‘I was assigned to protective detail in Project Spectrum.I saw what they can do, how they operate.’
‘Grace us with an example.’
‘They…’ Fenwick swallows.‘They control energy.Electricity mostly, but there was one of them who could do a lot more.Hypochlorite was all that stopped her, but only at first.They’re manipulators.Terrorists.’
‘Yes, I’m aware of the framing,’ Alistair chuckles, tipping his head thoughtfully.‘With a name likeParanatural,what else would the desired outcome be?And you believe my son is one of these… terrorists?’
‘I don’t believe, I know it.I’ve known it for a while, and so will everyone the older he gets,’ Fenwick says to Penhalyx like they’re equals, like under this sky they are justmen.‘You should put a bullet in him right after me.’
‘Lachlan,’ Penhalyx says, tone soft.‘Eviscerate him, please.Don’t worry about the mess.’
Stone cold killer.
Mechanical, methodical,machine.
Lachlan can do this.
He’s capable of it.
He remembers Clara.
Remembers that it was a test, has a feeling thisisn’t.
So Lachlan Tanner pulls out hisKA-BAR,disconnects his heart from his brain, goes cold, goes dark and does what he’s told.To eviscerate a man is a complex and brutal procedure.The smell, the feel, the sounds of it.
Lachlan shuts down what isn’t useful.
Slipping intoFocus Modehas always let him do that.
He has blood up to his wrist when Penhalyx bids himenough, and Fenwick is gasping, but not crying.Give him his due.
‘I will ask this only one time,’ Penhalyx says to Fenwick.‘Who have you told about your theory?’
Fenwick whines, so close to death but kept from it.
Lachlan has little empathy for this man, but he’s made a fine mess of his insides and that kind of pain… it’s beyond anything.
‘I—I didn’t tell anyone!’Fenwick pants, can’t quite get enough air in his lungs, choking on what hedoeshave.‘But everyone’s gon-gonna see!He’s a freak, he’sone of them!Everyone will—!’
Penhalyx shoots him in the face.Unloads the entire clip.
Fenwick’s misery is over.
Lachlan’s is far from it.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Fenwick’s body is incinerated.
Lachlan goes down into the sub-level.He wants to see it, pay his last respects, but is told he’s not permitted so he goes back up into the Estate and briefs his entire team sternly, warns them to tighten up against any possible mistakes in the future.It’s a nasty wake-up call, Fenwick’s death.
Lachlan deludes himself about certain things sometimes but washing Fenwick’s blood from his wrists before calmly filing a report that lists his cause of death as accidental electrocution during the storm sure as shit tears through the illusion.They arealldispensable.
Everyone but the children.
It’s the first day of August and life goes on.
Lachlan watches the oldest Sorrenko boy closely that day, thinks of Fenwick’s warning, suggesting he let him die.Roman Sorrenko is tall, outgoing and fairly intelligent from what Lachlan gathers, but no more threat than anyone else in this place.Now that Fenwick is ash and bone, Lachlan is starting to suspect Romanwasn’tthe eldest son he was referring to.
