LORELEI

"YOU ARE right, Lorelei. I am Moriarty."

My heart shattered into hundreds of pieces. I already knew for weeks that he was the person we have been chasing all along. But hearing the admission from the man himself wounded me deeply.

Why, Luthor? Bakit mo nagawa ang lahat nito?

I don't know what to feel. Should I be enraged that he managed to deceive us into thinking that he's one of us? Or should I be relieved that finally we were getting to the bottom of this case?

What would Loki react if he found out the truth? Manggagalaiti ba siya sa galit kapag nalaman niyang ang kuya niya ang taong nagpapatay sa kaibigan niya? Would he curse him to the moon and back?

Nagkatitigan lamang kami ni Luthor ng ilang segundo. Those seconds felt like minutes. Mahigpit pa rin ang hawak ko sa stick na nakatutok sa kanyang lalamunan. Ngayong alam ko na ang katotohanan, I couldn't let my guard down.

"Yes, I am Moriarty," Luthor repeated, his eyes staring at the sharp end of my stick. Those cold eyes... "Are those the words you want to hear from me? Is that the so-called truth you have been longing to escape my lips?"

What?

His right hand gripped on the stick tightly until it was broken into two. Sinubukan niyang iangat ang kanyang katawan mula sa pagkakahiga kaya napilitan akong tumayo at humakbang palayo sa kanya. No matter how short my stick was, I still pointed it at him.

Luthor dusted his clothes off and fixed the collar of his polo shirt. "I told you earlier that you have misinterpreted my actions. And I was right."

Teka, what the hell was going on here? A few moments ago, he confessed that he's Moriarty. A moment later, he was telling me that I got everything wrong. What trick was he trying to pull on me?

"You said that you are Moriarty!" My voice was trembling in fear and shock. I took a step back when he started walking toward me. "Kahit ano pang palusot ang sabihin mo, hindi na ako basta-basta maniniwala sa 'yo."

"If I were person you think I am, do you honestly believe that I would just blatantly reveal my secret to you?" Luthor put his hands behind him, his towering figure casting a shadow over me. "Did you think that threatening me with a stick would make me talk?"

Was he trying to get away with what he has just admitted?

"YOU ARE MORIARTY!" I jabbed the stick in front of me, stopping him from further advancing. "I heard your voice when you were chatting with Cedric at the abandoned building! I saw your face when you checked on me and Jamie in that dilapidated room! Gising na gising ako noon, imposibleng nagkamali ako ng narinig at nakita!"

I was a fool to put myself in such a precarious situation. I was at an advantageous position when I held him down earlier. Dapat pala'y hindi ako umalis mula sa pagkakapatong sa kanya. He could attack me anytime and try to silence me.

But Luthor just stood there, staring as if he was trying to kill me with his own eyes. He could have picked up the rock he had earlier or a long stick, but he did not.

"And you have misunderstood everything from that point forward," he said.

"Misunderstood?" I echoed. "Now what? Are you going to tell me that you pretended to be Moriarty so you could talk to Cedric and save us from him? 'Yan ba ang gagawin mong palusot? Nandoon ka, 'di ba? Umamin ka!"

He nodded. "I won't deny the fact that I was there—"

That's it! The confirmation that I wasn't dreaming back then. He was there in the flesh to deliver the death sentence to Cedric. Kung nandoon nga siya, ibig sabihi'y totoo rin ang mga narinig ko.

"You had him killed, hadn't you?" I asked, referring to the late CAT officer. "You asked one of his men to poison the tea and prepare a suicide note so the police wouldn't look into it any deeper."

"That seems to be the case—"

"And it was also you who said that Loki Mendez shall never be harmed, the golden rule that Cedric violated," I recalled. That was the most glaring clue that I overlooked. Moriarty never wanted to harm Loki because they were brothers!

He nodded. "I said something to that effect."

"So saan ka kumukuha ng kapal ng mukha para sabihing na-misinterpret ko ang nangyari?" My voice was raised out of anger. "I may not be as good as your younger brother when it comes to reading lies, but I'm not stupid. The answer is crystal clear. You are Moriarty and you have played us right into your hands!"

Tanging ang tunog ng mga kuliglig ang namayani sa parteng 'to ng gubat. Darkness has totally blanketed the once orange sky. Thanks to the stars and the moon above, I still could see the facade of evil before me.

