The Reversal

Heh heh heh.

After a brief silence, a string of cold laughs came through the line.

“Haven’t you figured out the situation yet?” Kid’s voice climbed sharply. “The one who should be afraid right now isn’t me. It’s you!”

A thread of sickness wound through the tone. “That’s my greatest masterpiece.”

“Then why haven’t you used it?” Wen Yiqian replied, entirely unmoved.

Silence.

“Let me tell you why.” Wen Yiqian’s pace didn’t change. “For any criminal, observing their own crime scene up close is an irresistible temptation.”

“For someone like you, someone who takes pride in being a cut above everyone else, hiding somewhere in this amusement park isn’t enough of a thrill anymore.”

“You need to be closer.”

“Right next to me, even. Right in front of me.”

He let his gaze move slowly across the crowd. “During our conversation just now, you let slip more than once that you could see exactly what I was doing at any given moment.”

“Which tells me you’ve been right in front of me the whole time.”

Kid went quiet. Wen Yiqian kept going.

“As you said yourself, this was your masterpiece. The impact was significant. I won’t argue with that.”

“Stop.” Kid’s voice came out with the faintest tremor.

“What a crowd today.” Wen Yiqian ignored him, dragging the back of his hand across his forehead. “Let me see if I can find you.”

“That sanitation worker sweeping over there?”

“The tourist in the hat and sunglasses?”

“Actually, I think I’ve got you.”

He narrowed his eyes slightly, fixing his gaze on an amusement park staff member in a cartoon mascot costume who had just begun moving away.

“On a day this hot, wearing something that thick must be exhausting,” Wen Yiqian said, with the tone of someone genuinely concerned.

The mascot stopped mid-step and went completely rigid.

“What’s the rush?” Wen Yiqian’s voice shifted, carrying a mild note of reproach. “With a crowd this size and a disguise that good, I wouldn’t have spotted you for a while yet.”

“But the moment you start moving away, it’s obvious you’re trying to put some distance between us.”

“Don’t push me!” Desperation had entered Kid’s voice now. “Push me far enough and I’ll take everyone down with me.”

Having every movement, every detail, every thought laid out and named with that kind of precision: it was maddening.

“There’s no need to panic.” Wen Yiqian’s tone turned easy, almost brotherly. “Right now, I’m the only one who knows who you are. This park is full of plainclothes officers. If I’d wanted you arrested, it would already be done.”

A brief pause. “And don’t think about running. The moment you move, those officers will have you.”

“What do you want?” Kid’s voice had gone small, stripped of everything except confusion and fear.

“To play a game.”

Wen Yiqian’s face broke into a wide, bright smile. A young woman passing nearby caught it and stumbled slightly over her own feet.

Inside the stuffy mascot costume, the child felt a sudden cold move through him from head to foot.

“Weren’t you having fun a few minutes ago?” Wen Yiqian watched him from a distance. “Now it’s my turn.”

“I’m not playing,” Kid said flatly.

“Win, and I help you walk out of here safely,” Wen Yiqian said.

“I don’t need that,” Kid replied, stubborn.

“Should I expose your last little contingency plan?” A slight sigh. “You didn’t come here without a way out. Someone who doesn’t want to die and doesn’t want to be caught always makes sure they have one. At minimum, you have a route that gets you clear once the game wraps up.”

“That’s what you’ve been counting on this whole time.”

“But if I decide I don’t want you to leave…” Wen Yiqian’s tone cooled, gradually and deliberately. “You won’t make it a single step. Understand?”

Kid’s throat went dry. “What exactly do you want from me?”

“I already told you.” The warmth returned to Wen Yiqian’s voice as quickly as it had left. “Play a game. Win, and I help you leave.”

“What are you going to do?” Kid asked carefully.

“Set off fireworks.” Wen Yiqian’s voice went soft, almost wistful, as though the words carried something genuinely lovely inside them.

Kid opened his mouth and stopped.

Anyone else saying that, he would have taken it for nonsense.

But this person.

Kid hadn’t forgotten what he was dealing with: a high-IQ criminal who had constructed a perfect crime and walked away clean. After watching what had just unfolded in the past few minutes, he couldn’t even begin to guess at what this person was capable of.

“And if I lose?” Kid asked.

“You help me with one small thing,” Wen Yiqian said, as though discussing nothing of any particular weight. “And then you die quietly.”

Perfect crime.

The phrase surfaced in Kid’s mind before he could stop it.

If Wen Yiqian used him to complete whatever he needed and then eliminated the only witness: no evidence, no one to contradict the story. Kid would go down in the record as a deranged bomber who had gone on a rampage.

And Wen Yiqian, having stopped him in self-defense, would walk away clean. More than clean: he might come out of it the hero of the entire city.

Another perfect crime. Cleaner than the last.

Kid felt his scalp crawl.

Faced with something completely unexpected, this person hadn’t shown a flicker of panic. He had taken what should have been a desperate situation and flipped it, turning every disadvantage into a weapon.

And now he was already planning the next step.

Kid had to acknowledge it: as a criminal mind, this was the most formidable thing he had ever encountered.

The acknowledgment stung.

This was the first time he had ever felt the gap between himself and another person this acutely. In thinking, in intelligence, in the sheer scope of how far ahead he was looking: they were in different worlds entirely.

This game was Kid’s last chance. He could not afford to lose.

If he lost, he wouldn’t just die. He would die as someone else’s instrument: used up and discarded like an insect that had served its purpose.

That ending was one he absolutely refused to accept.

(End of Chapter)