Derick W J Tan

“At least, that’s what I was supposed to tell you.” She looked up and glanced around her office. “Please put my furniture down gently, especially the cabinet. It took my interns weeks to sort out the records.”

Ixion breathed in deeply and calmed his mind, setting the sofa, cabinet, vase, drawers and every other furniture in the room back down on the floor gently.

“Explain.”

She glanced at him again before she sat up and lay back.

“I was paid a good amount of money to tell you what I said earlier. I told the guy to go shove it, he pulled out a gun and threatened to kill me and my family.”

“And?”

“I punch the asshole in the face and told him to shove it.”

About a year ago, his friend, Gordon, believed that someone was trying to revive Project M.I.G.H.T and create the fifth specimen. It led him to believe that the recent mass kidnapping case over the past few years – which were still unsolved – were related to the Project. But after The First interfered in a series of hostage situations in Japan last year, the mass kidnappings had since stopped.

Now this was happening.

“What happened to the guy after you punched him?”

“He’s just a vagrant who was paid some cash to send a message,” said the doctor, lighting up a cigarette. “Someone is targeting you.”

Ixion wasn’t too surprised, opening up the window behind her before he swept the smoke out. Her father used to smoke in his office all the time as well.

“They know you’re strong because of your ability which makes you virtually untouchable with that barrier you put around yourself.”

A small portion of his mental touch is kept extended around his body all the time, allowing him to stop or redirect any foreign objects that comes his way, depending on the speed. Bullets are easily redirected with just a nudge. By strengthening it enough, the barrier could even protect him from an explosion.

“They’re attacking people you are close to in order to shake you up, mess with your head, make you drop your guard and do something stupid,” she went on. “That stalker who attacked Yoona was probably led to her by whoever is trying to harm you. Your house was probably arrange to fit your taste perfectly so you’d move in there, right next to Soo Young. Oh, by the way, I intercepted the investigation and I can tell you that Soo Young’s parents were good people.”

“Her father was a–“

“–Good man who loved his wife and spoilt his adopted daughter who he treats like his own flesh and blood.” He could feel her eyes staring at him until he was convinced. Another trait that she picked up from her father. “The old man never mentioned that you could control people’s mind.”

Ixion sat up. “You’re saying I made her father jump off the window?”

She sniggered, blowing a puff of smoke in his way. He sent it right out the window.

“Her father jumped off the window on his own. The girl is thinner than a twig, couldn’t have thrown him out. Don’t bother asking me why he killed himself, you’re the psychic–“

“–Telekinetic,” he corrected her. “I don’t read minds.”

“You damn sure about that?” she said, raising a brow. “You haven’t answered my question by the way.”

He considered revealing this part of his ability to her.

“Something big is going on, Ixion.” Her voice grew more serious now. “The other specimens aren’t as trusting as you. They’re more likely to stab you in the back than help you. And if I were you, I wouldn’t waste time trying to convince them otherwise. All you have is Gordon, his day-care centre, and me.”

By day-care centre she meant the TFA. The First referred the TFA agents as FBI wannabe, so it’s kind of a norm for them to mock the TFA.

“With physical contact, I can overwhelm other people’s will with mine if I try hard enough,” he revealed to her. “But it’ll leave their mind horribly battered and they might never recover their free will if their mind is not strong from the beginning.”

“I see.” She lit another cigarette. “Well if you’re not the one who’s forcing people against their will.”

“Then it must be Mythias.”

Also known to many as the The First.

The doctor began laughing. “If he wants you dead, you’re a dead man already. You think he has to jump through all these hoops just to kill you when he has that Presence of his?”

She had a point. The Presence is an ability unique to The First and it is what made The First who he is, and is the reason why only his number has any prominence. How that ability works, Ixion had no idea, but he knew firsthand how effective it is and just thinking about made him very uneasy.

“So if it isn’t you and it’s sure as hell not The First…” She allowed him to arrive at the answer himself.

His brows furrowed.

“If you can read minds–“

“–The mind is the last private sanctuary that any living being can retreat to,” Ixion said firmly. “I can read minds but I never do because it is the ultimate invasion of privacy.”

She put out her cigarette and leaned on her desk, weaving her fingers together before she placed her hands over her mouth and stared him.

“Amongst the four, you have the most morals. Unlike The First and the third, you and the fourth actually feel something when you take a life, and even though you make it look easy, I’m pretty sure you feel worse than crap in your heart whenever you kill.”

Not a word was incorrect.

“I respect that.” She truly did. “But it’s time to set those morals aside and face a danger that could potentially destroy the entire world. You’re one of the specimens, you know very well how dangerous the four of you could be if all of you came together and started wreaking havoc. Not a man on Earth could stop the four of you.”

“Other than each other,” he added and she nodded.

“I used to think that Mythias has simply gone into hiding. My sources told me that he’s fallen in love with some Japanese girl, so he might have changed identity and lay low for the time being, thus not putting the girl in danger. Now I think he’s dead.”

“You can’t kill The First,” said Ixion. “No one can kill him other than himself.”

“You’re right.” He didn’t expect her to agree. “Do you know that when The First was in his earliest days, days, when he had absolutely no free will, he was told to design a strain of virus that’s capable of targeting only a very specific genetic code?”

He had never heard of such thing.

“The man who founded the Project,” she addressed him as such for there was no record of his name and none of the specimens were willing to reveal it, “made The First design that virus and guess whose genetic code it was for?”

“His very own…” Ixion realized, and how ironic it was. “Mythias is, was, a genius, but it seems that his intelligence has backfired on him.”

“Even the smartest man can be outsmarted.” She shook her head. “Which makes this whole situation even scarier.”

Ixion clenched his fist. He didn’t expect the sadness that began festering in his heart.

“So basically whoever revived the Project and recreated the fifth, is now using the fifth to slowly kill us off one by one?”

She nodded. “If they have managed to kill The First, then the fourth is pretty much dead by now. That means only you and Geralt are left. And they’re already halfway done with you.”

There was a pause.

“We need to join forces.”

She smiled and lit herself a cigarette. “You know it’s impossible and like I said earlier, he’s more likely to stab you in the back than help you.”

“If I were to believe that and do nothing then this world is pretty much doomed.”

“Good,” she said. “Gordon is already on his way here apparently. And by the stroke of luck, Geralt is here in Seoul as well. But you know what you have to do first.”

“I’ll read his mind if I have to,” he said before getting up to leave. “But there are other ways to get informa–“

“–This is not the time to let emotions cloud your judgement.”

He turned back to her.

“There’s a reason why the ones you love are being attacked instead of you. I know how rash you can get when someone you care deeply for is hurt.” The doctor blew a puff of smoke into the air. “The old man told me a lot of things about the four of you. There’s no way I can stop you from what you’re about to do, but for the sake of this shit-hole excuse for a world, don’t kill the bastard until you find out who commissioned him to hurt her alright?”

Ixion was silent for a moment. She was right that he was allowing his emotions to cloud his judgement right now. But even though he knew that, he was still stubborn and believed that whoever had hurt Yoona had to be punished. Be it an eye for an eye or for the sake of justice.

Yet the situation didn’t just involved Yoona now. The whole world – including all his loved ones – were involved as well. Any wrong move now and he might very well be condemning everyone he loved and everything that he treasured to death.

For once, he had to quell his anger and put vengeance aside.

He turned back to the door and left.

- Chapter 23 (Beneath The Surface)