Inside the factory, Katie dropped a bag of KFC fried chicken on the table and walked to the twelve-year-old girl tied at the corner of the building. As the gang members ate, she knelt down beside the girl and held her hand out.

“Can I see your hand?” She asked kindly.

Meanwhile, Baldy walked up behind her.

“When should we ask for the ransom?” He demanded. “My boys are getting impatient. The longer we wait, the more likely the cops will find us. I’ve known Theo for twelve years. He’s like a brother to me. He won’t betray me, but if the cops track him down, it will only be a matter of time before they suspect us.”

“What’s your point?”

“My point is we should call her mother and ask for the money now. The longer we wait the riskier it is.”

“Fair enough.” Katie smiled before suddenly pulling out her dagger and jamming in onto her thigh. Blood immediately oozed out. The girl screamed and pulled her arm away and ran as far as the chains on her leg allowed. Even Baldy took a step back and turned pale. It was one thing to chop a part off of someone else. It was completely different to do that to yourself.

Katie’s face turned into a mixture of extreme agony and extreme pleasure as she pushed the dagger down. Eventually, the blade went clean through, bringing a piece of her own flesh down completely.

“We need to make sure they know we’re not messing around.” Jean turned to Baldy and explained. She pulled out a plastic bag and put the flesh in.

Baldy gulped. That was poor reasoning. He was sure after the whole pretend-to-shoot-the-hostage-but-actually-shoot-yourself thing, the family of that girl knew the kidnappers were serious already. Plus, why not just really take a part off the kidnapped girl? But he remained silent. Now he realized Katie was just looking for a reason to justify her actions.

He turned around and was about to go to his men and talk about this when Katie’s next words made him froze.

“By the way, I took down that Theo guy.”

Baldy snapped back and found Katie sitting on the ground with her legs crossed. Her left leg pressed on the wound on her right leg. She tilted her head. A wicked smile was on her face. She almost looked intrigued.

“What?” He asked in disbelief.

“I killed Theo. Almost took his entire head off, in fact.” Katie gestured on her neck with her right hand. “What are you going to do about it?”

Baldy’s head quickly turned to the side as he did his best to suppress his anger. What the hell? Why did she do it? If it was someone else, he would’ve just drawn his weapon and shot him or her in the face, but this one really scared him. She was a maniac, and a special one. He remembered seeing her shoot her own leg just hours ago, and ten minutes ago she was walking around like nothing happened. He had this feeling that if he attacked now, he would be the first to go down.

“Why?” He demanded angrily. “I told you we can trust him! I have bought things from him for eight times! He saved my life once! Why?”

At the same time, the rest of the gang stood up. They sensed something was wrong from Baldy’s screaming.

“Honestly, for fun.”

Katie’s casual tone was the last straw. Baldy’s rage overwhelmed his caution, and he charged forward and stepped down on Katie’s legs. There was an obvious crack, but Katie just laid back in pleasure as her entire body shook from instinct.

But she forced a few words out of her teeth nonetheless.

“Like I said, for fun.”

“All clear!”

In the bar the Hell’s Angels gang normally resided in, a group of SWAT officers pressed several large, tattooed men down.

Kirsten walked to one of them.

“Where is your leader?”

“What?”

“Eric Kus! Where is he?” Kirsten reached into her pocket and took out a notebook wrapped in a plastic bag. “We have evidence he is responsible for a crime that involved the death of four people and the kidnapping of a twelve-year-old girl! Where is he?”

The man shook his head. “I don’t know anything!”

“A twelve-year-old girl’s life is at risk! Where is she?”

Kirsten pressed on, but the man simply shook his head. The female detective was about to press on when Leon grabbed onto her arm and pulled her back. He stepped forward.

“Let’s do some math, son, shall we?”

The man rose his eyebrows.

“That girl’s mother is the most trusted friend to the Adams couple. You know the Adams, right? No? Fine. They are estimated to be worth $3 billion in total. Do you know what that means? Do you think you can get away if your boss gets the ransom? No. The Adams will put a bounty on you, all of you, that’s enough to make your own brothers want to take you down. Do you really want that to happen?”

The man gulped. His courage melted away. Leon smirked deep down. The man knew the police wouldn’t do anything serious to him, but the same couldn’t be said if there were bounty hunters after him.

Time to press on.

Leon’s tone changed. “But if you help us find her daughter...what do you think she will repay you with? One million dollars? Two? Ask yourself, is your loyalty to your boss worth over two million dollars?”

The combination of threats and temptation finally broke him. The man sighed and nodded.

“Fine.”

“Ms. Jones? Ms. Jones? Pick up…” After snapping a picture of the severed flesh, which she was able to make it look like it belonged to Carly Jones after a careful examination of the girl’s skin, and sending it to Ms Jones, Katie called Ms. Jones. Meanwhile, she dug her fingernail in her healing wound on her thigh in boredom. She put her fingernail into the wound and waited as the wound nearly fully mended around her finger.

She pulled the finger out when she heard the weak “hello” in the phone. Blood splattered out, but Katie merely swung her hand. Her attention was on the phone.

“Ms. Jones. I believe you are fully aware of the consequences of this matter.”

“Yes.” The response was obedient. Ms. Jones was willing to give up her face for the safety of her daughter. “I’m sorry if what I said or did offend you. I...”

“Oh for god’s sake.” Katie groaned, cutting Jones off. “I’m just calling to say I changed my mind. I do want money.”

Jones kept her breath of relief as quiet as possible. Someone who had no desire was terrifying. As long as that someone wanted something, all was negotiable. “How much do you want?”

