Chapter 17: A Contest of Words

Mirror Face led Gu Wen to a black luxury sedan, where Gates was already waiting. Once they got in, the driver, wearing a black suit and black sunglasses, stepped on the accelerator and headed for the Freedom Front's base.

“Aren't you going to put a hood over my head or something?” Gu Wen asked.

“Is there any point? The journey time, changes in speed, the number of turns and stops, the city's entire road network, even the surrounding sounds and smells could all give you clues. With your memory and analytical skills, you could pinpoint the destination within five minutes if someone gave you a map,” Gates said.

Gu Wen smiled. “You give me too much credit.”

“Your mind certainly gives you something to boast about. I'm stating a fact, not flattering you,” Gates replied. “There's no need to feign modesty to make yourself feel good, either.”

Gu Wen shrugged. “All right, all right...” He glanced at Mirror Face beside him, then said to Gates, “Since you're already working with Mr. Mirror Face, you must know a few things about me, Tian Yi, and the Inverted Cross. What exactly was the point of playing dumb on that bench and asking me all those questions?”

Gates did not answer. Instead, Mirror Face cut in, his voice rasping. “Obviously, hearing you repeat certain things in person helps establish that what I told them is true.”

“Oh?” Gu Wen said. “So you haven't been hanging around with the Freedom Front for very long, either.”

“We're simply using each other,” Mirror Face said bluntly.

Gates smiled. “Please don't put it that way, Mr. Mirror Face. It isn't that I personally distrust your intelligence. The organization has always been skeptical of uncorroborated accounts from a single source.”

“Hahaha...” Gu Wen laughed aloud. “Then what if Mirror Face is a mole I sent to infiltrate you? Of course his intelligence would match what I say. Even if I die, he'll have won your trust. His next step will be to lead you into a trap laid by the Inverted Cross. Oh, right, if he's a mole, you can't even trust the name ‘Inverted Cross,’ because our organization might be called something else. You've only ever heard that name from me and Mirror Face. There's no corroboration.”

Gates remained noncommittal in the face of this deliberately specious bit of sarcasm. “If things really were as you suggest, you'd be taking quite a risk, laying out your whole plan just to play mind games and make me think it couldn't possibly be true, while also being prepared to ‘die.’ You said you have no faith. Would someone without faith do such a thing?” Gates picked up a drink from the car's minibar and took a sip, perfectly composed. “Taking it a step further, even if such an infiltration plan did exist, it would depend on the Freedom Front rejecting the terms offered by the organization behind you. How do you know we're bound to reject the Inverted Cross? I'm only taking you back to speak with the leadership, not to torture you for information.

“Unless your organization intended to make trouble for us from the very beginning? In that case, there was no need to offer any terms. You could simply have taken complete control of the Matrix system and let the Empire deal with us, couldn't you?”

Gu Wen gave a cold laugh. Rather than pursue that line of conversation, he turned to Mirror Face. “You have no objections to this? If the Inverted Cross and the Freedom Front end up working together, where does that leave you?”

Mirror Face was silent for a few seconds before his voice sounded from beneath the mask again. “That's none of your concern.”

By now, Gu Wen had deduced the truth behind Mirror Face's alliance with the Freedom Front. Mirror Face must have approached them himself, and his proposal would have been simple. The Freedom Front could have the technology in the bookshop, while all he wanted was revenge on Tian Yi.

So it wasn't the Inverted Cross scheming against the Freedom Front. Ever since meeting Mirror Face, the Freedom Front had been scheming against the Inverted Cross.

Until yesterday, they had been struggling to find any trace of the bookshop. Then, after all that fruitless searching, what they wanted had fallen into their laps. Gu Wen had actually hacked into the Matrix system of his own accord and contacted the Freedom Front.

Gu Wen knew he was walking into a setup. The Freedom Front certainly wouldn't turn openly against the Inverted Cross right away. They would hold him as leverage and approach Tian Yi through negotiations, cooperation, or something of the sort to secure what they wanted.

At that same moment, in the bookshop.

Tian Yi closed the Book of the Heart in his hands. Its owner was a passerby in the park.

“They took him away after all. Apart from Mirror Face turning up, everything is going according to plan...” he murmured to himself. “If Mirror Face is working with the Freedom Front, that means... Hmph... So be it. Since we're all scheming against each other, there's no harm in going a little too far ourselves.”

...

In Tidal Prison, Zuo Dao was escorted back to the cell block.

He went straight to Yan Kong's cell, remembering to glance both ways along the corridor to check where the guards were before going in.

“The warden has begun to suspect you, has he?” Yan Kong spoke first.

