Irium 109 The Man Who Knows Too Much

Still, a drug that can make a person as strong as an Angel or a Demon, huh? It's quite curious and is probably nothing more than a rumor. But, the fact that all the Angels and Demons have been killed just recently, I can't help but want to check out to see if there's a connection.

But, while I keep my eyes on them, their eyes turn to someone else – someone I am unable to see through the large container kept at the docks. I realize I would need to change my angle to see them. I wonder though who it may be that they have all started to look so serious and scared.

"But, but, this can't be true." One man carrying a crate of drugs says.

"Oh, this is as true as truth can be, you know?" Says the guy I can't see right now. But, his voice sounds familiar, familiar enough that it doesn't take me a second guess to figure out who it belongs to.

"Cartel!?" I question myself. And then, as I fly to a different roof as stealthily as I can look at the face of this person, it turns out to really be Cartel. But, why is he here? And why are all these guys so afraid of him?

"Hey," a big, muscular man comes to the front and says, "could you repeat what you just said, twerp?"

Cartel smiles as if he doesn't see the rhetorical value of that question and says, "Okay, I just said that you are all fired and are to leave this dock and never come back again. If you don't do that, you'll all be killed."

"You can't even budge a hair on my-"

"When did I say that I will kill you?" Cartel laughs as if he has heard some hilarious joke, "I am not the one who will do the deed. You will be killed by Dues ex machina."

"What!            ?" Everyone's reaction to that, including mine, is that.

"Dues ex machina is the new G.o.d of this universe. Or, well, at least she wants to be." Cartel says, "And she achieved all that by killing all the Angels and Demons in the universe."

No one is able to speak a word as Cartel enthusiastically continues, "So, if you try to s.h.i.+p a drug that can turn people into Angels or Demons, you are an enemy to her 'cause'. And that'd lead to Dues sending her demiG.o.d servant to kill all of you and your bosses and whatnot."

First of all, I'm not her servant. Second, how in the freaking world does he know all that?

"And well," Cartel says, "I can understand if this all might be too hard for you idiots to understand. That is why I brought proof."

Proof? What proof does he have of all this? This same question is asked by the silence and gazes of all the people down there as well.

"If you turn back and look at the top of the container, you'll see a figure of a charming DemiG.o.d, the one that serves Dues."

…

They all turn to – me. He knew where I was. He knew exactly where I was. My hiding was for no reason at all. And so,

"Cartel!" I yell and fly up to him. By the time he blinks, I am in front of him and by the time he opens his mouth in surprise to that, I have already taken him by his hand and flown off away from the docks.

*****

I stop on the roof of a residential building.

"Well, well, if it isn't miss DemiG.o.d?" Cartel says sarcastically when I let go of his hand and he grips it because of the pain my grip had caused him.

"How do you know so many things, Cartel Hopkins?" I ask straight-to-the-point.

"Oh, you expect me to actually answer that, Roswaisa?" He says with a smirk. "If that's the case, then I would be sorry to say but you would be disappointed."

"I don't have time for this BS."

"I know. You have to go and stop that drug s.h.i.+pment, right?"

I did come here with that intention. And while Dues didn't send me, she probably will as soon as she hears about all this. So he's not wrong about any of this to be honest, except that I am still not Dues' servant.

"If you won't tell me yourself, I have other ways to get the information out of you." I do. I am not lying.

"Oh, like, torture?" He only mocks me further though, "That won't work, not on me. I have endured far more torture than you can ever imagine."

I sharpen my gaze to let him know I am observing his moves and say, "I can just take you to Dues ex machina, you know? She will deal with the whole affair."

"Yes, you certainly can, but you won't."

"And why are you so sure?"

"Because you hate her? Because you think she is a monster? Because you can't let her handle a human and let my life be at such high risk? You can't do something like that. You are, after all, former Angel."

"Tsk!" He is right. I know he is. I won't be able to do it. Even if I do it, I'll probably end up rescuing him from Dues later.

"So, Roswaisa, I think you have a job to do. So, go do it. Leave me alone!" He says with a smile and starts heading to the stairs.

As I watch him go, I can't help but give a retort, "I will find out the truth, you know?"

"I know. But when you do, it'll be too late." He says so and starts descending the stairs, as if he has no care in the world.

*****