The Hitman and His Consort

XLII - Malign

First Person P.O.V: MADELINE DE LAVINGE

We’ve all messed up, didn’t we? I’ve always known something was wrong with this man. On top of that, he also said it himself. I really didn’t know how I’d diagnose and assess situations with him to the point I’ll get to see it firsthand, and when I was thinking that, never in my thoughts did I wish to be on the receiving end of this man’s displeasure. Never wanted to be on the opposing side to him.

Sure, I did think he should really stop seeing Arthur, and we should all just collectively avoid each other and live our separate lives, but I think we’ve gone way past that. For a man who was clueless about his feelings for Arthur, he sure looks like he’s dead certain-and-sure of them now and it didn’t bring me no relief nor peace that he finally did.

The car ride back to the clinic was painstakingly silent and long, not sure how long we’ve stayed out but the light from the crack of dawn was slowly piercing my eyes, the blueish hue made him look paler than he is, I felt like I’m sitting next to a ticking time bomb. My body felt drained out, but the anticipation and anxiety of having this kind of person next to me kept my eyes peeled for the next worst thing that could happen.

When I got back to the clinic, since it’s in early daybreak, the door was locked, but it didn’t take for August’s groggy face to greet us as she opened the blind-covered glass doors.

“Maddie!” she exclaimed as a smile cracked on her face, engulfing me in a much-needed hug.

‘Ahh… man, this is what I’ve been waiting for,’

We got in and locked the door behind us. Denis was sleeping on one couch and Rodrigo was sleeping on the other. “Where’s Inka?” I asked, and she gestured at the garage.

“She slept on the operating bed, they gave me the bed to sleep at but… I couldn’t” she said and I nodded, placing a kiss on her forehead, “W-Where’s Arthur?” she followed as he looked at both of us,

I momentarily forgot the unstable state Valentin was in so I answered for the both of us, “Arthur is… she’s taken by Julian, we suspect he’s working under Pierre,” I replied and a hand flew to her mouth after a gasp, she was frozen in her spot, she turned to Valentin to see the man running his hands through his hair in an equally frustrated and tense disposition.

Rodrigo and Denis started waking up, probably from all the curses and muttering that Valentin’s been doing as he started pacing. Denis sat up first, rubbing his eyes as he approached his brother.

“Valya, how’s… where’s Arthur? What happened?” he asked,

“Still not here, probably at Pierre’s f*cking clubhouse,” he spat, and at that Rodrigo sat up and sighed as he massaged his temples,

“This is bad…” Rodrigo whispered as he pulled his hair back into a half ponytail, standing up and headed to the garage to wake Inka up probably, visibly unprepared to deal with this terrible news first thing in the morning.

“What are we going to do now?” August asked, looking at me with frightened eyes filled with guilt and concern, as much as I could I don’t want her to think that this is her fault, that she’s got anything to do with this, and that this happened because of her but it’s getting harder and harder to mask her from the truth that at a certain extent it could be true.

I couldn't believe I was careless, too. I'm blaming myself more than Valentin blames me. I'm also hanging on by a thread over here but I need to keep it together because no one else seems capable to do so, every minute that I spend here doing nothing to directly protect and search for Arthur the more angry I get with myself.

Valentin stopped his pacing and took a seat on the couch, going through all the papers and folders that are still stacked on the coffee table with one hand while taking a cig to his lips and lighting it with the other, his movements sharp but tense. Somewhat clumsy.

“Take a f*cking seat,” he ordered to the rest of us,

“Valya, calm down…” Denis scolded in a soft tone,

‘Yeah, like that’s going to work with this—‘

Valentin sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “I can’t, I can’t f*cking calm down so take a damn seat or I’ll break your kneecaps if I have to,” he bellowed. Rodrigo turned to me like he was asking me what happened during our search, but it’s hard to tell where to start. Do I tell him about the details first or do I have to brief him on his patient’s little episode? We're all at a f*cking dead-end here.

“Arthur is plausibly taken by Julian, a f*cking psychopathic c*nt who stole and undertook a contract, possibly, made with Mariella labs, but we all know they’re behind this,” he began, taking a sharp inhale from his cig, “They sure have a reputable track record that proves they’re more than like to pull sh*t like this,” he finished, exhaling as she spoke.

Inka’s face was that of pure fear, she was done putting on fronts and facades. It almost felt like she’ll collapse at any second. I really didn't want to see her with that face but I can't do sh*t!

“W-What do we do now? What’s the plan?” she asked, her voice breaking and fading out with her every word,

“That’s what I was planning to talk about when I F*CKING SAID TO TAKE A SEAT!” Valentin yelled slamming his hand down hard on the coffee table,

It’s normal to flinch, not saying this to defend why I did, but to explain why everyone in the room did, not just me. Because we could all see a different side of Valentin, one whose neutral expression is wiped out of his face, replaced by with angry, scary, sinister one, a face not cringing in pain when the hot ash from the cig fell on his fingers and onto the back of his hand.

“Alright, we’ll sit down,” Rodrigo said as he turned to us and gestured for us to take a seat as if he’s cooing down a child having an outburst. As he signaled and Valentin yelled, we all took a seat, with August trying her best to shrink to my back as we sat beside each other.

