DIVISION 52 - BOOK II

CHAPTER XLI

S C O R P I O N 

I couldn't find her anywhere.

When the sun started dropping below the sky towers I knew she wasn't on our base. I tried her line for the tenth time and the comm came up flat.

Let me handle this my way.

Was her way making me want to rip up every inch of this city to make sure she was safe? I sighed through my nose and took a falcon jet myself. The engines hummed as the thrusters came alive and the roof hatch opened.

"Makayla. Just tell me where you are." I spoke into the comm as it left it on her own. "I know you have... mixed feelings about who sits on that throne since your father. But I need to talk to you about something more important."

I left it like that. There was nothing else to say. I needed to say it to her face.

I commed my inner circle and put out a discreet search for her. Several confirmed the message and it didn't take long for a reply to come from my second himself.

"Artella knows where she is."

I gripped the stick a little tighter and dropped the engine speed.

"How would he know that?"

"Because he's getting blind drunk with her."

I swore loudly. Rapidly typing back into the wrist holo. I didn't even need to know more than that I just had the smallest relief someone as lethal as Artella Maxim was with her. At least contractors were loyal to their pay checks.

"Where?"

"Crypt. Enjoy."

"You and I need to discuss our communication later." I responded, spinning the wheel and punching the thrusters. It forced me back into my seat as the jet sailed through miles of city towers and buildings.

"Scorpion. It is because we don't talk a lot that we are so effective."

I ignored the message and sent the falcon faster through the skies. The sector came in fast and I dropped from the clouds pulling it sharply around and lowering the altitude. It sent a number of fusion crafts darting from my path. A military grade craft like this would just knock them out the sky either way.

It hit the rooftop of a nearby building heavily. I jumped from ramp before it started securing itself behind me and drew my gun from my hip. I shot the rooftop door lock. The door groaned open and I flung myself over the edge of the railing. Four, five, six floors dropped before I activated the boot thrusters and landed in a crouch.

A drunk stared at me from the floor.

I sheathed my gun and drew my hood over my face. He flinched back as I passed and kicked the entrance doors open. Thick and smokey air in 48 slapped my face. The bystanders didn't fail to notice the cloak. I walked through crowds like I burned. They folded away.

The last word of Hades already doing rounds in gossip and news. Dead at the hands of the Division. Another failed leader. They knew a real one when they saw her.

The Crypt was still a festering shit hole.

But I rarely went dressed as myself. The doors were already open to me before I had crossed the street. Bouncers communicating to those within. I ignored a bar tender trying to offer me a drink and shoved anyone from my path that got too close.

Proximo didn't think it was worth mentioning that his... whatever he was–had chosen this night to take Makayla off base and drink for god knew how long.