DauilandBoard

“Vice President McAnder, what a lovely surprise!” Grazod said smugly, reclining in his pool chair. “I must say, this is bold, even for you.”

Keith has thrown, bloodied and beaten, at Grazod’s feet. When he looked up, glaring, all he could see of his adversary were his pudgy bare toes.

Surrounded by Grazod’s guards and at the Syndicate’s mercy, Keith knew he was done for. Leafe and Roberts were dead, and their bodies had been dragged only a few meters to Keith’s right. Keith allowed himself one second of grief—one tear for the slaughter of the young agents—for he knew they had died in vain. They had died trying to protect him, when they should’ve saved themselves.

There was no sign of Agents Thorne and Finley, or Taarius. It was possible they had died as well. But to Grazod’s left, standing right beside him… it was Travis! Keith looked at him. He seemed to be averting his eyes from his cousin.

“Ah, noticed Travis now, have you?” Grazod smirked. “I know that you came aboard this ship together… I know that you thought he would betray me. But no, my dear Mr. McAnder, it is you who have been betrayed!” Grazod smiled widely and horribly. “Travis was the one who alerted me to your plan, to your coming. Travis was the one who engineered your downfall. It is he, Travis, your own cousin, who has betrayed you! Travis, my most loyal servant!”

Keith shut his eyes tightly. Hot, angry tears ran down his cheeks before he looked up at Grazod, seething with hatred. “My cousin means nothing to me. Even without him, you’re still not escaping this place, Grazod. You’re done for. I’ve won.”

“You’ve won? You?” Grazod guffawed. “Get him up,” he said to two Syndicate agents at his right. Roughly they pulled Keith to his feet and brought him to Grazod.

Now only centimeters away from him, Keith stared into Grazod’s baby-blue eyes, cold as ice. “You’ve lost, boy. You have no power here. Your agents are dead. And while I would torture you and revel in your screams, killing you will be that much more… enjoyable. Just like all your friends in the bombing.”

At this, Keith lunged forward with hate, breaking his captors’ grips, and swung at Grazod wildly, feeling his fist connect with rubbery flesh. When they finally pulled him back and beat him, he saw with a fleeting glance that Grazod had collapsed in his chair. He savored that image.

When Grazod finally recovered, he extricated himself from his chair and stalked towards Keith, now held in an iron grip by the two Syndicate agents. Keith saw, with immense satisfaction, that Grazod’s nose was broken and bleeding. He watched as he wiped it with his hand.

“Such spunk. Such fire,” Grazod whispered. “But I should’ve expected nothing different from such an incendiary as yourself. I assure you, Keith, that you and your firebrand politics will not be around much longer.” Grazod gestured to the agents holding Keith, and they began to drag him to the edge of the lido deck. They pitched his torso over the side, backwards, so that he would have no doubt of the manner of his demise. With a glance, Keith looked down. All he saw was water… hundreds of feet below.

“You, Mr. McAnder, are about to set a new record for Olympic diving,” Grazod spat. “You are an example to all who dare to defy me! You will be—”

Keith would’ve listened to all of his death soliloquy, well aware that Grazod’s speech was to be his final moments on this earth, but something had caught his eye. Far above them, on an upper deck, there was a scuffle. Neither Grazod nor Travis nor the agents holding him had noticed, but he had. A flash of dark hair… Syndicate agents falling left and right… it was Thorne and Finley! Was the plan still on? Keith knew that they wouldn’t arrive in time to save him… and even if they could, they would be hopelessly outnumbered. But there was something they could do…

“—You, Vice President McAnder, will die!” Grazod finished triumphantly. He made a small push gesture, and Keith knew what was coming.

“Probably,” he said, just as the agents pitched him over the side.

As Keith bent, backwards, twisting over the edge, he locked eyes with Kayla Thorne, who was staring at him in horror.

He knew that she could make the shot.

She made the shot.

Not on Grazod, but on the agent closest to Keith’s right, a stoic young woman with long blond hair.

As Keith began to fall, he was Kayla’s shot pierce the agent in the neck. She fell too, dropping her handgun. And Grazod screamed.

Keith caught it.

And as he finally fell off the edge, he threw it, a perfect left-handed arc.

He saw everyone stare at it.

And then he fell, plummeting over two hundred feet to the ocean below.

…

Kayla saw Keith fall, and froze.

Finley saw it too, but she kept her head. She kept firing. Soon, Kayla joined in.

The Syndicate agents on the deck had no chance. They fell to the floor, picked off by the relentless aim of the two agents above, firing in anger, hoping to avenge Keith and their comrades.

Soon only two people stood on the deck. A helpless Grazod… and a far-from helpless Travis.

Travis caught the gun… the one that Keith had thrown… and in seconds, had it held on Grazod’s neck.

“No, Grazod, you have been betrayed,” he hissed. “You fell right into our plan… even if Keith was lost because of it…”

Travis refused to let his cousin’s death keep him from justice. “Augusto Grazod, in the name of the Nazbethian government and under orders from Crimtonian Spectre President Lainey Johannsen, you are under arrest.”

“Travis, m’boy...” Grazod said, smiling, somehow keeping his cool despite the gun aimed squarely at him. “Surely we can reach some sort of agreement…”

“Not this time,” Travis said. “You’ve betrayed me and my family for the last time. Now move. I’m taking you into custody.”

“Travis…” Grazod said again. By this time, Agents Thorne and Finley had arrived, and Travis noticed Thorne was clearly blinking back tears. He knew why, but the time for mourning would come. It was not now.

“I have nothing to say to you,” Thorne said to Grazod, glaring with hatred. “You’ve killed the Vice President of Crimtonian Spectre. The only solace that I can find is that this is all finally over.”

“Oh, my dear, it is far from over,” Grazod said, still smiling. “You may have ended me, but you’ll never end my syndicate. Why, I may even implicate some of my superiors for you… in exchange for my freedom.”

Kayla hesitated, but only for a second. “You can negotiate this all in a court of law, Grazod,” she spat. “Right now I’m taking you into—”

Suddenly, a single gunshot rang out. Kayla, Finley, and Travis all looked around desperately… but nothing had happened.

“Grazod!” Travis yelled.

“Travis…” Grazod said weakly. He reached up with one hand and brushed Travis’s cheek ever so lightly, causing him to recoil. “I… I…”

Blood was gushing from Grazod’s neck. Travis, Thorne, and Finley could only watch in shock as he fell to the floor.

Augusto Grazod was dead.

…