One orphan.
Ethan’s head was bowed as one hand clutched his mask. His body ached with pain and begged him to rest. His eyes were consumed with fatigue and pleaded him to sleep. Blood slowly streamed out of his haphazardly attended wounds and stained his uniform, but he did not care.
He had survived much worse than this.
Ethan solemnly stood a few feet away from his grandfather’s headstone. But his downcast eyes did not look up at it. His body shivered, and not just from the cold. “I’m sorry for all this. I’m sorry I didn’t turn out the way you had dreamed. I’m sorry that I’ve turned into the very thing that you prayed I wouldn’t…a killer.”
There was no response. There was no comfort.
“I feel so alone. I am alone. I can’t drag Jonathan and Cathy into this. Not after this curse has already cost my father his life. I’ve forced Katrina to wait out the storm alone and I’m dragging William down with me.” Ethan took a slow step toward the tombstone. “When I started this mission, I didn’t know it would be like this. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I thought that I could remain emotionally detached from everything. That I would be able to distance myself and not let the darkness that I face every day get inside of me…but I was wrong.”
Ethan’s eyes finally looked up at the headstone. His hand reached toward it, slowly running across it.
“Every day I have to fight. Every day I have to walk the line. I have to stop myself from crossing the line. From becoming the very thing I am fighting. From letting this quest consume me and embracing what Daken turned me into.”
When his words ended, the graveyard responded in silence once again.
“And…and it feels like I’m losing that fight and that my soul is growing darker with every person I kill.” His hand pressed harder against the tombstone. “And that’s why I can’t sleep.”
Ethan let out a deep breath, trying hard to hold back the tears like he had done so many times before. It was a habit now, something he did without trying. But this time, sorrow clenched his heart with an unbreakable grip. Shutting his eyes, Ethan stood there in the black night.
Alone.
Chapter 7
Wounds
Dawn was just breaking when William arrived at the warehouse. Entering the large, unoccupied chamber, he closed the heavy doors behind him with a giant heave. The screeching of the doors echoed through the warehouse as they went across the rough ground. He immediately saw that the base’s master computer was brightly illuminated as it triangulated the locations of a few people.
Looking in the direction of Ethan’s office, William noticed the blinds were closed, but one of the lamps was on and the door was open. William could make out Ethan’s shadow as he sat at his desk. It appeared that his partner had passed another night without sleep.
Just like so many other nights.
As William walked past the board of targeted individuals, he heard a voice coming from the office, or at least a recording of one. It was a voice he had not heard in a long time—Katrina’s voice.
The volume was turned down, but he could still faintly hear her. Even though he only ever met her once, William was certain the voice belonged to her. A small smile came to his face knowing that Ethan had found some amount of warmth during this cold winter night.
As he made it halfway through the compound’s main chamber, the recording of the voice turned off. Within a matter of moments he was in the doorway. Coming into the room, William opened his mouth to say a witty comment.
But his smile disappeared when he saw Ethan.
Shirtless, Ethan sat on his chair with his head hanging low. His body was decorated with countless bruises, cuts, and a couple of bullet wounds. Several white bandages were wrapped around his biceps and shoulder while a large one was tightly wrapped around his ribs. His eyes were bloodshot and weary.
Sensing William’s presence, Ethan slowly turned to look at him.
“You okay, Ethan?”
“I’ll live.” Even Ethan’s words were overflowing with fatigue.
“Seems like last night was a long one.”
“No longer than any other night.”
“What happened? Were they expecting you?”
“I was distracted.” He looked down at his bandaged torso. “And it cost me.”
William glanced over at Ethan’s ribs. “Anything lethal?”
“Not for me.”
William was silent.
“The wounds will heal. They always do, but some things never heal.”
“Anything you want to tell me?”
Ethan looked down at his desk. “A woman was found dead outside of her apartment complex. No doubt the work of a couple of punks. Her name was Victoria Naomi. She left behind a daughter who was waiting at home for her to come back from work. Instead, she got to see her mom get stabbed for her purse. And now she’s an orphan.”
“Ethan, you—”
“A convenience store was robbed and the owner was shot dead by a robber. The police arrested him, but he won’t get the death penalty because he’s underage. At worst, he’ll get a few years in prison. The victim: Michael Price. He was raising his two grandchildren. And now they both have nobody left to care for them.”
“Look—”
“They’re dead because of me. Because I failed.”
“You didn’t fail. You can’t be everywhere at once.”
“It’s my responsibility. I promised to keep the people safe during the revolution.”
“Don’t put this on yourself.”
“I was distracted. I couldn’t finish my patrol because I was hurt—because I let myself get hurt. I was—I was careless and stupid.”
“Ethan, please—”
“Careless and stupid!” Ethan’s fist suddenly slammed against his desk. The bang shook the room and echoed for several seconds before it died away. Slowly, Ethan’s eyes came back onto William. “Do you know what Victoria’s daughter kept saying? Do you know what question she kept asking the police?”