"If you managed to connect those dots and arrive at a conclusion, why haven't you told my brother?" Luthor asked calmly. My short stick was no longer a threat to him. He knew that he could overpower me.

"You seem to be confident with your... theory which you believed was the truth. But there's doubt, isn't there? A persisting uncertainty buried beneath your thoughts."

Tama, may agam-agam ako kaya hindi ko pa sinasabi kay Loki. I had all the winning cards in my hand, but I couldn't lay them on the table and declare my victory.

Perhaps there was a contradiction inside of me. My senses told me that Luthor is Moriarty because I have seen him in the abandoned building and I couldn't have mistaken his voice for someone else.

However, my gut feeling was trying to show me the other side of a coin. I might have mistaken things on how they appeared, as what this manipulator was insisting.

Also, Loki's words might have some effect on me. Ilang beses na niyang sinabi na kahit mapagmanipula ang kanyang kuya, hindi ito makagagawa ng karumal-dumal na bagay. Remember when he described Luthor as an evil wizard who could appear out of a pentagram or arrive in a puff of smoke? I couldn't remember him using the word "murderer" to refer to his brother.

Admittedly, I don't know that much about Luthor. Ibinase ko lang ang impression ko sa kanya sa ilang encounters namin at sa makulay na description ni Loki. So who was I to judge him?

"You wanna dispel those doubts by hearing the truth from me," he continued. "Because you'd like to believe that what you saw and heard weren't true and that I wasn't involved in any mischievous machinations in the campus."

He read right through my thoughts. Confronting him was the only way I could confirm my suspicions. But this moment alone that I had with him wasn't helping. Mas naging nakakalito ang sitwasyon.

"I admire your restraint for not telling my brother about what you perceived was the truth." Luthor took a step forward, inching closer to me. "I have the faintest idea on how he would react to it, but the rift between us might grow bigger if you did."

'Yon din ang isa sa mga dahilan kung bakit hindi ko pa sinasabi sa kapatid niya. Loki may seem to be composed most of the time. But I might accidentally press his berserk button if I had told him about my suspicions. Silence is sometimes the best approach in situations where one isn't certain about his thoughts or feelings.

"I asked earlier if you trust me. You said that you don't." His voice was as chilling as the evening breeze. Nanindig ang mga balahibo ko. "But can I trust you, Lorelei?"

My eyes blinked as he shot me the point blank question. Why bring up the word "trust" out of the blue? Was he about to confess the crimes that he had committed?

I could have said "no" because I no longer have any intention of listening to a liar. But the situation has already come to this point. Kailangan ko ng clarification mula sa kanya. I had to hear what he had to say.

"You can trust me, Luthor," I assured him.

"Can you do me a favor first?" he asked. "Forget for a moment the conclusion that you have already arrived at and clear your mind as you listen to me."

Tumango ako. Pinilit kong alisin sa aking isipan ang paghihinala ko sa kanya. Mahirap, dahil sa tuwing nasisilayan ko ang kanyang mukha, naaalala ko ang itsura niya noong sumilip siya sa kwarto kung saan ako ikinulong kasama si Jamie.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I would act and listen to him as if I knew nothing.

"You want to know the truth?" Luthor turned his back on me and gazed at the moon hiding behind the gray clouds. "Yes, I went to the abandoned building to save you, Loki and Jamie. I acted as Moriarty, but I am not him."

"Acted?" My eyebrows furrowed upon hearing that word. Ibinaba ko na rin ang hawak kong stick. What was he, a roleplayer?

He knelt under a tree and picked up a few twigs. "I was under orders that day. To present myself as the criminal mastermind you have been pursuing the past few months."

"Orders? Whose orders?"

Lumingon siya sa akin at tinitigan muna ako bago siya sumagot. "Moriarty himself."

My mouth gaped at him. Tama ba ang narinig ko? "Him? Y-You take orders from that man?"

"Because I am one of them," he answered, putting emphasis on the last word. "I heard that the late officer Montreal had revealed to you that Moriarty has generals under his wing. They are well positioned in the school. One of them is me, the vice president of the student council."

I swallowed the lump in my throat as I stared at him in disbelief. He claimed that he's not Moriarty, but he's one of the mastermind's generals? Which one is much worse?

