Chapter 3: Hungry for revengeDante's house, VeniceLokI was sitting on the couch, listening to my brother Michael, who was telling another one of his hard to believe- stories.
"So I think: No way, and I start chasing that guy…"
His mouth was moving but the words didn't get through to me. I started daydreaming about my girlfriend Sophie… today was our 1 year anniversary, and this morning we had a romantic picnic in the park. There, I had given her the beautiful necklace I had bought earlier that day. It was silver with a little hearth of pink diamonds (Actually it was just quartz, I was not that rich). Still, she was really happy with it, she embraced me, and said 'I love you Lok' as only she could say that. Of course I told her I loved her to, and we kissed and then-
"Hey Lok, where's Dante?"
"Huh what?"
Michael pulled a hand through his half long, with gel backwards combed blond hair.
"Dante? Where is he?"
"I don't know." I looked on my watch.
"He was on a mission, but should have been back twelve hours ago."
"Ah well, then I guess his mission took a little longer. I'll call him on his cellphone"
Michael took his i- phone out of his pocket.
"That's strange…. His cellphone's off."
"But that's nothing for Dante!"
I realized my voice sounded worried. I wás worried, for some reason. Dante was never late and would never put his cellphone off.
Michael saw he'd made me nervous and looked at me with a brotherly glance in his brown eyes.
"Don't worry little bro." (I hated it when he called me like that). "I'm sure Dante is alright…. We'll call Guggenheim, he probably knows where he is."
Zhalia's living room, a few hours earlierZhaliaI watched how Dante lost consciousness and fell aside on the couch. The soporific in his tea had done its work.
I actually felt a little bit… guilty about all of his. It's pretty mean, first I help him, then I kidnap him… But I had no choice. The hunger for revenge was too strong to ignore.
I put my arms around Dante's chest, and with a lot of effort I managed to pull him of the couch.
"God, I really should have thought this out better…" I muttered.
This guy was pretty heavy, but of course I couldn't leave him here, I had to drag him to the basement before he would wake up.
This is so not good for my back… The Sweat ran down my forehead while I dragged him step by step of the stairs.
After what seemed like an eternity, I had reached the bed, and with my last strength I lifted him on it.
Never again! I though, and I sat down on the floor to recover my breath.
After a few minutes I stood up, and took a pair of handcuffs out of my pocket. I'd stolen them from a cop once, and for the occasion I'd adapted them a little bit. They were now unbreakable, and the chain was extensible and could well be four meters long. Long enough to reach the bathroom, but not long enough to escape. I secured it to his left hand and the bed.
His cellphone and titans! I had almost forgotten to take them away. I pulled the cellphone out of his right pocket and turned it off. In his other pocket I found a few titans I'd never seen before. I severed them with Sorrowbond and put them in the pocket of my belt.
I looked at Dante, and even thought I didn't know him, I felt another wave of guilt. He had nothing to do with this, and was probably going to be pretty mad at me when he woke up. I would be to if I were him. He would demand an explanation… And I didn't really felt like giving him that explanation…
"Zhalia stop feeling guilty! If you want to achieve anything in this world you have to be merciless…"
The memory of Klaus' voice echoed in my head. And no matter how much I hated him, he was right. I had to be merciless, unshakable, cold- hearted, to succeed. I'd done things like this before, and now I just had to do it again.
Zhalia's basement, a few hours laterDanteThe door at the end of the room opened, and the blue haired woman came in. She'd changed clothes, and was now wearing a brownish tank- top, tight jeans with a weird brown belt, and blue boots. Now I could take a better look at her, I couldn't help notice she was really beautiful. A perfect figure, caramel- colored skin, almond- shaped brown eyes and a cute little nose.
I noticed that she was holding a plate with food in her hands, so at least she didn't wanted to let me die of starvation.
"What time is it?" I asked her.
"It's one a.m." She answered with an expressionless face. She put the plate down on the bed.
