Page 95 of Carry Your Debt

“The Book of the Apocalypse,” Apollo muses with his brows raised.

“No wonder the Arbiter’s pissed,” Sabine says with a grin. “The answer to her question isThe Four Horsemen.”

“Alexander Morrow,”I say in careful greeting to the man now haunting the doorway of my Roxborough dorm room at one o’clock in the morning. “How can I help you?”

Despite having cracked the small but cleverly hidden series of Horsemen’s codes, the sum total of information I have on this man and his three colleagues would barely fill a single sheet of foolscap paper.

Each.

If I’m lucky.

“No, Little Bo-Peep,” he says, a dark smirk carving across his pale, marble features, “the question is how might my brothers and I helpyou?”

My eyes dip to where his fingers dance silently against his thigh, tapping out an unknown rhythm. Across the back of four of his knuckles are the lettersM-O-R-S.

Mors.

Death.

My throat bobs as I swallow.

“Is it?” I clarify, as evenly as I can, because the first lesson anyImperiumfledgling learns is that nothing in this world comes for free.

Knowing that it will cost mesomething, I suppose then, the question I should be asking myself is:Am I willing to pay that cost?

“You found our lost sheep.”

I blink, internally cursing how sluggishly my sleep-logged brain is moving.

Their lost sheep?

Sheep.

Lamb of God.

Right.

The victory broadcast had rolled in the moment we had contacted the Herald via secure line with our findings, two nights ago.

>>>>START OF ENCRYPTED MESSAGE

>>> THE TWELVE LABORS OF SUCCESSION

>> TRIAL II

> NOTICE OF LABOR TASK STATUS UPDATE

+ STATUS: DISCOVERY COMPLETE

+ TARGET: THE LERNA CORPORATION

+ LOCATION: Maker’s Bay

+ ACHIEVED: 08 hrs, 47 min from digital receipt of message

+ VICTOR: THE GRAY MEN

“Yes,” I reply, eyeing him, and not for the first time, wondering at the consequences of having brought to light the head of the LERNA serpent. Perhaps the Horsemen had wanted to remain in the shadows.

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