| Fan Fiction |
by x.shuang.dao.x
Owodog arose as the sun’s rays shone through his windows and struck him right in the eye. He had obviously forgotten to close the curtains before he went to sleep last night. He rubbed his eyes and sat up reluctantly. He hadn’t had enough sleep and he wished he could just lie in bed the whole day. But he had to go to work.
Getting out of bed, he grabbed a t-shirt that was lying in a heap on his comforter and pulled it on hastily. He was going to check on Ashley first.
Owodog knocked on the door to the guest room. There was no reply. He got tired eventually and tried the doorknob. The door wasn’t locked. He opened it quietly and peered in. Ashley appeared to be in deep sleep. He was about to close the door when Sam came running past his feet and into the room. He jumped onto the bed and meowed as he nuzzled Ashley’s hair.
That was when Owodog realized that Ashley wasn’t asleep, because he could see her shaking very slightly. He knew that leaving her last night would equate to abandoning her. But he had no other choice. Sighing, he entered the room and squatted beside the bed where he was facing her directly.
“Ash?”
She opened her tear-filled eyes slowly. Her vision slowly focused until Owodog became clear.
“Are you feeling better?” He asked, feeling stupid for asking such a question. He didn’t know what else he could say.
Ashley shook her head, but controlled her emotions. “Quan,” She started saying, her voice thick with tears. “I’m afraid… What if he comes for you? Then what am I going to do?”
Owodog shook his head reassuringly. “He won’t. I won’t let him. I won’t ever leave your side again.”
Sam gingerly climbed over Ashley and settled down right in between her and Owodog. She reached out to hug him, then buried her face in his fur. She didn’t say anything but Owodog guessed she didn’t want him there now. So he left the room.
As he was shutting the door, Owodog gazed at Ashley. The slew of events had left her all broken and despaired. He missed the old Ashley who was always so sure of herself and quick-witted. He wanted that independent and strong girl to come back. He couldn’t let her torture herself and live in misery anymore. He had to help her. He had to do something. He needed to bring back the detective who was brave and was the best partner he could ever have.
The thing was, he wasn’t sure how to go about doing that.
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Owodog decided to take the day off and work from home instead. After all, his partner was at his home and there was no one to discuss things with at the office anyway. He made a trip down to the station to get a few files and documents he needed but had not brought home with him. Then he sped back, bringing breakfast.
To his surprise, Ashley was sitting in front of the television looking all fresh and bright.
Owodog watched her quizzically as he stepped into his apartment, files in one hand, breakfast in the other.
“Hey.” Ashley said as Owodog shut the door.
“Er, hello. Good morning.” He thought he would never say such dumb things again but he just did. Owodog cursed himself for acting like a nervous, jumpy teenager when he was already twenty-nine years old and was going to hit the thirtieth mark soon.
Ashley was watching some documentary on National Geographic, Owodog noticed as he stepped cautiously around Sam, who had decided to make himself comfortable in the middle of the floor. He put the breakfast on the table in the kitchen and was on the way to his study while he called out to Ashley that breakfast was available.
She was in the kitchen when he came out of his study.
“I bought fried dough sticks and soy bean milk,” He informed her as he took a plate and dumped the dough sticks on it. Then he whipped out two bowls from the cabinet and poured out the bean milk.
Ashley picked one dough stick for herself and started eating.
Owodog looked at her incredulously.
That, unfortunately, earned him a glare from her. “What?”
“Uh,” Owodog watched her with a sceptical expression, “Are you alright?”
And right away he wished he hadn’t asked that because Ashley’s eyes seemed to be welling up with tears.
“UH, forget I asked that.” Owodog quickly said.
Ashley shook her head and blinked back her tears. “It’s okay. It’s just that…”
He listened intently. Sam had meanwhile trotted into the kitchen and wondered if there was any food for him. Owodog got up and grabbed a can of cat food, which he had just bought as well, from a shelf and opened it for Sam, who ate gratefully. Sam purred at Owodog. Owodog took it as Sam was thanking him. Then he got back to the table and waited for Ashley to continue with what she was going to say.
