Violence

The light in Jenny's eyes faded after speaking her last words.

Kate broke down. She held her mother's hand, sitting silent and stationary. Tears streamed down her cheeks, but her eyes did not even twitch. The only thing within her sight was her mother's corpse.

Yang Yi was still trying to suppress the pain in his stomach. Instead of slowly decreasing over time, the soreness only seemed to become more excruciating. Yang Yi's mouth was full of blood. He tried to push Kate with the little strength he had left and said, "Go get the things your mother left for you. We are leaving!"

Kate did not seem to catch what he said. Her eyes were dull and lifeless, "Leave?"

"Do you not understand what leave means, stupid? We have to leave this place now! The police will come soon and there is a hitman looking for us. We have to leave now so we can survive!"

She somehow managed to stand up still staring at her mother, who laid pale and lifeless on the ground. Yang Yi could see that Kate was not in any condition to do anything. He clenched his teeth in frustration. "Help me to the bedroom. We will go get the things together."

The two entered Jenny's bedroom. Yang Yi was able to clarify what happened in the house after seeing the room. Jenny was tortured in the bedroom. She was tortured for some time. The reason she was on the living room sofa was so that the hitman could use her as bait for an ambush.

If Kate was not there, the hitman would have gotten what he wanted. While Yang Yi had a gun and fired a shot, he was not able to stop him at all. Yang Yi would already be dead if Kate was not with him. He would have died on the spot.

He tried to get the thought out of his head by investigating the room. There were a few blood splatters on the bed, but the sheets were not completely wrinkled. Jenny's phone was on the floor near the bed.

Yang Yi picked up the phone. There were a dozen unanswered calls from Kate. There was also one number that he did not recognize, "Who is this?"

"Kadipur."

"Right. Grab the things your mother told you to take with you. We are leaving now. Move it! Hurry! Hurry!!" Yang Yi shouted trying to make it clear that there was not even a second to spare. He put Jenny's phone in his pocket.

Kate opened a hidden shelf and took a credit card from inside. When she finished Yang Yi said to her in a pain filled voice, "We are going now. Help me. My stomach hurts really bad!"

She carried Yang Yi on her shoulder and the two left the house. Even though everyone probably heard the gunshot, there was no one on the open street, not even one person came to see what happened.

Yang Yi stuffed the gun back into his pocket. He pulled on Kate and said, "We have to hurry. People will arrive here soon."

The two were able to get in the car without being attacked. After carrying Yang Yi to his seat, Kate finally spoke, "Did your shot hit?"

"Yeah," Yang Yi replied as he tried to catch his breath, "I hit him. He's injured, but not severely. I think I got him somewhere around his waist."

The shot was taken immediately. Yang Yi did not even put any thought into the action. However, the target was standing right in front of him, so Yang Yi was still bitter about the fact that he had missed the shot. He did not even aim before taking the shot and the strength needed to pull the trigger was much more than he expected.

Yang Yi always thought of himself as being very intelligent, a genius even, but even a genius has weaknesses. Geniuses were prideful. They always thought that they could solve anything by using their head.

The notion of having to use violence had never been considered by Yang Yi. In fact, he assumed it was other people's job to handle the more physical roles. He thought that he only needed to focus on how to be a leader.

However, all of that had changed today.

If there was anything that he learned today it was that while violence may not solve a problem, there was a chance that it could end you. It did not matter if you had a God-given memory. It was neither hard nor did it take a lot of intelligence to kill someone with a rope. Plus, the hitman they just encountered was nothing if not smart.

There was only one difference. The only difference between him and the hitman was that the hitman had countless ways to finish his life. For the first time in Yang Yi's life, he began to feel the urge to become more physically powerful.

He thought to himself saying, I need to at least know how to use a gun. No, I need to at least be able to beat Kate in a fight.

The bottom line was that if somebody tried to kill him again, he would be the one who survived in the end. The situation they were in was what being a spy was all about - a game of life and death. It did not matter if you were only a commercial spy or a different kind of spy, there will still be somebody who will want to take your life.

