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"He's been playing you. It's him, Lillith," I say savagely. "The whole time."
She looks away, but I don't miss the pain flickering in her eyes at the betrayal.
"What are you going to do?" she asks, wavering on the brink of tears.
"What I have to, Lillith. I wasn't going to tell you, but you need to understand. They won't stop until they take you from me. You were never supposed to survive this long."
"Does it ever stop?"
"I know it hurts that he betrayed you–"
"I'm worried about you going out there. I couldn’t care less if he did. I care…about you."
I push my mask off and pull her in my arms. "I love you." I hold her tight. "But I have to kill him…and your father." She nods, and tears spill down her cheeks.
"I understand."
"It's okay, Lillith. Ciro and I have to go now. But you need to stay here with Niro. It's safe here. If anything happens to me, and I don't come back, you take the car back to the boat, and you go home. The barcode tattooed on my skin is proof of me leaving everything to you if something happens to me. It's a blueprint…of everything. Our family's legacy."
She smiles. "You're my family."
"I am, and so is our beautiful son, Lillith. You have done an excellent job with him. I thought you should know that."
She has, and I wanted to tell her in case something happened to me because she is everything to me.
"Is this it?" I ask Ciro.
He checks the map and scans the area. "Yeah."
Pollution in high-area air creates a constant gray cloud that blots out the light and gives the neighborhood a gloomy feel. Buildings surround the streets, but they are in a terrible state of disrepair, with broken windows and decaying facades. Their formerly vivid hues are dulled to a consistent, dreary palette of grays and browns. The walls are covered with graffiti and other visible indications of disintegration, creating an atmosphere of desolation and disrepair. FUCK THE UTHEAN THE CITY OF GOD AIN'T SHIT is written in huge letters across the buildings.
Hardly working rusty automobiles litter the streets, adding to the history of the hazardous air quality that cast thick clouds once emitting poisonous emissions. The roads are riddled with potholes and fissures, making travel dangerous for pedestrians. The remaining lamps flutter on and off, providing dim, unreliable pools of light that do nothing to banish the darkness.
Even with the few remaining residents, you can't help but feel a palpable air of despair. They shuffle about looking discouraged, their ragtag wardrobes reflecting the difficulty of making ends meet. Residents' relationships are tense due to the prevalence of theft and the need to protect their few resources from the hands of the desperate.
"It's giving me the location of this building on the right."
We both checked the weapons we brought with us. My latest creation. I pull out the smooth, obsidian-black weapon with elaborate, throbbing red veins carved onto its surface. It gives out a deep hum that makes people nervous just by listening. It uses a mix of cutting-edge bioengineering and brain manipulation tech to function. All of which I created.
Dark energy is a terrible force that seeks out and destroys the brain circuits of living things in a concentrated burst when the gun is triggered. Upon contact, the energy penetrates the victim's nervous system, releasing agony that reverberates throughout their whole being, from the skin deep into their soul. This weapon causes the victim to experience terrifying hallucinations by drawing on their primal anxieties, regrets, and traumas. The sufferer cannot discriminate between the actual world and their warped views as the eerie illusions blend perfectly with reality.
Altering the weapon to a different mode may mentally and physically harm its target. Paralysis, convulsions, and extreme nausea are only some physical symptoms brought on by the energy's disruption of cellular structures. The weapon is intended to cause psychological and physiological trauma that continues to manifest itself long after the first assault has ended.
"Have you tried this on anyone?"
"Nicholas Hawke."
"That was you?" Ciro asks incredulously.
Everyone heard of Hawke Industries CEO's decapitated body being found on the balcony. No one knew how it happened. The only technology capable of doing something like that is a Uthean patrolling the area and finding an imminent threat.
"He threatened Lillith and eye fucked her."
"Good." He looks at the weapon in his hand. "So it works."
"Apparently, it does."
"She was right?"
