Chapter 576: Queen's Adversity (2)

Hearing Parker's familiar voice brought back memories of Katherine's time in Shadow. She was only fifteen when she joined the dark organization. Most of the agents there started at this age too. Though she didn't know what Shadow was at that time, the trauma she went through was enough for her to shut herself from the rest of the world.

After several months of indoor training, Parker supervised their kill test. He probably wanted to make sure that the trainees had the guts to pull the trigger. Or maybe… He wanted to see with his own eyes what kind of monsters he was creating. Perhaps only then he would be satisfied that he could trust the agents who would do his bidding.

Katherine didn't have it easy. She was quite skilled with hand-to-hand combat sparring, but she almost failed her kill test if it weren't for Chris who was always there with her every step of the way. The first was the worst. She had nightmares that went on for days… weeks… months… Even after her second and third, the first kill was always what kept her up at night. It didn't matter that her target was a bad person. She would scream her lungs out in her sleep and wake up, having Chris comfort her until she falls asleep again.

It wasn't only after she got shipped off to her first group mission in a field work where they fought terrorists that her nightmares lessened. She didn't know whether it was because she got used to it or that she didn't care about lives as much as she did when she was still innocent. Her life became a routine after she officially became an agent—train, receive orders, execute orders, train—the pattern repeated for years.

And before she knew it, she became one of the top agents in Shadow.

One of Parker's dogs.

The blinding light that was directed to Katherine's face was partially covered when Parker sat on a desk in front of her. He wore a classic black suit and white dress shirt, looking intimidating as ever. Apart from the lamp shining on her face, the rest of the room was dark so she couldn't see his face clearly, but his daunting aura was apparent that she was sure she wasn't hallucinating his presence.

Keeping her mouth tightly shut, she drifted her eyes to his grinning face and saw the way he was observing her. There was no point hiding now—she could tell that Parker knew she remembered everything.

"Can I just say… I definitely missed seeing you…" said Parker, crossing his arms in front of his chest as if he had all the time in the world. "Five years is a long time, and a lot of things have changed, but you…" He chuckled. "Queen… one of my favorites... you haven't changed at all."

Katherine wanted to tell him a lot of things, but she controlled herself. She knew better than to speak her mind in front of him. So instead, she tried to keep her face expressionless, not wanting to give away what she was actually feeling at the moment—anger and fear.

"You were one of my bests." He sighed. "Such a shame that you aren't one of my Vertex." Reaching for the decanter not far from him, he poured the amber liquid into a glass as he continued, "Several years ago, I visited England and met a preschool teacher one afternoon. She was tutoring English to a child at the table next to mine." Parker picked up the glass and took a sip, taking his time, tasting the alcohol in his mouth with his eyes closed before he spoke again.

"The teacher talked about 'Loyalty'. And the child asked, 'What if I did something bad to save my friend and lie about it? Can I still be called a loyal friend or am I a bad person?' The teacher couldn't answer the child right away. Perhaps she was taken aback by how inquisitive the child was." Parker smiled as he looked down at the floor. "That child reminded me of you, in all ways, more than one. You know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

His question and the sense of his story caused Katherine's stomach to twist painfully. Of course, she knew what he was talking about. But what's surprising for her was that Parker knew about it. After all, it was a conversation she had with Chris alone. How frightening to know that Parker had ears everywhere—it was either that or Chris reported everything to him.

It happened a few hours after her kill test. She felt awful and wanted to be by herself, but after trying so hard to fall asleep in her bunk, she gave up and decided to go to the training room where she released her stress by working out. Chris found her there while she was taking a break. He understood what she was going through, and as her mentor, he stayed up with her, cheering her up and praising her for a job well done.

Katherine remembered exactly what she told him that night: "Parker said that I just saved the country. Did I really? Would you call me a savior for killing a threat? Doesn't taking out a life make me a bad person? Because… I don't feel like a savior at all."

Innocent. Back then, she was still so innocent—until Parker groomed her to be an assassin.

Parker placed the glass down the desk, bringing Katherine's attention back to her current state—all tied up and bruised. He rolled his shoulders and dug his hands into his pockets as he questioned, "Shall we start?" He nodded at something or someone behind her.

She heard some footsteps. In the next second, icy water was splashed onto her face and chest. Katherine immediately shivered. She realized that she was only wearing a tank top and leggings—the cold water hitting her skin hurt, her lips quivered, and her hands trembled while she suffered from being wet. Heavily breathing in and out, she forced herself to stay sane.

"Where is Christopher?" Parker asked in a hauntingly, calm voice.

…

At the safe house…

"Where the hell is she?!" Damien spat. Fury darkened his eyes as he slammed his fist down the table.

A hand brushed his back, and even without looking, he recognized that it was Amelia. He walked away and hovered over Styles who had been furiously searching for Katherine ever since they received the news about her captivity.

They were able to find her tracker's location, but when they got there, they only found her rings in a puddle of mud on the side of the road. Nothing else. All CCTV footage from the hospital and the city cameras were swiped clean. No traces were left—classic Shadow.

Felix had been so regretful that he couldn't look Damien in the eye. Noah was confined in the hospital for getting hurt badly. Everyone else in the room was quiet, waiting for any miracle to arrive. It was as if they were waiting for a ransom call after a kidnap—only that wasn't a guarantee. Parker didn't do ransoms.

Gus, Chris, Amelia, and Styles, who were once part of Shadow, knew what this meant. They feared that Parker had already canceled Katherine.

"She's smart," Chris muttered despite his fears. "Katherine's smart. I'm sure she's okay."

Damien's hands clenched into fists as he held back a scream. He so badly wanted to hurt someone. His chest was in pain, and his stomach burned. Squeezing his bloodshot eyes close, a tear rolled out of one corner.

Slowly opening his eyes, he opened his right hand, revealing Katherine's rings. Then he spoke in a cold tone, "I need to find Katherine. Even if I have to scour every inch of the earth and burn everything in my wake, I will do it."