Our labored breaths synced together, one of pure and raw surprise and the other raspy, artificial, and fucking hot.
I could feel her fingers caressing the scar on my neck, leading all the way from the top thoracic to cervical, the cut ending just at the base of my skull. Her touch provided great comfort in a scar that I forever had as a child of Sabbath. Such a long, thick scar for something as miniscule as an implant the size of my indexes. The original scar had healed well under Sabbath. It was when I decided to cut into my own neck and spine with only a mirror and a knife to find that behavior monitoring chip and rip it out.
That’s why the scar looked as ugly and painful as it was. But in pain, I felt truly free from Sabbath.
Her skin was soft and gleaming with sweat from our activities. I couldn’t help but let my hands glide across the side of her thighs or bare spine, across scars and smooth skin. Every part of her body was heavenly, and I hoped I provided comfort as equally as she gave me.
Before coming to Colony Negative, I never once regretted my decisions as Sabbath. There was never any accountability, soul searching, or anything like that until I met Jacqueline. Perhaps it always laid there in my consciousness, in my bias, and I merely disregarded it. A man was taught to never regret his actions, to merely own his choices and continue forward.
Regret meant I had a choice, which meant I had free will. With Sabbath, I didn’t have that in terms of my survival. What I did regret was not leaving sooner. If I had left earlier, I could have done less damage, less harm to colonies not deserving of my wrath.
Here, with Milithreat and protecting Doctor Devereaux, I felt like I had a purpose, a choice.
Jack removed her mask, those hard breaths of hers leaving that slightly robotic tone and turning more natural. The instant that barrier shielding her scars was gone, her lips were planted on mine softly, as if she had wished that the entire time. I would admit, though, her moans sounded absolutely delightful with her mask.
I didn’t know if it was worth the cost of not being able to kiss her lips, though. It just allowed my lips to kiss other parts of her body, marking her with bruises like temporary tattoos.
“Are all biologists like this?” I asked, my own breathing not recovered given her delightful kiss.
“Like what?” she whispered, her voice soft despite the sore, dry nature of her throat. She had pulled back, stroking those nails through my hair, a sensation that itched a beautiful part of my brain from the outside.
“I mean, who better to teach me about the human body like this than a biological anthropologist?” I laughed softly.
She groaned out of annoyance but I could feel that smile against my skin as she tried to hide it, “Don’t ever say something like that again. Anthropology has nothing to do with sex.”
“Not true,” I refuted, “Biology studies life, all the physicality about it. It’s everything you can see, whether with those beautiful eyes of yours or with a microscope. You know what a brain looks like, what all the little gaps and ridges represent, the chemicals that compose us. Anthropology, now, I can’t say I knew much at all before I met you. But to me, that’s the study of the soul.”
“Agent Rok, what does sex have to do with souls?” she asked, straightening her posture slightly as she glanced down at me, only having a slight height advantage due to straddling my thighs.
“Maybe nothing during the act of it. But the after…” I trailed off for a moment, getting lost in the physicality of her, “something just unravels like a ball of yarn. I feel more open, more alive, more alert. It’s like the soul is awakened, linked together with this imaginary bond between humans.”
“Oh, I suppose that’s normal,” she shrugged, “merely hormones after an orgasm. Sex is often known as an impulse control, so the aftermath is your mind having a moment of clarity. It’s that prefrontal cortex going back to its normal state, given it goes rather mute during intercourse, so your decision making process just gets reawakened. Oxytocin is the hormone that takes over and it's the main reason why sex is a great stress relief.”
I loved her fucking scientific ramblings, especially more now with her naked bodice on mine, her skin lathered in soft bruises I’ve left or just that foggy look in her eyes.
I hummed, “But what if that only happens with you? That sensation only exists when provided by you.”
She blinked slightly, almost a bit surprised by that, “Not sure if I should be flattered or worried by that statement.”
“How so?”
“Could be Sabbath steroids and hormone therapy that has ruined your sense of oxytocin,” she answered, but not before pausing for a long moment, “But…I suppose I would be lying if this whole experiment hasn’t affected me too.”
