Conviction maketh man, they said. But conviction, especially faith, could also bring a man to ruin. Such was its nature as a double-edged sword. People who gathered over shared interests would sooner break away than people who gathered for the same cause. A shared conviction would turn them into a force of terror shaped by the singularity of their minds, with nothing as momentary as interests to distract them. They marched in a single direction in unison, unbreakable and unwavering. If the conviction was good, then such a force would also be good. But the Raiders’ cause was not. Building their own empire was just a means to an end, and one could tell because nothing seemed beyond the pale for them. What they—or what the leader of the Raiders—really wanted was to be the ruler of the world. It was a mortifying thought in an age when most wars could be fought on a technological front. A megalomaniac madman could bring the whole world down with him. The number of a-bombs in the entir
Once Iseult stopped caring about modesty, everything lost its gravity. It was just as Javier had predicted. Once the worst and the inevitable came to a heel and one’s fear reached its apex, everything else would feel like a gentle slope down. Javier removed the latex binds around her under the comforter. Now, Iseult reclaimed some of her freedom. Of course, “some” did not mean “all”, to the point that it would be a stretch to call this freedom. Going anywhere beyond this room was out of the question.The first thing she did was leap out of bed, switch on the AC, and stretch her limbs. Having her arms bound while her legs were spread wide over that extended period of time was certainly tiring. Iseult was relishing in her bodily freedom so much that she forgot she was just as free of clothes. Javier considered her stretching, sexy body and suddenly wrapped his arms around her from behind. Iseult froze. The delight of being free died down. Her nerves became frazzled at once, and sh
It was now or never. She had to do this right now. It was her only chance. She reached out toward him under a casual pretense, when Javier suddenly opened his eyes. He met hers directly. Iseult felt fear surging into her bloodstream. She had not expected him to open his eyes at that moment, which was why the suddenness of it all chilled her. It felt as though the thoughts in her head were clear to him—a possibility that made her shudder. What he said surprised her, though.“Hey, now. You need to sleep under the covers. The night’s windy and cold. Goodnight.” He turned his back to her before falling back into a slumber as though he trusted her not to stab him in the back. Iseult was so baffled that she suddenly did not know what to do next. What he’d said had been very unremarkable and quotidian, and yet for some reason, it made her feel warm and fuzzy inside. She had not been subjected to that sort of care for at least…well, 20-odd years. Since the day she had been abandoned
Iseult could not believe it. Javier had to be making sh*t up. The Raiders could never have done something like this. But Javier produced his phone and showed her evidence. All the evidence showed that it was the Raiders. The reason why this village was going through such a terrible time was because of the Raiders. Iseult was filled with disbelief as she looked at the evidence. She could not believe this was real. But the evidence was so real and completely undebatable in its veracity that she mulled it over for a few minutes and said, “Either my adoptive father knew nothing about this and this is all the work of his underlings, or he knew and authorized it because it will serve a greater cause and far greater people. A country as beautiful as the one we envision will inevitably require some pain and sacrifices. That’s what it is!”Javier cracked a smile filled with both amusement and contempt. On what grounds did she think her adoptive father could spill blood and still be a noble
After leaving the border, Javier and Iseult returned to Chinea and arrived at yet another remote village. Iseult was starting to grow suspicious of his choice of destination, so she asked on the way, “Are you just going to take me to rundown, destitute sh*tholes?”“Aren’t rundown, destitute sh*tholes the best kind of place to prove a utopia’s existence?” Javier retorted. She said nothing. She had to admit, once again, that Javier was completely right. They got out of the car and saw an old man pulling a car chassis up the hill. After locking his car, Javier and Iseult helped the old man with his task. With two young people giving him a hand, the task became a lot easier. The old man sat on a roadside boulder after they got it up the hill. He passed a self-made cigar to Javier as a token of gratitude. Javier puffed it while Iseult tried not to gag from the smell. “Where are your kids? Why are you taking on such heavy labor?” she asked.The old man informed her that his childre
At the sound of that, Javier turned to face Iseult. Before he could say anything, she shook her head hard and recanted, “No, that’s impossible. I cannot have been wrong, and my adoptive father even less possibly so. I mean, just look at you and your people! You’ve worked for nothing, and yet you possess as much wealth as the GDP of an actual nation. If your wealth could be shared with the masses, just how many people would live decent or even great lives? Instead, all that wealth is concentrated in your hands alone! “This is inequality of wealth, pure and simple. And it’s the existence of people like you who are the biggest cause of it!” Javier laughed. He turned on his side and looked at her. “Now, even if I spread all of the Kerseys’ wealth around the world and everyone got what they could, do you think it would change their lives substantially? No. They would be happy for a few days, and then life would go on. But if I alone hold all of the Kersey’s wealth in my hands, I can do
Throughout this period of slightly over a month, Javier had never laid a finger on Iseult—except for tonight. Iseult had also developed a strong sense of dependency on Javier within the same duration of time.That was why what happened tonight seemed to only be a matter of course.However, gunshots were fired at that moment—not from a rifle but a pistol. They were already in the suburbs, so the gunshots were deafening.Javier sprang up and flipped under the bed with Iseult, protecting her with his own body. He put on his clothes swiftly and went out of the door after asking Iseult to stay under the bed.The gunshots were ceaseless outside and kept approaching. The open fire of submachine guns could be heard as well.Javier realized that the ambush was targeted at him, so he had to figure out who had sent these people outside. When he got out, Herschel was by his side in the blink of an eye, passing one of his own guns to him.“They’re probably from the Raiders. They’re armed suff
Then, Javier asked Iseult about the Raiders. He was not explicit about it, only vaguely directing the conversation toward the organization.Just the start of this discussion, though, caused Iseult to answer awkwardly, “Sorry, my adoptive father raised me after all, and this is a favor I owe him. Even if he wants to kill me now, I can’t hate him or betray him.“I told Herschel about the Raiders’ local base, so consider this my explanation to you.”Javier was speechless, not at all expecting Iseult to resolve the issue like this. What was a small local base worth? What he wanted was the big fish, the Raiders.Despite that, he could understand Iseult’s way of repaying her adoptive father, even though he did not want to accept it. It was normal. In her shoes, he would not have betrayed his adoptive father either. That was why he was understanding and did not mention the Raiders to Iseult in the time that followed.Herschel came to report the outcome at around 11 p.m, when Javier’s w