Cartel Experience-Chapter 62: Shame.

"Sierra cartel...?" Sirina’s voice was full of confusion, more than ever before.

She did not understand what César was talking about. She did not know what counter he meant, what update he was talking about, or why all of this was happening so fast. She did not understand why he looked so calm, so sure of himself, almost like he had already won.

But there was one thing she knew for sure. Sierra is César’s family name.

That changed everything. Slowly her confusion started to fade and the misunderstanding began to fall apart, piece by piece.Yeah, she finally understood it. All of it had been inside her head.

She had created it herself.

She had done it because she was scared. Scared of the DCA, scared of being dragged into something she could not escape. Scared of what would happen to her if she was wrong. Her fear had filled the empty spaces with ideas that were never real.

But now it was clear. Clearer than it had ever been.

César has nothing to do with the DCA. He is not working for them. He is not connected to them in any way. He is not an agent, but a cartel member.

He is the leader of his own cartel and with everything made sense.

Hoffa had been running a drug business. One that was already strong, already organized, already spread through the capital. That kind of operation was a perfect target.If a cartel managed to take it over, they would not need to build anything from the start.

If Hoffa was removed, if he was killed, and his control over the gangs was taken away, then the whole system would fall into new hands. Maybe the gangs would be taken over. Maybe they would be wiped out. Either way, the result would be the same.

The capital’s drug operation would belong to them.

A working Éden line. Warehouses, routes, money, connections. Everything needed to become the next big power was already standing. All someone had to do was step in and take it.

In a second it all made sense, from the beginning up until this point. Everything came together like a puzzle. Why he was in the police station, why those two officers died at that hotel that Hoffa covered up to be a gang related shooting, why they acted the way they did with Peter. Yeah, Peter. She should have known it at that point. Fuck, she knew it, but it all went the wrong way. She misunderstood everything.

The cartel outfit, the shirt, the way César carried himself and the way Peter was scared. The one detective that came from the cartel world was scared because he knew what would happen if they fucked with the cartel, what would happen if the cartel itself got involved in all of this.

And then on top of that, the pictures.

The picture of Hoffa’s family that Sirina saw as evidence.

It all clicked together. César is not a agent who was sent to fuck up the capital, to stir up a war between agencies, between political sides. He isn’t even a DCA agent, but a cartel member who got tangled in all of it, a cartel member that did all of it.

The capital, where many tried to rule, many tried to make their own territory, but they always got fucked up, they always got destroyed. Some of them didn’t even live a week. But now one single cartel stirred up the whole capital with one single move.

By killing one man who was connected to the higher ups.

She couldn’t believe it, but at the same time she understood why César was like this. This calm, this fearless motherfucker. Of course he was, because from the beginning he knew what he was doing.

Yeah, well, Sirina came to another point. It seemed like the best plan to create chaos where he could move like a shadow.

A chaos where he kills Hoffa, and with it creates a situation where it is not about criminals, but about politicians, about a political scandal, corruption.

"I can’t believe it." She began her voice low, and shocked. "I was scared. I was so scared up until this point, but it was all for nothing." A smile spread across her face as she said it but it was not because she was happy. It was more disappointing in her own self.

She had spent so much time terrified that her entire career was over. She truly believed that César was an agent for the DCA and that they were going to ruin her life. She thought everything she had worked so hard for was gone just because she had fucked with the wrong person.

But no, not even close and that made her so disappointed. Realizing how much energy she had wasted on a man like him made her feel a deep sense of shame. She felt so foolish and disappointed in herself that the only thing she could do was laugh out of pure embarrassment.

However, she forgot one very important thing. She had shot him. He was bleeding out right in front of her. It was a miracle he was even still alive. All of that had slipped her mind because she was so focused on her own feelings of shame. At the very least, her distraction worked in César’s favor. At least, he hoped it did.

[System: I do not understand what you meant by "they never fixed it."]

The time counters.César thought. They never fixed them. Every time the game had an update, the timers always showed twenty four hours. I remember it clearly.

[System: Even if that is true, you are in a terrible position either way. Let me activate the Heal card before you pass out and your run ends.]

No... I am fine. In his own mind, César was okay, but from the outside, he looked like a dead man.

The amount of blood coming from the wound on his head was hard to believe. His entire face was covered in it as his head slumped down. He could still hear her laughing and he knew where he was, but staying conscious was a struggle. The darkness wanted to pull him down. The urge to pass out was so strong that he had to grab the armrest of the chair just to stay anchored. He gripped it tight, trying his best to feel safe and stay awake and well he couldn’t even activate the Heal car even if he wanted to.

Nobody can witness the healing process because it would expose César as something more than human. If he were to use a Heal card in plain sight, people would realize he is an anomaly. Therefore, a Heal card can be used to repair internal organs even when people are around. Since the damage is inside the body, nobody can actually see the heart being healed or the lungs fixing themselves.

However, he cannot use the card for anything visible. He cannot let people see an arm grow back or watch a deep gash on his face seal up in seconds.But if he does it anyway, then he needs to kill those who witness it;,and judging by the situation, it was clear that even if he used the card, he would not be able to kill Sirina and the agent.

Besides, he did not even plan to kill anybody, but on the other hand somebody was planning to kill him.

"I can’t believe it." Sirina began, just furious that she fucked herself up. "The human mind is truly something else. It can make up things, it can fuel fear to become something else entirely." she said as she slowly stood up, still feeling the sharp pain in her chest. "I outplayed myself... what an embarrassment, isn’t it?" she asked as she slowly moved to César and grabbed his hair, pulling his head up to stare into his eyes. "What do you think?"

Well, what César thought at that moment was weightlessness. It was actually a good feeling that Sirina pulled his head up as he had no power.

"Speechless, huh?" she asked again, but there was nothing to say on César’s side, not even a word. He was hanging on by the last thread, and she was too. "Give me the knife." She looked at the agent, who then picked up the knife that César dropped and gave it to her. "How nice is this blade..." she said as she looked at it. "How does it feel to be killed with your own blade?"

Silence for a second as César gathered all his power to say one single word. "B... B-bitch." Well, not the best one given his situation, but that was what came to his mind first and last.

"I am going to redeem my pride with your blood, to remind me of how stupid I was." she said as she stepped behind César and pulled his head back while pushing the blade to his neck. "Goodbye."

She did it quickly, did it precisely, and moreover, did it symbolically... she draws a smile on César’s neck... an ear-to-ear cut.

One of the worst way to die... just feeling the blade cut your throat, just feeling the blood pour out, just gagging on it, just feeling it in your throat coming up, the warmth of it, the suffering as your body falls to the side and your hands impulsively shoot up to the wound trying to seal it, but you know there is no way you can do it, no way you will survive it.

That is one of the most desperate and gruesome deaths... the feeling of helplessness, the powerlessness of it all is just so sad... though César felt neither of those, because it happened.

They came.

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Read Author’s thought.