Project LOKI ③

Chapter 40: The Sleeper Agent II (Contradiction)

But Luthor just stood there, staring as if he was trying to kill me with his own eyes. He could have picked up the rock he had earlier or a long stick, but he did not.

"And you have misunderstood everything from that point forward," he said.

"Misunderstood?" I echoed. "Now what? Are you going to tell me that you pretended to be Moriarty so you could talk to Cedric and save us from him? 'Yan ba ang gagawin mong palusot? Nandoon ka, 'di ba? Umamin ka!"

He nodded. "I won't deny the fact that I was there—"

That's it! The confirmation that I wasn't dreaming back then. He was there in the flesh to deliver the death sentence to Cedric. Kung nandoon nga siya, ibig sabihi'y totoo rin ang mga narinig ko.

"You had him killed, hadn't you?" I asked, referring to the late CAT officer. "You asked one of his men to poison the tea and prepare a suicide note so the police wouldn't look into it any deeper."

"That seems to be the case—"

"And it was also you who said that Loki Mendez shall never be harmed, the golden rule that Cedric violated," I recalled. That was the most glaring clue that I overlooked. Moriarty never wanted to harm Loki because they were brothers!

He nodded. "I said something to that effect."

"So saan ka kumukuha ng kapal ng mukha para sabihing na-misinterpret ko ang nangyari?" My voice was raised out of anger. "I may not be as good as your younger brother when it comes to reading lies, but I'm not stupid. The answer is crystal clear. You are Moriarty and you have played us right into your hands!"

Tanging ang tunog ng mga kuliglig ang namayani sa parteng 'to ng gubat. Darkness has totally blanketed the once orange sky. Thanks to the stars and the moon above, I still could see the facade of evil before me.

"If you managed to connect those dots and arrive at a conclusion, why haven't you told my brother?" Luthor asked calmly. My short stick was no longer a threat to him. He knew that he could overpower me.

"You seem to be confident with your... theory which you believed was the truth. But there's doubt, isn't there? A persisting uncertainty buried beneath your thoughts."

Tama, may agam-agam ako kaya hindi ko pa sinasabi kay Loki. I had all the winning cards in my hand, but I couldn't lay them on the table and declare my victory.

Perhaps there was a contradiction inside of me. My senses told me that Luthor is Moriarty because I have seen him in the abandoned building and I couldn't have mistaken his voice for someone else.

However, my gut feeling was trying to show me the other side of a coin. I might have mistaken things on how they appeared, as what this manipulator was insisting.

Also, Loki's words might have some effect on me. Ilang beses na niyang sinabi na kahit mapagmanipula ang kanyang kuya, hindi ito makagagawa ng karumal-dumal na bagay. Remember when he described Luthor as an evil wizard who could appear out of a pentagram or arrive in a puff of smoke? I couldn't remember him using the word "murderer" to refer to his brother.

Admittedly, I don't know that much about Luthor. Ibinase ko lang ang impression ko sa kanya sa ilang encounters namin at sa makulay na description ni Loki. So who was I to judge him?

"You wanna dispel those doubts by hearing the truth from me," he continued. "Because you'd like to believe that what you saw and heard weren't true and that I wasn't involved in any mischievous machinations in the campus."

He read right through my thoughts. Confronting him was the only way I could confirm my suspicions. But this moment alone that I had with him wasn't helping. Mas naging nakakalito ang sitwasyon.