Delis in Wonderland, Part 5
The BBC news was playing from the car radio.
Every time I encountered news like this, I was keenly reminded of how differently history was flowing compared to the world I once knew. Having thoroughly combed through newspapers, broadcasts, and the internet, it was clear that the first domino of this altered timeline had fallen in the Soviet Union.
Of course, what had changed had changed. All I needed to do was fully exploit the unchanging knowledge of this world alongside the magical expertise I brought from my future past life to extract the maximum possible benefit. There was no need to fret over things like the butterfly effect. It had already been over half a century since Stalin pulled his geopolitical stunts; whatever was going to happen had long since played out.
Letting the radio fade into background noise, I mentally reviewed my upcoming schedule. Although I had already passed the word to my direct subordinate in charge of personnel, the process of onboarding a new syndicate member couldn't be rushed. It would be late June at the earliest. That would leave more than enough time—plenty, in fact—to monitor the movements of the Ministry of Magic and the Metropolitan Police.
As I sat there, Pavel and Delis Bloomfeld emerged side by side from the monastery basement. Unlike when she arrived, her feet were now free, and her blindfold and gag had been removed. Delis was visibly scanning her surroundings, clearly trying to deduce the current time and their location.
There was no reason not to let her know. To Delis, I needed to be branded as someone who, despite having kidnapped her, treated her with boundless benevolence afterward. Naturally, she would be plagued by doubts. She would be utterly confused about how to reconcile the cold, overbearing, and threatening figure I had cut in the basement with the quiet, gentle presence I showed when silent.
All I had to do was exploit the crack that this cognitive dissonance opened in her mind. My youthful appearance and age made it difficult for anyone to harbor suspicion under normal circumstances, making the task even easier. I was not the kind of person to let such a hard-won advantage go to waste.
What did it matter if she possessed a brilliant intellect capable of sniffing out the masterminds behind complex criminal cases and offering breakthrough investigative advice? When it came to reading the human heart, she was still woefully inexperienced. And in her current mentally fragile state, she would be even more vulnerable.
I spoke to Pavel in English on purpose. "Ah, now that I think about it, we won't be needing the handcuffs either. Let's just have her sit next to me. That's fine, right?"
Pavel didn't even question it anymore. He simply nodded as he always did. "Understood, my lady."
I had intended for her to hear every word. The car sped along the Southend waterfront, the River Thames coming into view just as it had when we returned after executing Kim Philby. For a born-and-bred Londoner like Delis, it wouldn't be hard to recognize the Thames. As I had reasoned earlier, there was no reason to hide it.
I tossed the information out as if granting a favor. "We are in Southend-on-Sea, Essex. It's about a forty-minute drive from London."
"Why are you telling this to me... I mean, to me, Miss...?"
The moment she spoke, I had to suppress a surge of sheer delight. Just like when she had learned the truth earlier, she was already beginning to lower herself before me. Elevating me, and in doing so, adopting a submissive posture. I laughed inwardly.
If Delis was going to be this cooperative, I could move up my timeline much faster than originally planned. There were still so many relics in Britain that I needed—and wanted—to target. Just how many artifacts had they swept up with their iron rakes from colonies all over the globe, and how many of those were national relics possessing significant magical power?
Once I solidified the syndicate's foundation and secured a real-time feed on the Ministry of Magic's movements, there would be nothing stopping me from seizing those relics. Taking a route that carefully avoided the CCTV surveillance network surrounding Greater London, the car slipped back into the city. Instead of heading to our Greenwich safehouse, we drove toward the exact spot where we had first picked Delis up.
True, the initial pickup had been a tad rough and entirely against her will, but all's well that ends well, right? I unlocked the door on Delis's side and spoke. "You may go now, Miss Bloomfeld."
"Are... are you really just letting me go like this...?"
Indeed, it would be stranger if she didn't have doubts. For someone who had lived a relatively ordinary life, she had just caught her very first glimpse of the world's hidden flipside. She had to be wondering if she could truly just walk away. Though she had encountered plenty of violent crimes during her time consulting for the Metropolitan Police, those cases must have seemed utterly amateurish compared to what she had witnessed today.
And of course, I had absolutely no intention of letting her go. I answered the hesitating Delis. "You have two paths before you."
I heard her audibly swallow.
"One is to go back to your home, get rid of all your father's belongings and memories, and live a perfectly 'ordinary' life."
"As an Oxford law graduate, there will be countless employers practically begging to hire you. You can just drift along with the current, can't you?"
"It might sound ironic coming from me, but you are still young, Miss Bloomfeld. You can meet someone, fall in love, feel anger, sorrow, and joy all over again."
"You can welcome the new millennium that way, eventually looking back on all of this as nothing more than a wild story from your youth."
"..."
She looked entirely unenthusiastic. Not that I ever expected her to choose the first option anyway. Letting out a soft chuckle, I presented the second choice. "Pfft. The other option... is to step inside my fence. To serve under me, and make me the master of your soul."
"..."
