Blaze of Memory

CHAPTER 54

Ming LeBon lay severely injured in a sealed chamber accessible only to telekinetics with the ability to teleport—and the M-Psy they brought with them. It was meant to be the safest possible of all locations, since the Tks on the Arrow Squad would quickly take care of any intrusions.

“We could kill him now,” Vasic said without inflection.

Aden nodded. “It wouldn’t even take much effort.”

Yet neither of them made the move.

“He dies,” Vasic finally said, watching two M-Psy move carefully around the fallen Councilor, “it creates a vacuum.”

“It’ll destabilize the Net. No knowing who or what would fill that vacuum.”

“You could.” Aden was far more stable than Vasic, than any of the other Arrows. “We’d stand behind you.” And no one—no one—had ever been able to withstand the combined might of the Arrow Squad.

“It’s not time.” Aden’s almond-shaped eyes swept over Ming’s body, and Vasic knew his fellow Arrow was noting every minor injury, every weakness. “We can’t show our hand. We’ve lost enough men that there are a couple of Councilors who might be able to gather the resources to get in our way.”

“Kaleb Krychek,” Vasic said, “would’ve made an excellent Arrow.”

“I checked his files.” Aden was nothing if not thorough. “The public ones and the private ones I was able to hack into. He was considered for Arrow training—until Santano Enrique decided to make him his protégé.”

Santano Enrique, as Vasic knew, had turned out to be a sociopathic killer. It was meant to be a well-kept secret, but Arrows were shadows, impossible to trace or see. It was their job to know the Net’s darkest truths. “Is he showing any signs of sociopathy?”

“None that I’ve been able to see—but he’s on the far end of the Silence continuum.”

“So are we.” He stared at Ming. “We might be able to work with Kaleb.”

“What makes him any different from Ming?” Aden asked. “He was an Arrow, and still he betrayed us.”

“Kaleb has blood on his hands,” Vasic replied, knowing too much about death himself, “but I haven’t been able to find one instance of him eliminating an individual who’d remained loyal to him.”

Aden was quiet for a long time. “How many Arrows do you think Ming had killed?”

“Too many.” In doing what he’d done, Ming had broken the cardinal rule of Arrows—it was the integrity of the Net, of Silence, that was of prime importance. Everything else, every other concern, was secondary. If getting rid of other Arrows had furthered that aim, the Arrows would’ve followed Ming to their graves. But Ming had done it for power. And lost his hold on the entire Squad.