Chapter 50: Blacklist.
"They put him on the list because he can kill them?!" Olivia raised her voice as Fian explained to her the situation.
"Yeah, well the board held a meeting and the ultimate decision was to not bother him, because, well, he’s murdering everyone who was doing him wrong back then, and he’s killing gangsters and—"
"Two officers, innocent officers and who knows how many civilians will—"
"A negligible sacrifice for the greater good." Fian said, but she too knew full well that it was wrong, not just wrong, but completely against the core of what law enforcement is supposed to stand for. "We can’t do anything about it, and to be honest with you, Olivia, I do think it’s bad and goes against everything we believe in, but... he’s a genius and a fucking insane, broken soul. He kills anyone who stands in his way and a lot of fuckers are going to be standing in front of him. We need countless layers of permission just to do a raid, we have to worry about public reaction and a million other things. But him," she stared at Olivia, "he doesn’t need shit."
"He is a monster, who—"
"Olivia, we’re just agents." Fian raised her voice. "We’re at the bottom of the chain. You can argue all you want, but it’s not going to change anything... we’re just going to clean up after him, while he slaughters the bad guys. He’s a villain of his own kind."
There was silence... and more importantly, just the pain Olivia felt in that moment. A pain worse than being shot. Worse than anything she ever felt in her whole career.
"It was me..." She whispered. "If I didn’t sign that paper... if I didn’t believe in him back then, he would’ve stayed in prison."Her voice shook. "I was the one who stood up for him," she said, barely holding back tears. "Everyone told me not to, but I trusted him. I said he was better now. I thought I was doing the right thing and now... now people are dead because of me and more will die. All because I let him out." Her whole being was shaking as looked up at her. "I thought I was helping him... but I set a monster loose..."
For a moment there was silence between them.
"You didn’t know," Fian began. "You couldn’t have." Fian’s voice wasn’t angry, it wasn’t even trying to comfort her, just honest.. "You saw something in him that none of us did, and to be honest, everyone knew that he was falsely imprisoned... you believed in change, that justice is for everyone. That’s not a crime." He looked at her. "But he lied to you, he fooled you. That’s on him, not you."
She shook her head, eyes wet. "But I gave him the chance."
"And he threw it away." She said, "That’s not your fault, Olivia. That was his choice, his evil, just like every Cassian before him, it’s in their blood. But now, this man... he can be our ace card, not our joker, against the criminal underworld. And when he thinks he’s on top, we take him down." She opened the door but looked back at her. "Remember, Olivia, no one is untouchable, a bullet can kill anybody."
With that she left behind Olivia but she couldn’t shake the feeling that, in the end, she would be the one blamed for all of this, the one whose name would appear in the papers for the public to see, the one who was supposed to be the final barrier to stop it all... the person who let him out of his cage... yeah like a lion trapped in a cage for years... now out for blood, chasing prey that flees from him.