William did not respond.
“Where was The Guardian? Where was my hero? Why wasn’t he there to save my mother?”
William was at a loss for words.
“I’m failing, William. No matter how many punks I take out. No matter how many lives I save, I am failing. In every way imaginable.” He shook his head. “The revolution may be winning, but I’m not. And the worst of it is that the innocent are the ones who die. Even with all my strength, I can’t save them all. I can’t keep children from becoming orphans.”
William knew that there was nothing he could say. Nothing that could ease the pain that tormented his friend.
Ethan stared back down at his desk. There was a long silence between them as William patiently waited for Ethan to say something. Finally, Ethan broke the awkward stillness. “What did you find on Villanueva?”
“I got in touch with my contacts. He looks clean.”
“How deep did they dig?”
“More than enough. Whatever intentions he has to doing business with you, they seem like a genuine concern for people. Maybe he really is a saint.”
“Most saints are just devils lying in wait.”
“So what’s the plan?”
Ethan thought for a moment. “I’ll tell Jonathan to review the deal. But I’ll keep digging. If nothing else, the deal will let us get close to Villanueva and discover his true intentions.”
William nodded.
Ethan took a deep breath. He glanced down at the golden-framed picture of Katrina for a quick moment. “You on watch today?”
“Yeah. There’s a drug exchange going to happen at the docks today. I tipped off the police about it so they’ll do the bust. Should go down without a sweat, but I’ll be watching in case it doesn’t.”
“Which cop did you tip off?”
“Lieutenant Rogers. He’s Lieutenant Mason’s ex-partner,” William replied.
“He’s a good officer. Both of them are.”
“T
hey’re more and more like him popping up every day. Before you know it, every cop will be just like him.”
“They will be needed. I won’t be here forever,” Ethan said.
“Katrina will be glad to hear you say that.”
Another silence came over them. William regretted not thinking before he spoke, but Ethan soon broke the uncomfortable peace, and the fatigue returned to his voice. “What time is it?”
“The time? A little past six in the morning.”
“I have a meeting at noon. I’ll go out for one quick patrol. I’m going to pay Nicholas a visit.”
“Nicholas?”
“The man who shot the storeowner. I should have his position any minute now along with Victoria’s killers. I’ll make sure that her daughter knows that if I couldn’t save her mother, I’ll sure as hell avenge her.”
“Maybe a few hours of sleep will do you good. I can…”
Ethan shot him a deadly stare.
“…look into Victoria’s murder.” William barely finished his sentence, already knowing the answer.
“You have other things to take care of. And these muggers don’t deserve the jail time you’ll give them after what they’ve done.” Ethan slowly rose from his seat.
“Ethan, you know…”
He glanced back at William. “What?”
“…nothing.” William knew that it was not the right time to say what he was thinking. “I’m going to be making a round to some of the east side’s women shelter this afternoon.”
“There’s somebody I want you to look for there.”
“Who?”
“Mary Klaus.”
“Mary? Mary Klaus? The same one who works at the real estate office?”
“If she’s back there again let me know.”
“What do you mean ‘back there again’?”
“Just do it, William.”
“Why?”
“Because we’ll make sure she never goes there again.”
***
The plane was midflight, but would land within the hour. There was silence on the aircraft. Sergeant Jones looked over the file that sat in his lap—the file of his next target and the most deadly target he or any man on his team had ever hunted. Reading the list of The Guardian’s feats and the people he had taken out singlehandedly made Jones thirst to hunt him down even more.
Where others had feared the lone renegade, he did not. Sergeant Jones knew that his target was just a man. He had been wounded before. And just like any other animal, if he could be wounded, he could be killed.
Jones stood up. The small, private plane rocked and shook as it skyrocketed through the air, but the commander stood firmly, eyeing his subordinates. All the members of the Special Forces team sat in their seats, looking back at their commander.
He glanced over each soldier, waiting a few moments before speaking. “You all know the gravity of this mission. You know who we are going after and what’s at stake. I don’t have to tell you that.”
There was a brief pause.
“This man is a killer. He’s smart. He’s vicious. And he is relentless. He’s the most dangerous man we’ve ever gone after. Vasquez, Houlton, Stone. They were nothing compared to this maniac. He’s the same man who’s killed hundreds of people with his own bare hands and killed our commander-in-chief two years ago.”
There was silence from the group as he went on.
“We’re doing this not only for our president. We’re doing this for our families, our country, and for the memory of the forgotten dead.”
He began to walk down the aisle.
“Everyone knows their assignment. We’ve had eyes on him. Soon we will know what he’ll do. We will know his movements. All we need to do now is set up the trap and let him walk into it. Let him become a rat in a cage and then we gun him down. In a few days’ time, we will have killed him.”
Sergeant Jones began to make his way back toward his seat.
“This is just another assignment, men. We always get our man. When our country has its back to the wall, they call on us because we never fail. And as long as we keep it up, our country will continue to stand.”
***
Daken.