“Experiment?” I could hear my voice alter with the question, my heart stopping.
She immediately realized the weight of her words, “No. I didn’t mean it like that, Damien. You’re not…what we’re doing right now isn’t some experiment. I suppose life itself is, right? Life is one big grand experiment with no hypothesis or trial to guide us. This, even though I don’t know what it is, and it’s best I don’t put words to it, isn’t some trial and error. I’m not using you to find myself…and I hope you aren’t doing the same either.”
“No,” I shook my head, “Sorry if my reaction was a bit…”
“You have every right to be worried about that,” her voice softened, “You’ve been used your whole life. You’ve always been someone else’s experiment. Not here. At least, not by me. This Colony, though, might have other ideas.”
Crazy to think months ago I thought Jack to be the last person to understand me. And maybe that was because at the time we truly didn’t know each other. I knew my first day meeting her I was a bit of an asshole. I could have handled things better but I felt like I needed to make an aggressive, strong first impression with my team. A team I felt no purpose to lead. And her, well, she had to keep to her thesis. Whatever that still was.
“I mean, say this was an experiment,” I grinned slowly, “On that first day meeting me, what were the chances for a hypothesis of sleeping with the Supervisory Special Agent that interrupted your wonderful briefing?”
She laughed at that, “Impossible, surely. I would have revolted at such an unfathomable hypothesis. I wouldn’t have even entertained the idea of testing it. That’s the terrifying thing about experiments.”
“Terrifying?”
“Yeah, terrifying,” she repeated, swallowing slightly, “We are the products of our environment, the world, the people, the monsters around us. It’s what makes us adapt. The scariest thing about transforming isn’t the action itself, it’s the fact we will never truly realize how gradual it is. We don’t realize it at all until one day we blink and suddenly the way we think, act, talk…things we didn’t do before now feel much more real.”
“That can be a good thing, can it not?” I leaned closer, letting my hands wrap around her hips to rest on the back of her spine, across the smooth curves or ridges of her scars, “we are products of evolution. We change for the better.”
“Evolution is the change to adapt and survive in our society. Why should we be forced to change? Why can’t we create a society that adapts to us, that way we don’t have to change? You’re right, evolution is trial by error. Most of the time, the success gets passed along. But what about the failures? It dies, becomes extinct and irrelevant.”
“It can’t be irrelevant with people like you continuing to study such…” I whispered, watching her demeanor change as if she never thought of it that way before.
She was right about not really being able to pinpoint change. I couldn’t really speculate the moment it really clicked for me. But I knew it had really blossomed from such a minor discussion still above ground, adjusting her rappelling ropes and she had mentioned what her parents had stated.
Deveraux’s weren’t allowed to be nobodies. That had been ingrained in her mind from a young girl, and clearly the pressure from it was altering, like carbon pressured into becoming diamonds. Even if she now believed nobody was a ‘nobody’, I knew this weight of glory was her drive for perseverance. Whatever happened with her accident, she could have left everything behind and resided in her own shadows. Just like me with Sabbath. Instead, we searched for something different, something we thought greater than our past or ourselves.
Yet, people like her would always examine the past, oddly enough a contradiction to her own thought process. While things and people alike weren’t admired when alive, everything they’ve done, their legacy or just kindness still lives on.
It looked like she was going to make a statement about whatever epiphany I awoke in that smart brain of hers, but the sound of distant alarms pulled us away.
I glanced over at the control panel in the distance, given we had chosen a random seat in this Sioc to fuck on. But the sound of alarms was…alarming to say the least.
I stood up, still holding her with one arm even though I could have reasonably placed her down. I was just worried that I’d miss that warmth of hers if I did so. She didn’t seem to complain, just as curious as I was and probably after the pounding I just gave her…she didn’t like the idea of walking just yet. Her hands still clutched to my arms, flexed from carrying her and I had a feeling she secretly liked that.
An object was coming from the South on the radar, before immediately speeding past us through the storm in a blink, riding back to Station Evolutionary.
“Who the hell is out in this storm?” Jack asked.
