21

'The dead cannot cry for justice. It is the duty of the living to do so for them.'

Lois McMaster Bujold

_ _ _

-Kara-

R.S....R.S....R.S...

I concentrated as I paced sound the basement's study. 3 days had passed yet we didn't have any clues to who R.S was. The laptop had been salvaged but no useful information had been obtained.

"Boss! ", Sky shouted as the door banged open. He was gasping like he had run a hundred miles marathon.

"You have to see this. ", he said.

He took me to one of the techie rooms. It was filled with computers and geeks fiddling and tightening security. One of our latest recruits Donny seemed to have a talent for technological stuff. He showed me a folder he had found. It had two audio files.

"I'm guessing they're phone recordings.", he said.

He gave me a pair of headphones. I put them on and gave him a nod to start playing. He played the first file.

"Hello.", the voice of a woman answered the call. My heart wrenched painfully as I recognized it as my mother's.

"Grace. How are you? I hear you know everything.", the raspy voice of an aged male said on the other side.

"Yes. I know your secret. How dare you do this? Do you know what will happen when the others find out? They will destroy you.", my mother's angry voice reprimanded the old man.

"Don't you think about going to the police now, Gracey dear. ", The old man said chuckling."I think you know what I'm capable of.

"You think I don't know how you really are? You are a coward. You won't do anything. You are all bark and no bite.", My mother shouted.

"Fine. Grace, do what you want. You will have blood on your hands and guilt on your conscience. ", the man said.

"Don't you dare. Don't you dare hurt anyone. Ries-", my mother said and suddenly there was a click as the call was disconnected.

Ries... R.S?

"Play the other file. ", I instructed.

"Grace, dear Grace. You've called. That too so soon.", the old man's sickly sweet voice said.

"What have you done?!", my mother wailed on the other end. "My darling daughter!"

I realized this was around the time of Mallory's death. I felt like someone had hammered a thick metal spike through my heart.

The man laughed.

"I told you not to go to the police, did I not? Still think I'm all bark and no bite? ", he asked.

"She was your own blood! How can you hurt your own family?", my mother asked as she sobbed uncontrollably. "Mallory is dead and Kara is in a coma. Have you no heart? "

Ries... Related? R. S... Ries Sideris?!

"Oh, my dear Grace. I always hated Mallory. She had no interest in our family business. So passive and good. She always disgusted me.", the old man said sourly.

"How can you say that? How can you hate your own flesh and blood. ", mother cried.

"It is not only Mallory, Grace. I hate you too for marrying that American. You tainted our pure Greek blood. And your pathetic excuse of a potential gang leader, Killian. He is useless. Emily, that brat is too childish. They are all useless. All except Kara. Now, she is perfect. Outspoken, confident, merciless when it comes to the gang. She is the only one I want. The rest of you are all going to die.", he said sounding sweet and horrendous at the same time.

"Don't worry, she will wake up. I have use of her yet. She is the true heir of our line.", he said. "Goodbye, Grace."

There was a click and the call disconnected.

I took off the headphones. I saw Caden taking off headphones as well. He heard everything.

"Donny... Search the databases for Ries Sideris. ", I ordered, struggling to keep my voice even. "I need the info by tonight."

Caden followed me out of the room. I walked to an empty training room and slid down to the floor with my back to the wall, my head resting on my knees. Caden sat down next to me and laid his arm across my shoulder.

"Wanna talk about it? ", he asked.

"It's not a sweet bedtime story, Caden.", I said and was hit with a sense of nostalgia. It was the same thing I had told him when he had sneaked into my bedroom in the middle of the night to give me a chocolate cupcake.

I smiled sadly. Those times were much more carefree.

"Will you tell me? ", he asked.

"Yeah. If you promise to shut up and listen. ", I said.

He pulled an imaginary zipper across his mouth.

"All you know until now is that though we're very powerful gangs, both Polemistés and Snow's Hold don't associate with the dealings of the mafia. We're against drugs, trafficking, illegal selling of weapons to the bad guys, and all that. Also, the investigations we're doing now are to solve the murder of my mother and sister. Although the hate for mafia was public, when I found that they had connections with the murders it became personal hatred, more deeply rooted than ever before.", I said and looked at him. He knew that wasn't everything. His eyes demanded more.

I sighed and continued.

"It was around 14 months ago. I was very active in street fighting back then. My older sister Mallory was the only one who knew. She was driving me to one of the fights. A truck came out of nowhere and hit us. Mal died on impact. I can still remember that part you know like in slow motion where the glass shatters and all. I remember her body being crushed and all the gory stuff. The car crashed into a tree and I hit my head and fractured a few ribs and a leg. I was in a coma for a week. After I woke up, I spent the next week crying and living through nightmares.", I told him, as I shuddered those agonizing days. A whole month of depression.

"Then around 4 months later, things were finally settling down. Life was getting back to normal, well as normal as it could. We were returning from Greece after visiting Pappoús, and we're almost home. I remember dad was driving. The road was almost empty and then a bright light flashed from the opposite direction. Dad swerved the car to avoid crashing into the vehicle coming at us on the wrong side of the door. The speed and the sudden brake caused the car to overturn. Dad, Emily, and Killian were the only ones wearing seat belts. Mom was thrown out of the car. She died in front of my eyes. I woke up in the hospital and found that I was the only one who remembered what had happened. Dad had a concussion and lost memory of the accident. Killian had become unconscious due to hitting his head when dad had put the brake and Emily had been sleeping, so she had passed out in her sleep. I started getting nightmares again after that. Doctors told me it was trauma. They don't have a cure for it. They don't know what triggers the nightmare. I'm guessing that solving this might help. "

My cellphone pinged, mere seconds after I had finished speaking. The message was from an unknown number.

Kara,

You might want to exercise some caution while dealing with the audio files. Don't send them to the police. If you try, you will have to face the consequences and live with the blood of your family on your hands. I'm not all bark and no bite as you already know.

-R.S

The blood in my veins chilled to a temperature as cold as that of the ice in Antarctica.

Ries Sideris...

I will find you and I will kill you.