The Devil's Cage

According to his calculations, Kieran should have been fully occupied grieving for his friend’s death.

Why would he be there?

The questions on his mind were evident on his face and doubtful gaze.

"What are you saying, Mr. 2567? What do you mean it"s me? I don’t understand. I am here because I was worried Old Tom’s accomplices would take advantage of this chance and kill him!"

Jack looked at Kieran with a puzzled look, his tone even more doubtful than before.

Kieran slow-clapped. Even though he had confirmed his theory, he really had to give it to Jack. He was a remarkable actor. This was an Oscar-worthy performance.

"If you don’t understand, you can take a look at this."

Kieran took out the two pieces of paper.

"What"s this? The paper from the old master thief? That old f*g!"

When Jack saw the two pieces of paper in Kieran’s hand, his ordinary, kind face suddenly turned vicious.

He did not try to explain any further. Any excuse he gave would be useless against those pieces of paper.

Especially considering that Kieran had been waiting for him there, which meant that he had already confirmed whom the handwriting belonged to.

"That’s right! I’m Old Tom’s accomplice, and also the Warden and the Deputy Warden’s accomplice!" Jack admitted. He was looking at Kieran as he spilled out the truth word by word.

"Of course you are both their accomplices! Separately, that is! The truth is, I should have realized it earlier. Both the Warden and the Deputy Warden seemed to trust you a lot, yet the two of them didn’t seem to get along well. It was really odd."

Kieran shook his head. He was regretting that he had not discovered Jack’s involvement earlier. If he had, No.1 and No.2 would not have died.

They might have just been short-term team members, but both of them had displayed the integrity of a bodyguard, and most importantly, they had not been hostile towards Kieran.

He would not have minded saving them if he could have.

It was a pity that that was no longer an option.

[Players No.1 and No.2 are dead!]

The notification popped up in Kieran’s team chat. Just as Kieran had expected, neither of them had survived the blast.

Jack was the one who had caused the explosion and killed them both.

Of course, Jack had also poisoned Kieran’s beverage and poisoned his own comrades in the cafeteria. He was even the one who had tried to kill Old Tom, and had also been an accomplice in the prisoners" mysterious deaths

The true killer of the prisoners, though, had been the Warden, the Deputy Warden and Old Tom.

Why would they do that?

Their motives had been written down clearly on those two pieces of paper.

‘You can lead a better life than you currently do all you need to do is to give in something.’

‘Freedom is not out of reach if you have something to offer to me.’

The first paper had been written by the Warden himself; the second one had been written by the Deputy Warden.

The two of them had held the highest authority in Alcatraz, and they had both abused their power and position, and extended their greedy hands to the prisoners, taking advantage of their hidden wealth.

There was no doubt about the wealth of the prisoners. When Kieran had inspected the last prisoner’s cell, he had found out that even that "well-behaved" prisoner had robbed three banks and killed dozens of innocent people.

The point was, the money and treasure he had robbed had been hidden, and the officials had only been able to recover one third of it. The remaining two thirds of the money were still missing.

The prisoner had claimed that he had spent it all, and had been sentenced to a lifetime in Alcatraz because of it.

Kieran had gotten the information from the Warden’s desk while he"d been trying to compare the Warden"s handwriting to the paper.

The file on Gilfren Hatch and the multiple suicide case file had both been placed on the desk at a most obvious spot. It seemed that the Warden had had his suspicions too, but that had still not been enough to affect his confidence in his dirty work. The Warden had thought that his plan was perfect. Opening a pa.s.sageway to the cell area had not just been for his convenience in patrolling, but also for his convenience in "withdrawing money".

To the Warden, Alcatraz Prison was an unlimited treasure vault, but his dirty secret had been discovered by the Deputy Warden.

However, the Deputy Warden had not been a righteous person either. He had also joined the "withdrawal" without letting the Warden know.

However, there was one more person who had been crucial to the Warden"s and the Deputy Warden’s plans. That person had been Jack, the very man who had been tasked with manning the Security Monitor Center.

Unlike the lazy guards in the corridors, even though Jack was just as lazy and would sleep openly in the Security Monitor Room, all he needed to do was peek an eye and everything was before him. The corridors on the first, second, and third floor were all monitored by surveillance cameras.

