It Wasn"t Me
It was an ordinary-looking Caucasian man dressed in a waiter uniform.
He was walking to a dimly lit corner and appeared to be serving a dish to a couple seated on that table.
His movements were gentle and graceful. His fingers were unusually clean with finely trimmed nails.
The waiter bowed slightly and nodded after serving two plates of pasta. He proceeded to leave after clearing the empty plate.
The middle-aged man drank a sip of wine before picking up his fork to eat.
All of a sudden, the table shook violently right when he was about to take his first bite!
BANG!
The plate of pasta spilled all over the floor!
"What"s going on?!" The man shouted towards the waiter who was still nearby. "Waiter! What"s wrong with this table? Why did it shake?!"
The waiter kept his pace and continued walking downstairs while feigning ignorance.
Yang Chen got up and said, "I"m going to the washroom."
He immediately tailed the waiter and followed him downstairs.
Tang Tang muttered, "There"s a washroom on this floor, Uncle"s so dumb."
Tang Wan placed a hand on her head and nagged, "You talk too much and you"re not even married yet. I bet you"ll drive Yuan Ye crazy when you get married!"
It was quite obvious Yang Chen wasn"t going to the washroom. He wanted to know what the waiter was up to. They pa.s.sed through the front hall towards the emergency exit located at the back.
The waiter took off his jacket and threw it into a trash can the moment he exit the shop. He opened the door and walked out after doing so.
Yang Chen followed him and walked out with a ghost of a smile on his face.
The moment he walked out of the door, Yang Chen felt murderous intent coming from above!
"Hmph." He raised his arms to catch it as though he expected it coming.
Yang Chen caught a sharp silver dagger right in his hands!
After the waiter exit the door, he had jumped up and clung on to the side of the wall. He was planning to a.s.sa.s.sinate Yang Chen the moment he walked out!
The Caucasian man jumped away from Yang Chen and looked at him in horror when he saw that Yang Chen"s hand was unharmed by the sharp steel dagger.
"It"s rude to poison someone who had just come for dinner." Yang Chen snickered.
"Who are you?! Why did you follow me?!" the man questioned.
Yang Chen inspected the dagger and his gaze turned from one of anger to confusion. After much thought, he tossed the dagger to the man, returning it instead of killing him with it.
The man was bewildered by his actions. He didn"t run away immediately because he was aware of the difference in their abilities. But he couldn"t sense any form of hostility from Yang Chen.
Yang Chen hummed in thought and asked, "The logo on the dagger is from Zero. Therefore you must be an a.s.sa.s.sin from Zero."
"You… who are you?" The man widened his eyes in surprise.
Yang Chen continued to speak, "What does Sauron think he is doing? I remember prohibiting Zero from accepting requests in China! You pretended to be a waiter then poisoned the macaroni which was to be served to a customer! Or… did you betray Zero?"
The man hesitated to answer Yang Chen"s questions. "You mentioned our leader"s name. I didn"t betray Zero. I don"t know who you are and where you sourced your information from but Zero has recently been cleared for missions in China. This is my first mission in China and frankly, I"m not entirely sure why you are getting in my way. Aren"t you afraid that Zero would take their revenge on you?!"
"What? Cleared?" Yang Chen laughed. "I believe Sauron doesn"t have the power to decide that."
The man replied, "Of course it wasn"t the leader"s command. His Majesty Pluto was the one who gave the command! He permitted us to accept requests in China!"
Yang Chen"s face fell when he heard that. "You mean… Pluto was the one who gave the command?"
"Look, it seems like you are well aware of our operations since you are aware of His Majesty Pluto," the man said proudly. "Now that you know I"m an a.s.sa.s.sin from Zero and His Majesty Pluto, are you still planning to stop me from carrying out my mission?!"
Yang Chen didn"t think that the a.s.sa.s.sin would lie, not to mention Sauron would never betray him. So that meant there was only one explanation. Someone was impersonating him!
d.a.m.n it! How dare they pretend to be me and give orders to my subordinates?!
Yang Chen extended one hand towards the man and said, "Hand me your mobile phone!"
The man looked surprised but he still pa.s.sed the mobile phone to Yang Chen after contemplating for a while.
Yang Chen dialed Sauron"s private phone number which a low-level a.s.sa.s.sin would never know.
