14
EZLA
I stride through the Techtis Council building with a small black satchel at my hip, each step quick and purposeful.
I am aware that this is incredibly risky when I have not yet figured out the camera situation; however, if my father has woken from sleep and he is watching, I only need to get this done before he can reach me, and he will not be able to do anything about it.
He will no longer be able to blackmail me, and the only way he will be getting to my men is if he goes through me in a way he still has not after all this time.
I do not believe he can make himself kill me, and he will not be pressing that delete button on any of my men’s citizen tablets.
This time, the man at the door at the bottom of the steps lets me in immediately, and I march inside the Avri labs without a word. Then I head to the room which specialises in bonding cubes.
My heart rate climbs up, and I do not know why I feel so much panic. I simply cannot let my men die, and that should be a fact, not have my heart trying to leap from my chest.
Fortunately, Father is so arrogant that he has kept my fingerprint on the biometric scanners here, and I storm into the room without a hitch, the taalk automatically locking behind me.
Exot’s, Evot’s, and Neutral’s heads all swivel my way as the staff in here pause their work in an instant. Pin-drop silence greets me.
“You will do this job for me without complaint and in record time, or I will kill you all.”
***
“It is done, Miss Zefron.”
“And it cannot be undone?”
“Never. We have commanded the Avri in a way that will ensure no further alterations can be made to any six of these bonding cubes,” the Neutral man tells me from his position before the table he and the other workers in here have been sat around for the past fifteen minutes.
My inky-crimson cube sits in the middle of my Bonds’ green ones on that polished white top, glowing softly, almost seeming to pulse.
Relief is so strong in me that I almost feel unsteady, but I only dip my helmeted head.
“Very good.” Spinning around, I pause, slowly turning my neck to the side.
“You understand that this must never get out. I have memorised each and every one of your faces. If it would not arouse suspicion and draw attention to what could have possibly happened in here for me to have splashed the walls with your blood-soaked organs, I would kill every one of you right now.”
Pure, undiluted terror floods my senses from those around me.
The same man from before gulps. “Understood, Miss Zefron. No one will ever know.”
***
When I leave the room, I am planning to head back to head to my Bonded chambers.
I would like to return these cubes to my men before I make Father aware of the new circumstances, but I must be quick, inform him of the news before he tries anything, as I am aware our acting may not have been too convincing most recently, especially in the infirmary earlier.
I want all of that very much.
But when that taalk door slides closed behind me and I have the cubes securely back in my leather satchel, I know none of that will be happening.
Father stands directly before me, face drained of all colour.
His hair that is usually meticulously styled is sleep-rumbled, and he appears as if he has just reached here and was moments from shoving into the room at my back before I walked out of it.
“What have you done?” he breathes in horror, yet I am quite certain he has already guessed, and he need only confirm it with the scientists I have just left behind if he is not completely confident.
I open my mouth to share the news, glee filling me up—but pain so severe that it is numbing crashes through me, bringing me complete blackness in under a second.
And then there is nothing.