DIVISION 52 - BOOK II

CHAPTER LVI

A L E X

I ascended the lift with a bottle of wine in one hand and a steaming bag in the other. My lips twisted as I ran her words through me again. Did it mean something more.

Of course it did. But she wasn't to know that until she dragged me back to my old home. I could have kicked in any door and hoped it was empty and tell her that was my home. Or I could have left the damn ring in that hole. I'm sure if I had shone the light brightly enough I would have made out the old blood of my father.

The fact that I had wanted to get her something as unique and personal to me as that metal was beyond explanation. I just knew I would. But now she had that part of me hanging around her neck–at least the dress was safely in a wardrobe. It didn't start declaring its love for anyone out of sight.

The lift pinged and stopped before my floor.

The doors drew back and showed me the face of my second. I groaned and tried to close the doors on him. He left a gloved hand on the frame and glared.

"Where have you been? We have proposals to go through." He growled.

I almost laughed at his choice of words. Why was everything about god damn lifelong commitments today?

"I've been busy." I emphasised, pressing the button again.

He shouldered his way between the frame and kicked his foot into the opposite side of the door. It protested politely back.

"Xavier is fine. Can we move to the task of dismantling the Imperials?"

"Is there a rush?" I said exasperated, widening my arms with dinner in them.

"There is when the faceless maker goes missing in the dead of night." He growled back.

I dropped the bag strode out of the lift without another word from him. The doors closed behind us and took good food with them to the floor I should have been on.

"Move." I snapped as a tech stumbled before me. I took the holo from his hands as he dodged Proximo's towering presence next. I swiped furiously at the inner feeds and drew up Sector 48 traffic. "How long ago?"

"Five hours. Imperial crafts."

"So Sector 1 has faceless tech now..." I uttered in a dark voice, looking up at his tattooed face. "Do we have a way to counter it?"

"They trick retina scans and biometrics–" He grunted, "Unless we could scan DNA in real time, no we don't."

I threw the screen onto a long table before pulling up a security feed of the faceless maker's street. "How the hell do we even know they have the right person? He–she–whatever the fuck doesn't have a damn face." I seethed.

"Is that a risk we're about to take? Any one of us could be infiltrated now, Scorpion. I mean anyone." He stated slowly.

"The faces take time to fabricate... And you need the original. They have mine they don't have yours or Makayla's."

Proximo scoffed, "The faceless slipped into the Emperor's face fairly easily and I'm sure as shit they didn't meet him up close."

I pinched the bridge of my nose.