Web of Deception: The Webbed Avenger

Chapter Sixty-Four: The Ganali Device

(LITTLE RECAP/P.O.V. CHANGE)

That sentence struck him like a bolt of lightning, taking the wind right out of him...  well... (okay, so he'd never been struck by lightning so he didn't know what it really felt like) the analogy wasn't perfect, alright?  Truth be told it felt like he'd been shot and the pain hadn't kicked in yet; that sickening tension as your entire body recoils from the hit.  That ghastly sour taste that comes from the very pit of your stomach burned his taste-buds, and it just felt like everything had been turned upside down.

There was no way that could have been true, right?  The words still echoed in the back of his head.  "Stilinski was the officer I had made an arrangement with!"  No, there was no way that was true.  Stilinski making a deal with Brad to get to Mesmero and the other robbers, that couldn't have happened.  If it had, his father would have told him.

If, if it had involved the bank robberies then his dad would have surely said something, anything.  Replaying every interaction with his dad in his head, he tried to find a clue, a snippet, a hint, anything that could have included Brad, to no avail.

He was so out of it that it took until now that Matt was eying him rather suspiciously.  Stiles silently cursed himself for getting too personal with the outburst about Stilinski.  While not being direct about it, Stiles could see it in Matt's face... he knew that this was personal on some level for the wall crawler.  Whether he knew just how personal, there was no way of telling.

"Do what?" he practically hissed, tilting his head slightly.  Ohhh, if he was lying... Stiles wasn't sure if the guy would even need to worry about Mesmero or anyone else.  The stingers in his arms were itching to come out.

Maybe that had something to do with why Brad put his hands up so fast... he could feel his anger.  "That's why I was looking for you!  I don't want to work for him; he's forced me to.  I've been playing along so he isn't in my head constantly.  When I found out what he was up to with the Omega, I wanted out.  I had met up with Officer Stilinski the night before the robbery... he was going to help me get out.  I just had to make my part in the robbery look believable.  If there was any hesitation on my part to shoot him, he would have known something was up and then I'd still be working for him."

"So, you shot Stilinski to make it look believable?!" Stiles exclaimed.

You know, I swore I'd never kill anyone, but this guy... this guy might be my one exception at this rate.

"N-not with actual bullets.  They were rubber.  When Stilinski got hit by my shot, it was a rubber bullet.  The rest of the bullets weren't from me."

Every ounce of his being wanted to believe that this was some elaborate lie, but Stiles could see it in the thug's face.  He was absolutely one hundred percent confident in his own words... he was so confident that Stiles knew he couldn't be lying.  Brad had to be telling the truth, but if he didn't shoot Stilinski, who did?

"Brad... if you're telling me the truth, who shot him?" Stiles asked slowly, watching the color suddenly drain away from the man's face.

"My... my sister... Cassandra." Brad answered, much to Stiles' shock.

What... the... hell?  Cassandra? 

"S-she knew I was faking it somehow.  She said she wasn't going to jail, and she would make sure that either I went down or whoever was helping me would."

"If that's the case, why are you still alive?"

"Cassandra, she's losing it. What the boss has cooking, she's all for it. In fact she's offered to be the first one when the boss unveils it and begins giving it to the crews."