“Okay, we’re seated, what’s the plan,” Rodrigo asked again,

‘How could he look like he's ready with one even with all this emotional f*cking turbulence of his,’

Valentin then faced August and my arms move in front of her by instinct, “What’d you find about those drugs,” he asked,

“They’re high-dosed stimulants, not necessarily aggressors, but those who take it could and will go berserk depending on how much tolerance they have against medications in general, the tablets are made originally from the lab,” she began, facing everyone,

“They were my failed projects, still in relation to project Herc, maybe the lab is manufacturing this to test it out in the streets and have other backdoor labs to adjust the effects as they go, seems to me that was a way they can commence a pirated simulation of project Herc before the actual use,” she finished and Valentin nodded,

“I’ll need to contact Chris, I need to find a way to trace all of that sh*t back to the lab, we don’t need to handle this situation legally, but I do need to know every sardonic tie this lab formed to the streets,” he started, Denis and Rodrigo shared a glance, an indication that they must both know how this person was. I think I’ve heard him mention the name ‘Chris’ before and, to be honest, I’m having doubts about whether to add another person to this party.

Not until I remembered that this is no longer just about August, I, and Arthur. Valentin already made this his own personal mission.

“I also need a full summary of how their f*cked up experiments are made, something easily understood and spread around,” he followed and by now I’m kind of lost, I was expecting him to sit us down and tell us in vivid detail his unhinged pursuit of death and destruction of the people involved in Arthur’s taking. Something we would all want, but this is tamer than I thought it’d be.

“What are you planning to do—what about Arthur?” Inka interrupted,

“I’ve already decided to take down the Mariella labs..” He answered, sucking in another deep breath from his cig,

“Yeah, I get that, but this is not really getting into the actual take-down part,” Denis chimed in, agreeing with Inka as they nodded to each other.

Valentin exhaled before resting his elbows on his knees, “I said takedown, not destroy, we will be destroying the building sure, but if that’s the only goal here, a grenade would do just the trick, won’t it? But that’s not what I want, that’d be too damn easy,” he said as he opened one folder from the stack and flipped through the pages as he speaks,

“If we break that building down to its foundations, Montreal would just build another one after making another fake scenario sob story as to why that happened, I want to make sure that when they’re broken down, they stay down,” he said, he paused as he rested his hand on a page,

“I want it to happen so that when they hit rock bottom… they’ll have no other choice but dig deeper, and it’d be such as shame for them to hide such interesting discoveries,” he said as he raised the page he paused at, revealing one of the more graphic photos of the lab’s experiments, captured in black and white. An attempt to make it less gory perhaps, but it did no such thing.

His narrative was indefinite, if I were to hear this from anyone else, I’d assume they’d be irrational, that they’re being delusional if they think they could deliver a retaliation and act with such magnitude, it sounded like wishful thinking but looking at him now; it sounded more like a really determined bucket list.

“Okay… still very uncomfortable hearing that from you, but give us an overview,” Rodrigo remarked as he also leaned closer and pulled a cig of his own.

“Separate teams again, just like the previous one, I need people to handle the non-confrontational parts and elements of this plan, I need things to ruin the reputation of the lab, so everyone except me, Madeline, and Inka is in that part,” he started and I nodded,

“But isn’t Inka at tech support?” Denis intervened,

Inka scoffed as he nodded at Valentin, “It used to be headshots before screenshots with me, Denny, I’ll be fine,” she remarked. That was kinda witty, kinda lame. Her calling Denis ‘Denny’ brought a whole new experience of discomfort, like it was a mosquito bite, insignificant but annoying.

“I’d also thought about it but we need some muscle, but even if I add her on the assault team, we’ll still be outnumbered and overwhelmed, which is why August... I need that bootleg drug,” he announced.

“What?! No!” she yelled, suddenly confident in being part and regarded in the conversation, but more than defensive she sounded worried,

“I can’t, that drug is something that shouldn’t be made in the first place,” she began with a hand on her forehead once beads of sweat started forming on it,

“When you use your muscle over extensively without the proper growth and strength progression there’s a chance it can lead to tearing, your organs could have permanent damage too, and that’s excluding the neurological damages, it’s too much!” she reasoned, but when I turned back to Valentin he didn’t even look like he was listening at all,

‘This bastard is really dead set on doing this and risking even himself, huh?’

“Can’t you just water it down?” he asked and I could feel August’s frustration when she wiped her forehead,

“How am I supposed to do that?” she asked,

“…Crush it, mix it with water?... I thought you’re the pharmacist here,” Valentin replied with a hand flip that signaled the conversation over. He could not be serious about that. August seem to share my bewilderment as she just clenched her jaw and stayed silent. I know she didn’t want to do something that could harm another person, especially if it's with the medicine and stuff she’s made.

But, again, we’re in such a tight situation.

He then pointed at me and Inka, “Also we’ll be needing grenades, lots of them, we’re blowing the whole place down, before that, we’ll hold the building hostage so the cops f*ck off from a safe distance, they could get so f*cking frisky,” he said,

“Where are we going get a bunch of grenades then? And what about Arthur? She might be in that building too,” Inka asked. Valentin put out his cig on the ashtray before looking at her and linking his hands together, looking somewhat disappointed that she even had to ask that.

“Ask Denny, he’d been making enough connections around town to make scheming sh*t like this easy,” he replied before turning to Denis, “Call Javier, brief him about what’s happening,” he instructed and albeit hesitant, Denis did as he told, and excused himself from the discourse.

“And we need to find Arthur in the building first, that’s why we’re making a hostage situation in the first place, once we secure Arthur, we blow the place down and get out of there,” he finished.

“And what about the employees? They might have nothing to do with the lab’s fraudulence, what if they get caught up in the explosions?” August asked, and Valentin offered us a scornful smirk.

“Ah… don’t worry about them, see even your boyfriend was okay with killing everyone in that place for your sake," he replied, glancing at me with a glare, "Consider me as someone who’s only doing the same,” he finished with a shrug, throwing enough shade to keep the whole room cold.

‘This little f*cker….’