What She Thought She Knew (Rachel Moore Mystery Book 1), стр. 61

The Phantom placed his knife away, and held two fingers under my chin, forcing me to look at him. "I win." He smirked.

My teeth clattered together as I breathed in rapidly and stared at him through tear stained eyes.

The Phantom agent looked down and let go of my chin. He stood up, and wiped the blood from his knife with a handkerchief he pulled from his cloak.

Once that was done, he placed both items back into his cloak and turned his back towards me.

"Why?" I sobbed as I panted heavily.

"Hmm?" The Phantom replied as he looked back at me.

I stared at him with as much hatred as I could muster as I was shaking. "Why are you doing this?" I repeated my question.

The Phantom agent merely cocked his head. "I think the better question is 'why not?'"

I narrowed my eyes and snarled at him. "Go to hell." I said venomously.

The Phantom agent chuckled. "My dear, we're already in hell." He replied. "Besides," he continued, "I'd worry more about your friends. Perhaps in time, with their continued suffering, you will be able to see our point of view more clearly."

My eyes widened in panic. "What did you do to them? Where are they?!" I demanded.

The Phantom agent chuckled. "After some persuasion, your friend Gizmo was so helpful in giving up vital Shroud and HQ codes as well as electronic security measures. We really owe him a lot." He then smirked. "The others, well, let's just say they've seen better days."

My eyes narrowed once more. "What happened to them?"

The Phantom stared at me in disinterest. "The lady with nice legs died in the initial raiding of your plane. As for your Demolitions Expert, I was told that his clone wanted to settle a score with him."

I stared at the Phantom in horror. "What… what do you mean by that?" I asked as I sincerely prayed that Predator was safe.

A look of amusement passed over the Phantom's face as he winked. "Let's just say he went out with a bang."

I gasped out loud, before I gritted my teeth together. "You bastard!" I yelled.

Unaffected by my reaction, the Phantom merely shrugged. "He was useless to us. Besides, we have his clone who is much more manageable." He smirked once more.

I gritted my teeth together once more as I stared at the Phantom with pure hatred. He was a monster.

"How could you do such horrible things and not feel any remorse?" I then huffed. "Do you even have any emotions?" I asked skeptically.

The Phantom grinned. "Of course I have emotions. I use a knife." He replied as he laughed, and held the deadly tool out in front of me.

I shivered as I remembered all too well the excruciating pain that the item had put me through.

Thankfully, the Phantom put it away, and then stared at me carefully. "Do you really want to know why I'm doing this?" He asked, his tone took on a serious tone for once.

I merely stared at his eyes wordlessly as the man leaned forward. "I'm doing this to spread a message to you and the rest of your little friends: you and your organization full of wannabes are not as powerful or as influential as you think. People will always follow the ones with the most money, the most popularity, or in our case, the ones who know how to manipulate information. The majority of the population are idiots. 'No intelligent idea can gain general acceptance unless some stupidity is mixed in with it' is what I've concluded." A look of disgust passed over his face. "Why do you think we do transactions with regular folks? They are the ones willing to follow the social hierarchy that our organizations have imposed on society due to our 'differences.' They are the ones that the idiots look up to. In turn, they follow what we impose." He paused to look at my reaction.

When I didn't react, he continued. "Humanity has always been submissive to those who are smart and resourceful enough to seize that opportunity. We're merely doing what nature has intended: to put humanity in its rightful place."

I gasped in disbelief. "That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! This is why we're so different: the Seekers are trying to protect humanity's freedom while you and the rest of the Phantoms are trying to enslave them."

Shadow stared at me with an unreadable expression as his face was hidden by the darkness. "Indeed we are different," he started, "because you Seekers fail to realize just how much humanity has fallen. Because of the war that your organization started, humanity has metaphorically degraded back to the barbarian ages. Crime and suicide rates have gone up, depression and anxiety have become more common in the average Joe, and ethnic tensions are at a record high. Do you really think that by defying us you're helping humanity? You're actually doing the complete opposite!"

His statement was like a blow to my ego, however, I didn't allow myself to be visibly phased by it.

Agent Shadow leaned forward once more. "What is your biggest fear?" He asked.

I didn't answer for a couple of minutes as I stared at the Phantom's covered face.

Yet again, I felt myself drawn to his glowing eyes that seemed to have molted into plasma that flowed through the iris. My eyes narrowed as something inside me was trying to tell me something about this particular agent, yet I couldn't figure out what.

"My biggest fear is becoming the same thing that hurt me in the first place." I finally said carefully. "If I become like you, than I am no better than you, and all of my work and dedication would have been for nothing." My eyes narrowed. "I'll die before I ever work for you.