The Liberal Assassin

Two days later, I made a shocking discovery.

"How did you manage to create an underground city without anyone's knowledge? Better still, why hasn't anyone chanced across this yet? Shouldn't there be some sort of underground development plans for the city?"

The mad scientist shrugged. "Something about the instability of the island deterred anyone from digging. According to wise men, the island might sink and fall apart if dug into so nobody ever tried to prove it wrong."

Not having Kevin with me felt weird. In fact, the underground facility was not connected to any system. I felt vulnerable not connected to any form of technology, not to mention I wasn't progressing as fast as I liked to think when it came to my recovery. That was the huge damper on my mood.

"Well, long story short, there were doc.u.ments of several people attempting it during the development of the Inner City before the separation of elite and non-elite citizens. All the stories ended the same way with the ground collapsing on them, burying them alive."

That was weird. I thought something akin to flooding or land quake might occur instead.

"That's not too bad, is it? If they reinforced the sides the ground wouldn't cave in."

Khronos grinned. "That's where things got interesting. They did what you said and yet the pressure made everything cave inwards. There was some weird gravity thing preventing any form of structure to be developed below sea level."

"Now it makes sense why they would build something beneath the sea away from the island. Then again, how are you able to build an underground network on the island?"

Khronos tutted with a sly smile. "Now that would be telling. Anyway, I've had my eye on that facility for a while but Helenos got dibs. He probably got insider information from that skanky ice queen."

"Skanky ice queen?"

"Who else? She's one of them on your to-do list. The one with dark straight hair and a permanent scowl on her face…"

I frowned.

Exasperated with my cluelessness, Khronos wrung his hands and made random gestures in the air.

"About this tall," a hand to his c.h.e.s.t indicating her height gave me some form of clue about who she was but I held my tongue, wanting Khronos to spill.

"Wears those awful thick-rimmed glasses that are out of production for a fashion statement and is never seen parading without a pair of white covered flat shoes? Come on! You should know she is by now, the one who paints her lips nude and speaks in that monotonous voice?"

"Lilith?" I tested, knowing it was far from the correct answer.

Rolling his eyes and groaning dramatically, I noted how the scientist had a habit of messing his already unruly hair when frustrated.

"No! Kalifa! Kalifa Zeidner I'm talking about. She was the very first CEO of Luna Cryonics. She's almost as old as Rion and should be one of the fixed seats in the Parliament. The only reason why she wasn't voted was because the position was already taken by Diango."

"That party loving freak?"

"The one you poisoned, yes. She has strong connections with the underground, maybe even more than Diango as she has spies even in the loony bin. Diango has control of both the Inner City and the Slums while the turf wars were going down. Kalifa took it a step further and has a foot in about every research sector. She's a sleeping investor in all the monoliths and you can find her using one of her many aliases. I'm only surprised she hasn't tried with Luna Services."

"We are competition from the way you talk about her. If anyone has information about the human experimentation project, my bet is on her."

Khronos smirked. "I'm glad we're on the same page. Say, 'the human experimentation project' is a mouthful. Shall we give it a name?"

I don't see a purpose in doing so but Khronos is a whack job so I shrugged and let him decide.

"Project Nova Homo. How's that?"

Deadpanning at such a gay sounding name I shot him a look. "Seriously?"

"You're no fun. It just means New-Man in a language from the old days."

"Well, I'm not the one using it so whatever floats your boat. Back to my first question, why are you here?"

As if suddenly remembering his purpose, the semi-madman snapped into work mode. "I'm here to inform you that Team Night Walker is going to hold a meeting here tomorrow. Your proxy is going to bring some fancy equipment from your company to aid with the healing process. It's too bad this underground place of mine isn't as well equipped as my apartment back in Forty-One."

"Team Night Walker?"

Khronos looked worried for a moment. "Do you not like the name?"

I paled. "Who is in Team Night Walker?"

The bespectacled man pursed his lips in thoughts. "If I recall correctly, it consists of the Yankee, the proxy, your old man and me. We may recruit new members since it's depressing to have a team of only old men and brats."

I wanted to kill myself there and then. Talking to Khronos would take forever.

"Just go, I don't care anymore. Go visit your ex-girlfriend or something."

"Ex-girlfriend?"

"Kalifa. You seem to know her really well. The fact that she was the CEO of Luna Cryonics wasn't even recorded in the system."

With a free-spirited laugh, Khronos slapped me on the back not caring if it would jostle some very broken bones.

"You're hilarious! Why would they keep everything in records? Maybe if you tried it two hundred years earlier," the scientist chortled.

"It's a good thing no one could really access what's up here." With a grin the scientist tapped his temple.

"Well, that's a really convenient storage system. Maintenance free, automatic folder creation and archive system. No need to worry about data storage space either."

With a cheery grin, Khronos added one last thing before leaving me to rest.

"The best part is how everybody has one of this and it will last a lifetime, unlimited warranty. Rest well, Titus, you'll need it. The team will drop by tomorrow to discuss future operations."

The click of the door left a very thick silence in its wake. Khronos really outdid himself. This sanctuary is self-sufficient and extremely ideal for top-secret meetings. Even the Silent Citadel paled in comparison.