“I don’t know...all of them.”

“All?”

“All.” Katie continued. She slowly dipped her blood covered finger into her mouth and licked it. “I want you to take every cent you have and put it into a bag and drop it off at the third corner on 88th street. You have three hours.” She said a random address where she had no intention of going to. “Clear?”

Jones nodded. “Clear.”

Katie smiled and ended the call.

Jones sat there. As the call ended, she was finally able to unleash her anger. She stood up, grabbed onto a cup on the table, and smashed it on the ground. The cup shattered.

Behind her, a large man walked up.

The Adams were well aware of the kidnapping. Since the ordinary bodyguards changed nothing but the casualty count, they hired a group of twelve mercenaries to protect Jones. Former Navy SEALs, these mercenaries were certainly not pushovers. The Adams really relied on Jones on a lot of business related affairs. They were willing to spend the money on her.

The large man was the leader of the mercenaries.

“Ms. Jones, the MPD just called. They have located the kidnappers. They want you to do everything you can to keep the kidnappers still until they can launch a raid on the kidnappers’ location.”

“A raid?” Ms. Jones bit her lips. “Will my daughter get hurt?”

The leader paused. He didn't know what to say. “The MPD SWAT team is highly trained and extremely experienced…”

“But will my daughter get hurt?” Ms. Jones repeated.

The leader was silent.

Ms. Jones thought about it for a while.

“Actually, go to where the kidnappers are with your men.”

“What?”

“Go to where the kidnappers are with your men and help the MPD take them out. You were Navy SEALs. You are trained in this. You can help get my daughter back safely!”

“But our job is to stay with you…”

“That’s an order!”

“Yes sir.”

Jones was by no means stupid. In fact, she was smarter than most people. But even the smartest people have their weaknesses. To Jones, one of her weaknesses was her family. After her husband tragically passed away when their daughter was eight, her daughter was the only family she had left.

Four cars reached the exterior of the factory, where the MPD was setting up a blockade. Ten mercenaries got out. In the end, due to the insisting of the leader, two mercenaries were still left with Ms. Jones.

Kirsten and Leon walked up to the leader of the mercenaries, who explained why they were here. As they finished, Kirsten was about to say an objection, but Leon stopped her. Instead, he allowed the mercenaries to replace SWAT as the first line of offense and instead walked to the side with Kirsten.

“Let them go first. If they fail, Ms. Jones can’t blame it on us. Plus, I mean no disrespect to your fellow officers, but they do have a greater chance of success.”

“How do you know?” Kirsten didn't back off.

“Because I recognize them. Hell Hounds. Former Navy SEALS. Level 5 on the ShadowNet.”

“ShadowNet? They’re mercenaries!” Kirsten almost jumped, wanting to arrest the mercenaries. “We can interrogate them for information on ShadowNet...”

Leon simply shook his head. “The matter with ShadowNet is more complicated than what you and I can handle. I know there is an entire task force dedicated to the ShadowNet in the Bureau. That’s not our business.” He gestured for the factory. “This is.”

Kirsten wasn’t convinced. Even so, the MPD shouldn’t have to rely on some potentially illegal mercenaries to bring criminals to justice. But the mercenaries were already gone, and all she could do was listen to their movement on the radio channel shared by the mercenaries and the police.

Meanwhile, the ten mercenaries have already gotten into the factory. They were armed with M4A1 and body armor. As soon as they entered, they quickly scanned the room.

“Over there!”

One of them whispered into the radio. The team immediately converged on that location.

“Oh god!”

They were shocked to discover half a dozen gang members with bodies riddled with knife wounds. Some of them were still alive, but they had their mouths gagged. Seeing the mercenaries approaching, the men struggled but couldn’t speak.

The chains on the side was empty.

“That’s odd.” The mercenary leader whispered.

“What is it? Report!” Kirsten demanded. “Do you see the hostage.”

“It’s the hostage...” The leader said as he stepped forward. He was going to explain how the hostage was gone.

But what he didn't know was that there was a thin, translucent rope in front of his leg. As he stepped forward, his leg pushed past the rope and snapped it.

The next second the entire factory exploded.

Kirsten subconsciously took a step back as the flames erupted. Leon frowned. Even someone as experienced with this line of work as him was frightened. The SWAT officers gulped. They could feel the sweat on their back. If they were the ones going into the factory rather than the mercenaries...they would be in a million pieces already. They weren’t afraid to take some risks, but none of them was ready to die.

“Did she…”

Facing the burning factory, Kirsten could feel her hands shaking. This was no doubt a setup by that girl. Katie. No one could survive an explosion like that. The mercenaries were gone. The gang members were gone. The hostage was gone. What’s the point? Where’s the motive? Why the hell did that girl just set up this whole kidnapping bullshit just to blow everyone up?

It was almost the same as last time. Last time, Katie was also the only one that was left standing when the others involved were dead. Who is that girl, and why does everyone around her tend to die?

Who is she? The grim reaper?

“We should go back to Ms. Jones and give her the news.” Leon brought up the difficult topic. Both of them thought the hostage was dead, thanks to the mercenary’s misleading words. Suddenly, Kirsten phone rang. The detective pulled her phone out and took in a deep breathe when she saw the name of the caller was one Ms. Jones.

How coincidental.

She gave Leon a desperate look before taking the call.

“Ms. Jones.”

“Not quite.”

On the other end, Katie grinned.

“Hello, Detective Kirsten.”

“How are you doing?”