"Warning: The next chapter sinks into violence and revenge.
It may be the last of such severity at this stage.
Your impression will be my compass — whether I temper the blood… or plunge you deeper."
*****A heavy silence weighed upon the room, broken only by Kazimir's ragged breaths. The sharp scent of metal burned his chest. Slow, steady footsteps echoed, cutting through the lingering hiss of the blast. Kazimir raised his head, veins taut, his features flickering between rage and confusion. Through the dense haze, Luca emerged.
Luca spoke with a burning calm:
I saw your face that day. I still remember it, you bastard....,
Do you know…? I never strove so desperately for this revenge, not as everyone believed. But fate threw me before you—and I won't let you slip away.
Kazimir laughed bitterly, sweat pouring down his pale features:
Does it matter who you are? Many hunt me.
Clutching his bleeding wound, he drew a breath and defied him:
-I'll show you what hell awaits.
Luca set his pistol aside and breathed slowly. He muttered to himself:
I only hope I won't regret this.
Then, with a sly smile, he replied:
So be it, fox.
Kazimir narrowed his eyes and drew a Fairbairn–Sykes dagger.
-Fox… I never liked that name.....Let's finish this.
Luca, ambidextrous and precise, drew a small knife in his right hand and a heavy dagger in his left. They lunged.
Thrust met thrust, slashes cutting through the air. Luca, all brute force, collided with Kazimir's wiry speed, who moved with foxlike cunning. Superficial cuts marked Luca's flesh, yet he did not flinch. Kazimir shifted rhythm with every motion, unpredictable and sly.
Pushed back, Luca struggled to read him. Kazimir smirked, whispering mockingly:
"Systema… I see it."
Planting his weight on the wounded foot, he drew another NR-40 knife and laughed with scorn.
"Your revenge excites me. At last—a real opponent!"
Luca muttered in disbelief:
-How does he handle these long blades like that…?
The clash grew fiercer. Steel flashed in the dim light; Luca, risking everything, closed the narrow gap and drove his blade into Kazimir's wrist—severing the nerve beneath the skin.A sharp cry split the air, the knife clattering to the floor. Yet Kazimir lunged desperately, his blade tore across Luca's belly in a desperate sideways strike.
Luca spun half a turn; his elbow collided with his opponent's face, then their bodies snapped together—fists entwined, breaths ragged. A sudden headbutt toppled them both. With an angry roar Luca shoved Kazimir into the cabinet; the blade tore through Kazimir's wrist and pinned it to the wood. A scream shook the walls, followed by a knee—driven into his belly—leaving his body bowed, suspended between pulse and pain.
Kazimir trembled, vomiting blood: — "W-who… who are you?"
Luca snarled, clutching his dagger with unwavering grip, then plunged it with a surgeon's precision into the brachial artery, then the femoral. Each thrust was decisive; blood burst forth like a black torrent.
Then he stepped closer, his eyes burning. "You will remember your first crimes no matter how you try to forget… Alexei Volkov. The prison warden you murdered."
Excerpt — criminal transcript
Name of victim: Alexei Volkov — 52 years — juvenile prison warden.
Mr. Alexei Volkov, Luca's uncle, raised him like a son after his mother remarried. Kazimir, once jailed for killing his father, later struck down a companion for laughing too much—his third crime was against Volkov himself.
Brief facts:Russian intelligence offered criminals release for service. In Volkov's office, during a chess game with the SVR chief, Kazimir feigned consent — then, with chilling calm, drove a metal pen into Volkov's throat.
Primary injuries: Laryngeal lacerations with severe internal hemorrhage; multiple fractures and blunt-force contusions.
Conclusion: Death from fatal hemorrhagic asphyxia.
He concluded tersely:
- "I thought I could do it… so I tried."
Luca, then a cadet at the General Staff Academy, expected Kazimir's execution. But the case was abruptly closed, and Kazimir disappeared into intelligence service — a decision etched deeply into Luca's memory. He left the academy, abandoning his future, and walked another path — hoping it would lead him to vengeance.
****************End of excerpt.
Then, with a dying smile on his lips, Kazimir muttered—blood gagging his throat— "I'll… send him your regards…"
Luca fixed him with a cold stare. — "Then I will find you… and tear you apart again."
Then—one final, merciless blow—he struck the carotid. Everything stopped, like the last line of a fatal refrain.
*****Suddenly, shouts rang from outside, and armed men with WZ.96 Beryl rifles stormed the room, unleashing a storm of bullets. Luca leapt from the balcony, clutching a rope, and slid down wounded until he crashed onto a lower terrace.
Inside, Kazimir's body was torn to pieces beneath the hail of gunfire, reduced to a heap of blood and flesh. One of the soldiers trembled at the sight, screaming in horror:
"Stop! Stop! Dear God!"
Before his cry had faded, they surged toward the stairwell. From below, Bach emerged like a wounded beast, firing wildly, dropping some of them even as bullets ripped through him.
