Chapter X
"Okay… I'm here…." said Robin to himself. He had just arrived at Jump City, and didn't bother anymore to follow the car to its exact destination since thermal readings were already high everywhere. "But where to next?"
He checked the countdown-timer: One hour and twenty-seven minutes left.
His casual get-up made it easy to blend in with the civilian populace as they went about their busy lives and he went with his. For a short while, Robin was wandering about without a particular destination in mind. He realized this and forced himself to think…
Okay, Robin! Stop wasting time! This is Slade you're dealing with. Where would you start looking?
The obvious answer that presented itself was one of Slade's hideouts. But which one? Slade never stayed on the same place that had already been discovered by someone. Robin had been into two of them. The story on how he found the first hideout is a long one; but basically, Slade let him find it…before taking him in as an apprentice. The second hideout was found when they chased Terra (ironically Slade's second apprentice) in her retreat from battle.
Of course. Between the two, it's more likely that the first one is the same hideout Slade's using now. The search for that place began at Pier 41. If I can get there…I might be able to retrace my steps right to Slade's doorstep.
Will wasn't enjoying his dinner at all. The anxiety was building up inside him. There have been times before when he had not approved of some of his master's decisions, but there had not been such a time when he was this sure that his master had made a decision that wrong. His soldier instincts were flaring up again and, now more than ever, he knew better than to distrust the instincts of a soldier.
He looked out the window into the streets. It was seven o'clock and traffic was starting to get thick even in that remote part of the town. Will found it amazing how people went about the same exact routines every single day of their lives, oblivious to all the dangers lurking around every corner, all the threats hiding beneath the shadows, all the accidents just waiting to happen. He found it amazing how one's own personal Grim Reaper could stare at his victim in the eye and still be invisible.
Well, he wasn't about to let the same thing happen to himself nor his master.
I see this Grim Reaper now. I'm sorry sir, but I have to do this.
Will pulled out his cell-phone from his pocket.
"I'm sorry. I thought we should let you know." uttered one of the men to the woman who was standing with them in that room.
"Oh my God…what happened?" asked the woman, her shocked gaze fell on the dead body before her. It was the corpse of one of her former students in her job as a military instructor.
"Instructor…" another man explained. "…We were hired for a security mission on Quarac…."
"By whom?" she interrupted.
"Need-to-know basis, ma'am."
"One of the best students I've ever trained is lying dead before me! And you're telling me it's none of my business?"
"No, ma'am. I mean yes, ma'am, it's your business. But like I said, we're disseminating information here only on a need-to-know basis."
"I know what you said! And it's the same as saying it's none of my business!"
"Ma'am! Please, understand! We are mercenaries, guns-for-hire, yes. But we do have our professional code of ethics to consider. I'm sure you understand that."
The woman was stopped frozen. That explanation hit her hard. Indeed, she understood. But she could never bring herself to admit that to those men. The statement sounded like something she would have said herself. Except for one little thing…
"Well, I'm not a mercenary! And you've all proven yourselves stubborn the day you refused to hear my advices against taking up that profession! Look at you now! Look at him now!" at this, she extended her hand toward the lifeless body before them. The men were speechless.
Fighting the urge to hammer away at the already guilty men, the woman let out a heavy sigh and said, "Okay. Let's do this in another way. Who killed him?"
"Well, as I was saying, Ma'am, we were on a security mission on Quarac. We found out that the enemy hired an assassin to target our VIP. So we moved in to intercept the assassin… Unfortunately…" Nobody dared to continue the sentence.
"Ma'am…we were just doing our job…" said one of the men gloomily.
"And did it ever occur to you that that assassin was also just doing his?" irritably blurted out the woman. "The name. Give me the name of this…assassin." she asked.
"From what we gathered in our short-lived investigations, ma'am, the assassin goes by the call-sign 'Deathstroke'. Unfortunately, we weren't able to stop him from killing Colonel – " the man stopped talking when he felt one of his allies' elbow connect with his side. Apparently, he had given away too much information already and was about to give away more.
The woman sharpened her stare, but didn't pursue it anymore. "Deathstroke, huh?" she said. "I'll make sure that the military watches out for this name."
She turned her gaze back at the dead body. It was so depressing for her to see her former student like that; once a vigorous youth honing his skills to near-perfection, now just a lifeless mass of skin, muscle, and bone whose dreams have all been shattered.
And just when she thought things couldn't get any worse…her cell-phone rang.
"Hello?" she answered.
"Mrs. Wilson. I need to have a word with you. It's urgent." said the voice on the other end of the line.
"William? Will, is that you?"
"Yes, ma'am. I need to talk to you about Sir Wilson."
"What about him?"
"Not over the phone, ma'am. If you please, I'll pick you up. It's really urgent."