“Well, I mean we are…unregistered,” I added, soon going to the logs to see who had passed by us.
“Shit, you think they saw us?”
“No. They were going way too fast,” I mumbled, hoping the radar was quick enough to register. Even if they had a piece of electronics on, it should have picked it up to give us some type of identification. Same with us. Of course, we already had an alibi.
I was out doing recon. Jack was out on a joyride, we just happened to meet up during the storm and being the delightful gentleman I am, I offered a dry ride back.
Excise - 019 Owen Nestel.
“What is he doing out?” I asked myself aloud.
“I guess you could ask the Excise supervisor?” Jack was just as curious as I was as to why Owen was out and about. And speeding rather quickly in this storm.
I sighed at that, “Not really supposed to. He reports directly to Milithreat instead of me. If I start poking around, I’ll get in trouble.”
“To be fair, you broke multiple bones in the man’s face…” Jack hummed, adding a bit of a smirk despite the violent aspect of it.
“True. I don’t regret that. It just means I’ll have to do his own digging into what he’s doing.”
“Clearly trying to ‘win the hearts and minds’ to mutiny against you,” she snorted softly, slowly unhooking her legs around me to place them on the ground. I assisted her in the process, still holding her steady as she took a few sturdy steps. “I can walk just fine, Rok. We should get going before this storm gets worse.”
I glanced back at the information momentarily before walking back over to my clothes, luckily mostly in one place.
“Shit, is your back and shoulders alright?” she asked, and upon doing so I could feel what she was talking about. I could feel the soft stings from every slight movement of just slipping my shirt on and then the light armor on top. She had clawed the shit out of me.
“Yeah, looks like we both left marks on each other,” I grinned, looking at her as she began to cover up the soft bruises and marks I left on her skin with her undergarments and biking attire.
“Mm, you’re lucky I don’t wear anything that won’t cover my neck,” she smiled in return, struggling slightly with her pants, “at least in the lab where people are more attentive.”
“Guess that means I’ll have to avoid wearing tanks in the gym, then,” I laughed, figuring it would be for the best.
“Like your boneheaded men even know what sex marks look like,” she teased, “could just say an anathema got you pretty good with those claws. Or maybe Alala-”
“Let’s not talk about her,” I interrupted, perhaps a little bit too quickly or harshly. Jack blinked, remaining silent as she finished getting dressed. But she could tell the topic of her seemed to catch me off guard. I could see hesitance fill those eyes of hers, especially as she averted my gaze.
“You didn’t fuck her, did you?” Jack asked me, her voice soft and quiet as if she was afraid of the answer.
“What?” I shook my head in disbelief, “No. No, of course not Jack.”
“You just…acted differently after that night with me and around her. I just…sorry, I get a little insecure and-” I approached her at that, cupping her cheek gently which made her stop in her words.
“I know we don’t discuss value or worth about people…especially in front of a biological anthropologist. But, Jacqueline, you are a greater, far greater and extraordinary woman compared to her. You are far superior compared to her…to me. It’s not you…” I took a deep breath, hesitating, “She’s a Sabbatical.”
Jack felt relieved at my words, as I could see her relax at them followed by my touch. But I could also sense her surprise at the truth. I wanted to keep this a secret, after all, I didn’t know how much I trusted Jack. She had ties with her mother, and even if their relationship was far from perfect, it still made her connected to the one thing I despised. And, Alala had told me her father was involved in the very machine I hated, hated more than anything and wished to destroy.
Trusting her still was still not solidified, blurred by my affection for her, and the facts of her parents.
“You mean she was?”
“No. Is. She appears to be doing their bidding. She is more loyal to them than her own mother-”
“Wait, the Magistrate is her mother?” Jack gasped.
I always said way too much around her. It was probably just because I felt comfortable around her, I felt like I could share what bothered me, and find a solution in this together. But I also knew intelligence was on a need to know basis.
“Yeah…” I sighed, “It’s a bigger mess than I thought. But, the good news is that they promised to not hunt you down. It’s another District off your back, one step closer to coming back once the dust settles.”
I thought she’d be relieved by that, but still remained worried, “Damien, you know she targeted you right?”
