"Max ! You look surprisingly too calm. Do you think that I wouldn't disrupt your plans after all ?" Isla looked at me as I was thinking .

"No! That's not it . But even if you do , I already know what can happen so no point in panic right?" I retorted back at which she gave a thin smile. It seemed she was starting to catch on to something. I should probably keep her talking ... eight minutes more.

"Who are you ?" Kate asked mustering up her courage after all this time to her . Good for you , Kate . Though it is probably not gonna be any useful as she will just reply vaguely as possible.

"I am just here to talk to Max...but I didn't think he would recuirt someone else especially...after what happened last time." She looked at me . Of course! She was refering to Detective Carta Jones. Her death was unaccounted on my plan.

"Is that so? Well ! Isn't it logical to get new allies after one ceases to be ." I chuckled.

"I suppose. You are acting différent, Max . I wonder...oh ! My ..." She buried her face in her hands laughing as Kate and Mike looked at each other unsure how to react or what to say . Looks like she did catch on ...well! She was great at deduction and planning. But to catch this fast , she truly was above me in certain ways. But ..I am not worried.

"It seemed you have improved . So I should go then .. I suppose." She stood up as I quickly blocked her path.

"Max?" She raised her eyebrows. Don't act so surprised . Of course ! I would do this. Quite predictable.

"It doesn't matter, Isla. You may have caught on but if you can't incapicate me in time and get out on time, that information would prove to be worthless." I smirked . Four minutes. Come on ! Max ! You can use your skills.

"Do you truly think you can defeat me in combat, Max ?" She rolled her eyes.

"Of course not . But I can certainly rely on myself to stop your advance for few minutes ." I blinked at her.

The tension in surrounding grew tense . Kate checked her phone to see if she could call for help and then saw my message and knew what I was talking about.

The time froze as she took out her pocket knife advancing towards me but I quickly grabbed it flicking it in the air and then skidded away from her quickly. Before she could take the knife back , I grabbed a book and used it as a weapon to deflect it towards the wall.

Kate and Mike were both looking stunned .

"You have fast reflexes , Max . I don't think you have been trained by anyone ...after all I checked your background...so how?" Isla wondered as she took a fighting stance. Her face though showed a sign as if she was just getting more and more excited.

If Isla uses her force only without any weapon, I don't stand a chance . So it means that before she can use anything to attack me , I must grab a weapon to counter her.

Book! Shallow. Pen ! Not effective for me or here . Think faster , Max because she is coming. Any moment her kick will crush you into the wall . That's it .

One second later , I crashed into shelve of book after being kicked by her as it broke down into debris.

"You .. truly are intent on winning this time , aren't you Max ? You could have avoided that attack but you allowed yourself to be hit so that you can use the momentum applied to destroy the shelve thus blocking the path . Max! You already knew the moment you entered where the trapdoor was . .." She sighed as Mike came rushing at her but she easily dodged him and twisted his arm as he fell down with Kate frozen at scene. Good try Mike...but you are nothing against her.

"Your time is up, Isla. You won the fight but not the battle." I steadied myself brushing the debris off looking calmly at her.

"Aw...Max ! I did...you meanie " She pushed her arm aside me at wall. What was this girl planning? There was no point in standing there starting at me while keeping me from escaping.  Oh! So things are going that way after all.

As I felt her breath on my cheeks before she opened the door of Axis library and went inside Wonavilla.

Kate and Mike were in no position to follow her so I ran after her but ..she was going into senior wing. Should I follow her there ? No! I have already bet too much now so I must. I can definitely avoid guards roaming there .

"What was she doing on the roof ?" I asked myself as I saw her opening the door .  She can't possibly hope to get a helicopter here ...she wasn't exactly rich. There was straight fall from here and that too leading to inside of the campus. So what was she planning to do? What could she possibly hope to see here?  Or ...was this just her way .

"Max ! Why don't you come here too?" Her voice transversed through air. Well! Should have expected her to notice me .

