12. THE DEATH OF SEBASTIAN

TWO HOURS AFTER THE SHOOTING AT THE RESTAURANT.

Daren, visited the place again, to find out who had opened fire. His curiosity was still very high about this matter.

Daren used a flashlight to find his way in the darkness. The atmosphere of the room was still disorganized. Daren could see vaguely that nothing had changed here. Everything was left as it was.

Daren pointed his flashlight at the roof, looking for the CCTV cameras installed in this restaurant.

"Found it!" Daren shrieked, just as he found the CCTV camera attached to the highest corner of this room.

There wasn't just one CCTV, but four CCTVs scattered in several places.

Daren immediately took one CCTV from its place, then the others as well. After getting what he wanted, Daren then left from there.

***

"Search carefully!" Joshua ordered seriously. His eyes refused to move from the monitor screen.

"Okay!" Daren replied excitedly.

Joshua did the same. Daren's eyes refused to move from one spot. He was very focused on the screen, trying to figure out who had attacked the restaurant.

"Looks like him!" pointed Joshua, just as he spotted a suspicious figure among the diners.

His appearance was all black, wearing a hat and his head was always bowed. As if he didn't want his identity to be known to others.

As time went on, the black-clad figure continued to make suspicious movements.

"Try to enlarge the picture," Daren asked curiously.

Joshua was of the same mind. That's why he immediately zoomed in on the image taken from the CCTV footage at the restaurant, moments ago.

Daren and Joshua looked at the figure as a whole. From the CCTV, both of them could see that the figure was carrying a firearm covered by a jacket.

The jacket was removed when he was about to shoot. The atmosphere was immediately chaotic that second.

The figure dressed all in black, immediately ran in the opposite direction. Covered his gun again with the jacket. Then disappeared among the commotion.

"It's confirmed! He's the one who made a mess of the restaurant!" exclaimed Daren, fully convinced by the CCTV footage.

As he remembered it. Daren did see a glimpse of a shadow going in the opposite direction. However, it was unfortunate that Daren lost track of the shadow.

"Were you able to find out his identity?"

Daren's question made Joshua grin triumphantly.

"Nothing is impossible for Black Shadow," Joshua replied briefly.

"Then show me what you can do," Daren challenged openly and Joshua nodded his head.

Joshua moved ten fingers at a time on the keyboard. The images from the CCTV footage were entered into Black Shadow's tracking system.

Joshua was an expert at tracking. Even bodies buried tens of meters underground could be found.

Joshua clicked a button on the keyboard.

[Data entry successful. Please wait for a moment. The system is tracking the data...]

That was the command written on the monitor screen. Daren was silent, making no comment. He watched the process seriously.

[50% loading data...]

[60% ...]

[70% ...]

[80% ...]

[100% ...]

[Success...]

Daren's eyes widened, just as all the data successfully loaded. The monitor began to show the figure of a young man. There were several stitched wounds on the young man's face.

[Name: Sebastian.]

[Age: 20 years old.]

[Residence: Unknown.]

[Occupation: Unknown]

"Is that all that can be shown?" pointed out Daren curiously.

"Why so little of his identity. We don't know where this Sebastian lives now?" he continued to pepper Joshua with questions, which actually bothered Joshua's mind as well.

"My guess is correct. The incident at the restaurant, it wasn't an EAGLE EYE member who did it. If Sebastian was a member of EAGLE EYE, then his entire identity would be known in this system. Even where he lives."

Joshua stroked his chin. Thinking a little harder.

"So, how do we find Sebastian?" Daren asked the question again. He couldn't wait to ambush the young man.

"We'll track him through the CCTV footage on the streets of District S01."

"Are you sure?" Daren was quite doubtful about that. However, Joshua was not the type of man to give up before a battle.

Using his expertise in technology. Joshua began to hack into the security system in District S01.

Every corner of the city was displayed on the monitor. Daren was amazed. He was very unfamiliar with hacking systems.

"This way, we can find Sebastian." Joshua started the action.

District S01 has a large area. It includes a harbor, hospital and other public facilities.

Finding one person among the hundreds of thousands of people passing by, is not something easy. It takes precision and high concentration, to get maximum results.