The beast who had created Ethan stared at him with bloodshot eyes. They penetrated directly into Ethan’s soul with a demeanor as wicked as ever. Daken’s black scales were covered up by the dark robe he wore. His razor sharp talons inched closer to where Ethan lay…
Ethan’s eyes suddenly shot open and he sat up in his chair. The nightmare ended as quickly as it began. His breathing was quick, his heart raced, and beads of sweat ran down his face.
His vision focusing, Ethan’s eyes adjusted to see Jonathan standing above him. Jonathan’s hand was on Ethan’s shoulder, having been shaking him only moments earlier.
“Ethan—Ethan, wake up.”
Now fully awake and eyes focused, Ethan realized he was still sitting in his boardroom—a now empty boardroom—with the noontime sunlight gleaming in through the windows. The door leading the noisy hallway was closed shut.
The vision only lasted a moment, but it felt longer. Daken had seemed so real, more than real. The dark terror the monster brought everywhere he went had been there …it felt like the spirit of evil and cruelty had surrounded Ethan.
Ethan wiped his face with his sleeve as he looked back at his brother, his heartbeat lowering back to a normal pace and his breathing now under control.
“You okay?”
Ethan wiped the sleepiness out of his eyes. “I—I’m fine…I’m fine.”
“You look like you just saw a ghost.”
“It was more of a bad nightmare.”
“Anything you want to talk about?”
Ethan thought for a moment as he looked down. “Maybe another time.”
“Sure.” Jonathan took a seat next to his brother. “But I’m glad to see you’re finally awake.”
“Don’t tell me I slept through the meeting.”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Sorry about that. I take it that the others didn’t take too kindly to that.”
“They didn’t say anything if they did.”
Ethan took another deep breath. “How was the meeting? It was just over the firm’s financial reports, right?”
Jonathan nodded. “It was good news all around. The firm’s doing extremely well, especially given the current situation. Long story short, profits are up for both the firm and the real estate company. Even though Marshall Law has hurt the real estate company in Crown City, its revenues in other parts of the country more than make up for it.”
“Good…what’s the word on the cases?”
“I’m assuming you mean just the ones against suspected corrupt officials?”
Ethan nodded.
“Our victories include everything from extortion, murder, bribery, and assault. Concerning our cases against officers and former officers of Crown City, forty-six cases have ended favorably for us so far this month. Two have not. That’s about a ninety-six percent success rate. It’s the best we’ve had so far.”
“Ninety-six?”
“It seems that the longer The Guardian is around, the more fearful judges have become about taking bribes and letting the guilty walk free. Can’t really blame them after what happened to the last judge who did that.”
“What were the verdicts on the Harold, Claude, Jefferson, and Garcia cases?”
“All those officers were found guilty of extortion. Harold and Garcia were found guilty of first degree murder. They’ll all be doing forty to life.”
“What about the Ryan, Valdez, Cheng, and Newton cases? How are they looking?”
“I spoke with the attorneys in charge of those cases and it seems that we’ll have favorable outcomes in those cases as well.”
“And the cases we lost?”
“Those involve Benet and Carlos. We should have won those. The evidence was overwhelming.”
“What happened?”
“They
were both released on a technicality.”
Ethan thought for a moment. “Email me the information about the two that went array. Send me their full files. Do it today if you can.”
“Okay. I’ll tell Tom to send them your way.”
“Thanks.” Ethan rose to his feet and Jonathan followed suit. “Well, all things accounted for, I’m sorry I missed the meeting.”
“I wasn’t too surprised though. You were half passed out when you got here. You looked like hell. Right when the meeting started, you were out.”
“I was honestly surprised that I even made it here.”
Jonathan smiled. “You seem to be overworking yourself, Ethan.”
“Maybe a little.”
“Seriously, Ethan. Between work and…everything else, you’re stretched too thin. You need to know your limits.”
The two of them began to make their way to the doorway. “Now is not the time to take a break. Not with everything that’s happening. Not with all the people that need me.”
“Don’t forget who needs you most.”
Ethan ignored the comment. “Did you get Villanueva’s deal? I had it sent over to your office.”
“I did. I can’t believe it. It seems too good to be true.”
“What do you think of it?”
“I’m not sure what to think of it. I had Albert from the law firm look at it.”
“What did he say?”
“He says it seems to be as honest as a deal can be. Nothing shady in the contract.” Jonathan paused for a moment. “But still, it seems so unreal.”
“I had William look into it. He said it was clean too.”
“Think we should take it?”
Ethan glanced away for a moment. “I’ll do some digging.”
“Okay…oh, Ethan, and one more thing. The application you asked about, the one that was sent by Adam Wise.”
“Yes, I remember.”
“I went ahead and gave him the job like you asked. I still don’t think he was the most qualified for that position—”
“He deserves it the most,” Ethan cut Jonathan off.
“How exactly do you know him?”
“Through a friend.” Ethan looked down at his watch. “I’d better get going.”