She had regained her composure by then. She looked Owodog in the eye and said, “I’m going back to work. I want to find that Kale Chou, make sure he dies a horrible death for killing so many people who didn’t deserve to die that way, and then I will track Monkey down wherever he is.”
Owodog nodded, even if it was just a rash act of bravery and she only put on a false front that reflected nothing of what she really felt, at least it was a start. “Great. You know I’ll be with you no matter what you do.”
Ashley smiled.
And Owodog realized how much he had missed her smile.
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Kale did not sleep long. Yet he was wide-awake and he knew his high energy would sustain him through the day and probably the whole night too. So he did not have any qualms about not getting enough rest. He watched the horizon while lazing in an armchair positioned in the balcony. He glimpsed a herd of antelopes grazing in the plains not far out. Then he saw a streamlined figure stalking stealthily and silently behind some bushes and trees.
He saw another a short distance away. The first figure’s accomplice, he thought. He watched them some more. It was like viewing a documentary, just that this time he was not seeing it through the camera lens of the researcher, but with his own eyes, seeing the real thing. It made him sort of excited. In fact, he was thrilled.
All living things on Mother Earth were made to co-exist peacefully whereby their population would be kept in check by each other. Plants were taken care of by the herbivores; carnivores made sure the herbivores did not overpopulate. That was how the food pyramid worked.
Kale saw himself as the carnivore right at the top of the food chain. He was the hunter, the predator. His clients were like the hyenas and vultures, gloating at their own fortune only after the tough work had been done by others. His victims were the hunted, the prey. He liked the idea of being at the top of the chain. It showed that he was in control; he was in an upper class as compared to the rest. Rather, he was of uppermost class.
As he was lost in his own thoughts, the two cheetahs sprinted. The herd of antelopes dispersed and were running helter-skelter in all directions except the two cheetahs’. But the two sleek forms were not interested in all the antelopes. They had already had their sights set on a slightly older, bulkier female with a slight limp in her right hind leg.
The smaller-sized, and obviously very much younger cheetah was less sure of himself. The female was apparently teaching him the ropes. Both were staying clear of the antelope’s hind legs and were aware to keep away from where they might be hit by her antlers. The male pounced first. His teeth were clamped on the rump of the animal and his legs were almost off the ground as he flew along with her, careful not to be hit. The female cheetah saw what the youngster had done, and immediately increased her speed twofold to sink her teeth into the throat of the antelope, where the skin was soft and flabby.
The antelope swung her head around, trying to detach the cheetah from her throat as her frail legs hobbled along. Any bystander would know that the antelope didn’t stand the slightest bit of chance but that wasn’t stopping her from giving what was to be her final struggle.
Both cheetahs were still clinging on to the antelope, waiting as her blood was drained and she was tiring out.
Kale found the scene a sight to behold. The cheetahs had been so graceful and persistent. Their prey had once been light-footed and agile too. But now it was reduced to a mere weakling under the abuse of age. Everything seemed so uncannily similar to what was happening to him, except Kale worked alone without any companions.
The glory times of Robert Strong was coming to an end.
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Night fell quickly. Kale was neither excited nor nervous. He had already grown used to the anticipation of going out to finish a project. In the beginning, he had needed to down a considerable amount of alcohol before he could kill without mercy. The first time he killed, his hands were all sweating and shaking with fear and ecstasy. The second time the shaking was already less obvious, but he still had to be aided by alcohol. Gradually, the fear and nerves subsided and all that was left was delirium and enjoyment. He was weaned of alcohol though he sometimes still took it to cure boredom or just simply because he felt like it.
Kale watched through his night-vision glasses at the burly men who stood guard at the gates and doors. His thorough research told him that he needed to take out eight men in all. That was the total number who were outside the building.