From afar, Earl watched through his sniper scope. Though he picked off a few, his heart was heavy with worry for Luca—his aim faltered, bullets scattering. That slip gave Bach a chance to hide and catch his breath amid the inferno.
*****Outside, Earl caught sight of a woman approaching the hotel's entrance. His eyes widened in shock:
-My God… what is she doing here?
Magda stepped forward cautiously, facing the burning wreckage and the trembling walls. Gunfire rattled the structure, but she did not falter. In her hand was an automatic pistol—acquired through a deal with Mikael—gripped like a lifeline. Her heart pounded. She had come to save Zuzanna… and to cleanse her blackened past.
Then suddenly, her eyes locked on Bach, wounded and watching the stairs. She could not believe it—her scream tore out:
"You bastard!"
She raised her pistol and fired, but Bach retreated and vanished from sight. Rage pulled her after him, running blindly through the ruins.
*****Outside, Szymon finally arrived, sprinting, gasping for breath.
Earl shook his head and squinted, as if seeing hallucinations, then shouted,
"Get back! Stay away from there!"
At the same moment, Jack burst from the truck, shouting:
"Come back here, boy!"
Szymon turned, terrified—then dashed inside, swallowed by the shadows.
Jack cursed furiously:
"Damn it… what are we supposed to do now? Ah, God… maybe I scared him off."
*****At that moment, Luca crawled through a ventilation shaft, emerging in the hotel kitchen. The scent of gunpowder mixed with cold food. He opened the door cautiously and slipped out into a narrow alley—but the trail of his blood betrayed him.
One man pursued; Luca seized him, strangled him, and left him lifeless on the ground. Yet another raised his pistol at him.
A moment when time itself froze… before a distant shot cracked through the air, the bullet tearing into the second man's skull. His blood sprayed across Luca's face. Luca staggered, heart pounding.
"Impossible...…"
Then a red laser dot appeared on his forehead. Terror surged in his chest—until it vanished… only to flash back three times in staccato bursts. A message.
Luca's lips curled into a bloody smile, his eyes gleaming.
"Earl…..."
He sprinted through the alleys, while Earl's rifle fire covered his escape.
*****In the dark corridor, Magda's scream split the silence:
"Monster! Where are you?!"
Her words shredded the stillness, her pistol trembling in her sweat-slicked hands, her heart hammering violently, breath ragged.
Bach laughed from the shadows, his rasping voice slithering like venom through the air:
"Is this about the girl? I know you sold her to Rafal. Don't fool yourself—you're no better than me."
Magda's eyes blazed, tears burning as her voice cracked with rage:
"You murderer… this is for Jan… my son you killed!"
Bach chuckled coldly, stepping forward slowly, his footsteps thundering down the hall:
"Jan… Jan… Jan…! I remember. He was kin to you? Killing him wasn't a mistake—he meddled in my work. He hid the girl you delivered to us. From the beginning… everything was your fault, you wretched hag."
Magda screamed, her voice breaking:
"I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"
From the corner, Bach lunged. He seized a stone statue and hurled it at her. It smashed against the wall, shards slicing her hand. The pistol slipped from her grasp.
Panicked, she bent to grab it. But when she raised her head—Bach was already upon her, his eyes gleaming wolf-like, his face swallowed in shadow. One hand crushed her wrist, the other clamped around her throat, lifting her off the ground.
He grinned, feral:
"What now? You'll die, filthy old witch. Don't forget—you're fouler than I am."
Magda's eyes bulged, sweat dripping as she clawed helplessly at his grip. Suddenly… a gunshot split the air!
Bach froze, shock widening his eyes. Another round punched through his head, bursting from his eye. He gasped, blood flooding, turning—there stood Szymon.
Magda collapsed to the floor, wheezing, clutching her shattered throat. Her gaze locked on Bach's crumpled body, her breath stolen away. She raised her head with effort—Szymon stood in the hall's mouth, pistol steady, eyes cold as ice.
Bach roared as he crawled, voice guttural:
"I'll kill you!"
His limbs dragged him forward like a beast refusing death. Szymon fired again and again—each shot killing something inside Bach, and something inside himself. Jan's face, Zuzanna's, every drop of blood spilled by this monster burned in his vision.
At last Bach collapsed, shuddering before going still, sprawled across the floor.
The echoes lingered in the corridor. Magda lay motionless, her eyes whispering everything: "Forgive me, Jan… run… run, my Jan…" Then her features slackened, and her eyes glazed into silence.
Szymon approached, kneeling beside her—but the world intruded: shouts, footsteps, police sirens. He drew a sharp breath, cast one last look at her body, his gaze drowning in fear and regret. Then he gripped his pistol, dashed to the window, shattered the glass, and leapt. He crashed onto a heap of garbage in the alley, pain tearing through him, but he rose and fled into the night.....