they were lying?"
"Who was that person? If it was any random guard, we shouldn't believe it. But even if it was from a higher post authority, I don't think we should believe it without proof. Our police department and the other departments have already labeled that case as unsolved at the headquarters because the murders had stopped, and we couldn't find any leads.
But I won't stop studying this case. Once I find out who sent us the envelope, we will start digging. And as soon as we have a strong lead, I am opening that case again! That is the only case in my career that I haven't been able to solve. And I am sure as hell that would be the only one."
Cassandra had made a commitment, and her resolution was stronger than it had ever been.
