“You’ve been brooding,” Anne said.

I hefted the last of the damaged HEPARs onto the Gladiator. “I’ve been packing for our return to Tanisport.”

“With only half your mind on the job, seeing as you packed the live plasma grenades next to the malfunctioning plasma rifles.”

“.... Sorry, I’ll fix that.”

“You’re thinking about Maria, aren’t you?”

“How did you know?”

“You tried to bring her back from the dead yesterday. Then when that didn’t work, you worked yourself to exhaustion healing thousands of other people. I know a thing or two about grief, Andrew.”

I sighed. “Fine. I hate the fact that I couldn’t save her.”

“You and me both. You need to talk to somebody.”

“Why?”

“Because repressing your feelings like you’re doing now isn’t healthy. Go talk to Daisy.”

“Wait, why Daisy?”

“Because she knew Maria better than you, Andrew, and she’s got a good head on her shoulders.”

“The packing….”

“I’ll handle it. Safely. Go talk to her.”

----------------------------------------

Daisy Cullen had her helmet off. As I drew closer, I could see droplets of sweat running down her face.

In London weather. Agni was right, the armour really didn’t breathe.

“Belessar,” Daisy smiled at me. “How are you?”

“I’m… okay. I wanted to talk.”

“Nanocloud mentioned as much. Go ahead.”

“It’s about Maria.” I swallowed. “I’m sorry.”

“I understand. I’ve already spoken to Olinda and Kristina. They’ll look after her things.”

“Did she have family?”

“No-one that she’d care to have at her funeral. Maria’s personal life was … complicated.”

“She told Agni that her uncle…”

“I know. She told me too, a long time ago.”

“I should have told her not to come.”

Daisy’s gaze hardened. “And taken away her choices?”

“Not that... I mean, if she hadn’t met me, maybe she’d be alive today.”

“I knew Maria for four years, Belessar. She never regretted anything.”

“But if I hadn’t broken her out, maybe she’d still be alive.”

Daisy was silent for a long moment.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “That was dumb.”

The Phoenix Company leader had a reflective look on her face. “Maria used to have a roommate in the mansion. Clara Vasquez.”

I frowned. “I don’t know her.”

“You don’t. Clara was a strong woman. She got taken a year before Maria, and she’d handled everything they put her through. I looked up to her, too, you know.” Daisy’s grip around her weapon tightened. “She turned thirty in August. A month later, Bowers came by, told her to pack. Said she’d be going to a Grunter facility in the Ivory Coast.”

“Why the Ivory Coast?”

“Bowers said she would be going to an important ally. As a gift. Funny thing is, Clara was actually excited about it. A change, maybe having to handle only one client as opposed to … well. Anyway, it wasn’t as if Bowers was in the habit of letting us choose.”

“Did you find her? Afterwards?”

Daisy shook her head. “There’s no Grunter facility - or ally - in the Ivory Coast. There is, however, an incinerator a short distance from the mansion.”

It took me a second to process what Daisy had said.

Have you ever been so furious you wanted to tear the world apart?

I could feel the Lightning Hammer in my hand, and electricity crackling at my fingertips.

I needed to hit something.

Something.

Something was gripping my shoulder.

Daisy’s hand clenched my shoulder with an iron grip.

“We’ve had time to process this, Belessar. Calm down.”

Deep breaths.

The Grunters were dead. Mostly dead or in prison, or in hiding.

“You should have told me.”

“And what would you have done, that you didn’t do already?”

“... found Bowers?”

“You killed Bowers that night, Belessar. The men who were there were the worst of the lot. You chopped up Killian, turned Buckbuck into paste and Dreamspeaker into hamburger. Then you hunted down Gravitic and slaughtered the rest of the Grunters.” Daisy squeezed my shoulder, hard. “I’m thirty years old, and I’m alive because of you. So don’t tell yourself we’d have been better off.”

I stared at the woman whose life I’d saved… without knowing it.

Daisy and the others had been through a lot more than I’d imagined.

“Did you look for her? Clara?”

“The first thing we did. Fitz Harris broke down when the FBI interrogated him. Gave up the location.”

“Did he come up with the idea?”

“No, Gravitic set the policy personally - anyone over thirty was to be liquidated. Grumman came up with the idea of the cover story. And the incinerator.”

“Grumman needs to die.”

“He will. I promise you he will.”

“I should be promising you that. I’m the ultrahuman here.”

Daisy raised an eyebrow. “Oh? I hadn’t noticed.”

“... Phoenix Company is looking for him. Aren’t you?”

“Good guess.”

“Daisy. Why did you come here? With me? This isn’t your fight.”

“I thought you said it was everyone’s fight.”

“But you didn’t have to. You could have spent the time looking for Grumman.”

“Grumman used to call me names, you know. Names I won’t repeat here. They hurt at first, but I got over it.” Daisy gazed into the distance. “The thing I never got over, though, was something he said to me one night. I was on the floor bleeding from his .... tools, and I asked him a question.

“Why did he want to hurt us, I asked him? Why destroy our lives? That’s when he told me his theory.”

“His theory?”

“He has a theory of people’s places in the world. Ultrahumans at the top, their loyal vassals just below, and the rest of us in a particular order. The natural order of the universe, he called it; the inferior serve the superior, those below serve their betters above them.”

“That sounds medieval.”

“Or futuristic. Grumman’s theory of the Hierarchy. He believed that they’d reached the heights of evolution by correctly arranging species - and people - in a hierarchy, from top to bottom, rulers to slaves.”

“But we aren’t the Hierarchy. We’re human. Equal.”

“Grumman wasn’t a big believer in equality. He told me that the reason we were where we were - the reason we’d never amount to anything - is because we were lesser beings. And we existed to serve our superiors. Superiors like the Grunter Soldiers, who risked their lives protecting the city.”

Silence fell, broken only by Daisy’s whisper.

“Grumman believed that we couldn’t ever hope to make a difference. That’s why our only purpose was to serve those who could. And that was all we would ever amount to.” Her fists clenched. “When I came to, I knew what I wanted to do. To prove him wrong.”

“You’ve done that. You’ve done more than that.”

“I haven’t. Maria has, though.” Daisy looked into my eyes. “You stood there today and told a country that she died for them. They honour her, Belessar. They honour the girl who was thrown away, sold off, made a slave, and who gave her life to keep her friends safe.

“So don’t ever feel sad for Maria. She died protecting her friends from their enemies. That was her choice, and I honour her for it.”

I swallowed. “So do I.”