Her silence persisted, but I knew this silence carried a completely different weight than the last. Unbothered, I continued. "You might wonder what you stand to gain from such vague terms. It's simple: you will get your father's revenge."
"Do you truly believe that the communists running rampant across the Empire are the only group responsible for your father's death?"
"Are you curious about what goes on behind the veil of the world you think you know? How they pull the strings of this reality, and, ultimately, how it all connects to your father's murder?"
I flashed her a smile that couldn't have been brighter, though I let a faint touch of melancholy linger in my eyes. "To find those answers, all you have to do is take my hand. I will show you a whole new world."
"Personally... I would be absolutely delighted if you chose the latter, but I am truly looking forward to seeing what choice you make."
"To tell you the truth, I carry a similar kind of pain. If I can watch your revenge unfold by your side, I think I would find immense satisfaction in that as well."
Delis stared at me in stunned silence, looking as if multiple bolts of lightning had just struck her mind at once. Only after a dozen seconds of suffocating silence did she manage to squeeze out a response.
"Do I... do I have to give you my answer right here, right now...?"
"Of course not. I am not the type of person to bully someone into making a decision of this magnitude on the spot."
"Then..." Curling the corners of my lips into a sweet smile, I handed her a slip of paper with an address written on it.
"Your graduation ceremony is on Friday, June thirteenth, isn't it? Forget about the graduation parties. If you wish to choose the second path, come to the address written here."
"If not, burn this paper and live your life entirely as your own from that moment on."
"But bear this in mind. The moment you choose the second path, your... no, Delis's life and soul will belong entirely to me."
The moment Delis was gone, I immediately made a phone call. "It's me again. Keep a tight tail on the girl who just got out, all the way until Friday. Yes, this is real surveillance, not intimidation, so make absolutely sure you aren't spotted. Not by her, not by the Ministry of Magic, and not by the police."
Tailing someone carried a higher risk than most realized. It was vital to warn my subordinates to exercise the utmost caution. Pavel, who had quietly listened to everything from my English conversation with Delis to my Russian instructions to my subordinate, spoke up.
"Are you certain about this, my lady? From what you said, it sounds like you've already made up your mind, but I cannot help but worry."
"Yes, I suppose it's only natural for you to think that way. You must be wondering what on earth I'm doing, letting her go after declaring she couldn't be allowed to leave here alive."
His silence was answer enough. Even though I had seized the position of syndicate leader, to Pavel and the rest of the organization, my decisions still occasionally seemed somewhat unreliable. Given the nature and instincts of a syndicate, such skepticism was only natural.
The closer they had been to the previous boss—my father—the more they had watched me grow up from childhood. In their eyes, I would always look like a mere child. It was a label that would likely follow me for the rest of my life. I had no choice but to prove myself through raw capability and results.
In truth, those who dared to cross the line with their words had long since been purged. Their words had not been loyal counsel, but insidious whispers of dissent. I wasn't blind to the fact that those who remained were speaking out of genuine loyalty. I wasn't infallible, and there would be times when I would need to heed the sincere advice of Pavel and my other subordinates to reconsider my decisions.
But in this particular matter, I was right. I spoke to the man in the driver's seat in a gentle, reassuring tone. "The way I see it, Pavel, Delis Bloomfeld has already stepped inside the syndicate's... inside my fence."
"To others, it might look like I've set her free. But to me, she is already no different from a fish trapped in a breeding pond, or a sheep grazing in a fenced pasture."
I smiled and added, "Just watch and see what choice that child makes."
"A child...?" He questioned my strange choice of words for someone eight years my senior, but his tone carried a hint of resignation. It wasn't the first time I had displayed a level of insight far beyond the reach of ordinary men. Pavel seemed to have simply accepted that I operated on a plane of existence he couldn't fathom.
Delis, whose soul was now mortgaged to me, moved precisely as I had intended. Tossing aside her valedictory address, the graduation party, and everything else, she ran straight to our Greenwich safehouse, guided by the address on the slip of paper.
However, I couldn't greet her personally. I was currently in the middle of preparing for a guest, so my other subordinates—who had picked her up from the safehouse with utmost politeness this time—were bringing her to me.
I planned to have Delis experience her very first kill. There was no better way to permanently etch a life-altering turning point into someone's mind. And I had already chosen the sacrificial lamb.
Standing in the monastery basement, which now felt as familiar as my own home, I turned my gaze to the television broadcasting a breaking news report.
He hadn't exactly escaped. Given that it was entirely against his will, calling it a kidnapping was far more accurate. Killing the very assassin who murdered her father... Now, isn't that just wonderfully poetic?
"To turn a pending case into a closed verdict... in the end, it requires one's own hand."
Even as I spoke, there was a man shivering in terror nearby, his head covered in blood. Yet, he couldn't tear his eyes or ears away from the television, having realized that the man on the screen was none other than himself.
I spat a mocking sneer at the sacrificial lamb. "Isn't that right, Victor Malenkov?"
I would have to watch the execution closely. After all, it was a scene I would eventually have to reenact myself, one day in Moscow.