Reid clutched her bleeding shoulder, gritting her teeth as she tried to stop the blood flow with her life energy manipulation. But before she could fully regenerate, Max placed his foot on her chest, pinning her down. His eyes were cold and devoid of mercy.
"Now, let's try this again," Max said, his voice eerily calm. "Why did the Hand attack me first? And don't even think about lying."
Reid gasped, struggling under his weight. "It was... it was just a job," she admitted.
Max raised an eyebrow. "A job?"
"Yes," she coughed. "A contract was put out on you. Someone paid big money to have you either join or be eliminated."
Max narrowed his eyes. "Who put out the contract?"
Reid hesitated, her breath shaky. "I—I don't know exactly. The order came through the usual channels. High-ranking clients pay, and the Hand follows through. But it had to be someone powerful… the amount offered was too high for just anyone to afford."
Max sighed. "So it was just business?"
She nodded quickly. "Yes! Just business!"
Max leaned in closer, his expression unreadable. "Then tell me… why did you personally come after me? You're a Finger of the Hand, right? Someone of your rank wouldn't normally bother with a simple assassination job."
Reid swallowed hard, sweat forming on her brow. "The offer wasn't just about money…" she admitted reluctantly. "There was another incentive."
Max's grip on her tightened. "Spit it out."
Reid finally broke under the pressure. "Immortality!" she blurted out. "They promised me a way to perfect my control over life energy… to transcend death itself!"
" that is the goal of us fingers, the reason we even established Hand, how can I ignore it?"
Max let out a short, humorless laugh. "Immortality, huh? And you really thought they'd deliver on that promise?"
Reid's silence was all the answer he needed.
Max shook his head. "And now you've lost an arm for it. Tell me, was it worth it?"
Tears welled up in Reid's eyes as she realized how utterly outmatched she was. "Please… I told you everything I know. Let me go."
Max studied her for a moment before standing up and stepping away. "No."
Without hesitation, he swung his hand, severing her head in one clean motion.
As her lifeless body fell to the ground, Max exhaled. "Another Finger down… Now, onto the next one."
Max wiped the blood off his hand, his expression cold as he turned away from Reid's corpse. Without wasting any more time, he moved further into the hideout, his footsteps eerily silent as he stepped over the bodies of fallen Hand ninjas.
The base was dimly lit, a mixture of modern technology and ancient architecture—Japanese banners with mystical inscriptions hung on the walls, but sleek computers and encrypted servers lined the desks. The Hand had always been a strange blend of old-world mysticism and modern practicality.
Max wasn't here to admire the decor.
He moved with purpose, eliminating any remaining ninjas in his path. Some tried to ambush him, emerging from the shadows with blades and throwing weapons. They were skilled, but to Max, they moved in slow motion. With precise strikes, he cut them down one by one, dodging effortlessly as if he were dancing through the battlefield.
Within minutes, the base was silent. Only the hum of servers and the occasional flickering light remained.
Max made his way to the main control room, where a cluster of high-tech computers sat, screens glowing ominously in the darkness. He pulled up a chair and cracked his knuckles before getting to work.
The security system was surprisingly weak—either they relied too much on their secrecy or they never expected someone like him to break in. Within minutes, he bypassed their encryption and gained access to their internal communications.
As he scrolled through the files, his eyes narrowed.
Contracts, financial transactions, encrypted messages.
Then he found it.
A file labeled "Subject: Max Ryder."
Opening it, he skimmed through the details. The contract on his head was indeed expensive, but what caught his attention was the sender.
An anonymous benefactor had wired the funds through multiple shell accounts, but the origin traced back to… New York.
Max dug deeper, searching for more clues. Soon, another name popped up.
Kingpin.
Max exhaled sharply. It made sense. The Hand often worked under Wilson Fisk's influence, but if Kingpin was directly involved, then this was bigger than just an assassination attempt.
But then, another document caught his eye.
A separate, classified message.
"If Ryder does not comply, proceed with contingency plan. Target: Lumia Ryder."
Max's expression darkened.
So that was their real play. If they couldn't kill him, they would go after his sister.
A slow smirk crept onto his lips. "Big mistake."
He copied everything onto a flash drive, making sure to leave behind a nasty virus to erase all traces of his infiltration.
Standing up, he glanced around the ruined hideout.
No more ninjas. No more Fingers. Just corpses and burning secrets.
With a final glance at the flickering monitors, he muttered, "Time to pay Kingpin a visit."
"but after slaughtering the other fingers" he mumbled as he walked out of the hideout and just he left the hideout begin to tremble.
As Max stepped out of the hideout, he didn't even glance back. The structure groaned behind him before collapsing in on itself, dust and debris filling the air. Any remaining traces of the Hand's operations in this location were now buried under rubble.
His mind, however, was already on his next target.
The other Fingers.
If Kingpin was using the Hand to eliminate him, that meant all five Fingers of the Hand were complicit. Killing Madam Gao and Reid was just the beginning.
He pulled out a burner phone, dialing a number. After a few rings, a voice picked up on the other end.
"You done?"
Max nodded. "another down. three to go."
"Where to next?"
Max took a deep breath, recalling the intel he had extracted. He had locations for two more Fingers in New York, and the last one were overseas. He'd deal with the local ones first—fast and brutal.
"Next stop—Midtown. I have a Finger to cut off."
***
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