Page 52 of The Order

“You seriously could have told me to piss off,” Xavier says, trying his best to stay on my good side, given the interaction I saw between him and my daughter this morning.

No one has mustered the courage to bring it up. I’m starting to think maybe it's better that way.

“I asked you to stay here to keep me on track. There's no use in having you leave now,” I say, pushing past my annoyance at his sudden presence due to my lack of time management. The boy looks tired, holding his head in his hand to stay upright. I see now how young he appears and yet he’s years older than Kai. His uniform is messy, but that doesn't affect his ability to charm the women he interacts with. Unlike most egotistical Untouchable men, he holds himself on no pedestal, and I’ve never seen him gravitate towards the materialistic, even when his comrades urge him to.

I turn toward my computer, switching it on once more, letting its graphic images pass over my eyes and Xavier’s. I see the countless elderly Unfortunates lined up at the edge of the ward. Each one is taken out silently, all by the hand of their own chips. Xavier watches the graphic images displayed in front of him with wide eyes. His throat bobs as he tries to gulp down words. It’s a sorry attempt at digesting the information in front of him.

“It's the Release,” I clarify, clicking away the video before checking off the files of each elder laid to rest, confirming their passing.

“What the hell does that mean?” Xavier questions, looking at me with a brief touch to the chip behind his ear.

“Don’t worry, Untouchable chips are not designed to harm us in any way. The new Commander requires all Unfortunate elders 70 and above to be released outside the ward to conserve resources. It was their people or ours,” I say, listening to Xavier scoff.

“The same Commander who has shown his face zero times since being appointed by the Council. Call it whatever you want. It's public execution,” Xavier says, sounding much more like Katiana than I expected.

“Would you rather it be our people?” I question, silencing his rant as quickly as it had started.

I can't stop Xavier from grabbing the file Katiana had placed down on my desk before she left the room. He scans its contents, letting his eyes linger on the same photo that had drawn Katiana in. I watch his eyes absorb the image, giving me little time to try and pull it away from him.

“The chips can’t kill us, but they can be used to manipulate us instead?” Xavier questions, yanking the file closer to him and away from my grasp.

“Because you’re a saint when it comes to Re-Regulation devices?” I begin, watching his face drop into a frown. “I’ve seen your file, Xavier. I know why you could work your way up so young,” I admit, waiting for him to respond.

“It doesn’t mean I agree with what I had to do to get here,” he says, most likely reflecting on the countless Unfortunate executions he had to take part in to show his loyalty.

“I know you don’t take comfort from it,” I say, drawing in a deep breath. “That's why I like you,” I finish, relaxing in my chair as I watch him scan the file.

“How much do you know about the Tainted?” I question, watching him look over the picture of the girl and the claw marks that cover her chest.

“I know your wife runs the tests that are supposed to keep them out of our population. I know that, occasionally, some with low levels of mutation in their DNA can get by the tests. Shifters are attracted to them, right?” he questions, running his fingers over the marks left on the girl’s body.

“As far as we know, Shifters can use the Tainted to return their forms to a human-like state. Their DNA is far more mutated than the Tainted’s. Unlike the Tainted, they don’t possess special abilities. All they possess is a blood lust that we are unable to satiate. We knew there were some tears in the ward. The real question is, how does a Shifter of that size make it this far into New Haven without anyone noticing? Two minutes alone with our weaponry, and it would have been down.”

Xavier closes the file, looking at me like he’s realized something.

“What is it?”

“A few men said they went back to the grounds to check for any sign of the events of last night, not that I knew what the hell they meant since I was running Unfortunate sector watch. They said it looked like something large had been sitting in the brush around the school, farther away than where the girl would have been attacked. I had no idea what it meant then, but maybe I do now,” Xavier says, the gears turning in his mind as he continues to sort through the details of what happened. He’s always been praised for his cunning and intellect.

“And?” I question, pushing him further.

“Maybe the Shifter was watching and the girl and her partner just happened to stumble across it. If it wanted to wipe out more students, it would have. I don't think it intended to be seen, considering how far it got into the sector,” Xavier says, painting the picture of last night in my mind.

“What could it have possibly been watching?” I ask. He looks as if he’s sorting out the answer as we speak.

"I’m not too sure. What are they most drawn to?” Xavier questions.

"Tainted. More specifically, the blood of them,” I say, watching his shoulders shrug sleepily.

“Maybe there was someone worth hunting that we don’t know about,” Xavier says, making a chill run down my spine.

Xavier opens the file again, grabbing the photo of all the students and pointing to my daughter’s figure.

“Her hand is bruised in the photo,” Xavier says, grazing his finger over my daughter's still figure, not mentioning anyone else around her.

“One of your dipshits stepped on her hand last night,” Xavier continues. I reflected on the image of her wary figure as she held her hand close to her last night.

“By some miracle, she thought it was her own clumsiness that caused the injury,” Xavier finishes, drawing in a deep breath as he watches me.

---