Keep Your Friends Close... (A Shadow of Doubt Part 8)

For the second time in less than an hour, Brent had been struck speechless, only this time, there wasn’t going to be a modified flashback. It definitely was Lucas. No doubt about it. Brent lowered his gun, but not his awareness. Lucas simply smiled at him, as if he had outsmarted him. Maybe he had. Brent couldn’t say a word. Lucas lent back into his chair, somewhat leaning into it. There was a wheelie chair just in the corner. Brent walked over, grabbed it and wheeled it in front of Lucas. He sat down and leant forward. He turned his head to look out the window, over the city. Lucas did the same.
“Where are our morals now, eh?” Lucas questioned, throwing his ego into the conversation.
Brent slowly looked at him, then looked back, out the window.
“We lost them long ago” Brent replied, waving his gun toward the window. “When we did that. All the chaos and all the problems. We thought we were playing God, when in reality we were just turning into demons.”
Brent sighed, hard. Lucas turned back from the window, this time with his smile faded.
“You died. Liza survived, but you died. I saw the wreckage.”
Lucas lifted himself off the chair and sat back down again, in a more comfortable position.
“Body double.”
Brent shook his head in disbelief, slightly giggling as he did so.
“No, no. You died. She grieved and broke down mentally. Me, Jacob... We cared for her because she believed that you were de-“ Brent stopped and realised. He was thinking too much inside the box.
“Now I get it. Body double indeed, but she would have known. You faked your death and laid low. The police and officials were onto us and you wanted out quickly. You set up this system to keep a watchful eye on the mess below. Or at least that’s what I would think, if I was as intelligent as you thought I was. This next bit you’re really not going to like.” Brent wrapped up, pressing his handgun to Lucas’ kneecap.
“Where is she?”
As he predicted would happen, Liza came from behind the shadows in a revealing dress, armed with a large handgun. Without saying a word, she used her gun to order me out of the seat. Brent had gotten what he wanted – the identity of the mole – now he was satisfied. He dropped his gun to the floor and raised his hands.
Liza had led the two up to the roof of the short building, where a small helicopter was waiting. Brent looked around as the strong head winds swept his hair and jacket.  He saw the city in all its glory along with a taller building quite close to the one he was on. Liza’s hair was also swaying. Lucas continued to look smug about his achievement of outsmarting the great Gettz hacker.
“I’m sorry Brent, but this is the end for one of us.” Liza shouted. The wind died down to a mere breeze, fitting the situation perfectly.
Brent had found the mole and could finally be laid to rest. He put his hand into his pocket and took out his lucky chess piece. He held it tight, knowing the end was near.
“Give me your gun.” Liza directed to Lucas. He handed her his gun and went to kiss her on the cheek. A single shot was fired. She had shot Lucas with his own gun. He fell to the floor with a groan, then nothing but silence. A fitting end.
“Before this... collapse of society, Lucas was a very evil man. Every day he would come home to me and abuse me. He would often rape me and still have that ridiculous grin on his face. I needed a way out. So I planned and planned hard. When you were all planning the collapse, I was planning myself. After it had all happened, things got messy. Lucas wanted me to help him fake his death, so I did. He went on to ‘die’ in that car crash and I played the grieving widow so well all these years. I was just waiting for a time where he would take me in close enough for me to strike him out. He wanted me to keep helping him, so I became a mole and told him every little thing you were all doing. Every deal, every fight and every death. He was building up quite a case on you, now he’s dead.”
Brent had questions.
“Well, you’ve killed him. Does it feel good? Do you feel any better?”
Liza shook her head.
“Of course it doesn’t, not yet at least. He was an evil man, but he had a point to his messy ways. He wanted to snuff you and Jacob out so there was no links to him and the chaos around. Now with him gone, you and Jacob are the only things left in my way.”
Liza aimed her handgun high, linear to Brent’s head. He stared back at her, watching the feeling of guilt and oppression drip from her eyes. She dropped Lucas’ now empty handgun onto his body, being sure not to move her own. He hesitated and uttered a few words.
“You don’t want unneeded blood on your hands. Let me be the one to tell you, things like that won’t come off. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
A smile formed on her face and a she let out a small giggle.
“Oh yes. I’m afraid it does.”
Brent shook his head and closed his eyes. He waited for the inevitable. Liza straightened her arm. Brent took a deep breath. A sound, just for a moment, similar to that of a fly, buzzed past Brent’s ear. A splash of blood burst from a large wound in Liza’s right breast. Toward her heart. She dropped her gun to the floor, which was shortly followed by her own dead body and a loud thud.

Brent walked over to Liza’s body and knelt down. He noticed, like his mother, that her eyes glared forward and remained wide open. He placed his index and ring finger and closed them gently. Jacob had never missed a shot, and with Brent's paranoia, he was hoping he didn’t this time, either.