"I had no intention of having Cedric murdered by poisoning," he went on, pacing back and forth in front of me while carrying the twigs. "Nor would I consider disguising his death as suicide. But everything has already been arranged by Moriarty himself. I was only speaking on his behalf when that rogue CAT officer and I talked. I played the part well, didn't I?"

If what he said was true, then I fell for it. For weeks, I thought the criminal mastermind was him. But as he claimed, that was just an act. Paniwalang-paniwala ako sa performance niya.

"Why would you join them in the first place?" Ang unang tanong sa sumagi sa isip ko. "Loki is going after Moriarty and his organization. You should be helping your brother to take them down, not join them!"

He halted and looked at me over his shoulder. "Do you have a younger sibling, Lorelei?"

"As far as I know, I don't have any." And I was an illegitimate child of my known dad. If my biological father had another family, I probably have a younger or older sibling.

His eyes had faraway look in them. "When I was a child, our mother told me that the older brother must always protect the younger brother, no matter what the state of their relationship is. Loki may hate my guts for the most absurd reason, but the fact remains that he's my brother."

"Sumali ka sa kanila para protektahan si Loki?" Tumaas ang kaliwang kilay ko, hindi gaanong makapaniwala sa rason niya. "But that doesn't make any sense! If your brother manages to expose the identities of everyone in Moriarty's inner sanctum and finds out that you are one of them, he won't buy that lame excuse of yours!"

And how could he protect Loki by associating himself with evil? I thought I would give him the benefit of the doubt, but he was only giving me nonsense reasons.

"Two years ago, Moriarty tried to recruit me into his group. I refused." Luthor was unfazed by my rebuttals. "But when Loki started to get himself involved in cases that were disguised as either suicides or murders, I had to reconsider my decision. I have predicted that he might get in trouble for digging too much about those incidents. And the only way for me to get information whether they would target him or not is by accepting the offer and embedding myself in their organization."

He did that for his brother? Luthor, the man who preferred working behind the scenes, would go out of his way to ensure Loki's safety?

"Then you became one of Moriarty's assassins?" I shook my head. I couldn't imagine him on a killing spree. Wala nga sa itsura niya na kaya niyang pumatay ng tao.

"I wasn't involved in any bloody schemes," he corrected me. "My job is to control the student council and all student organizations, and to pass along to Moriarty any piece of information privy to us. If I perform my duties well, I can infiltrate the inner circle of the organization and find out more about their plans. And I did."

"But you are Loki's brother, sharing the same blood and same family name with him," I pointed out. "How on earth did you convince them that you are on their side?"

"You have to thank Loki for that," he answered. "His antagonistic attitude toward me has established the narrative that there's no love lost between us. And as you may recall, we do not live under the same roof nor do we eat lunch together."

As resourceful as always, Luthor managed to make good use of his disastrous relationship with Loki. At dahil walang siyang sinasabi kay Loki tungkol sa mga pinaggagawa niya sa likod ng telon, Moriarty or any of his men wouldn't find anything that might suggest he was spying for his brother.

"Later on, I found out that Moriarty has no intention of harming my brother," he went on. "But he can emotionally torture him in his own way. Days before the most tragic day in Loki's life, I asked Margarette to dissuade him and Rhiannon from further investigating M. Stubborn, he did not listen to my indirect warning, costing him his only friend's life."

Hindi ko alam ang buong detalye ng nangyari noon. Loki did not bother to tell me any detail aside from the fact that Rhea was killed by Moriarty.

"My brother became a total mess after Rhea's death," Luthor said, looking down. "He managed to move on, but not completely. The scars are still there. Months later, you came into his life. Knowing the tragedy that befell his first partner, I tried to remove you from his orbit by showing you the dangers of being with his company. Like him, you are stubborn too."

Naalala ko tuloy ang ginawang pagdukot sa akin. Dinala nila ako noon sa costume room at pinagsuot ng damit pamprinsesa. They left a code in the clubroom for Loki to solve. We had a deal na kapag hindi dumating si Loki sa loob ng fifteen minutes, I would quit the QED Club. Luckily, he came to save me.

"Now I understand why you had to do that fake abduction," I replied after a brief recollection. "You wanted to spare him from another emotional trauma just in case I become targeted by Moriarty."

