“The Soles were onto him.”
“Not just them, but Phae,” Viper adds. “You saw her research. She nearly had everything laid out. And he knew it.”
“So he recruited you, killed her, and then used you as the blueprint for his future enforcers.”
Viper laughs. “I have to say, it’s a good play.”
“A good play? Seriously?”
Viper shrugs. “Raise your enforcers from childhood so they know nothing but loyalty to you and the empire you built. With no desire but to do exactly what you say to preserve you and your organization.”
“You’re not really co-signing this?”
He rolls his eyes and surprises me by saying, “No. I’m not.”
Then he adds, “It’s much too high risk for little reward in my opinion. When you can get adults and make them sufficiently fearful of you that they won’t betray your loyalty.”
“That’s what you took from this?” I demand. “Your problem is that it seems too risky when there are less risky ways to accomplish the same goal, and not the point where he traffics children and puts them through rigorous testing to decide which few he keeps and which ones he kills off?”
“I’m just being pragmatic. Looking at the bigger picture. You’re the one who wanted me to stop being so tunnel visioned.”
I did. But just like everything, Viper manages to twists my words and actions to suit his perceptions. Because what he still doesn’t realize is that if he doesn’t stop after Pray, if he can’t be the one to say enough bloodshed when this is all over and come to some kind of truce and terms of peace with the people who are going to be pissed at his takeover, even with Pray gone, our children are never going to be safe. Not in a world where he still lives and people are out for revenge. Because eventually, someone will find a way.
We have.
I’m not going to let anyone get to that point. I’ll kill Viper first. And more and more, it’s looking like that’s the only choice he’s going to leave me. But before we get to that, we’ve got to figure out what to do about the kids who he’s the blueprint for. Kids I don’t have the same leverages over like I do with Viper.
“We’ve got to do something about this.”
“Well, there’s the obvious solution,” he answers.
“We can’t kill them.”
“We could.” He doesn’t even turn to look at me. “It’s underground. Filter an odorless, sightless gas into the place, and by the time they detect it or figure out something’s wrong, everyone just falls asleep and doesn’t wake up. It would be a mercy really. Pray wouldn’t even have anything to be suspicious of. Just a faulty oversight A freak accident.”
“Viper,” I say firmly, ignoring the way my heart is threatening to crumble into pieces as he continues to prove that I mayreallyhave to kill him when this is all over. “We can’t… Viper. They’re…”
I try to come up with something that will sway him so that this doesn’t end up in a fight between us. Doesn’t end up with him hurting me, knocking me out, murdering the entire facility, and then letting me be pissed about it when I wake up.
But he surprises me when he continues, “But that’s the obvious solution. I’m open to another idea if you have it, and it accomplishes the goal of neutralizing this.”
I open and close my mouth, so taken aback. “You… you’re open to more ideas?”
“Yes,” comes the simply reply.
It seems too good to be true. Viper takes orders from no one unless he’s forced, or it was already something he wanted to do anyway. My instincts tell me there’s more to this. That this is a trap or… or something. But who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth? Especially when it comes to Viper. If he’s willing to give an inch, then I’m taking the inch and everything else he’ll give afterward.