The Last Kill

A Web of Lies

Back at the hotel, many thousand thoughts roamed his mind, he thought about Lena, and her meals, and how she'd sit at the dining table alone. How must that have felt? All because he wanted to protect her. But it became more dicey, as he thought about The Architect, and what he really wanted.

Silas realized The Architect's demands were more complex than just a single assassination. It wasn't just about killing Eleanor Vance, The Architect was smarter, and wanted something larger, Silas began to regret, he's screwed up accepting to even find Vance and end her, he's screwed up even agreeing to protect Lena by going away all this way, what if he had challenged The Architect? What if he stayed home. The Architect was not powerful enough to come out alone and find him. What had he done, really?

He opened his laptop and logged in to NexusCore’s archive. He started analyzing patterns, cross-referencing information from Vance's network with historical underworld activity. He uncovered evidence of other seemingly legitimate figures being systematically dismantled or absorbed. It was not looking good, and then the image of that man again. Jax. He stared at it for a minute or two, and decided to find him.

•••

“Since 2007,” Jax said, “that's all I'll tell you.”

“C’mon Jax, you don't want to hide stuff from me.”

“What would you do, kill me like you killed the Hollowman?”

“Shhh…” Silas shushed him, “you know about the Hollowman?”

“Everyone knows about the Hollowman. Everyone knows it was Silas Volkov and his men.” Jax said.

“Look, I know this can't be all of Vance. Tell me more of what she's got.” Silas urged.

“She's my boss, Silas,” Jax explained, “and I can't betray her, I'm not telling you anything more.”

“You are not from around here, Jax!”

“Why do you want to kill her, Silas?” Jax asked.

“It's a fuckin' long story man, just talk to me.”

“This is about The Architect right?” Jax pointed out.

“What? You know?”

“Listen, I'm not ready to have this conversation with you, Silas. Do what you must.” Jax began walking away, but Silas stopped him, he forced a tense confrontation with Jax. Under duress, Jax reveals that Vance has been buying up old underworld assets and information, including a network of deeply buried safe houses and intelligence caches belonging to The Architect's original regime, and these hinted at a power struggle far grander than Silas imagined.

Back at his room, the air was cold and he had himself wrapped up in his mattress, he was deeply worried, his life was literally dwindling, and without help, he'd be dead in a few days, because someone was going to kill him, it could be Kira, that one, he's been watching her, it could be The Architect himself, Lord knows this person was going to die soon, and in a very bad way, he stretched and picked his laptop again, and began tapping away. He needed to find it. Whatever it was.

About 15 minutes later, he discovered a hidden encrypted message within Vance's network, planted by "The Architect" decades ago, and this was meant to activate upon Vance's father's demise. The message revealed that Silas himself was unwittingly a pawn in a much larger game of corporate and criminal restructuring, setting the stage for The Architect's true endgame. Silas paused. What the f**k! He thought.