“I can see that now,” I sighed, knowing all the lies I made up about my past, my homelife or background story had all been for naught. She knew I had been lying this entire time. “I still don’t know what her plan was.”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Probably still intended on using you as a kunst,” Jack teased to try and lighten the mood, “if she couldn’t connect with you on post sex, using oxytocin to get information through bonding, I suppose now she’s trying to get inside your head.”
“Yeah…I think she did,” I moved to ignite the Sioc engine, sitting in the main seat. Jack moved beside me, tightening that seatbelt of hers. She was more than welcome to drive, given she still criticized my lack of a proper license. But maybe she thought with more practice I wouldn’t cause as many vehicular accidents.
“You know who you are Damien, don’t let her tell you otherwise. Whatever happens, I know you’ll make the right call…” Jack assured me.
Funny. She was just talking about change, how Colony Negative seemed to be doing that to a lot of people here. And that included me. I knew it had.
But was it change for the better, an adaptation for evolution, or extinction?
-
I adjusted the sight of the scope to align the crosshair with the target. My target. Marhwanda was still on my list and nothing changed that. I was the Saboteur for a reason, to protect District Five and their interests. Clearly, the head of District Seven was a direct threat in ways I didn’t know or exactly understand. Perhaps she was just as Sabbath riddled as her daughter, a real possibility.
With the location of their main base, District Seven’s location was out in the open in the right spot. I settled on top of a plateau, using all the technology I had at my disposal. I even stole the idea of Crowe, laying on a thermal blanket along with my minor illusionary armor camouflage to blend in with the rocks. Even my rifle had adjusted its color to that bland mix of brown and grey to mesh with the dirt.
I was an invisible god watching over my subjects, with even their communication at my disposal.
It wasn’t just physical tools at my disposal. Jacqueline had given me a few papers and dissertations regarding Seven’s way of thinking. Intelligence was able to gather training manuals to help. Tradition and culture were oddly enough interesting pieces of information that could be exploited. The first of every month, District Seven trained in old tribal armor in respect to their ancestors, with the Magistrate spearheading it all.
So, I was overlooking over a hundred Seven women soldiers practicing spear fighting routines in the middle of nowhere, about half a mile from their main base.
A Magistrate, according to Jack’s findings, was chosen amongst them by acts in battle. Brave, brash actions were qualifying to lead this fragmented District. It seemed like Marhwanda wanted to make her mark, prove herself, by landing on Colony Negative.
I was no politician, but I thought that seemed like a very brash, idiotic decision. Sometimes there was the mindset people just mind their own business. If I knew what had awaited us in Colony Negative, I wouldn’t have come. Then again, they were orders and I was never inclined to reject them.
I wasn’t allowed to fail. The issue with that, though, is who determined my success or failure? Given I didn’t know the answer, I was determined to do everything I could in my power to do things right.
Marhwanda led the training in the front, my crosshair on her but I didn’t have any intentions of pulling the trigger yet. This was mainly reconnaissance, but it could turn into an assassination if needed.
Afrikaans talk and words came through my comms, picking up on their communications although I hardly understood it. Occasionally though, Alala would be the one to speak what I could interpret, giving me insight into their conversations.
The women had taken a slight break under the morning Colony Negative sun, allowing the perfect time for discussion.
“District Three has not taken kindly to our siding with Five,” Alala sighed to her mother, “Communications leaked that they know of our deal with them, all about that Doctor they’re hunting. We should not have made such a deal. They’ve threatened to take actions and at the moment we are barely handling the influx of these monsters”
I knew exactly what they were talking about.
District Three, as far as I knew, had no idea about the deal made between us. And that was fine. But I wanted Seven to think Three did know about it. Because when I did pull this trigger eventually, who better to blame the District that made a threat?
Even though it was myself falsifying the threat under the guise of District Three. They didn’t need to know that, and neither did my own intelligence team. Grimes didn’t even need to know. All they knew right now was that I was assisting in perimeter recon to take a break.
Jack’s science team still didn’t get along with me after the little spat we had, so I used that to my advantage to get ‘some air’ away from them.
