Unknown

Someone once said to me that you can either die as a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the devil. At that point, I wasn’t thinking about how effective his saying was but rather my mind was wondering whether I have heard that somewhere else before. I was positive it was from Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece, The Dark Knight.

That was ten years ago. My brother quoted that to me after we had a long discussion on his choice of profession. Public servant blood runs deep in our family. Grandpa was a war veteran, my parents are military doctors, and we have two uncles in the royal police. His upbringing wasn’t showing any signs of following his ancestor’s steps but it was obvious as he grew older, he decided to work at the anti-corruption commission.

“Why anti-corruption?” I was curious.

“Once you decided to become a public servant, you can’t really choose your profession. I wanted to serve justice. My qualities are adequate in the anti-corruption I suppose.”

Those are the bits and pieces of the conversation we had before his suspicious car accident took place. He was just reaching his 4th year on the job and already a shining star amongst other enforcers. He helped the commission fought corruption in one of the biggest scandal of that year involving 3 members of parliament and 2 contractors. He rose quickly after leading a raid on the Pahang’s mining scandal leading to a nation-wide arrest of 17 men suspected and convicted of corruption charges. He was a successful enforcer among many others who were as honest as he.

The world was too small to spare a place for someone like him. Soon after that he died in a car accident. As it was reported, a truck loaded with petroleum heading in the opposite direction lost control due to the faulty brake pads and crashed the concrete divider to the other side of the highway, landing sideways on top of his and four other cars. The devastating collision had caused an explosion. Everybody involved died on scene. My brother was at the wrong time in a wrong place.

The night was silent. Odor that came right after the rain is still fresh in the air. I wasn’t supposed to be working but something kept me in my seat tonight. Luckily I wasn’t alone. Being a police detective in a major crime unit is like working in a stock broking company in Wall Street. Dedicated officers are working around the clock. In a city this bent, no police personnel can sit still.

I have been staring at the whiteboard for God knows how long. Notes, articles, and reports on my brother’s car crash were all over on the whiteboard. His suspicious road incident had been the main news on some major news agency. In spite of all the spotlight, the real truth was well sealed. I began recollecting everything related to his death since I was posted here, replacing the now retired inspector whom his last case was my brother’s car crash. My previous branch had it arranged for me to get transferred here. They owed me and now we are even.

But days of searching for clues are way passed. I just had my last look on my brother’s casefile before jumping into my car and sped to the mastermind’s house behind this whole wiping-good-people-off-this-planet conspiracy. Now, standing right in front of the gate, I stalk my prey. The air is still and I am a hunter.

For someone to cover his track for so long, the person had to be a well-connected guy if not a stupidly rich old man. I scaled the perimeter wall of 8 feet tall. Spikes and broken glasses were on top along the walls. From afar this mansion may look more like an asylum if not for the neon lights by the swimming pool. The gate was shut and no guards in proximity.

I came prepared with a carpet I specifically bought for this one-way mission. I threw it above the wall covering a whole part of which the spikes are broken glasses were. Carefully I climbed on top and jump onto the other side of the wall with ease. No alarm has been raised. Not yet.

There were supposed to be people inside, unless my sources were wrong about him organizing a gathering party. The whole place was dim lighted. No guards, no expensive cars, no bottles of champagnes… just an old Beetle. As I was scanning the whole area, something hit my head hard and I fell awkwardly to the ground. However the hit wasn’t hard enough to put me off. I quickly gained my footing and face my assailant.

A 6ft man for sure with broad shoulders and arms of wood logs standing right in front of me, viciously looking with a baseball bat firmly griped between his fists. I couldn’t really see him in the dark. So I took a step and ran by the swimming pool where the neon lights were. He followed behind and now everything was clear as the night sky. My assailant was humungous. I wonder where the old man found him.

“My god, from which part of the world did they dig you up?” I gleefully asked him despite blood oozing from where I was hit at the back of my head.

“From hell on earth!” and he attacked me with a slash to my side.

I evaded, roll over and threw a sucker punch up his groin. The beast now falls. Hands clutching to his crotch, rolling side to side taking in the agonizing pain of having his manhood wrecked by a single punch. I looked upon him when suddenly a black shadow appearing from behind the mansion door. It was him, the mastermind behind my brother’s death. The retired director of the anti-corruption commission.

“That was unmanly of you attacking a beast in such manner.” He stood next to the man-beast, struggling to regain his composure.

“You can’t just barge into my house and kill me young man.” He continued. I remained silent.

“You should just let this go you know. All this fuss is going to cost you big time young man. You still can walk away from this now. This is me giving you a chance.”

“I didn’t come here to kill you sir. I will apprehend you and bring you to justice.”

“Without solid proof there is no way you going ahead with the plan. But for someone like you, I believe you have thought of this. But the way I see this, only one of us is going out here alive.” He said that with an eerie smile.

I was taken aback. I never thought that I have walked myself into a death trap. I had to improvise. The mastermind took a step back and his man-beast leaped directly towards me swinging his bat from atop and trying to land straight at my skull. I roll over sideways. The baseball bat hit the tiles and broke to pieces. Wooden fragments shattered in the air and I was safe for the moment.

For someone that huge, my punches and kicks are useless. Unless I choose to attack where he is at the weakest, which now seem nearly impossible to do so. I managed to dodged every of his blows but I couldn’t take a direct hit or even block them. The impact would be too great and I could take damage.

After minutes of blowing useless punches, the man-beast decided to use his knife. The fight had become more tensed every second. I circled around while his knife was pointing straight at me. Then suddenly, before I could stop the knife came flying towards me in a flash. To dodge it would be too late but that was the only chance of not being killed by a flying knife. I ducked down and heard a flesh been pierced by the knife. I turned and shocked by the vicinity.

Blood pooled near a timid body of an old man. The knife had struck at the heart of the mastermind. I took a deep breath before walking slowly towards the old man. Bent over and hold his head on my laps.

“So this is how it ends?” He asked in a solemn voice. Coughing red blood.

“I should take you to the hospital.”

“Yes you should young man but I don’t want to be saved and spent the rest of my life in prison. I don’t belong there.”

“But you killed my brother.”

“Son, I don’t have much time now but I want you to know something. I had made a choice. It was a bad choice but I had to make it. Your brother was a saint among us and to save the bad I had to sacrifice him. I had made an evil choice for something I thought was good. And all that is subjective son.”

I kept still. Trying not to argue with a dying man. I had longed forgave him but I couldn’t live knowing he was still out there and not behind bars. I had to take this old man into custody in whatever means. But fate pre-decided something different. I laid him back at where he was and close his eyes. The man-beast approached with a shocking expression.

“If I were you, I’d run now.”

He ran as I dialed 911. The night didn’t go as planned. Despite everything, I had learned that, as long as you are a human there is no way you can be too good. There will come a time where you will be tested morally, spiritually and emotionally. These factors will rattle your principals and you may have to compromise. But of course true evil will never prevail. Death will be the end of evil but for good, death will only be the start of it.

#shortstory