Muntikan na nga akong tunawin ng tauhan ni Moriarty noon sa loob ng isang drum. Fortunately, Loki came to save me for the second time.

His narration so far showed that he was indirectly helping his brother from getting hurt. I was becoming more inclined to think that he was on Loki's side after all, not Moriarty's.

But speaking of the evil incarnate. "Teka, if you are not the real Moriarty, then who?"

"You already know the answer, don't you?" His dull eyes squinted slightly. "Stein Alberts. He did a bold move by introducing himself to my brother in person. We did not expect that Loki would assault him and leave him in a comatose state. While he was in the hospital, our organization was paralyzed."

"Are you sure?" I remembered Loki telling me that Stein may not be the spider at the center of the web. Kung hindi talaga ang Math nerd na 'yon o si Luthor ang hinahanap namin, who else could it be?

"We met once or twice," he recalled, his eyes looking up. "He introduced himself as the man behind the mystery."

My mental spider's web has fallen into disarray. If he was telling me the whole truth, there was no reason for him to cover up for Moriarty anymore.

"How about his other generals? Have you met any of them?" sunod kong tanong.

"We never had a single meeting where everyone is present in the room," sagot ni Luthor. "Moriarty always summons us one by one, never in two or as a group. But I had my hunches on who the others might be. For instance, Augustus Moran."

Oh, the editor-in-chief of Clark Clarion who tried to bring the QED Club down. Unfortunately for him, he failed.

"When the student publication started its mudslinging campaign against your club, my suspicions were confirmed," Luthor explained. "That act wasn't sanctioned by Moriarty himself, though he did nothing to stop Augustus. He was hell bent on bringing you down."

"But you intervened," I added, recalling the events that almost destroyed our club's reputation. "The contents of Loki's silver laptop that was in Zoey's possession would incriminate him for the false accusations. Sinabi ni Rye Rubio sa akin na inutusan mo silang magsagawa ng emergency fire drill at kunin ang laptop mula sa office ng Clarion."

"That was the only time I went against one of them," Luthor said. "I acted discreetly so Moriarty or Augustus wouldn't know what I have done. I instructed Rye to tell only you about it. Only him, Margarette and I are aware of the plan."

Naikwento ko na rin kay Loki ang tungkol doon pero parang wala siyang pakialam. Ayaw kasi niyang magkaroon ng utang na loob kay Luthor. If he accepted the fact that his brother saved him and his club, he would be indebted to him.

Looking back at everything that happened, Luthor did so much for Loki. Tuluyan nang napawi ang galit ko kanina. Tila nabunutan ako ng tinik sa lalamunan at nawala na ang mabigat na pakiramdam sa dibdib ko

This is what my heart was yearning to hear all along.

Luthor was right. I misinterpreted his actions and I was blinded by what I believed to be truth. What I saw and heard in the abandoned building — that led to me assuming that he is Moriarty — was just one side of the coin. If I did not flip that same coin to see what's on the other side, I would still be mistakenly believing that he's a bad guy.

Him on the inside, Loki on the outside. The Mendez brothers could take down Moriarty's organization. Together. If they play their cards right, that is.

"Kailan mo balak sabihin kay Loki ang katotohanan?" tanong ko. Of course, he wouldn't keep his plans hidden from his brother forever.

"When the opportunity presents itself, I will divulge to him everything I know," he answered. "Right now, it is premature for me to make a move. I have to maintain my cover as much as I can until the opportune time to strike."

I agree. The game has become more complicated, he couldn't risk throwing away something that he worked so hard to achieve.

Luthor walked right up to me, standing face to face. "I hereby entrust you the burden of keeping everything that I have said a secret. I have told only one person in this world about the truth. Only you. Loki and everyone else must not know until the day of reckoning comes."

Raising my right hand, I responded, "I won't tell a single living soul."

"Remember: I am one of them, but that doesn't mean I am on their side," he said, turning his back on me. "We should head back to our spot. Loki and Jamie might have returned already."

We traced our steps back to the area near the river. Tahimik lang kaming naglakad habang maingat na tinatahak ang kakahuyan.

I shall remain as silent as this forest to keep the secret that Luthor and I shared.

q.e.d.