Sauron sounded surprised once the call was connected. "Your Majesty Pluto, why are you calling me again? You"ve called me twice today and now a third time. What a rare occasion."
The third time?! he thought.
What the heck, this is only my second time! Yang Chen was very sure of his suspicions now!
"Sauron, have I really called you twice before this?" Yang Chen asked.
Sauron replied sounding confused, "Your Majesty, your jokes are not reaching me. We talked yesterday. You gave me orders and we talked about a lot of stuff too."
Yang Chen shouted at him. "You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Sauron! Are you stupid?! I would never change my decision on something so important like this. Did you not think it suspicious when I would suddenly give a command like this?"
The a.s.sa.s.sin"s jaw dropped when he witnessed all of this. He finally realized who he had been talking to!
Sauron kept quiet for a long while before replying with an innocent tone of voice. "Your Majesty, I… I"m feeling kind of lost now. I have to admit I"m not entirely sure why you"re angry at the moment."
Yang Chen calmed himself down by walking in circles before saying, "Sauron… the hidden enemy is a lot stronger than I imagined…"
"Enemy?" Sauron was puzzled. "Your Majesty, what happened exactly?"
"The one that gave you those orders wasn"t me but someone who was pretending to be me…"
"What?!" Sauron yelled in disbelief.
Yang Chen told him all about the lookalike that he saw on the sea and also the a.s.sa.s.sin he met.
"If I didn"t come across your a.s.sa.s.sin who was about to poison a Chinese man, it would"ve made me very suspicious." Yang Chen sounded troubled. "This person clearly wants to make me an enemy of China."
Sauron suppressed his anger and responded, "I"ll withdraw his orders immediately! This is an insult towards Zero and me!"
Yang Chen asked, "How did that b.a.s.t.a.r.d contact you and what orders did he give?"
"He reached me using the usual internet channel and he even video called me. I did think at the time that it was weird of you to call me from a laboratory but shrugged it off as no one would dare to impersonate you. He wanted me to sell some weapons and give orders to some of the mercenary groups in the Middle East and North Africa, asking them to carry out missions. Now it"s clear that he is looking to instigate conflicts within those nations and blame it on you!" Sauron was outraged.
"He even knows our communication channel?!" Yang Chen"s face was filled with murderous intent. "Our communication channel is encrypted, designed by Jane."
"Your Majesty, this might play to our favor." Sauron laughed.
"Oh? How so?" Yang Chen asked.
"We couldn"t track him before because he could utilize the laws of s.p.a.ce. Most importantly, we had no idea where he was. But this time, he used the internet and he broke through the firewall set by Princess Jane. We just need to ask Princess Jane to track him down for us and we would be able to locate him. Princess Jane might even be able to find out the ident.i.ty of our culprit," Sauron said.
A smile formed on Yang Chen"s lip. "I forgot that Jane was capable of doing that."
"Your Majesty, I"ll withdraw the orders and contact Princess Jane immediately," Sauron said.
Yang Chen nodded in agreement. "How long would it take for the additional Sea Eagles members to arrive?"
Sauron replied, "Latest by this week because the Sea Eagles are distributed worldwide so it was tough to summon two teams."
"Alright, you can proceed with work. Rectify any damage done. If they behave unreasonably, take care of it as you see fit. I shouldn"t have to lecture on how to do it. Contact me if you can"t settle it," Yang Chen informed.
Sauron hung up after saying yes.
Yang Chen let out a breath before tossing the mobile phone back to the dazzled man and said, "Return to Europe. Rest easy, it wasn"t your fault."
"Yes.. .yes! Your Majesty Pluto!" The a.s.sa.s.sin kneeled down with his head on the floor and answered gratefully with an excited voice.
Yang Chen was in no mood to deal with this kind of idolization. His face was still gloomy and deep in contemplation when he returned to the table.
Lynic"s notes:
Chapter 3/6 (7)
BONUS: I"ll be doing 7 chapters this week as well! The release rate system is supposed to motivate readers to donate. So I"m sure I"ll only be "damaging" this system by always "artificially" increasing the release rate. Please consider buying me and the editor a cup of Starbucks every month ($3-5).
Release rate:
$1000 - 5 weekly chapters
$1400 - 6 weekly chapters (Current: $1,406)
$1800 - 7 weekly chapters
$2200 - 8 weekly chapters
$2600 - 9 weekly chapters