Chapter 186: Our job’s done
"I don’t know what’s in here, but we need to alert the master."
For a full two seconds, silence and heaviness settled over them, their minds going blank.
Suddenly, Gin wiped the end of the needle and pricked himself with it.
"The heck are you doing?" Rum gasped, snapping out of his shock. "Are you out of your mind?"
"Biohazard — but I don’t think we can wait to find out what’s in this syringe." Gin pulled the needle from his skin, staring at the remaining contents inside.
He had barely pricked himself and pushed just a little, yet he felt his head lighten immediately. Gin’s side slumped against the cubicle wall.
"It’s a sedative," he breathed, staring at the syringe. "I barely pricked myself, and I’m already lightheaded, but more than half of it is already gone."
Rum’s eyes widened. "The cart!"
Gin drew a deep breath and lifted his eyes to Rum. "You should go now. This will wear off."
Rum gulped, studying the weakness spreading across Gin’s face.
"Rum!"
Suddenly, a man’s voice came from outside the restroom. Vodka stepped in, stopping dead in his tracks at the sight of the two, noticing Gin’s complexion already pale.
He didn’t dwell on it, meeting Rum’s eyes instead. "The people inside those mascot costumes are gone."
He didn’t elaborate, but he didn’t need to.
In the other restroom, all they had found were the empty costumes — the people who had worn them were gone, seemingly having slipped out through a window.
"Shit!"
*****
Meanwhile, Lucian and Primo were still seated on the bench, waiting for Ashley.
[She’s taking a little long.]
Lucian glanced down at the boy and stroked Primo’s hair. "She’ll be back," he said.
Even so, he couldn’t help but wonder what was taking her so long. Lifting his gaze in the direction she had gone, Lucian narrowed his eyes as he spotted Red and Tank sprinting across the park. Then another member of Dominion came running toward him from the restroom area.
The look on their faces made Lucian’s heart stop.
He quietly scanned the surroundings. Members of Dominion in disguise were already on the move, others pressing fingers to their earpieces.
That alone was enough to tell him something had gone terribly wrong.
"Primo," he said, waiting for the boy to look at him. Lucian lowered his head and met his eyes. "It seems... I have to send you home early."
Primo frowned. [Why?]
"Business." Lucian jerked his chin in a direction.
At the same time, the guard finally reached him. But before he could say a word, Lucian had already risen to his feet and raised a calm hand.
"Go with him," Lucian said, glancing at the guard. "Take Primo home."
The guard opened and closed his mouth, then nodded without another word.
"Yes, sir!"
With that, the guard approached Primo and forced a smile. "Young Master, let’s go."
Primo pressed his lips into a thin line, reading the traces of panic on the guard’s face. Then he looked at Lucian.
All he saw was coldness — a flat, unreadable expression that left a faint trace of fear in the boy’s chest.
Clutching the guard’s sleeve, Primo bit the inside of his lip. Then he nodded and went without resistance, glancing back at his father, who stood motionless in the same spot.
I wonder... what happened? Is my Mama okay?
Worry filled his chest as he looked around the park. It was still as packed as ever, but now he could see people running in different directions.
*****
Meanwhile, Lucian stood watching his son leave with the member of Dominion. Then he pulled out his phone and speed-dialed a number.
It rang once before the line connected.
"Seal off the park and every road around it," he ordered, then hung up without waiting.
At the same time, Vodka reached him, panting.
"Master —"
"Where’s your group?" Lucian’s eyes slid to Vodka before the latter could say anything more.
Vodka exhaled sharply. "They’re already after the mascots and the utility worker."
"Utility worker?" Lucian furrowed his brows.
He hadn’t asked for a full report yet, but the look on Vodka’s face had already told him most of what he needed to know.
Vodka nodded. "Yes, sir. Red and the others have already locked down the park and are searching for whoever took the madam," he added, keeping to what was immediately relevant. "The utility worker only just left — they can’t have gone far."
A glint flickered across Lucian’s eyes as his jaw tightened. "Deploy everyone."
"Yes, sir!"
*****
Meanwhile, in a van speeding down the road, the janitor climbed into the front passenger seat alongside a few men inside.
"Those guys from Dominion are fucking insane," one of them gasped, still sweating after hours inside a mascot costume. "If we’d idled even a second longer, we would’ve been caught."
"How did they catch on so fast?!" another one in the back exclaimed.
"We’re already told how dangerous this will be. Shut it."
The driver and the front-seat passenger stayed quiet for a moment. Then the man behind the wheel turned to the disguised figure sitting shotgun.
"I heard one of them approached you," he said. "Did they see your face?"
"Even if they did, how would they know?" The disguised figure reached up and pulled down the collar, revealing the edge of a soft silicone mask that had made the face appear aged and wrinkled.
With one tug, it came off, revealing a long-haired man underneath.
He leaned back, wiping the sweat from his neck. "Tell the boss we need to get out of here. I left the syringe."
"What?!" the others shouted in unison. "What did you say — are you stupid?!"
"The boss specifically said to grab her and leave no evidence! If Dominion finds it, they’ll know she didn’t escape on her own!"
"And if I’d gone back to find it, we wouldn’t just have failed to get her — we’d all be dead," the man hissed, glaring at the back.
The others in the backseat grimaced, remembering how close they had cut it when the men from Dominion had stormed into the restroom.
"Never mind that," said the driver. "Our job’s done. As long as we deliver her to the client, we’ll get paid."
Everyone nodded, steadying their breathing as the tension slowly ebbed. Those in the back glanced at the unconscious figure lying in the space behind them.
Their client’s target: Ashley Di Carpio.