45. Killian #2
I step back, wiping Julian's blood off my hands with a rag from the table.
The blood is warm and sticky. It's under my fingernails, streaked across my knuckles.
I wipe each finger clean while Julian slumps in the chair, broken.
Blood and piss pooling beneath him, his ruined hand split open like rotting meat.
"The Originals," I say. I'm leaning over him now, my shadow swallowing him whole. "Give me the names that matter. Not the figureheads. The ones pulling the strings."
"The council," he gasps. "Seven originals. The founding members. I don't know their names. We only get code names. That's how they stay hidden."
"Not good enough." I pick up the hammer, but I don't swing. I let the heavy steel head rest on the armrest, centimeters from his good hand.
"I swear, that's all I know!" Julian's sobbing now, big ugly heaves. "They compartmentalize everything. I'm just a regional operator. I move money, I manage logistics. The council… I've never even seen them."
I'm about to bring the hammer down when the door opens behind me.
I pause, hammer still raised. I don't need to turn to know she's there.
The air in the room shifts, a flicker of light from the hallway cutting through the gloom.
Julian's head snaps up, his eyes focusing on the silhouette in the doorway with a mixture of terror and hope.
He thinks she's here to stop this. He doesn't realize she's been watching the whole time.
I lower the hammer slowly.
Ellie walks into the center of the room. She doesn't look away from the mess. She doesn't flinch at the smell or the way his hand hangs in two pieces.
She stops right in front of him. Close enough that he has to look up through the blood and the haze. She doesn’t look at me. Her focus is pinned on Julian.
"You’re in shock, Julian," she says. Her voice is a low, steady hum, the one that makes you want to spill every secret. "Your heart is straining. Your brain is trying to shut down. But I’m not going to let you leave. Not yet."
She reaches out and brushes a lock of sweat-soaked hair from his forehead. It's a gentle touch. Under the circumstances, it's the most sadistic thing I’ve ever seen.
"Give me a name," she whispers. "The one at the very top. Tell me, and I’ll make the pain stop. If you don't, I step back. And Killian starts on the other hand."
Julian shakes his head weakly. Snot and blood drip from his nose, mixing with the slobber running down his chin.
"I don't... I don't know. They don't tell us.
Only Genesis knows. Genesis is the only one who knows everyone.
The rest of us... we're kept separate. You don't find Genesis. Genesis finds you."
He's not lying. I've broken him past the point where lies are even possible. His eyes are empty, his body shaking with shock. He's given me everything he has.
I step back, letting Ellie take the lead. While she questions him, I wipe down my tools. The cloth drags across the steel, cleaning Julian's blood off the blade.
She's different from what she was this morning. There's a stillness in her now. She's not looking away from what I've done to him.
And all I feel is a dark, possessive pride.
She's learning how to survive a world that tried to eat her whole.
I nod to Jackson. He gathers the tools while I step back. Julian slumps in the chair, barely conscious. His ruined hand dangles, the two halves connected by strips of torn flesh and tendon at the wrist. Blood drips steadily onto the concrete, mixing with the piss pooling beneath him.
"Kai," I call up the stairs. "Get him cleaned up and patched. Just enough to keep him breathing."
Kai appears in the doorway, a hose coiled over his shoulder. He looks from Julian's split hand to me. "You've been busy." He chuckles, shaking his head.
He moves to the utility hookup on the wall and turns the water on.
The spray hits Julian like a slap. Cold water washes the blood and piss off him, running in dark rivulets toward the drain in the center of the floor.
Julian's head jerks up, a wet gasp escaping his throat.
Kai doesn't stop. He hoses him down like he's cleaning a butcher's floor.
When the water finally shuts off, Julian is shivering, soaked, the worst of the gore washed away.
Kai moves in with gauze and tape, pushing the two halves of Julian's hand back together.
Julian screams. Kai doesn't slow down. He wraps it tight, pumps a syringe of antibiotics into Julian's arm, then steps back.
"He'll live," Kai says.
That's all we need.
Upstairs, Gabriel is already pulling up financial records on the main screen. The kitchen table is covered in maps, tablets, and half-empty coffee mugs. He looks up when we enter, his eyes flicking to the blood still under my fingernails.
"Get what you needed?" he asks.
"Genesis," I say. "Not one of the Originals, but knows who they all are. Julian doesn't know the real identity, but we have a name."
Gabriel nods, already typing. "I'll run it through every database we have access to."
His fingers fly across the keyboard for a moment, then he pulls up a new screen. It's a digital map covered in red markers. He leans back, his expression grim.
"The Order's network is more extensive than we thought," he says, his voice gravelly. He points to the red markers spreading across continents. "Financial tentacles in fifteen countries. Operational cells in twice that many. We aren't fighting a cult, Killian, we're fighting a superpower."
"And they're coming for the safe house," I say, leaning against the counter. The stench from the basement is still caught in my nose, no matter how much soap I use.
Jackson looks up from his tablet, his eyes dark. "We need to move Julian. Soon. The longer we keep him here, the more time The Order has to work out our location."
"The moment we move, we leave a trail," Gabriel says. "The Order already knows Julian is missing. They're searching for him. Moving him gives them a chance to track us."
"Staying here is worse," I counter. "They'll find this place, eventually."
Gabriel nods grimly. "Which is why we need to decide now. Move Julian and risk exposure, or dig in here and wait for them to come to us."