The Devil's Favourite Obsession

After Cixi fell into the ocean, the port fell into a strange, unnatural silence. The waves still moved. The cranes still stood. Every heart still throbbed except for one body lying on the cold concrete in a pool of blood. The air around seemed to wait for someone to breathe louder to shatter this bizarre silence that wasn’t quite silence at all.

A bald man finally moved. He stuck his gun under his jacket, then pulled out his phone and dialled a number. The call connected quickly. ”Boss,” he looked tense and slightly fearful of whoever he was speaking to. ”We lost Markus. And the girl... We had no choice but to shoot her,” he squeezed his eyes shut, forcing himself to continue, ”she fell into the... water.”

The line went silent for a second, and then it stretched long enough to make the men around him feel uneasy. Finally, a single command came from the other end. ”Seal the containers.” And the line went dead.

The bald man slowly lowered the phone and, with a single head movement, gestured for the others to start working.

They had hardly moved a finger when they heard it.

The sound of boots stepping

It was slow, yet firm. Heavy yet elegant. A sound that was impossible to ignore.

One by one, every head turned toward the noise to find a man walking toward them with one hand in his pocket and the other holding a cigarette between his fingers. His posture was straight. His pace was steady, almost casual. The lights from the dock flickered across his wet clothes.

As he stepped closer, his face came into view.

”Cassian Crown is alive...” one of them whispered in disbelief.

Cassian’s wet, white shirt clung to his perfect torso. A thin line of blood traced from his temple down to his jaw, falling onto his shirt. He stopped a few steps away from the bald man who had just ended the call.

Cassian glared at the corpse for precisely two seconds and then raised his eyes to the men who were still breathing.

”Where is she?” He got straight to business.

Mark stood two steps behind Cassian. His winter coat was gone. His clothes were wet, and he shivered a little, but he still stood guard as Cassian’s right-hand man. His eyes scanned the surroundings with trained vigilance, looking for Cixi. He couldn’t find her.

One of the men, standing near a rusted container to the left, asked. ”How are you still alive?”

Cassian tilted his head, staring at the man with secret amusement. ”Worry not! Your miserable, pathetic attempt to kill me will not go unnoticed.” Saying that, he gave him a dangerous smile, which carried a message. ’You will ask for mercy... begging to be given death, but it won’t come.’

Stretching his neck, Cassian swivelled and moved his head from side to side before straightening up. ”Alright! Who is going to inform me about the whereabouts of the woman who was in the car with me?... But before that, let me give you an offer. Anyone who provides me with the information will receive a five percent discount on the painful punishment I have predetermined for each one of you!”

Rather than being scared, they laughed at him.

”I think Cassian Crown lost his brain after he fell in the water.” The bald man looked left and right at his companions, feeding off his amusement. ”Like that woman, you too are blind to see that you are outnumbered?”

Cassian zeroed his focus on the man who was now pointing a gun at him, as did the other men on the port.

Mark too took out his gun and pointed it at the one standing directly opposite Cassian.

But that did not stop Cassian from smiling introspectively at the bald man before his gaze drifted downward toward the lifeless figure on the cold concrete.

He studied the wounds, the angle of the fall, and the position of the hands and legs. ”I am assuming.” Cassian’s eyes moved from the corpse to the grinning man. ”It is her masterpiece.”

The smile instantly fell from every face when Cassian joked about one of their ex-comrades, which Cassian did not fail to notice, their every micro-expression, even in the night. ”Thought so,” he nodded in self-understanding. ”I don’t like to repeat myself, and yet I showed you monkeys enough mercy. It’s time you talked, or else I will break one of your limbs and send it to your family member as a Christmas present!” he deadpanned. ”So, where is she?!” his voice thundered.

The man who had laughed the loudest, the one who appeared to lead this dismal assembly, the bald man, took a single step forward. His chin lifted with hollow confidence. He then glanced toward the dark ocean, and Cassian followed his gaze.

”There.” The man gestured at the black water stretching endlessly under the starless sky. ”Go find her. Her body might be floating somewhere.” And his grin returned, though it no longer reached his eyes. ”Or should I send you where I sent her?” he giggled at the thought of killing Cassian Crown.

The sound of chuckling had barely left his throat when he found Cassian standing right in front of him. He blinked once, twice, then thrice to be sure he wasn’t hallucinating, and he wasn’t.

Before he could react, Cassian, within seconds, disarmed the bald man easily and twisted his wrist with such force that the bone snapped audibly. He had already jumped into the sea before a piercing cry erupted in the air from the bald man, who was holding his broken wrist.

The remaining men stood frozen with their guns still raised, but their fingers forgot to press the trigger to shoot at Cassian.

They stared at the spot where Cassian had been standing, then at their leader writhing on the ground, then at each other.

’What just happened?’

Before a single one of them could formulate more thoughts, the port erupted with engine sounds. Many black SUVs tore down the access road from three directions at once. Once the engine stopped, the car doors flew open, and Cassian’s men poured out with their weapons already raised.

Mark ran to the edge of the port and looked down into the water, searching for any sign of his boss. The surface was black and impenetrable, reflecting nothing at all.

”Boss!” he cried out his name, waiting for his response. Ten seconds passed, twenty seconds, thirty, forty... one minute... two minutes. It was long enough for Mark’s hand to start shaking against his thigh restlessly. Should he dive too to search for his boss? He questioned... And before he could decide when to jump and if he would survive, Cassian erupted from the water, gasping for air. His hair was plastered to his skull, and even in the darkness, Mark could see the rigid set of his jaw and the determination in his eyes.

Cassian scanned the surrounding water, turning in every direction, searching for a shape, a movement, anything. He found nothing.

He dove back in again, disappearing into the water, making Mark worry once more. What can a person see in the dark? Another question formed in his head.

When Cassian came back up, he gasped for air once more. He looked up at the port where Mark was standing.

”Call for a search party!” Cassian instructed Mark, speaking loudly, to act immediately. ”NOW!”

Within fifteen minutes, the marine search party arrived with three boats. Divers descended into the depths. And Cassian was taken into one of the boats. They searched for two hours, and Cixi was nowhere to be found.

Cassian was sitting in the back of one of the small boats as it returned to the port. A blanket had been placed around his shoulders by someone, but he did not throw it away. He stared at the water as the boat moved slowly through it.

He did not utter a word during the ride. He sat there, drenched in the stillness of a man who was calculating something.

When the boat reached the concrete pier, Mark was waiting eagerly for his boss. He extended a hand, but Cassian did not take it. He climbed onto the port floor by himself and stood there for a long moment, staring at the ocean that had swallowed the only person he had given a coin to.

His hand clenched into a fist, his jaw ticked, he turned to Mark, and when he spoke, each word arrived separately, carrying his will.

”Hunt every mafia group in town if no one speaks about who is behind taking Cixi away from me!... I was supposed to protect her. She was under my protection. She had her family’s debt to pay back...

I know she is somewhere out there. I need to find her.” Cassian’s face turned grim. ”Send our men to look for her. And do not stop until you find her.”