DIVISION 52 - BOOK I

CHAPTER XLIV

– S C O R P I O N –

I was mindlessly swiping at holo images of Sector 1 security. Anti-air turrets. Facial recog every 10 feet. Timed patrols. Imperial patrols. They even had a back door set up that linked a nano ray from a satellite... space. Merridian even had weapons in space.

I sighed and sat back in the smooth rotating chair. A dimly lit office room was hardly the tech hall of my previous keep. Lined with our people and equipment. Now it was more of a work from home or wherever you could find a secure link.

No guards lingered in the small space but instead lurked outside. When my chair rotated back to the long wall of glass at the back of the room I watched the late afternoon sun start to disappear beneath the sky towers. Even in the distant realm of Sector 48 we had a full view of Sector 1.

As it had always been. A part of me wondered if they had it designed as a  reminder. Not as the rumours had suggested–that the emperor truly built glass above the clouds so he wouldn't have to witness the outskirts–but because of his own self glorified god complex.

I snorted to myself and hit the small pad on my wrist. It glowed and the wall of glass instantly morphed into a thick forest with the faintest sounds of wind and tree rustle carrying through the confines.

I watched it for moments more. I wondered what forests must have been like. The real, untamed ones. Not the bio-farms or tower gardens. Endless green. It was almost instinctual to find shelter in the thick concrete confines but back then... the centuries before we built upon mile after mile... was the quiet deafening?

A comm link interrupted my pondering.

"Incoming request from Grumpy Bastard." A cheery voice announced.

I almost fell off my chair. Either I've been hacked or...

"Accept." I said flatly.

"Scorpion, I trust you–"

"Have you been in the address vault?" I interrupted.

A pause over the link. "No I believe not. Why do you ask?" He returned cautiously.

"Because you were just announced as... never mind." I pinched the bridge of my nose. I was running a network of Underworld assassins and cut throats and someone is finding the time to–

I froze. Then let out a loud puff.

"Is Makayla still with you?"

"Indeed she is. We have just walked through our new base of operations with my dear sister." He drawled with a low voice.

I sat up at this. "You made the choice already?"

"It met standards and more. A gem below a brick."

"I never knew my second was so poetic." I mused with a grin.

Silence followed a beat. "Would you like to speak with her? We can continue the inventory when we return. The craft is close."

My grin faded slightly. "Yes do link me to her and close the line, thank you." I said a little more briskly.

I heard a dark chuckle before a light ping. "Forwarding link to Xavier, Makayla."

"Confirm."

"Alex!" Her excited voice came through the link. It broke my seriousness and a smile ghosted onto my lips.

"Miss Xavier..." I returned slowly.

"I just met Proximo's sister. I had no idea he had... well any relationship with another human, let alone family."