Chapter 2
I woke up in a spotless white room with no windows, just one ceiling light, bathing the place in a gentle glow.
Someone had swapped my prison uniform for a fresh hospital gown.
The shackles on my hands and feet had vanished.
The room was bare, with just a bed, a table, and a single chair.
A doctor in a white coat was making notes in his notebook.
When he saw me wake up, he pushed up his glasses.
He asked, "Mr. Kevin Knight, how are you feeling?"
Kevin Knight.
It'd been fifteen years since anyone called me by my real name.
I sat there in shock for a long time before I finally managed to speak, "I'm still alive?"
"That's right. You're still alive," the doctor nodded. "Your execution has been indefinitely postponed."
I fell silent.
This wasn't the ending I'd expected.
In my plan, death was supposed to be the final chapter of my mission.
"Where's Ryan?" I asked.
"He's being investigated," the doctor replied. "Until things are cleared up, he's not allowed to contact anyone."
I understood.
Ryan had broken protocol.
He saved me, but now he was the one standing on the edge.
"Who's in charge of this?" I asked.
The doctor didn't answer. He pressed the communicator on his wrist.
He spoke into it, "He's awake."
A few minutes later, the door opened.
A middle-aged man in a suit walked in, his face stern.
He looked to be in his fifties, with eyes as sharp as a hawk's.
He waved his hand, and the doctor and the guards left the room.
It was just the two of us now.
He didn't bother to sit. He just stood there, towering over me, sizing me up like he owned the place.
It was as if he was studying some ancient relic dug up from the past, unsure if it was the real deal or just a clever fake.
"Kevin Knight?" he spoke, his voice low and powerful.
I nodded.
"I'm Dereck Miles, the chief of the Ministry of State Security," he said. "You can call me Dereck."
The chief? It seemed like I'd stirred up the big shots.
"Blade-07," I said, giving him my codename.
Dereck didn't even blink.
"The Blade Operation was classified as top secret and permanently sealed fifteen years ago," he said.
He went on, "Everyone connected to the operation, either killed in action or forced into retirement got their records completely erased.
"Put simply, as far as the official records go, this team was erased from history. It never existed."
Piece by piece, I felt my heart sinking into the abyss.
"So, you won't acknowledge me?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
"It's not that we refuse to acknowledge you." Dereck shook his head. "It's that we can't officially confirm who you are."
He placed a tablet in front of me.
My profile was displayed on the screen.
The photo was from the day I was sent to prison.
Name: Karson White.
Nationality: Unknown.
Identity: Second-in-command of the Emerald Triangle's most powerful armed drug cartel, the Black Lotus Cartel.
Crimes: International drug trafficking, armed resistance, premeditated murder... My rap sheet was endless. They couldn't even list it all.
Below that was a rap sheet that went on for over a hundred pages.
Each charge was enough to get me executed a hundred times over.
This was me, Karson, the guy everyone wanted dead.
I was a monster with blood on my hands.
"This is your current identity," Dereck said. "There's a complete chain of evidence, a joint notice from Interpol. Everything points to you. The case is airtight."
He paused, then continued, "But when it comes to 'Kevin Knight,' or 'Blade-07', we can't find a single thing. Your file is completely blank."
Blank. What a cruel word.
I spent fifteen years living on a razor's edge for this country.
And in the end, all that was left of me was nothing but a blank file.
"What about Captain Carter?" I asked.
"Captain Jack Carter died in a border drug bust fifteen years ago," Dereck said, his voice finally showing some emotion.
"He was my mentor," he added.
No wonder he came here himself.
"Before he died, he didn't leave behind anything about your squad," Dereck said.
"Or rather, whatever he did leave behind was erased without a trace."
I understood.
Captain Carter died, and our records were wiped clean.
This wasn't an accident.
It was all premeditated.
It was a plot that started fifteen years ago, aimed at wiping out the entire Blade Special Task Force.
"That operation was a trap," I said.
Dereck just stared at me, saying nothing, but his eyes urged me to continue.
I said, "Our mission was to go undercover in the Black Lotus Cartel and expose their trafficking network and the list of their protectors.
"That day, we got word that the leader of the Black Lotus Cartel was about to have a secret meeting with his protectors.
"The location was an abandoned factory right on the border.
"Captain Carter led the team himself, and the entire Blade Special Task Force was mobilized, ready to take them all down in one sweep."
I paused there.
The memory of that day was seared into my mind, impossible to forget.
Every time I thought about it, it was like tearing open a bloody wound all over again.
I continued, "We were ambushed.
"They had us outnumbered and outgunned several times over.
"They knew our route and our team setup inside out.
"There was a mole among us."
Dereck's brows knitted together.
"Who was the mole?" he asked, his voice low and intense.
I shook my head.
"I don't know his real name."
"His codename in the team was Phantom."
"Phantom?" Dereck's eyes narrowed in shock. "Are you sure?"
I could tell from his reaction. He definitely knew that name.
I said firmly, "I'm sure. He was the one who sold us out and leaked all our intel straight to the enemy.
"He was the one who pulled the trigger, shooting Captain Carter in the back while we were trying to get out.
"He was the one who snatched the list Captain Carter gave his life for, right in the middle of all that chaos."
Dereck's breath started to come faster.
He locked his eyes on me, like he was making sure I wasn't lying about a single thing.
"That list..." Dereck muttered, barely above a whisper.
"It's the list of everyone who covers for the Black Lotus Cartel in this country," I said. "From the lowest ranks all the way up to the highest levels."
The room was shrouded in a heavy, deathly silence.
Dereck and I both understood that the gravity of this was beyond anyone's imagination.
A traitor with the codename Phantom.
A list that could topple half the government.
A massacre buried in dust for fifteen years.
Now, dude to my "survival", all of it was about to come back to the surface.
"Kevin," Dereck said, his voice grave. "You need to prove you're really Kevin Knight."
"That tattoo is the only proof I have," I said. "But even that could be forged."
"Yes." Dereck nodded. "So I need something nobody could fake.
"Tell me a secret only the Blade squad and Captain Carter would know."