HONOR, DIGNITY, AND PRIDE

Honor, Dignity, and Pride 16

CHAPTER 12: ROOM 5 — MIRRORS AND A SINGLE BULLET

Passing through the heavy stench of blood oozing from Süphan’s bisected body, the three partners—dyed head to toe in the red color of sin—spilled into Room 5.

With a heavy boom, the steel door sealed behind them.

This was a blind chamber located directly above the boiler room of the fertilizer factory. The walls were lined entirely with giant, polished stainless-steel mirrors. Every step taken, every drop of blood spilled, reflected off the mirrors, transforming the space into a claustrophobic labyrinth. Inside the room stood three narrow steel cells placed side by side.

İlkay, Sevgül, and Marut threw themselves inside those cells the moment they saw the doors open. The second they entered, the iron bars locked shut. In the giant mirrors facing them, they saw not only their own bloody, ruined faces, but also the wild, tearful expressions of one another.

The mechanical, soulless voice boomed once more from the chemical-stained ceiling:

"Room 5: The Room of Mirrors. Your masks are gone; now it is time to face your true faces in the mirror. This room has a single target: the shadow of Mr. İlkay—the marble-faced cell-executor of the holding, Mr. Marut!"

The mirror in front of Marut’s cell suddenly became transparent, and a mechanical arm extended from behind it. On the arm sat a stainless-steel platform holding a single black revolver loaded with a single shiny bullet. At that same moment, the steel floor beneath Marut parted by a finger's width.

From below, searing acid steam rising from the factory's giant boilers hissed up toward Marut’s face, hot enough to scorch skin and blind eyes. The second the steam touched his skin, Marut groaned in agony, his face drenched in sweat and blood.

"The question is straightforward, Mr. Marut..." said the mechanical voice. "To this day, whoever stood against Mr. İlkay in the holding was eliminated by you—either through brute force or by pulling a trigger. Were you the one who gave the order to kill Can's father, crippling him and silencing market rivals, or was it Big Boss İlkay? Who is guilty? Tell the truth, or the floor beneath you will open completely, and you will dissolve inside that boiling acid boiler!"

"Marut! Tell the truth, please!" screamed Mrs. Sevgül, clutching the bars of the adjacent cell. "Did İlkay order it all?! Tell them, it smells like hell in here, we're going to die!"

Mr. İlkay stared into Marut’s eyes through his reflection in the mirror. For the first time, pure helplessness and terror filled his gaze.

"Marut..." İlkay whispered, his voice trembling over the microphone. "I only wanted those men intimidated... I had no knowledge of execution orders or fired bullets. Tell the truth!"

Mr. Marut began weeping hysterically under the agony of the hot acid steam scorching his face. As tears leaked from his mask filter, his marble composure shattered entirely. Staring at his own bloody reflection in the mirror, he screamed, spittle coating the glass:

"I did it! İlkay had no knowledge of it! I did everything!" Marut shrieked. As his voice echoed over the speakers, he spewed out his deep-seated loyalty complex: "İlkay was just giving commands from behind a desk! But whoever stood in his way, whoever defied him, I personally broke their bones with brute force or put a bullet in their head in a dark alley! I gave the order to execute Can’s father! My men shot the man at the holding gate and left him paralyzed! I did it all without İlkay's knowledge!"

Inside his mask, Mr. İlkay slammed his head against the wall, weeping. "Why, Marut... why did you do it?" he groaned.

"Why?!" Marut roared, tears mixing with crimson blood as they flowed down his neck. "Because I carried this holding on my back just so you could sit comfortably in your ivory tower, İlkay! I claimed this holding to secure an unshakable place for myself beneath your massive shadow! While you were stealing money and your wife Sevgül was plotting behind your back, I protected the holding's honor by pulling triggers! I took those people's lives! I am a scoundrel! I am a murderer!"

Weeping bitterly, Marut confessed every dirty detail of his past, the murders he committed, and the blood-stained orders he hid from İlkay. Driven by deep remorse, he picked up the black revolver from the platform with trembling, calloused fingers. He pressed the muzzle against his temple.

The acid steam rising from below was now melting his boots, burning his legs. He looked at İlkay and Sevgül in the mirror one last time. His voice turned calm, adopting the tragic tone of someone accepting the cold reality of death. He delivered his final words:

"İlkay... Sevgül... You were happy collecting blackmail tapes behind each other's backs and spending holding money in foreign beds, weren't you? I stained my hands with blood to keep your dirty world clean. But the court beneath this ground was right. I earned this end. The anguish of Can’s father, of those twelve workers, and of everyone I hurt rests at the tip of this trigger. İlkay... don't trust your wife, she will ruin you. Sevgül... you will drown in this sewer alongside your diamonds. I am leaving. If I have any rights over you... I curse them."

Mr. Marut closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The final clean tear from his eye washed away the victim blood on his cheek, falling onto the floor.

A single, deafening gunshot shattered the silence inside the room. The flash from the muzzle reflected hundreds of times simultaneously across every mirror. Mr. Marut’s lifeless body slammed heavily onto the floor of the narrow steel cell. His blood splattered violently across his own reflection in the mirror. The victim of Room 5 was Marut—İlkay's loyal executioner.

The gunshot ringing in their ears left İlkay and Sevgül unable to comprehend what had just happened. Both collapsed where they stood.