57 When The Facade Breaks 5

(Carter POV)

Three more years passed by, and the routine never changed, but I kept moving. I tried to get out more and simply talk to people, but I was never a very sociable guy, even in my last life, and they never lasted longer than one conversation as I couldn't connect with them. Thanks to the drawback, the nightmares never died down and were an ever-constant reminder of everything, but that was not something I tried to focus on.

The date for the plot to begin again was fast approaching, and I ceased contact with David altogether, but it never really mattered. But I spent months gathering up books, manga, and supplies in the warehouse, as well as buying crates to fill them and freezers to place in the warehouse to keep them cold if needed.

Thankfully, the warehouse can supply enough energy to power the entirety of New York City, which was nice and very convenient for me. I filled the freezers with water and other drinks while I got free meals from my food supply. I did not get fluids, so I stocked up like a toilet paper hoarder during the COVID-19 pandemic.

My funds never really took a hit from this as I spent time crossing the planet looking for metals and rare minerals to sell. After making very good investments and giving my say in various projects, my account was now stocked with hundreds of millions of dollars. My biggest payouts were from Disney, as this was still the era when Marvel movies actually brought in millions of dollars, not just disappointment, not even including my other investments.

The early 2010s brought success and were rather dull in terms of events, at least any that impacted me, as I never went into any active warzones in the Middle East. On a more humorous note, I was able to purchase my first game console, the PlayStation 4. Since I was playing it using the connection from my warehouse, I avoided the holiday hack in 2014, so without knowing, I enjoyed that Christmas while thousands of Sony Gamers did not.

While I should have felt bad for that, it almost makes me laugh every time I remember it, and I definitely needed things to laugh about.

It wasn't all games, gatherings, and business as I continued to train myself in various martial arts, and while learning new things got harder after a certain point, it helped to focus my mind and body. Some of my teachers even gave me some meditation techniques to help with focus my being.

I tried to use some, but I could never get myself to stay still long enough. What did improve, however, was my acting. I could speak circles around basic conversation so no one would think anything strange about me.

They thought they knew my routine, and so could create plausible deniability. To do this, I never jumped out of my building unless it was necessary and always made sure that I walked out so people never found it strange how I was missing from my apartment.

No Paladins ever found me, and I never found traces of being followed other than by the SEC for possible insider trading, which I disproved using data I created to show how I was making my trades.

If there were paladins among them, they were probably put off by how normal everything looked because apartments with jumpers or any house with them usually had a storeroom for pictures because Normal jumpers usually require a visual representation to jump.

But since I had the picture list perk, I could simply do it off of memory, and since I had perfect memory, it was no issue for me, so my apartment was made to look very bland and boring.

And later, in December of 2015, I saw on my cameras outside of my apartment the elevator going up to the floor below me where David's apartment was. I sat on my couch with a small pistol and knife in my other hand, staring right at my door with a small iPad, watching through the cameras I placed in David's apartment.

I did make sure to wear gloves when I placed them so no one would know I put them there. And since room service did clean up David's room, sometimes they would never be able to know who it was, and also, the cameras were very small and very hard to find. The elevator stopped on David's floor, and saw Roland walk towards David's door.

Knocking on, David opened the door to see who it was, and after Roland forced himself in, the door closed behind him as they talked. I couldn't hear them as the cameras did not have audio, but I could read lips a little. But it did not take long for David to try and run from Roland, only for his concentration to be broken thanks to the electric shocks from Roland's small electro stick.

It was not a very fast fight as Roland had the element of surprise, and after shocking him and throwing him around the apartment, David managed to jump into his cash room and disappear. Roland slammed his electric baton onto the wall nearby, breaking it and yelling in frustration.

My heartbeat remained steady as I watched him look around the apartment for anything that could help him find the kid after he had searched for over two hours. He places some items in a briefcase and leaves the apartment.

I watch him enter it and go down to the bottom floor.

Breathing heavily, I smiled to myself, seeing him leave. However, as I saw most of the money David had still in his hidden room and with a visual to jump into it, I placed my ski mask and gloves on. I jumped into David's apartment and, looking at all the different types of currencies, shoved all of the scattered money into various duffle bags and immediately jumped back to my apartment.