After examining all the options, Yang Yi was certain that he needed to become stronger to survive in the future. All that was left now was to focus on the issue at hand. Was there any way for them to survive?

Yang Yi picked up Jenny's phone and called Kadipur's number. It did not take long for Kadipur to answer, "Jenny, why did you not answer? Go hide somewhere! Jenny, is this you?"

"It is Ross. Jenny is dead. I am with Kate right now. We are all in danger. Someone wants to kill us, every one of us. Where are you now? It is best if we meet up."

After a few seconds of silence, Kadipur said, "Hand the phone to Kate."

Yang Yi passed the phone to Kate. She started crying before she said anything, "My mom's dead, Kadipur. Someone murdered her. We also encountered the hitman who did it. Ross has been injured…"

Yang Yi took back the phone and asked again, "Where are you?"

"Near Paddington Station."

"Wait for us there. We will talk after we meet."

He ended the call and began trying to summarize the entire situation, "There is a traitor among us. It cannot be you or me. Since your parents are gone, there are only four suspects, Kadipur, Daniel, Ryan, and Wales."

"Who is it?"

"Anyone who is alive right now is highly suspicious. By that same logic, you, me, and Kadipur are all highly suspicious."

"Me?" Kate was unable to understand what Yang Yi meant and was very offended by the statement.

Yang Yi rubbed his eyes in distress, "I said highly suspicious! I know I am not the traitor and you are not the traitor. Kadipur is the only one who is still in contact out of the rest of the team. So how am I supposed to figure out who the traitor is?"

"Why is it not Kadipur?"

Yang Yi was trying to hold the wound on his abdomen. Every word he uttered only made him feel more pain, which was why his voice was a bit unstable. "Kadipur… he is an Uber driver, right? Not only is he good at driving, he is also very familiar with the demographics of London. That is the reason he was chosen to be a staple member of the team, right?"

"Yes."

"Then it makes sense that he wouldn't betray the team. There are plenty of uber drivers in London. Without The Singer, Kadipur cannot make any more money than a normal uber driver since he does not have any other skill sets. It is not possible for him to make better money in another organization, either. So, in conclusion, as long as he is not an idiot, Kadipur would not sell the team out."

He continued, "So the traitor should be one of the other three that are left. Ryan and Wales are both top-notch commercial spies. With individual abilities like theirs, they might be able to make better profits if they leave The Singer. Hell, they could make their own team, just the two of them. The only person left is Daniel. He is also really good at what he does."

"Daniel is certainly impressive."

"That makes him a suspect. Daniel's life would not really change no matter what happens to the team, meaning he is suspicious too. But these are all just my assumptions. I do not think someone unsociable like him is likely to be the traitor."

"What is our next move?" Kate asked.

"We will go find the three suspects. Do you know where they are?"

"No, but Kadipur does."

"Then the rest is easy. We will find Kadipur first and let him take us to one of the three suspects. Whoever has survived should be the traitor. If all of them are dead, then Kadipur should be the traitor. I know this does not sound logical, but the results should say it all."

Kate nodded her head then asked, "But how come nothing happened to us? Even if Kadipur is not the traitor, I'm still wondering why we haven't been attacked."

"What were we doing for the entire day? We have been running around, so has Kadipur. He is a driver! He was busy working on the street for the entire day. Is it not obvious…."

Out of pure habit, Yang Yi was about to make fun of Kate, but he quickly realized that their relationship was no longer the same and decided to shut up. Instead, he said, "Right now, we need to change cars. If the hitman can locate a person's house, there is no reason why he would not be able to recognize your vehicle. So the very fact that we are still driving this car already means we are assuming a certain amount of danger."

He turned back for a bit to see if they were being pursued then said, "Whoever tried to kill your mother saw the calls you were trying to make and the messages you sent. He knew we would be coming, which was why he set up the ambush. But he could have done that at Mr. Jones's house. Why did he do it in your mother's house instead? I am missing something. Let me think for a bit…"