He bursts into coins that rain down around us. The ticker tapes stop running and Vesper drags her way out of them with Svetlana’s help. Locke rushes over to her as I stand in the middle of the raining Harrow Coins, my eyes on where the Wolf had been.
The ticker tape at the front of the room makes a noise and starts to run one last line.
“THE SYSTEM IS NOT BROKEN. THE SYSTEM IS FUNCTIONING PERFECTLY.”
Vesper scowls at the papers, just as the first NPC’s gun goes off. She jumps and whirls just in time to see the NPC’s brains paint the Rune Stock Exchange floor. Another leaps from the balconies to splatter across the marble floor. She covers her ears as more guns echo, NPCs who lost everything in the game calling it quits. I stand there, watching, as she screams. The death builds up around us as they acknowledge how much they lost.
“Don’t worry,” I tell them despite the sounds of dying. “They reset in a few hours.”
She looks at me, horrified, and I realize just how numb I’ve gotten to it all. My stomach doesn’t even roll as blood splatters my face when an NPC blows his brains out too close to me. I don’t even flinch.
Those brown eyes trace my face, take in my lack of emotion, and then she nods.
“They want us to lose our humanity. That’s the point,” she murmurs as her familiar flutters on her shoulder. Surprisingly, the praying mantis doesn’t seem enthralled by the lack of heads. Even she understands what’s happening here.
“Welcome to the Harrow,” I tell her. “The brutality is the point.”
Her gaze jerks to me and holds, as if she’s heard those words before. I don’t look away, not even as more NPCs die, not even as the Rune Stock Exchange grows quiet except for the drip, drip, drip of blood from the bodies.
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED
You defeated the wolf of wall street for the fifth time! Wow. You really enjoy watching people suffer.
REWARD:nothing. Your lack of emotion about this brutality is enough of a reward. Psycho.
I sniff as my XP goes up by seventeen points. “Asshole.”
Cipher’s laughter follows me out of the Exchange.
CHAPTER48
VESPER
We haven’t been talking. We left the Rune Stock Exchange and immediately started heading for the next safehouse. We’d been inside the Stock Exchange for most of the day, evidenced by the setting sun, so the city is awash in warm light.
It almost reminds me of home.
But being in this city where the buildings are whole and working, where people look healthy and somewhat happy, the similarities end at the brief wash of red.
Havoc hasn’t directed us where to go. He’s just been this silent, constant presence that offers barely anything, least of all conversation. I’m starting to regret inviting him along. Even Stevie, with his intimidating aura and sometimes annoying accent, is better company.
Walking along the streets of New Babel silently is strange. Though the day is ending, the city lights up with electricity and life. People bustle to and fro in the streets, off to their business despite the late hour. The mechanical boxes people ride in seem to grow even more frequent in the streets, their annoying horns beeping at each other, men hanging out the windows shaking their fists at other boxes. Angry. Everyone is always angry in the boxes. Seems like it would be something that should make you happy but maybe the act of going so fast is what makes them angry.
The buildings part after we’ve been walking for an hour and reveal a wide, brown river, rushing alongside the city.
“Looks like we should follow this river to find the safehouse,” Locke says, always the navigator. His tone is still pinched. He hadn’t been affected by the battle with the Wolf of Wall Street at first, but ultimately, he’d gotten angry. Angry at the symbolism of it. Angry that nothing has changed for humanity. The rich are still eating the poor.
I have a terrible sense of direction so I’m glad Locke seems to be better about it. Dox was also the explorer in our friendship. She’s always the brains, the creativity. I was the muscle and the know-how. We operated well. Part of me is grateful that Locke is able to temporarily fill that space or else we’d be constantly walking in circles.
Just like in the sewers.
I wasn’t made to follow maps, and that will be my weakness at some point. If something ever happens to Locke . . .
I glance at Havoc, my expression dour despite the lessening distance to the safehouse. Every time I look at him, I think of how he stood at the back of the Stock Exchange. He’d only stepped in when it came to the fight, and only when it felt like he could rub it in our faces, though he hasn’t really. He’d left me to the ticker tapes while they’d finished the fight, and while part of me understands it was better to finish the fight, the other part remembers the feeling of the papers wrapping around me, of Svetlana desperately trying to cut me out. His ego is going to be a source of contempt between us. I shouldn’t be surprised that a legend has an ego the size of his myth, but somehow, I am. Perhaps, that’s a mistake I shouldn’t make again.
Perhaps there’s a reason Luxe chose him as their poster boy.
Locke walks at my side, ever present. Svetlana alternates between standing on my shoulder and flying around us on fluttering wings, a feat that freaks Locke out every time she does it. Stevie is mostly silent as he floats in front of us except for a bright exclamation when someone is wearing something he likes. We’re all grouped together, all clearly some sort of team, and then there’s Havoc, walking ten paces behind us.