Taking all of the money into my warehouse, I placed the cash into a box in case I needed more funds, and my account was unavailable to me. David wouldn't come back to that apartment, so I might as well put this money to good use, or my use at least. But after doing that, I grabbed all of my cameras from David's apartment, destroyed them, and threw them out.

Tossing my trash down the garbage chute, I look out the window and watch the police arrive down below and ready myself to be questioned while grabbing a second PC that I use to keep myself a false internet trail and an alibi as I had been buying things and surfing the net while the attack was going on.

Again, my attention goes to the elevator as the police enter David's apartment. I assume to case the place, and after half an hour, some officers leave and head to various floors to get some statements. One officer heads up to my floor, and as I grab my noise-canceling headphones, I walk to the door and open it and see Roland himself posing as a police officer as he stares at me with a smile on his face, I keep my face level.

"Good evening, Mister Davenport. I'm Officer Cox, and I am here to ask you some questions as there was a break-in in the room below you." He pulls out a notepad and a pen, and as he does so, I have to stop my heart from beating too quickly.

"So, sir, where were you from nine to ten PM?"

"I was here working on some day trading. I had actually just managed to grab some more stocks from that company, Amazon."

Nodding, Roland comments, " Yeah, they really seem to be pretty up and coming, you know. One day, I'm going to expect them to deliver on the same day. Would you mind if I looked around?" I allowed him in as there was nothing to find. He looked around and, finding my panic room, nodded with respect at the security.

" You seem to be skilled to be this wealthy Mister Davenport or very lucky," Roland says as he swipes his hand on the panic room door.

" I would like to think that I am just that good officer, but not to toot my own here." I shrugged slightly, and he continued his search and found nothing, no pictures or jump scars to track, so he grimaced slightly but began to leave.

"Well, I apologize for the search, but I do appreciate your cooperation. Please let us know if the occupant returns to that room if you can. Here's my number." He then handed me a card that had what I assumed was his private or burner phone number and left. Shutting the door, I went over every section of the place to check for bugs or cameras and found nothing. I walked and fell on my floor and started laughing silently to myself.

After eight years of planning and build-up to almost being ruined by one Paladin, I honestly thought I was about to have a heart attack, but my body was too healthy for that. I walked into my bedroom, lay down, and tried to calm my beating heart. I grabbed my iPad, watched the cameras outside, and looked around for any Paladins around the building; finding nothing along the surrounding buildings, I walked into my warehouse and went to sleep.

But as quickly as my eyes closed, they opened again, and I found myself waking up in a cold sweat again after exiting the warehouse. Instead of the stars in the sky, I saw the sun rising in the distance, and instead of falling back asleep, I began my workout. I did it outside the warehouse and watched the day pass by.

Heading down to the elevator, I found it decommissioned from David's floor and above by the "police," I decided to walk down a few floors and use the elevator. As I exited the building and ran, my eyes darted around, and I ensured that no one was following me. After my run, I returned to my room and waited for the "police" to leave.

It was like living on a tightrope as I calculated every single one of my moves to appear as normal as possible. I never jumped all day and only entered my warehouse in rooms with no sight lines to the outside. The years of practicing my routines, as well as planning contingencies, were really showing here.

This process went on for a few days, and soon enough, they all left, and the apartment was closed for repairs soon after. Luckily, a normal repair crew was hired to fix the place. I believe that David, at this point, is in Rome trying to romance that girl, Millie, I think, and will be meeting Griffin and fighting those Paladins. Because of David, the heat will die down soon enough.

While a small part of me wanted just to get rid of all of the paladins because their orders whole mission of killing jumpers is stupid for one, as well as hypocritical as their whole deal is that only God should have the power to be everywhere, I don't think they fundamentally understand that being able to teleport is different than omniscience and omnipresence, but again religious orders are like that.

My imagination begins to send me to a point where I can just return to this world and snap my finger, and every Paladin would just disappear. It would be fitting for all of the terror that they brought me over these years, but would I really be able to kill all those people? Beating up people is one thing; killing them is another.

Would I be able to look a man or woman in the eye as I kill them?

With that thought in mind, I go about my day pondering that same question. It echoes in my mind, along with so much more.