The Warden had bribed Jack to win his favour, and the Deputy Warden, who had discovered the dirty secret, had bribed him as well.

Although there had been lots of threatening and compromising along the way, one thing had remained unchanged. Jack had been the only person in charge of the Security Monitor Center, and he had reaped the benefits of that position.

However, the benefits had been too little. So much so, that Jack had decided to include another accomplice in the deal. That was how Old Tom had come into this.

An accomplice that Jack had been hoping for for a long time. An accomplice that belonged solely to him. Kieran could only imagine Jack"s excitement when Old Tom had approached him. After all, it was a no-brainer that Jack had been at a bargaining disadvantage in his deals with the Warden and the Deputy Warden.

A Warden causing a prisoner’s death could be considered a mere accident. Even if the Deputy Warden were to replace the Warden in the equation, it would still be the same. However, when Old Tom had been thrown into the mix, everything had changed. Old Tom had started off without any restraint and had only gotten worse under the influence of money.

Kieran was sure that out of the six cases of suicides during the past month, half of them had been caused by Old Tom.

"Trust me? Stop joking. If my job did not benefit them, do you think they would even have taken a second look at me? I was just like Old Tom. He"d worked here for over thirty years, yet he was still in the same place. He had not even earned enough to get retired! I didn’t want to be like him!"

Jack seemed to get triggered by Kieran’s narration. He started to shout loudly, before he suddenly calmed down and continued, "Join me! Let me kill Old Tom, and I will share half of my money with you! It’s enough for you to live wealthily for the rest of your life! No one will suspect anything!" Jack tried to persuade him.

"I like money. It allows me to wear good clothes, have full meals and lead the life that I want...," Kieran said slowly.

A smile started to form on Jack’s face. He knew that money was almighty. At least that was the naive idea in his mind at the time.

The next word that came out from Kieran’s mouth made Jack’s smile freeze, though.

"But I am used to earning money my own way. I"m not a slave of money, and I do not wish to become one and lose my senses like you!" Kieran said.

It was what he really felt. Even though the world was both black and white, he still tried to remember the one thing that had kept him going and prevented him from crossing the line.

He clenched his teeth and fought on, because that was life.

Kieran did not know who the h.e.l.l had said those words, but it really had been the harsh reality of his life.

He knew perfectly well that once one crossed the line, they would eventually end up in an eternal abyss.

He did not wish for such a d.a.m.ned life. It would be like being screwed by a dog.

It was his life, and it should be him making the choices.

Kieran looked at Jack"s frozen face, and let out a long breath as he walked over.

The Sub Mission [Unexpected Accomplices] would be ending soon, and so would the Main Mission.

It had been easier than Kieran had expected, although he had met some obstacles along the way.

"Stop! If you don’t want to become a slave of money, then you might as well die!"

Jack pulled out his gun, ready to fire. Obviously, he had heard that Kieran had shot off Old Tom’s gun in a single shot in the afternoon, but it seemed like he had not listened, or perhaps thought he was stronger than Old Tom.

Still, the result was the same. Just like Old Tom, Jack’s gun was shot off by Kieran, who followed up by punching Jack in the abdomen.

Jack fell to the ground, his eyes rolling to the back of his head.

Kieran picked him up and headed down the stairs. No matter how slow the Warden was, he would have been able to realize his own mistake by now.

Kieran needed to hand Jack over to the Warden to complete his Sub Mission.

Still, there was one more thing puzzling Kieran and making him frown.

[Background: Alcatraz Prison has been experiencing some mysterious incidents lately. Your special expert team has been hired to solve the mysteries...]

Kieran looked carefully at the description again. It seemed like the Warden was also one of the problems he needed to solve.

When he thought about the armed men protecting the Warden, Kieran frowned even harder.

Although he could expose the Warden and his dirty actions, how many of the guards would believe an outsider who had only been in Alcatraz for a day?

In other words, even though he had solid proof, he did not know whether the guards would be willing to aid an outsider in exposing their superior, or would rather side with their superior to reap greater benefits.

No doubt, the latter was more possible.

"I think I’ll need to ambush the Warden too..."

Just as Kieran finished planning his next move, the [Knitted Talisman] around his neck started to feel warm and emitted a faint glow.

Kieran’s heart skipped a beat.