"You know, when you said you needed my help, I wasn't really expecting this." I said calmly. It would be a useless to get mad and scream at her, although a part of me really wanted to do that.
"Consider it like this: You could have been the prisoner of somebody even worse than me."
I assumed she mend Defoe with that.
"You're right, but still…is this really necessary? If you need my help you don't have to chain me up, I promise I won't run off or hurt you."
She smiled lightly. "Sorry but if I tell you what I need you for, you'll leave, I'm sure of that."
An unpleasant feeling came over me. What was this crazy woman planning to do?"Dammit stop being so vague, what do you want of me?"
She saw I was losing my patience and bit nervously on her lower lip. I realized screaming at her had been a mistake, but before I could fix it, she turned around and walked away without saying a word.
"Come back!" I yelled, but she didn't return.
Dante, you fool…. I thought to myself, if I'd stayed calm I'd maybe been able to mobilize some more information.
I sighted deeply and stared at the ceiling, wondering if my brothers had already noticed my disappearance…
Dante's house, at that momentLok"What are you saying?" Michael asked incredulous to Guggenheim, whose worried face was looking at them from the big tv- screen.
"The mission didn't take longer than expected, and Dante's plane had landed 10 'o clock this morning… I don't know where he is."
"Something bad has happened, I feel it, we have to look for him." I said, a bit panicky.
"Easy Lok, it's in the middle of the night, Dante can take care of himself, he's the foundation's top- agent. He probably just ran into a cute girl, and is he spending the night at her place." Michael said with a smile.
I sighted. "Michael this isn't a joke!"
"I know, I know, I'm dead serious. Look, there is nothing we can do right now, go to sleep, and then we'll go search for him tomorrow."
I hated it when Michael was right. We indeed had a better chance to find him tomorrow.
"Ok than."
"I'll contact a foundation spy at the police, and ask if any incidents have occurred today. And I'll also ask other foundation agents if they have seen or heard anything of Dante." Guggenheim said.
Michael nodded. "Thanks Guggenheim."
Zhalia's house, the next morning
ZhaliaI sat behind the dining table with a cup of coffee, staring at the news article I had found in Klaus' desk three weeks ago, the little piece of paper everything had started with. The reason I'd left the organization.
Hate and anger welled up in me when thought back to that moment. How I had cried, when I realized everything Klaus had said was a lie, how I'd yelled at him, confronting him with the truth, how I had hated him, when I realized that all these years I've been nothing more than one of his experiments.
I resisted the urge to smash my coffee cup against the wall. Instead of that I stood up, put the article in my pocket, and walked to the kitchen to make Dante some breakfast.
DanteI heard familiar footsteps on the stairs, which announced that the blue- haired woman was coming down to visit me, probably to bring me breakfast.
"I vaguely remember you've told me your name yesterday, but I've forgotten it." I said, when she walked into the room with a new plate.
"My name is Zhalia. Don't forget it another time."
"I won't." I said with a smile.
She put the plate down on the bed, and bent over me to grab the plate from yesterday. It was then, I saw a little piece of paper stick out of her pocket. Light- fingered I pulled it carefully out of it. Till my great relieve she hadn't noticed anything.
"Zhalia, I understand why you've taken away my titans and cellphone… but would it be possible you let me call my brothers so that I can tell them I'm okay?"
She looked at me with something of apology in her gold- brown eyes. "I'm sorry but I can't risk you telling them where you are."
I sighted. It wasn't that I hadn't expected such an answer, but still. If my brothers found out I was missing, they would probably go do something stupid and dangerous like searching for me at the organization. They would never expect I'd been kidnapped by a mysterious woman, so they would probably never find me and only bring themselves into trouble…
Zhalia had left the room again, and I remembered the little piece of paper I'd hidden in my fist. I didn't exactly know why I had taken it, but maybe it would give me some more information. I unfolded it, and saw it was a news- article. Amazed I started reading it.
Where is that article about? What has Klaus done? And what is Zhalia planning to do with Dante? Will Lok and Michael find out the truth? You'll find out next chap….