[2086] Death of a butterfly

13th April, 2086. Early morning.

Langka’s office tower was dead silent, but nonetheless heavily guarded. Huren lived in the penthouse on the top floor, overlooking all of Bangkok and its beautiful yet polluted ocean.

Bangkok was a city that never slept, but during the dead hours and especially today, it was much quieter than usual. Today was the first day of a long holiday, the Thai New Year, and a mass of people left for their hometowns last night. The city would remain quiet well into the day.

Huren laid on his bed, Butterfly in his arms.

“You never seem to age.”

She giggled.

“We’ll all die at some point anyway. I just want to die looking beautiful.”

They were blissfully unaware of their surroundings. On the building’s rooftop, where the guardian shrine of the building was, a small figure quietly shut down the roof’s defenses and blocked the cameras.

“Done, bitches and bros and nonbinary hoes.” Su reported directly into their internal line.

“Good. We’re getting up there.” Chan and Sin were in camouflage, which made them both invisible. The maintenance elevator brought them to the roof, where they were greeted by a cool breeze. “Where’s our star tonight?”

“You’re late.” Apaimanee’s voice made Chan jump. “It’s really hot. Now I regret setting the mission date in April.”

“When did you get here? You didn’t get caught, right?”

“No. Huren is in the bedroom, the window next to the balcony, as expected. And…Madame is with him. Your signal wasn’t a false one. I think.”

“I like that you added that as an afterthought.” Chan scoffed. “Do your thing, Apai. We’ll do ours as well.”

Chan planted a tracker into Madame Butterfly’s thigh when he and Sin fought her weeks ago. The tracker went off-grid for a long time, and a week earlier, it came back online, showing Madame Butterfly’s location. They did not know what she was planning, but it was time to strike.

“Listen.” Malee’s voice sounded inside their heads, and in Sin’s case, his earphones. “Chan, Sin, you only have ten seconds to get inside.”

“Yes, we’re clear on that.”

“Good. Get in position. We’ll start…”

Chan could only hear his own breathing. He waited for the signal, and it came, a flash in his eyes that came at the same moment that Malee said ‘go.’ He and Sin dropped onto the balcony, then headed straight to the balcony door. Su managed to get it unlocked within three seconds, and the two rolled inside just before the security system came back.

They saw Apaimanee standing casually to the side.

“Ah, to be you.” Chan shook his head. Before they could do anything else, an alarm rang out. “Shit, are we busted?!”

“No, somebody else broke in using the penthouse’s private elevator.” Malee sighed. “It’s them.”

“Them who?”

“Focus on the mission. Madame Butterfly is coming!”

Just as Malee finished her sentence, Madame Butterfly’s feet had already made contact with Chan. He went crashing into the sofa.

Sin engaged his mother in combat. They exchanged blows with fists, legs, elbows, knives, just about everything except firearms. Chan left Sin to handle her while he went for Huren.

“Stop!”

It was Suwan and Walee. They were at the other end of the hall.

“Tell that to Huren!” Chan kicked the bedroom door down and found Huren, calmly getting dressed for the day.

Chan felt a prick on his skin, and instinctively dodged out of the way. A mounted security gun left holes in the floor.

“Don’t just stand there! Do something!”

“Khun Huren, you are under arrest.” Suwan whipped out his gun, shot the mounted gun down, and calmly walked towards the bedroom.

“Do better than that.” Chan said and cocked his head sideways, just in time to dodge a bullet. “Hey, boss man, you’re resisting an arrest.”

“May I know the charges?” The man said calmly as he took a step towards Chan.

“Don’t move.”

Huren did not stop. Chan gritted his teeth, and took out his gun. Huren easily knocked it sideways, but in a flash, Chan was already standing behind him.

Huren felt a tug on his neck, and saw that Chan’s cord was strangling him.

“You’re slow.” Bones were creaking. “I expected more from someone who ordered my ex-boss dead.”

Huren fired point blank at Chan, but the bullet only grazed him. He threw the man’s body at the ceiling, and as Huren fell down, he greeted the man’s back with another kick, and then another that sent Huren crashing into the window. Chan put a few bullets in him.

“Stop it. He’s going to die.” Suwan grabbed Chan’s shoulders. “Walee, check on him.”

Walee stood at a distance, pointing a sensor at Huren.

“He’s still alive but unconscious. We have to arrest him now.”

“Alright. You two stand there.” Suwan inched towards Huren and took out a collar for arrest. “I’ll snap it on now—”

“Watch out!”

Suwan was kicked out of the way. When the man rolled over to see what was happening, he saw a large blade retracting itself into Huren’s arm. It left a huge gash on Chan’s leg. The cyborg wasted no time putting a bullet through Huren’s head, but Huren lifted the blades to block and engaged Chan in combat.

Chan was no amateur, but Huren’s skills had always been an enigma and it was no joke. The man was strong, as expected from Langka’s boss and axis.

Both Suwan and Walee gave fire support, but the two’s battles were on another level. Both had combat assistance AI installed, which gave them similar grounds, but a split second could decide the winner. Although Suwan had experiences in swordplay, he could not even follow Huren’s moves.

Chan leg was sliced clean off, and so was his cord, but Huren’s frame was ridden with bullet holes that slowed him down.

A second later, Chan’s gun and knife were sliced in half, but he managed to kick Huren away with his remaining leg and plunged his bare hand into the boss’s abdomen. It was the same move Sin used against Madame Butterfly.

“You’re tough.” Chan quickly removed his hand and hopped back. Suwan shot the man a few more times, but Huren managed to avoid getting hit in vital places.

