Page 103 of Song of the Abyss

“Because they are people. They have intricate cultures and lives that we do not understand. And because you were cutting them open while they were awake for your own sick and twisted games. I don’t know why you want to rip something living open while it can feel every single cut, but I refuse to let you do it any longer.”

His face got more and more red with every word she said. But then he played right into her hand. “Everyone out.”

The soldier beside him turned in surprise. “Sir?”

He must have been her father’s newest brainwashed recruit. The man not only thought he was right where he needed to be, but he was also openly questioning her father in front of other people.

Some soldiers never learned.

“Get out,” her father snapped. “Do not make me tell you twice. This is a family matter.”

In the days when she was afraid of him, she would have flinched at the words. As a child, he would have taken these moments to add to the bruises that no one could see. But she was a grown woman, and she knew what freedom tasted like.

The memory of that was enough to fight for. Even if she would never taste it again.

Anya curled her hand around a scalpel still on the table. If this required her to get her hands dirty, then she would do that. Her father had it coming to him.

It took a while for everyone to filter back out through the doors, but then they were sealed into the room together. Her father’s expression changed from one of chiding annoyance to downright rage.

“First, you’re back from the dead,” he started, his voice deep and rough. “Then you’re freeing experiments? I have to ask, daughter, how did you find out what was happening down here?”

“The undines talk.”

“No undine makes it out of this room alive, so you’ll have to do better than that.” He took a few steps toward her, only to raise his hands and pause as she brandished the scalpel at him. “That little pigsticker won’t do anything, Anya. Put it down.”

“No,” she hissed, adjusting Bitsy so she could see both the lens and her father easier.

“Did you think I wasn’t aware of your contact outside the city? I’ve had you watched since you were just a little girl. I know everything you do.”

She would not rise to that challenge. Bitsy was bugged often, of course, but she’d fixed her every time. “You have no idea what I do in my spare time.”

“Ace?” He lifted his eyebrow. “Your little friend in Gamma? She’s already been taken care of, I hope you know. I sent men to remove the problem the day you got back.”

The first inklings of panic rose in her throat. She could feel it squeezing like he’d wrapped his hands around her neck. “You don’t know who Ace even is.”

“No, Anya. You don’t know who Ace is. I know exactly who she is, where she lives, and how long she’s been helping you. Just like I knew where you were when that monster stole you away from me. But it worked, you see? I had a daughter who gave me every reason I needed to keep fighting against the monsters in this sea. You could have stayed with them and I would have left you alone. As much as a man can leave his daughter alone when she’s fighting on the wrong side of a war.” He shrugged. “But you had to come back.”

How much longer was there on the bombs? She knew it had to be under twenty minutes. It had taken her a while to get the undines out of the tanks. But how long had it actually taken? It felt like only a moment, but she had to have wasted more time than she thought.

“Of course I came back,” she said. “After they told me what you were doing, I knew I was the only one who could stop it.”

“Stop what? The death of two undines?” The smile twisting his lips was downright cruel. “They’re going to swim off and maybe live a couple more years, certainly. I’ll just catch more.”

“I am going to do everything in my power to make sure you can’t do that.”

“I’m sure you will. You always were an obstinate fool.”

That’s when she noticed his hand was at his waist. His fingers toyed with the handle of a gun. And what was she supposed to do? She had to keep him talking.

“Are you going to shoot me, Dad?” She threw the words at him, because they were her only weapons. “Really? Your daughter?”

“It’s a shame that you got it into your head that the undines were actual people. When you returned, I saw the footage of your kidnapping and it was obvious they had brainwashed you. The alarms went off and what a horrible feeling I got in my stomach. A sickness like I knew I was about to lose my daughter. I found you down here dead after you tried to release them, and they killed you on the way out.” He shook his head, taking the gun out of his waistband and pointing it at her head. “But the city will always remember you.”

“Why?” she asked. Some desperation in her knew she was about to die, but she had to understand the reasoning behind it. “Why kill me? Why go to all this trouble?”

“Because I have always needed a figurehead!” Spit flew out of his mouth. “Your mother never understood that, either. I pursued her for years. Years of me telling her that I would become the next general and she would stand by my side. Only the greatest generals in the history of Alpha had wives as beautiful as her. I would become a god in their eyes with her at my side!”

“Mom didn’t want to marry you?” She didn’t really care all that much, but this would keep him talking.

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