DIVISION 52 - BOOK II

CHAPTER LXIII

P R O X I M O 

The fusion craft was a dark blur.

Fusion rifles glinted around us. Personal guards armed to the teeth. A flash of blue hair between it all and a grim line on her lips. She knew me enough to know I was at my limit–

I was compromised.

I flicked a hand and a guard had my gun in my fist. I flipped it stock first and pressed the side of the metal to open the concealed vials inside it. I took three glowing red tubes out while the inside of the craft remained deathly silent. Stronger than the last batch.

My sister couldn't help herself.

She snatched one from my grip before I could ingest all three. She drained the contents herself before leaning back with an emotionless expression.

"Three could stop your heart." She shrugged, eyeing the guns around her. "Two should only make you more of a prick–"

"Did I ask for your opinion?" I stated in an empty voice as I drank the other two.

She bounced a leg before leaning against an uncomfortable personal guard deliberately.

"No one else can keep you alive around here." She drawled, running a hand up the guards armoured arm.

I was already uninterested.

My focus sharpened ten fold and the world around me became sharper still. I breathed in slowly through my nose and then drew up four different feeds into my comm scanning them all. I ran security feeds and moved Division units into aggressive formations around the edges of upper Merridian. Then with half my attention I started telling my sister what we needed.

"Artella has gone dark." I stated flatly, gaining her attention even more intently. She shrugged off the guard and pressed her forearms on her knees.

"When?"

"Shut the fuck up. And listen."

Her expression didn't change. She cared for Artella. But such emotions weren't useful to us now.

"His brother, Dex, has been killed by the Empress. No body. But Artella knows it–"

"How–"

I levelled my rifle at her and she rolled her eyes at the barrel. She instead leant her god damn chin on it and repeated the question. "How, please?"

"He didn't meet in their usual spot. His comm is dead and there was blood."

"Could have him–"

I shook my head and lowered my gun. "Artella doesn't make mistakes. He certainly doesn't when it comes to this boy. He's dead."

She blew out a long breath.

"Get me a holoscreen and five minutes. I'll have that woman in the ground by nightfall."

"Not so simple. She has faceless tech."

Dazz's expression remained unchanged. Unbothered. She had a point of focus now and a friend in the crosshairs. Our family always did become more lethal when things got personal...

"If Artella wants her dead there isn't much she can do but hide behind faces either way." She shrugged, scanning her dark nails.

"You think I don't know that?" I growled impatiently. "It's what happens when he does kill her that I care about, Dazz."

"He's a smart boy, he has more up his sleeve than you have ego–"

"If he's captured by them–if they take his face I don't know who I'm pulling the trigger at." I stated, making her eyes lift. Despite two entire vials of combat serum the burning anger and despair was creeping far too close to the surface. It was my sister that remained unfazed.