New Elysium: Weapons of War (Book 2)

A Time To Heal Part 4

Jack and Caidus made that virus together. My children meant to rise above everyone. You don't even know who you are fighting against, who the real evil is do you, Captain Scott?

The words hit Red, as the memory surged through his mind completely. The last missing pieces falling into place. He remembered how his eyes had widened in surprise at the words, how the knife had sunk into him, under the ribs, hitting his vital organs.

He was meant to bleed out here, to die slowly in the most painful way possible. He'd pulled the blade from his own body, heedless of the pain and sunk it up to the hilt up through Darius's chin, hitting the augments in his brain and then he'd stared at the old man's eyes, making sure that *he* was the last thing Darius saw as he died.

His eyes snapped open in the darkness. His armed was wrapped around Ember's waist again, her naked body curled up against his under the blankets. He was holding her close, breathing hard like a child might hold a teddy bear after he wakes up from a nightmare.

Jack created the virus. "Mad" Jack who'd he thought he'd known for years. He didn't really know him at all did he?

And Ember?

Did she know? That was the question he'd been asking himself over and over. Even when he couldn't quite remember what it was he was supposed to know. She couldn't have.

Red's arm tightened around her waist pulling her close and she stretched against him. He inhaled into her hair, trying to enjoy having her close again. But he couldn't relax.

With a groan, he pulled his arm away from her and pulled himself out of the bed. Ember had had her chambers enlarged for him while he'd been in the clinic.

There'd been no doubt in her mind that he would get better. Maybe there was some fear, but he could stand in here without knocking his head against the ceiling or any of her connections. The bed had even been made larger so both could sleep on it.

Not that they'd done much sleeping on it for the past few days.

He pushed himself off the edge of the bed and stood to make sure he wasn't going to fall over and padded slowly to a small set of drawers she'd had put in for him, next to hers.

The black pants and the black shirts with the light blue New Elysium insignia scrawled across them were pretty much the only clothing he owned currently, plus the usual underclothes.

It took him a few minutes of painful maneuvering but he managed to get a shirt on, with a pair of black pants.

The socks and shoes he managed before he sank into the wheelchair, exhausted. He was supposed to push himself a bit, not too much but enough to get himself on the move again. He could have switched on his augments to dull any pain and exhaustion he felt, but he'd already received a stern lecture from Leah about not listening to his body.

He turned back to Ember and wheeled the chair next to the bed. He crawled up onto the surface and lay down next to her again. As much as he wanted to confront Jack right now, his burning desire right now was to know what Ember knew.

If she knew anything.

He wasn't sure what terrified him more. The idea that she might have known the entire time, or that she'd been fooled just like the rest of them. He wanted to believe the latter, he really did. But the part of him that hated Neo-Tokyo spoke up, saying she too was from Neo-Tokyo.

He put a hand on her cheek, not wanting to ask anything. Smoothing the hair away from her face, she smiled as he moved and then opened her eyes.

"Hey... You got dressed." She noticed his expression right away and sat up. "Red, what's happened, are you all right?"