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“ Why... ” she murmured, tears sliding down her face.
The exposure of an undercover agent in exchange for the elimination of the entire drug lord.
Even though it was a virtual reality simulation scenario, she thought of her identity that she had carefully protected when she was undercover. But she was nothing more than a pawn, with life and death in the hands of others.
She thought about her dedication, her hardships, every person she missed seeing for the last time during that period, every different personality she deliberately practiced, every puff of cigarette smoked in order to fit in, every pretended passionate sex, all for the sake of infiltrating the organization. The exposure of the undercover identity was almost a death sentence for the agent. A pang of acidity flooded her mouth. She had been retrieved from death's hands by Kyle despite the obstruction, who couldn't watch the love of his life being tortured to the brink of death, which almost destroyed the mission. He had been punished for this, leaving him to choose to go down a different path, a path that took his life.
The same for this agent, there were people he cared about and people who cared about him. Isobel just couldn’t press the button.
“ Due to your failure to take any action, the drug lords bloodied the small town in 3 days, mission failed. ”
She looked at the bloody scene, corpses strewn everywhere, small hands under rocks clutching a broken doll, mixed with blood and dirt. The air was filled with the smell of rust and gunpowder. She couldn't hold herself together anymore, collapsing to the ground.
She would face countless trolley dilemmas in her future career, and her decisions would determine the fate of thousands, even millions of people.
She also knew why she was going through all of this, it was all about making the right choices.
It was like starting a lopping cycle, “ mission failed ” mixed with gunfire and screams, and she couldn't take it anymore. In order to win this game, there would always be sacrifices. She understood that, but when it came down to it, the button seemed to weigh a thousand pounds as she sat on the speeding train, facing the people struggling helplessly on the tracks.
The trembling fingers touched the button, cold as iron. Something inside her had broken.
“ Under your decision, the undercover agent made a sacrifice for the cause of eliminating the drug lord. Mission finished. ”
She looked at the agent dangling by his arms in mid-air, she didn't know his name yet.
Every electric shock,
every time they took a nail and hammered it into his flesh and bone,
every drop of sweat intermingled with blood that left his forehead,
every time the pain beyond his threshold caused him to let out an agonized cry,
she had to watch, she could only watch.
She needed to watch the consequences of the choices she had made.
His suffering, she had to bear it as well.
Until the last tear was shed,
emotional thoughts in her head drained,
and whimpers could no longer escape her throat.
“ Isobel Castille, now, you are a SAC. ”