Chapter 43 - Kane #2
Moments later, the stream of shimmering corporate profiles flickers, then vanishes, and her lieutenants lean into each other, whispering among themselves.
Kane’s eyes lock on Athena. She wallows, biometrics spiking in his interface.
>ID: ALICE “ATHENA” LINDBERG >HR: 110 BPM ↑ >BP: 130/80 ↑
Those numbers don’t lie.
Kane lifts his hands, slow and deliberate. “See? No weapon.”
“And…what do you plan to do with it?” she barely gets out.
Kane sits back in his chair. “I think you already know.”
“Already know what, Athena?” Giselle whispers in Athena’s ear.
Titus steps closer to her. “What are they talking about?”
Athena wets her lips. “I have no idea.”
Echo lets out a snicker. “Why don’t you show her, Coda?”
Coda’s mouth twitches as she flips the device to face Athena, tapping the gleaming surface. Athena flinches instantly.
A faint distortion ripples over her, and slowly, the surgical scars across her skin vanish.
In their place, silvered fibers rise in fine threads along her chin and down her neck.
Chrome rims one eye, wires tucked beneath her hair feeding into sleek panels at her temples.
Around her wrists, a grid of red-lit tactical mesh flickers to life, pulsing beneath the surface.
Charles releases a gasp. Giselle recoils, a hand flying to her mouth. Titus stumbles back, and Nora inhales sharply. Pixie and Wren share a smile.
Athena’s mouth opens, then shuts again.
Kane grins. The betrayal says more than he ever could.
Echo, of course, isn’t one to stay quiet. “Wow, Athena. I got my hands on tech like this, too, thanks to Coda here. But her version isn’t quite as good as this.” She taps her jaw and glances at Kane. “Guess that must be what she visited Cipher’s old friend for, huh?”
“I—” Athena jabs a shaking finger at Coda. “This is a trick! A projection. He’s fabricating the image. That’s what these scramblers do, right? Distort and manipulate? What proof do you have that this is—”
She stops mid-sentence, gaze sweeping across her team, before her chin lifts.
“Fine. You want the truth? Yes, I kept my enhancements. Because they kept me sharp, focused, alive. Because unlike you, I don’t let ideology make me weak.
” A shadow crosses her face. “I served under leaders who handicapped themselves—like Duke and his precious sentiment. They failed their people. Failed their crew.”
A familiar anger surges through Kane. He stays seated.
Charles exhales. “Athena, the Fifteen Tenets clearly state—”
“The Tenets?” Athena cuts him off with a sharp, humorless laugh. “If I’d followed all these arbitrary rules you clung to, do you really think we’d be where we are now? You think I could’ve secured the Ulvepack alliance, expanded our territory, brought in a hundred new members?”
She shakes her head. “No. I couldn’t have, and I wasn’t about to throw away every advantage I had for some outdated purity test. Hell, just look where you were before I showed up—fractured, bleeding out, a pack of failed idealists one step removed from those lunatics in the Rust Valley!”
The room goes silent. Even Kane doesn’t breathe until Viper trudges across the room. Athena’s brows draw together as she shoots him a warning look.
Ignoring her, he reaches out, dragging his fingers along the chrome ridges on her face. She flinches, teeth gritting from the contact.
When he pulls away, Viper exhales through his teeth.
“You made me tear out mine,” he hisses. “Told me it was the only way to prove I was loyal. That I was serious about leaving Kane and joining you. But it was never about belief for you, was it? You just wanted to use me to get to Kane. And I let you…”
Athena’s lieutenants shift unsteadily, glancing at one another before turning to her. Their stances harden, and her fingers twitch at her side.
“This is precisely why I had to hide it!” She waves her hands wildly. “Not because I was ashamed, but because I knew you’d never understand. That’s why I’m the leader, and you’re the followers. And if you had any—”
Viper moves before she can finish, taking her by the arm and twisting both behind her back. His other hand clamps at the base of her skull, holding her in place.
“Shut up and stand down,” he growls in her ear.
She stiffens, mouth clenched shut as Viper holds her in place.
After a beat of silence, Charles steps closer with a frown. “Athena, we hereby strip you of your title, effective immediately.”
Nora steps toward her. “You’ve failed us.”
“You’re no better than the ones we fight!” Giselle hisses.
Titus’s hands shake at his sides. “Toxic. Unclean. Unworthy of the Order.”
Athena drops her head.
Echo chuckles. “Cipher called it, huh?”
Kane almost smiles, but he can’t. He trusted her once.
All of them did.
“Baron,” Charles calls out. “You and your people may go. There’s much to discuss. But from here on, we intend to avoid further conflict. Unless provoked…”
“And the territory you took?” Kane asks, rising to his feet.
Nora bows. “We’ll be in touch. With a formal peace treaty.”
He hums in agreement, then inclines his head to his crew. “Fail to, and we’re coming for you.”
With this, he strides for the exit, offering Viper a curt nod as he passes. Viper mirrors the gesture, hands still full of Athena.
As they move into the corridor, the door shuts with a hiss, and a chill runs down his spine.
One wrong move from a blood bath.
Instead, Echo has an arm draped around Coda, whose mouth twitches in a half-smile. Wren and Pixie walk ahead, whispering to each other.
Whatever happens to Athena next isn’t on them. She chose this.
Still, Natural Order won’t vanish overnight.
For now, at least, their war is over.
In the lobby, the enemy enforcers wait. Kane and the others pass them in silence, retrieving their gear from the mercs. Not a single one lifts a hand to stop them.
Tonight, Shreveport is theirs again. They’re going home.
And someone is waiting for him.