Joshua began his search. Starting from the restaurant. Daren joined in to help. Despite his lack of understanding, at least by using his eyesight, he was able to find Sebastian.

"Found him!" Joshua shouted, puffing out his chest.

They hadn't been looking for half an hour, but Joshua had already managed to find him.

"Sebastian was spotted at some point. Here!" he pointed and Daren focused on following.

"After the restaurant, he went to the garbage dump. Not long after, he was spotted here again!"

Daren nodded his head. It wasn't difficult to track someone's whereabouts.

"Third position, it's here! I believe Sebastian lives in this small apartment." Joshua concluded his explanation.

The man who had never been married until this moment, finished his explanation.

***

Sebastian, too, went to meet someone, after he managed to escape from Daren's pursuit.

The man in this room was looking down, not because he was sad, but because he was focused on reading.

A medium-sized and quite thick book was on his lap.

"Sir..." Sebastian maintained his composure as much as possible. He was beginning to feel uneasy, because his identity had become known to the enemy.

"Sir... The members of Black Shadow have managed to track my whereabouts. That means, they already know my identity. I managed to escape from their pursuit." Sebastian reported everything.

It was not news of defeat that the man wanted to hear. He closed his book with full force, so Sebastian could hear his loud voice.

"You came at a bad time!" the man said coldly.

He hated it when his fun was interrupted.

"Give me one more chance to send them to the afterlife!" Sebastian looked down and pleaded. He clenched his hands into fists. The next time, he would fight and not run away like before.

The man smirked. He disliked hearing defeat the most.

Dammm!!!

Sebastian raised his head. Before he could digest the situation, the hot lead had already pierced his heart.

He was unable to dodge. His movements were faster than the bullet.

Dammm!

The man pulled the trigger a second time. This time, the bullet lodged in Sebastian's head.

The twenty-year-old's body immediately fell to the floor, bloodied and lifeless.

"Apparently you didn't heed my warning, Xena. Your men managed to track down my toy..."

"He who has lost is no longer useful," the man muttered, then waltzed away.

He left Sebastian's body lying on the floor.

***

Two hours later.

"Hotel service!" someone shouted from outside the room.

Daren and Joshua, who were inside the room, looked at each other. They looked astonished. Between the two of them, no one had ordered hotel service.

"Look outside!" Joshua ordered, and Daren nodded his head.

The young man, who was no longer a husband, swung his legs quite quickly. The bell could no longer be heard. Indeed, only once.

Daren opened the door to his room. There was no one there. Daren looked left and right, it was deserted. There was no sign of anyone having passed through this corridor. Yet not long ago someone had shouted for hotel service.

"What's this?" Daren had noticed the large box that had been deliberately placed there. Daren thought so.

"What's going on?" Joshua came next.

Several minutes had passed, but Daren had not returned. This made Joshua curious.

"There's no one here, but there's this big box on the doorstep," Daren said matter-of-factly.

Joshua took a good look at the neatly wrapped box.

"Is he the one who shouted 'Hotel Service' earlier, who sent this box?" Joshua wondered.

Daren had the exact same thoughts and guesses as Joshua. It was just that he felt a little wary of the box. Like something was nagging at his mind.

"You open this box!" commanded Joshua, for the second time.

Daren nodded. His curiosity got the better of him and he quickly opened the box.

Daren's eyes widened perfectly, as if he wanted to jump out, so surprised was he when he saw the contents of the box.

"Sebastian!" Daren clenched his hands into fists, feeling furious and angry all at once.

The contents of the box, Sebastian's head that was no longer in his body. Joshua almost vomited back the contents of his stomach.

"He's dead! Someone killed him and sent his head to this hotel!" Joshua muttered under his breath.

Meanwhile. Daren hurriedly got up. Ran out of the room. He looked left and right cautiously.

There was no one here. All the doors to the room were closed.

Daren ran to the right side. This end of the corridor had nothing. There was no trace.

After making sure of something, Daren returned to his room. He had to discuss this with Joshua.

"What's that letter you're holding in your hand?"

"You read it yourself." Joshua handed the piece of paper to Daren.

'I have completed your pending assignment. I'm sending you the head, for your remembrance.'

Daren crumpled the letter. He clenched it tightly in his fist.

This was a challenge. Someone had raised the flag of war against him.