#### **Chapter 58: Shahmat**
Alarms began to blare throughout the chateau. Not the fire alarms, but the high-pitched, piercing shriek of a full-scale security breach. Red lights flashed across the terrace.
The Director's face was a mask of pure, unadulterated horror. She had been so completely and utterly outmaneuvered that she couldn't even comprehend the scale of it. She hadn't just been beaten. She had been used as a pawn in her own downfall.
"You..." she stammered, looking at Renji, who stood watching her, the small knife still held loosely in his hand.
Kuro's voice delivered the final, devastating monologue, his Japanese accent thickening with his rising, manic energy.
"**計画通り**," he hissed, the words for 'Just as planned' echoing with chilling finality. "**You didn't think of this, did you? You saw a chessboard, but I was playing a different game entirely! You were so focused on the King**,"—he was referring to Renji—"**that you never saw the quiet little Pawn on the other side of the board, sneaking his way to your back rank to become a Queen!–this is what we call the classic Shahmat… アハハハハ**"
A VT gunship, one of her own, suddenly the place suddenly rose from the valley below, its searchlight locking onto the terrace. Its weapon systems were armed and pointed directly at The Director.
"What have you done?" she screamed, looking at the approaching aircraft.
"I haven't done anything," Kuro's voice replied, devoid of all emotion now except for a cold, cosmic satisfaction. "The Oracle has. The system has identified you as the primary threat to W.A.O.'s operational stability. And it is acting… to correct the anomaly."
He was using her own logic, her own words, against her.
The Director looked from the approaching gunship to Renji. In her eyes, for the first time, was fear. True, primal fear. She had been dethroned. Hunted by the very weapon she had perfected.
Renji simply watched her, his expression unreadable. He hadn't needed to kill her. His brother had already erased her from the world with a few lines of code.
As the gunship's rotors washed the terrace in a hurricane of wind, and the automated voice from its speakers began to issue a final warning to its new target, Renji simply turned his back and walked towards the door, leaving The Director to her fate.
The game was over. Checkmate.