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I am sure you must have a conjecture." She replied. As sparks of flames could be seen igniting in the surrounding. Before long , cars that were standing around the North Wall of School started to blast creating a loud noise. By now, the whole school must have woken up . Bloods splattered laid outside walls tainting them forever .  Looks like things went that route. There were only two possible outcomes. Either Isla will be caught or she will have already predicted this and took care of them. Nothing more.

"It was just a bet anyway. Do you think this will be enough to break me , Isla? " I looked at her as she widened her eyes .

"My..my ! Such indifference...you sure you don't want to switch sides?" She put her hands on my shoulder playing with me again.

"Of course not. Such a thing is out of question." I told her calmly .

"Aw...may I know why ?" She rolled her eyes.

"Because Isla! You aren't perfect. You aren't indifferent. You aren't what you claim to be . You enjoy breaking people or killing . Sure! You couldn't care less about right or wrong but still that is in no way indifference. Perfection of indifference means ultimate level of deduction and knowing about people without any bias. Indifference is when you feel nothing and you are far off from achieving it . So tell me why will I join such a imperfection?" I glared at her as she took a step back .

"You .. truly are fascinating, Max !" As the crowd of students and teachers started  to gather in campus. Even in midst of this darkness, the flames of massacre alighted the light within the sky .

"You know right that you can't catch me now." She turned back walking to the door. I know Isla. The fact that you were able to rig police cars exactly the police cars that I was going to call means that you obviously calculated what station I would call to get fastest backup send.  Which means that you must have taken care of all the obstacles between that station and Wonavilla. Guards in this hostel are clearly no match for you and would get killed. If I let that be do so in order to catch you and stain your record of non existence, it would draw attention towards me in unwanted ways as police right now will try to figure out who sent the text message for backup but since Kate's phone was used for that , it means that I can count on you to destroy that record because it would help you erasing track record related to you too . But if I stop you right now , my name will come up in this police massacre related case and those organisation guys in jail might say something about me to police as they are still alive.

Of course if you had been caught, I would have simply formulated a fabricated hero with help of Agnes Carthage to hide my identity . Until those organisation guys are dead, I can't draw any attention or it could cause me trouble.

So this is an impasse. This was nothing more than testing out each other and on what level we stand against each other . I suppose this was the second ideal situation that I hoped for because in this chaos I can easily estimate that someone tried to break in Wonavilla through Axis library with help of Kate's words supported by Mike while keeping myself in clear .

And when Axis library door damage will be explained , then I can offer myself to one of the volunteers to help clean it up and take the books I need. So Isla, you were truly useful to me this time.

"Hey Max !  Are you okay ?" Kate asked after I came back even while she was herself shaking.

"I am fine  How about you ? That must have been scariest time for you ." I told her as she bit her lip.

"No! It was not. " She denied. "But seriously! Max , how were you so calm and so good at dodging her moves and how do you two know each other?" She asked .

"Who knows? As for her , you can say we are just on different sides and have bit of scuffle." I sighed.

"Are all your acquaintances scary as her ?" Mike asked rubbing his neck feeling the pain that Isla left him with .

"Scary! Huh! Some are...at times (Claude and Isla) ...but not all. "I smiled. Mike then left swearing he wasn't going to tell this to anyone to me.

"So do you know what was that blast about? Wasn't it the same time that police should have arrived ?" Kate asked me in low tone as we were walking in a line.

"Yes! It must have been police cars which caused that noise." I affirmed it as she trembled.

"Kate! Forget it . You can't do anything about it right now.  But if you tremble, you would lose your standing as class rep and won't become strong enough to face her ." I told her ."

"I..know but how can you be so calm?" She remained baffled.

If you want to cry over few dead bodies of strangers , go right ahead then. But I kept that to myself.

"I am just acting calm because I can't deal with it yet I suppose... denial." I tilted my head as she nodded. Good ! Psychology tips 101.

Now I had confronted Isla and contrived a situation I wanted, everything was set in piece.Wonavilla! I am coming for you ... whatever you are hiding ..I will find it no matter what I have to do. I will get into heart of this mystery.

Au revoir readers! Keep posted for the next chapter.