They should be thanking me, because if all went well, I’d be making their lives easier once their boss was allowed to return to her work.
“You met this Doctor, what do you think of her?” Wanda asked her daughter.
“A problem. She’s a real problem. But, I have leverage against her if needed.”
I enhanced the comm volume, hoping to get a clearer audio about what this leverage could be.
“Should we be as concerned as the other Districts about her?”
“No,” Alala shook her head, those curls bouncing slightly as she did so from what I could see, “I think we need to do the opposite. We need to let her do her work. Her team believes in her, even Agent Rok. That means she must know something to unlock a few secrets here. She unlocks them, then we kill her.”
My crosshair slowly hovered to Alala at that comment, my finger slowly resting on the trigger but I couldn’t. If I was to shoot, I only got one chance before the rest of their soldiers would swarm the area as bodyguards. I kill Alala, there goes any attempt at Wanda. Alala was more deserving of a bullet to the brain, but that wasn’t my mission.
Some missions, I felt as though there was always someone more deserving of my wrath. This was one of them, and yet there was nothing I could do.
“I take it your mission with Rok was unsuccessful?” Wanda inquired.
“Yes. Behavioral statistics concluded Rok would be sexually deviant and thirsting for lust, especially in an environment like this. That was false. He has an interesting dynamic with that Doctor, unrequited at that. That might work in our favor, have him crawling on his knees back to me if he can’t get what he wants from her.”
I was not sexually deviant. I had just the right sexual libido as probably any man my age and nothing about Sabbath changed that. Of course, I wouldn’t lie and say that increased the closer I got to Jacqueline. She was a very beautiful woman and I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Nothing deviant about that, though. It was rather normal to be infatuated with a woman who seemed to challenge my very existence.
“One way or another, I will get what I want,” Alala insisted, her words sinister and almost sending a shiver down my spine.
I couldn’t give her what she wanted…even though if I went through my mission I’d give her everything on a silver platter.
“You are determined Alala, but you have far to go. Patience and wisdom are needed, not everything requires action,” Wanda advised her.
Alala scoffed at that, “It’s not going quick enough. These other Districts are slow. They stole from us, and now we are going to steal from them. But their scientists are too slow, and their soldiers are getting picked off by these monsters one by one. Five is the only one that appears successful.”
Alala and Wanda had their differences, and not just in age. But in age, it also showcased experience and wisdom, which Wanda seemed to possess. Alala was still young, her talents and plethora of information stemming from Sabbath. That made her dangerous and impulsive. Sabbath created actions out of impulse, often because they were the most shocking of choices, the most deliberating and chaotic.
Alala was clearly the dangerous one here. Not Marhwanda.
“Well, if you want Rok, would he exchange his services if we managed to capture his Doctor?” Wanda planned, “We capture her, despite our little agreement, will he take her place?”
“Most certainly,” a hint of a smirk, barely visible on my scope, formed on her lips, “She’s locked up tight, though. They’re smart in keeping her at bay. But…if we’re patient enough, she’ll go stir crazy. She already hit Rok in a fury about going back. It won’t take long before she gets impatient again.”
“Humans can never sit still, can they? We always want more. We will use Doctor Deveraux’s own knowledge against her.”
My crosshair moved back to Wanda, just angled a tick above her head.
“The worst form of inequality is to try and make unequal things equal…we will make her regret coming here thinking she can make a difference.”
“And in doing so,” Wanda smirked, “Rok is yours.”
Not on my watch. Not on my fucking watch. How complacent and egotistical their words were, whispering to each other like their devious plans would actually work. No. I wasn’t anyone’s to control.
No no no no NO.
I was in control. I was not going to crawl and beg at Alala’s feet. Instead, I’d make her come to mine, and even then I wouldn’t give her what she wanted, what she truly wanted.
District Five needed Marhwanda dead. Jacqueline’s life depended on it. My life depended on it.
Wanda might have taught patience to her daughter, but at this moment, I lacked none.
