Amanita: Poison Shot

Chapter 108: Black Puck, White Hair

*Warning: this chapter contains a difficult scene by the end. A character is forced to reveal their gender identity due to an accident. Please read this chapter and the next one with an open mind. This event is based on an unnecessarily cruel scene in a TV series from my childhood that irked me. I hope I can right that wrong by giving it a radically different approach and ending.

"I still can't believe Cian was able to do all these acrobatics to get to you," Sigi told me right after taking off his helmet. He was smiling, proud of what Cian had done earlier.

We were parking his red bike in front of the Sports Palace shortly before eight o'clock that Friday evening. Due to the curfew, the match had been moved ahead.

It was a hot evening. Every time a hockey fan would pass by us on their way to the main doors, I could smell their excitement for the match.

When Sigi had come home from work, I had just had a few minutes to tell him what had happened at Oyster. I hadn't told him the 'bad news' about Momo in full, because we had to hurry to the Palace.

"Listen, Sigi. Got a couple of things more to tell you." My grave tone of voice and aura erased that beautiful smile on his face.

"I don't like that serious tone. What's the matter? You said Momo hasn't hurt you," he said while standing up in front of me.

"It's..." I sighed. I tried not to call anybody's attention by whispering my thoughts to him: "It's Apollo. Agape, Cian, and I believe Apollo might've hired her as a mole. Or she offered herself as such. But since we're still alive and well, we're guessing she might not have told him our names and where we live. It could work as leverage. Otherwise, she would be of no more use to him. I think she might be planning to do his bidding and spill the beans about our identities at the very end, when she's made sure she will be safe and sound, far from all of us."

"Are you sure?" he asked, whispering back at me.

"Apollo wouldn't pay for a mansion for her in the Cayman Islands if not, that's for sure."

"What?!" he exclaimed with wide eyes.

"Momo sent Oyster's accountant an invoice with her bank account number. It was weird at first. Agape has dug into it. It turns out that Apollo's managing it, and the huge amount of money in it, to get her a mansion built there through a shell company. We think that he's paying her for her services as a mole with that."

"Damn."

"And then, there's the issue of my DNA." Bringing up that issue saddened and worried me.

"What about it?" he asked while his frown deepened.

"We've got different hypotheses about it," I explained while fear made my voice sound weaker than usual. "Agape believes that obtaining a DNA sample from me and becoming a mole are not necessarily connected. Those could be two completely different missions. I hope so. Otherwise, it would mean that Apollo knows I'm a rebel."

He tried to suppress an angry grunt as a reply.

"But we could be wrong." I sighed.

"Didn't Momo give anything away, even by accident, while Agape and Cian were reading her nanochip's data feed? Any clue? Like... was it before or after going to Silver Island? It meaning becoming a mole? That could give us an idea of how long she might've been working for the enemy, whether she's been tampering with other ops, anything that might help us."

"Nothing. We've got no idea. She's good at hiding thoughts, as Cian told me," I said. "Anyway, Apollo will be pissed off at both Momo and me because of my DNA."