Chapter 220 The truth about James Bourne (1/2)

”Why do you think James died? Were you there when it happened.” The start of Phil's story was a question to Specter who answered quite quickly.

”I wasn't really there when it happened, but was informed after the fact.”

”Then why did you believe in this information? Surely you of all people know the truth behind the Shadow Mercenaries. We do not abide by camaraderie or friendship, what really makes us stay together is the overwhelming power of the one hiding behind the curtain, and a similar goal of hoping for a better world, but each of us has a different take on what a better world is. So why did you believe in the information that you haven't seen with your own eyes? Who was it that gave the information, that you never doubted its authenticity.”

Specter finally caught on with what Phil wanted to convey. He then started to recall who was it among them that actually witnessed James' death. At that moment Specter finally recalled who was the one who gave that report.

”It was the former leader, Gabriel.”

”Bingo, Gabriel was the one who gave the report regarding James Bourne's death. Next question who was it that declared me and Margie as traitors?”

Specter tried to remembered who it was that said both Margie and Phil were traitors, once he remembered he was once again surprised.

”It was Gabriel as well.”

”Correct again. Now onto the final question when were we declared traitors, and when was James declared dead?”

This time it took Specter a bit of time to remember the answer to this question. Phil and Margie were declared as traitors long before James was declared dead.

”If I remembered correctly you two were declared traitors six years ago, and James was declared dead a year after that.”

”Do you think that's a coincidence? Of course not. Gabriel noticing something amiss from the way Hektor was moving decided to let me and Margie his most trusted friends escape the organization. Of course at that time, it wasn't possible to fake our deaths, so we were made into traitors. A year later once we finished our preparations Gabriel sent James to us.”

Specter was amazed by this revelation and was about to ask a question but Phil motioned him to stop.

”All questions will be entertained later, for now I just want you to listen. So where was I, oh yes, Gabriel sent us James. Now unlike you, Hektor wouldn't simply believe in Gabriel's report so we needed to stage James Bourne's death. At that time we have finally perfected cloning, and we were able to clone James Bourne perfectly. Aside from Gabriel, Hektor was there as well to confirm James' death. Actually Hektor was the one who orchestrated the demise of James Bourne. Too bad for him on that fateful mission where James dies, we already switched the real one with a clone.”

”Once the whole of the Shadow Mercenaries believed that James Bourne was dead, Margie and I wiped James' memory and replaced them with new memories, thus Oliver was born. We became his parents, and treated him normally. We made him experience a life without killing, a life without fearing the next day. Still because James was somehow fighting the effects of the memory wiper, his past manifested as dreams. Due to this we needed to add some more background memories for Oliver, not to be confused with his old memories, but nowadays it seems like it's only a matter of time before he remembers everything.”

Phil was finally done explaining what had happened and it was a shocking story. Specter who was listening intently didn't even realize that Margie came back and his tea was getting cold.