“How did you find us?”

“I have a device in Butterfly’s legs.” Chan lifted a corner of his mouth, and Huren chuckled.

“She’s slacked.”

“I know, right?”

Huren raised his gun to shoot, but felt a pulse from inside the wound Chan left in his abdomen.

“What… did you…”

“I’m just helping these two investigators here.”

“A scrambler…?” Huren gritted his teeth. Who would be capable of creating a scrambler that interfered with his frame? “That Malee… I’ll destroy her…I’ll trigger the virus…”

He froze. They could hear a buzz from him, and his body went limp.

The switch that Nil planted in him was not to trigger the virus in Crystal’s system; it was an attack that made his system overheat.

A gunshot. Huren’s eyes rolled back, and he slowly fell over to the side.

Both Suwan and Chan were paralyzed for a second, then it dawned on them that Walee had just shot the man to death. The woman lowered her gun and sighed.

“I had to.”

Just then, Huren’s body moved again and lunged straight for Walee.

Blood splattered on the wall behind her just a fraction of a second before Chan knocked the man’s body to the side.

“Suwan, collar!”

Suwan threw the collar over, and Chan snapped it around the man’s neck. He was dead, but somehow his body still moved. Now, it went completely still.

“Walee! You…”

“Just an arm, boss…” She spoke through gritted teeth. “I… It’s alright… But it hurts…”

“Hold on, I’ll give you some analgesics!”

As Suwan treated his partner, Chan hopped out the room and joined the fight outside, but it was already over.

Sin was panting with a few wounds on his body, and Madame Butterfly laid on the ground. Apaimanee lowered the pi from his mouth.

“I guess… this is karma.” Madame Butterfly scoffed. “Apai, I have nothing else to teach you. I hope you never mentor anyone. You’ll end up getting killed…”

Apaimanee emptied the rounds into her head, and Madame Butterfly went completely still. Su pecked her ears.

“Brainwaves not detected. She is dead.”

Apaimanee dropped his gun and staggered backwards.

“It’s over, my nightmare… It’s finally over.”

Sin stared at his mother’s lifeless body. He was so calm that it was almost unsettling. The young man pocketed his weapon, closed his eyes for a few seconds, and opened them. They had an eerie glow, like a cat’s eyes in a camera.

During the fight, Apaimanee cut off all signals and all power from the building, preventing her from downloading any combat assistance software. His pi concealed scramblers targeted towards Madame Butterfly’s composite frame, and so did the satellites, but that was only enough to slow her down.

“What a family reunion.” She said with a twisted expression. She probably never felt so cornered before in her life.

She knew that Apaimanee’s appearances downtown were not to cause public unrest; it was a declaration of war against her. She only smiled at the threat, knowing that he would come get her sooner or later.

She was aware that Chan planted something in her leg, and used that to call him over. Apaimanee would come to her, and she would finish him off.

In the end, she was no different from her mentor.

Apaimanee stared at the dead woman. His time with her flashed through his mind.

It took so long to get here, but he should’ve realized that the woman who took his childhood in her stride would not be able to return it, and he had just spent the rest of his youth trying to reclaim something which could not be returned.

The man closed his eyes and played the song one last time on his pi. It was Madame Butterfly’s favorite song, and now her funeral song.

“Brother?”

The music stopped when Suwan emerged, carrying Walee in his arms.

“Do I know you, investigator?” Apaimanee’s face betrayed no emotions.

“You’re Apaimanee. You’re my brother…right?”

Suwan’s eyes remained the same. Looking at them was painful.

“You have the wrong person.”

Suwan stared at Apaimanee’s face, searching for a trace of his brother in it.

“No. Even if you became a full cyborg, even if you became a completely different man, I’ll still recognize you.” The investigator shut his eyes tight. “Why did you leave me alone all these years? Did you know how hard it was, losing everyone in the family, but most of all, losing you? I may not remember much of the massacre itself, but…I felt lost, and I missed you so much!”

Apaimanee stood completely still.

“I don’t care about avenging the family. I just want you to come back!” Suwan panted, then straightened up, then waited.

Was this why Malee did not want to tell him what happened?

The younger brother clenched his fists. She knew the reunion would be painful, and she told him that Apaimanee would make the choice of whether to return to him or not.

The other man stared at him like a doll, and so after a long pause, the investigator sighed.

“…Maybe you’re right. I might have the wrong person. I’ll get Walee treated, but…hey, if you ever want to see me again, you know where to find me.”

Suwan turned around, and just as he was about to leave, Sin stopped him.

“Miss Walee is our acquaintance. Crystal will handle her medical care. We’ll see if we can reattach or grow her arm back.”

Suwan recognized him as the curly-haired boy from the photo he and Walee used to trace Apaimanee down.

“Sin…” Apaimanee whispered his son’s name, but was ignored.

“Come with me. We have to leave.”

He left his mother’s dead body there and went to the roof. Crystal’s heli came and picked them up, flying into the hazy Bangkok air towards Crystal’s medical center.

Suwan got a headache just thinking about how he would report this to the higher-ups, and so decided to just take a nap beside Walee.

Levana went pale when she learned of Huren’s death. The first face that popped into her head was Singkut’s.

Of course, she tracked his movements and did background checks, but only after careful investigations did she realize that everything about him was fake.

“Crystal’s Apaimanee…so that’s who you were. You were Khun Malee’s pawn all along.” She bit her fingernail. Love blinded her. “This is a war declaration, and I’ll very well accept it.”