I pulled the trigger. The laser penetrated the skull through Wanda’s own curls of hair, her blood splattering on impact all over. Alala stood there frozen in the moment, perhaps tasting the blood of her own mother as it had sprayed upon her bodice like a work of art. Immediately that fright disappeared as the other District Seven warriors surrounded the body of their dead Magistrate with fright and worry.
They looked everywhere and anywhere for movement, a sign of their assassin. They wouldn’t find me. They’d never find me, never know it was me.
I enjoyed the panic in their voices, Afrikaan shrieks of words I couldn’t understand. But I knew fear. It didn’t matter the language, fear was rather a universal one that gave me joy.
I watched Alala’s composure crumble in front of me at the loss of her mother, but it didn’t take long to see that resolve. The Machine told her it would give her power, and it was by my hands that was granted to her. As much as I wished to take another shot on Alala, she was too closely surrounded by her fellow compatriots I never had a clear shot. An innocent could get hurt, which never stopped me before.
But that was my Sabbath past that allowed that. I had to be better, right?
Good soldiers follow orders. The best soldiers were the ones that began questioning them.
-
I awoke to the sensation of gentle fingers tracing the lines of my tattooed snake, all the way from the shoulder and collarbone to the beginning of my midriff. Across various hairs or scars, her fingers followed the path of something I once considered an honor to wear. Now, it was a symbol of remembrance, remembrance of someone I couldn’t be any longer.
Snakes could shed their skin, which meant I could too.
“Mm, Jack, it’s too early,” I groaned, curling up against her.
“All the more reason for you to get up, less chance of getting caught,” she retorted, but did place a soft good morning kiss on my lips.
I knew I was overstaying my welcome too much in her room when I lingered around Station Evolutionary. But I couldn’t help it. After all, she was stressed so much! If I could provide even an ounce of relief to her, I was her humble servant.
“I need you in top shape, soldier, you’re my only chance of going back out in the field,” she reminded me.
“You know, that means less time for mornings like this…” I retorted, leaning back close to kiss her deeply. She melted into it, definitely much easier than she had with the first unwanted kiss I had placed against her lips.
“My work will always come first, sorry Rok,” she teased, although I knew she was partially serious about that. She was quick to return more soft, delightful kisses, tempting me into savoring her for breakfast.
My work came before her as well. That was the price we paid for being good at our areas of subject. But I wouldn’t lie and say I was growing increasingly comfortable with the nights of her warm embrace. She must be too if she was the one sending me messages if I was available at night.
For her, I’d always try to be available.
Funny how this whole stick for using this as a means of stress relief was clearly turning into something greater. I didn’t mind it at all.
But our work, again, would always be a priority.
Soft alarms over the intercom went off, awakening both of us from our attempts for possible lazy morning sex. Jack was the first to perk up, climbing out of bed.
Team Leads and Supervisors, please report to the main bridge. All others, stay online for an emergency broadcast.
“That’s not good,” Jack whispered, now quickly getting dressed.
“Yeah, I wonder what the fuck this could be about,” I hummed, getting out with equal fervor. With those minor alarms going off and everyone’s communication devices going off with a buzz, this place would be awake soon.
And I didn’t like the idea of anyone seeing me leaving Doctor Deveraux’s room.
“I’ll meet you at the bridge,” I whispered once fully dressed, giving her hip a gentle squeeze before sneaking my way out. Luckily everyone else was slow to rise.
Whatever got Ruenova worried, it was written all over her face upon entering the large meeting room. Every team lead from security to finances was there, and of course me from intelligence. In a few minutes, Jack had entered with the rest of the lingering tired souls. She moved to stand beside me, fingers briefly touching luckily underneath the height of the table blocking everyone’s view.
With everyone present, Ruenova took a long, deep sigh.
“I am sorry to intrude so early in the morning, but an unprecedented new event has occurred that will make our work increasingly difficult…” Kylie spoke, her tone grave and almost irritated.
She turned on the large display in front of us, showcasing a news report from earlier this morning from 5’News, District Five’s best ‘unbiased’ media source. It displayed Five’s Magistrate Cain in front of numerous cameras and other media outlets in front of our main capitol.