“Suspect? Why that word?” Zuo Dao replied.

Yan Kong continued his thought. “He suspects there's more to you than a mere Paper-rank ability user.”

“You knew this would happen?” Zuo Dao asked.

“Heh heh... Of course I did. Over the years, everyone who's had contact with me has been taken away for questioning. It isn't just Jefferson. The previous warden gave me special ‘attention’ too, as though a few extra words with me would let the other prisoners attain the Dao and become immortals,” Yan Kong replied with a smile.

“Then Blood Owl too...” Zuo Dao ventured.

Yan Kong waved a hand. “When he first arrived in this block, he was taken away for interrogation twice a day on average. He told me that when he was first assigned to a cell block here in Tidal Prison, he spent more time in the interrogation room than in his block. Electric shocks, water torture, whipping, sleep deprivation, even perverse interrogations that practically poisoned the mind, day and night. He's been through them all.

“They had far too many things to ask him. The Bloody Midnight incident in Venice alone was enough to warrant every one of those punishments, but Blood Owl plainly wasn't going to divulge a single word.

“So, after he was transferred to another block, the interrogations gradually became less frequent. About a week ago, they all but stopped. I suspect the torturer assigned to question Blood Owl may have suffered a breakdown himself.

“As for the sort of questioning you faced from the warden today, whether or not Blood Owl has been through it himself, I doubt Jefferson could have gotten anything useful out of him.”

Respect for Blood Owl welled up in Zuo Dao. “An ordinary person who survived that much torture would be boasting about it everywhere, showing off his wounds and so on. Yet around me he acted as if nothing had happened and never mentioned a word of it?”

Yan Kong smiled. “That's the sort of person Blood Owl is. Since you didn't ask him, he had no reason to mention it. Even if you did ask, whether he answered would depend on his mood. He sees the world differently from us. To him, even things a hundred times crueler than those tortures are nothing remarkable. He could use still more horrifying methods to inflict pain on a complete stranger without the slightest qualm.

“Physical injuries can be repaired quickly with energy. As for psychological damage, I don't believe he has any, so he must feel there's nothing worth boasting about.”

In an instant, seventy or eighty percent of Zuo Dao's respect turned to fear. “Well...” He kept the rest of his reaction to himself. Tian Yi really had picked the right man.

Then Yan Kong suddenly asked, “You didn't end up in Tidal Prison because you couldn't evade the Empire's pursuit, did you?”

Zuo Dao froze. “Hm? Why do you ask?”

“Heh heh heh... You're not an ability user of Strong rank or above who would warrant sending experts to hunt you down, and you're clearly no political prisoner,” Yan Kong said. “With your intelligence, couldn't you evade ordinary police and low-level HL agents?”

Zuo Dao still had no intention of telling the truth. “Couldn't I have let my guard down just once?”

“No.” As he spoke, Yan Kong held his right hand flat like a blade and swept it toward Zuo Dao's throat.

Zuo Dao ducked awkwardly, surprise on his face. “Master? What are you doing?”

Yan Kong said, “We haven't known each other long, but in this old man's humble opinion, you have yet to leave a single opening. Every second, you're on your guard against everyone. Whether someone seems to be an enemy or a friend, or actually is one, you never let your guard down completely. I don't know how you developed that instinct, but beneath your seemingly frivolous words and actions, you're an extraordinarily coolheaded expert.”

“You flatter me, Master... It's only...”

“Blood Owl isn't here. You needn't keep calling me Master,” Yan Kong interrupted. “Young man, you really are a successor to the Zhengyi school, aren't you?”

Zuo Dao thought for a few seconds, then replied, “I see... You've heard of the Zhengyi school before.”

“That's right, I have. You mix truth and falsehood when you speak. To anyone else, that claim about being the sole successor to the Mount Heming Zhengyi school would probably sound like nonsense. But I'd heard of it, so I knew the school really existed—and that few people knew about it.”

Zuo Dao replied, “It seems I can't hide it from you.”

Yan Kong smiled. “Heh heh... Times have changed. Your real masters and grandmasters clung too rigidly to tradition, and that's why Mount Heming has steadily declined. If they'd been as adaptable as you and had half your intelligence, the Zhengyi school wouldn't have fallen to its present state.”

Zuo Dao's expression grew serious. “You know quite a lot, Senior Yan...”

“Only so much. After all, Mount Heming isn't a resistance organization, just a group of eccentric old Daoists living apart from the world and keeping to themselves. Even if a few experts emerged from their ranks, they wouldn't necessarily attract much attention from the Empire.”

Zuo Dao replied, “That's enough analysis of me. I'd like to ask a few questions about you, sir...”