He moved stealthily to the back of the house where he could take down the two guards at each corner least conspicuously. For that, he chose to use darts, darts with poison so lethal it would kill a full-grown African elephant in five seconds.
Kale could be considered an athlete, for all the talents he seemed to possess. He preferred to think that he had many skills in which he was only averagely good at. He supposed that being highly proficient in just one area was nothing to be proud of. However, being able to show a more than average capability in many different aspects, was different. It showed that he was competent, and certainly well-rounded. A dart sailed silently through the air and pierced the first guard right in his Adam’s apple. The guard’s eyes bulged and then he landed on the grass with the softest ‘thud’. It didn’t even take him five seconds. Kale watched. There was no other sign of movement. Evidently the other guard at the opposite side had not seen his comrade fall.
Kale moved. He had to get within range of the other guard to be able to secure a good aim. That guard was lifeless in less than a minute. Kale was working fast now.
He cleared the rest in the next ten minutes. His next task was the security cameras and lasers. Laser beams skimmed all openings of the mansion. The porch was covered in a tangle of red lines. Kale wasn’t the least bothered by those.
He moved soundlessly across the outer perimeter of the porch until he reached the left side of the house. There were wires running along the edges of the house and to the roof. Inside, Kale knew the power circuit box was on the wall that faced west. Peering into the window cautiously from a distance, he spotted the box exactly where he had pinpointed it to be in his blueprints.
That was going to increase his efficiency. Because he knew the controls to the security was positioned next to the circuit box in a fake wall. It was obviously clear to him where the fake wall was. One well-aimed shot through the wall should be able to shut the whole security system down. Fortunately, the security system could not go any more advanced than only operating while it was switched on or undamaged. There wasn’t any back-up system.
Kale marked out with his sharp eyes the point he was to shoot. He placed the nose of his .50 onto the spot he mentally marked out. Then he pulled the trigger. There was a soft hissing sound as the bullet went through the wall and hit the system. The shell dropped on the grass. But there was no other sound apart from that.
In a few seconds the laser beams disappeared. With some luck, no one would discover that the security cameras were all down. Because they’d all be dead by then.
Peering yet again through the same window, Kale took out a narrow, handy pipe and a bunch of darts. He liked to work like a hunter. The windows were previously protected by the lasers, and evidently Robert Strong put so much trust into the security system he did not order the windows to be locked. How… Stupid. Kale lightly pushed up the lower glass pane, just enough for his pipe to fit through.
A guard walked into view, Kale was slightly taken aback by the sudden appearance of the guard and quickly ducked down to avoid detection.
There were supposed to be four guards in the house – two downstairs, and the other two stationed right outside Strong’s room. Apparently there were now three downstairs. Perhaps one had just came down to get a drink? Kale wasn’t too sure. But he had to tweak his plans a little if he wanted to get to the second level unscathed and with not an ounce of energy lost.
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Owodog’s home phone was ringing like there was no tomorrow and he practically flew to get it once he left the bathroom.
“Hello!”
“Ao Quan?”
Owodog’s expression changed almost immediately. “Yu.” He answered in a gruff voice. “What do you want?”
“I er… Is Ash there?”
“No.”
“Oh, I—”
“What do you want with her? Haven’t you hurt her enough?” Owodog snarled.
“I just wanted to apologize.”
“Well then you called the wrong person because even if she was here, I wouldn’t let you speak to her.” Owodog hung up at that. He looked at the telephone for a while then sighed. So many years of friendship, yet one reckless mistake was threatening to disintegrate it. It would be a pity but Owodog wasn’t ready to save their relationship now. Because of all people, Fabien hurt someone Owodog cared about most. Someone he wouldn’t even hesitate to give up his life for.
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->shuang.dao
oops, sorry for the delay! and sorry for the delay of one of the scenes i myself am anticipating most. haha. robert strong's murder will be in the next chapter definitely. i'm getting there! (:
meanwhile, if you're still here, thanks for staying with my story. (: love y'all.