No one can stop her (Ending #1: Vaarvel, Ciao)

As your circulation was restricted further, you wondered why Vaarvel hadn't simply snapped your neck and ended it already. If you were as expendable as this sleeper hold implied, then why hold back? It was as though she was still giving you a chance to make it through this, if only could solve some riddle of hers. Unfortunately, she hadn't clearly asked you any questions.

You managed to wheeze one out: why?

"You're asking why go after Madison? I'll assume you're asking that and not 'why kill me,' because I believe it should be obvious we're deep into one of those 'now that you know, I can't let you live' situations that are in all of those spy fiction movies you love," Vaarvel laughed, sounding barely winded despite the force being exerted upon your windpipe. "Ah, Nathaniel, I really am surprised you haven't put the pieces together yet, with all the time you were allowed. All of the prodding and scraping you did, with the questions, the interrogations, the relationships... Wasted time. Well, wasted for you, not for me... You building goodwill between the Goodbye Girls and the rest of the world was critical for this little coup of mine. I dare say that your reports on my activities-- which Madison, of course, was secretly monitoring-- were essential to my success."

You couldn't affirm her suspicions one way or another; all you could do was cough uncomfortably and gasp for air, while desperately attempting to kick her leg out from behind you.

You couldn't see her expression, but you heard her voice quietly. "There really is an Adder Adjutant besides the decoy that was arrested, you know? A founder of Adder, that is. That person has been well hidden in the last place anyone would think to look for them. Would you believe she's the same person who founded the Goodbye Girls?" Oddly, despite this big reveal, you didn't think she was smiling back there.

Connecting the dots was too difficult for you by this point; you were losing oxygen to your brain. The sleeper hold was living up to its name.

"All of that searching and still you came here unprepared. Ah, you knew you'd find me here in this office-- you were that smart-- but you never suspected to encounter the real Adder Adjutant. A woman with machinations sufficient to kidnap Madison Pettigrew, replace her with a plant, and kill anyone who knew the intricacies of the plan. It's a shame that I've had to sacrifice so much to get into this position... and it's a shame that you followed me here," Vaarvel sighed. "We did have some good times... I think you may be the best man it's ever been my displeasure to have to eliminate."

You felt her biceps easing up; perhaps this was sentimentality at work? After struggling to break the hold a few more times, you instead decided to try pushing forward with a question, hoping you could cause her to second-guess herself. You asked why she'd bothered to explain everything to you, if she just meant to kill you? Surely she wasn't one of those villains who got off on their own exposition, was she? If she was telling you all this, it meant she had future plans for you.

"Ha ha... A ballsy gamble, but you can't win them all."

You felt her biceps lock in on your neck like iron machinery. It wasn't the same overwhelming muscle Au Revoir used to dispatch targets... this was just the trained, tempered will of someone who's mastered the means necessary to make their impossible dream a reality, even if that means ruthless murder.

"I'm telling you all of this, because I need you to become a person who I can't allow to live. I need you to die, Ciao, and I need myself to be able to kill you. Ah... I thought I was ready for this."

You tried to imagine what kind of face she was making behind your back, but found the image impossible to summon to mind. You told her there was so much more you needed to understand; at this point, you weren't sure if you were speaking for the sake of stalling her or because you couldn't die without solving the mystery first. Why would the leader of Adder join CEDIT as one of the Goodbye Girls and work against their interests for so long? Was all of her service for CEDIT a lie? Was her goal to put CEDIT and the world's intelligence agencies into the hands of a terrorist organization?

"One more answer before I see you off. It was a lie... it's not for CEDIT that I bloody my hands."

You grasped at her arms wildly, feeling them tighten. You could barely hear her answer as she finished.

"It's for all of humanity."

The blackness that came next was only briefly the darkness of sleep. She hadn't snapped your neck, at least not yet... She'd allowed you to fall unconscious. Perhaps in that dream, despite the terror you'd experienced and the horror of its implications towards the world's security, you now felt relief... No more investigating the Goodbye Girls. No more searching for answers. You knew who'd been working against you, even if you didn't quite understand why.

The one behind it all along was Adder Adjutant. Adder had infiltrated the Goodbye Girls. That was it. That was the answer to the mystery. You were certain she was behind every handler's death, as well as the manifold other mysteries you'd encountered during your own time as a handler, before being made her fourth victim. You felt sorry for whoever would become the next handler... She'd control the narrative and in the end, when the time was right, they'd become the fifth to die. Then a sixth... On and on until Adder's control of world affairs was so complete they no longer needed the charade of the Goodbye Girls.

The deception artist had been the ultimate deceiver, playing a long gamble. Now, she was the victor.