“Earlier this morning, we were alerted by our allies in District Seven of the horrific assassination of their Magistrate Marhwanda. Their sources indicated the attack happened in the middle of the night in her royal quarters, killed by a single bullet to the head. The assassin is still at large. This is the first time in over a century a Magistrate has been assassinated. It is an attack on the Galactic Federation’s democracy, an attack on not just Seven’s ideals, but our own. District Five has vowed to assist Seven with any resources and guidance they might need, including hunting this assassin down. We will provide more information when we are given it. I ask you all to pray and-”
Ruenova paused the broadcast. Everyone in the meeting room stood with nervous energy, even Jacqueline who didn’t expect this. Everyone was surprised…but me. The assassin was me, from days ago. Seven was scrambling and no doubt hid this death for as long as they could to get their ducks in a row.
“He didn’t mention anything that this happened on Colony Negative. It must have happened here, right?” A worried financial operative spoke.
“Why would he? This entire project, experiment…whatever we want to call this operation is secret. If the Galactic Federation and all its citizens knew the Districts were on some unknown, foreign planet killing each other for the sake of glory, at the cost of taxpayers…” I shrugged.
“Rok, do we know who this suspected assassin may be?” Ruenova asked me.
How ironic.
“District Three, most likely. Our counter intelligence had been monitoring their messages ever since we installed that virus in their system. A week ago, a message was made concerning Seven’s so-called alliance with us, followed by a threat that Seven will regret that decision,” I explained, not wanting to add that it wasn't Three. That was me, writing that message under Three’s communication leakage. They could deny it all they wanted, but their open source information would all revert back to their data, their location, and most of all, their servers.
“Nobody would be that stupid to actually kill a Magistrate,” another voice rose up, “This could cause galactic war.”
“There are no rules here,” Jack chimed in, “There is no law or order in a place like this, and this assassin used that to their advantage. It means nobody is exactly safe. While it would be nice to only have to focus on anathemas as our main problem, it’s not, nor will it ever be the main problem.”
“Magistrate Cain has ordered us to find this assassin, or at least assist in the search. We find them, we can prevent a potential war, even if it means lying about what’s going on in Colony Negative,” Ruenova ordered, “However, that will still be a secondary objective to our priorities. The only good news about this, it has alleviated the desire for Doctor Deveraux’s capture. Jack, you should be free to return to your work in the field, obviously under the wisdom and guidance of Agent Rok.”
She glanced at me with softness, as if hating that her return to her work was at the cost of someone’s life. Someone important, for that matter.
“If this assassin can kill a Magistrate and not be even spotted by elite soldiers on this Colony, then maybe finding them should be our priority,” Jack pointed out. I could see that worry in her eyes. If someone could eliminate a fucking Magistrate, they could eliminate anyone, even someone like her.
Unbeknownst to her, this assassin was on her side.
My fingers slowly intertwined with hers, feeling her grip tighten at the sensation. She was scared. If only I could tell her, tell her it was me, that I did this for her. She could now continue her work with all the attention removed from her, and she wouldn’t have to worry about this assassin targeting her if she found something she shouldn’t.
“We will let Milithreat deal with that,” Ruenova agreed with her, “but let this be a lesson to always be on our guard. Keep your cards and information close. I’m making an executive rule to not share any information, scientific or intelligence, to any other District without my approval. Is that clear?”
“Yes ma’am,” I agreed, seeing everyone else nod as well.
The room continued to murmur numerous suggestions throughout the morning. Jacqueline herself, as much as she disliked Alala, Seven’s new magistrate, wanted to offer condolences and also give any support they might need. Despite differences, Jack still sought to do the best for humanity. Her words earlier rang true, though. Nobody was safe here, and anathemas weren’t exactly the problem.
If anything, to her they might be a solution.
My mind ran back to when she was nervous in that Sioc, awaiting when we’d get boots on the ground in this colony. I remembered me trying to relieve her worries and stress at the time. Even though we knew nothing of anathemas…oddly enough her words still rang true:
What will we run into out here?
Nothing more dangerous than ourselves.