Swan Song (Book Three of the Icarus Trilogy) (32 page)

“Well, I won’t do it.  You can even torture me.  There’s nothing you can do,” Maxwell said, determined to stand his ground.  He had made a mistake, but he wouldn’t allow it to taint his soul with betrayal.  He would pay this price.  Jasper merely rolled his eyes before sighing.

“There is so,
so
much I can do,
Max
.  But I only need to do one thing.  You swore revenge for your family, Garrison.  You will do anything,
anything
I ask, because otherwise I will personally torture, kill, demean,
dissect
your daughter Christine in front of your eyes.  I will take great pleasure in ruining the only thing you have left.  Just because you wouldn’t let me destroy a few terrorists,” Jasper said with a malicious grin.  He could see the man crumbling in front of him.  Garrison had not expected this; he had not considered that Jasper might use his daughter against him.  It was pathetic, really.

Maxwell almost fainted standing there, but soon he fell into the chair where he had been so excited just a few minutes ago.  Jasper picked himself up with effort, his bones and joints aching, and walked over to the man wallowing in his despair.  The old executive could see the terror and fear in the man’s eyes; the absolute and complete destruction of his soul.  Jasper smiled as he sat down on his desk, looking down at his new servant.

“So, Maxwell.  This is what you’re going to do.”

Edward felt rotten.  He had abandoned his friends and his lover for some temptress with unknown goals.  However, what hurt the most was that he felt like he had abandoned his humanity.  Edward had never wanted to be a killer, only resorting to the profession after his freedom had been stolen from him.  He had continued it on Earth only to take that same freedom back.

Norris had become what they had always claimed, just a sociopathic killer.

Edward felt awful about this turn in events.  He wondered what had turned in him to make all this behavior justifiable.  When he remembered the golden eyes, Ed knew that it was just another catalyst; he had been broken before the woman had drunk him under the table and onto the floor.  Norris couldn’t blame her for everything.

He shook his head, trying to get rid of the thought.  It was time for him to do some real work; some real good.  Hopefully Ryan or one of the others would have an assignment for him.  There was always another person to remove; another bad man to banish from the world.

Jenkins was talking to a couple civilians in the center hub.  The whole place was busy and people were rushing everywhere, which was a bit of an odd thing.  Edward didn’t know of any major operation and no one had called him.  It caused the red-headed killer to furrow his brow; there was always need for a sniper.  Edward continued towards his fellow Crow, pursing his lips, and gave a sly smile as he saw Ryan notice his approach.  That disappeared as he saw the fury forming on Jenkins' face; as he saw his newly-made enemy.

Norris almost wasn’t able to react as Jenkins pushed the nearest civilian out of his way and ran to his former teammate.  Edward was only just able to square up to the furious leader before Ryan rushed into a cross with his right.  The killer ducked to the side and parried the strike before squaring up again, but Jenkins had already pivoted to a ready position and aimed a powerful hip kick into Edward’s left side.  Even in guard, the power behind the blow was enough to make the Englishman stagger.

“Ryan, you bastard, what are you doing?” Norris asked before Jenkins lowered his leg and then rushed into Edward’s guard, throwing a rapid uppercut to where the killer’s head would have been, but Norris was quick enough to back away.  As he fell away from the blow, Ryan followed and aimed a powerful cross into Edward’s nose.  This one connected and Norris’ mind retreated to a dark place, staggering him.

“I’m kicking your ass for being so fucking stupid!” Jenkins yelled as he swept underneath Edward’s guard and started slamming low hooks into the gangly killer’s ribcage.  Norris was about to bring his elbow down onto Ryan’s head, but the messiah figure just launched his right leg into the killer’s midsection and pushed the sniper backwards, causing him to fall all over himself.  Norris looked up from his back and saw Jenkins breathing out with a controlled fury; he didn’t remember when the rookie had turned into such a frightening warrior.

“You know, I really hate not being on the front lines anymore.  Can’t be part of the action, can’t be there to fight with my men.  So I tend to punish the punching bags in the gym; really helps with that anger.  I broke the last one, actually, and I’ve been looking for a replacement,” he said as he walked forwards, which caused Edwards to retreat back on the floor.  As he tried to get up, Ryan just kicked him back down.  “Thinking we can put you down there for a little bit, Ed.  You certainly deserve it.”

While he agreed with the messiah figure, Edward didn’t really know what Ryan was talking about.  He couldn’t have any idea about the guilt that Edward felt; Ryan couldn’t know about how he felt like he had lost his morality and his soul.  As he scrambled to his feet, an act Jenkins allowed him, Edward tried to think about why Ryan might be fighting him.

Then it hit him.  Jessica must have told him about their relationship ending.  It had been a couple of weeks, after all, and the Crows were close.  At least, they used to be.  Edward hadn’t been spending much time with them since the incident; Cassandra had been keeping him busy.  Norris looked at his furious teammate and felt a pit in his stomach.  It was a coward’s act, leaving Abrams like that.  He could see why Ryan would want to punish his old friend.

“Oh, mate, I know.  What I did to her, what I did to Jess was horrible.  I’m gonna make it up to the girl,” he said, unable to make eye contact as he realized that he really meant it.  It would take some time for Jessica to forgive him, if it ever happened, but he was going to spend the rest of his life doing it.  Norris was about to look up to his friend when a right hook slammed into his jaw, almost dislocating the thing.  Ryan certainly had practice; Edward almost blacked out from the strike.  He regained full consciousness as he looked up at the raging leader of the revolution, his vision blurring.

“....fucking asshole!  That’s not what this is about, you disgusting, stupid, little man.  When this is done I’m gonna give her whatever she needs to kick your ass, too.  And believe me,
this
is gonna seem light in comparison,” Jenkins said as he kneeled down and grabbed Edward’s collar with both hands.

“No, you, traitor.  This is about the EFI agent you killed two days ago,” he said with cool hatred.  Edward's eyes were unfocused at the words, the horrible accusation almost unthinkable.  He started to stammer, started to deny, but Ryan shook him before rising to his feet with the Englishman in tow.

“W- what are you tal-” he started, but Jenkins just shook him and narrowed his eyes.

“You stupid, stupid man.  Laurie Neidermann, the councilwoman.  She was undercover, which you probably didn’t know, but you shouldn’t have been going around like that in the first place!  God, Ed, can you really be this fucking stupid?!” he shouted as he released the sniper and pushed him away.  Edward did what he could to recover, but ended up spinning around before being able to gather himself a couple of meters away.

“Undercover?” Norris asked, the horror of it finally breaking through to his mind.  It was impossible.  There was no way he would kill an undercover agent.  He was better than that.  Norris didn’t kill anyone unless he had a good reason.  He wouldn’t have....

But he did.  Of course he did.  He was taking turns, after all.  It wasn’t up to him who would die that day.  It was just another head on the chopping block; just another casualty in this bloody revolution.

“Yeah,” Jenkins said as he put his hands on his hips and breathed in deeply.  “Hard at work.  EFI turned her before
we
joined, Ed.  She’s been working behind the scenes in order to establish some credibility.  She'd start passing laws after we got into a better position.  God, some of the dirt she was collecting, some of the connections.  We couldn’t have had a better person on that council.  And now she’s dead.  Just because you wanted to take a joy ride with a sniper rifle,” Jenkins said with a sneer, a justified hatred playing out in his expression.  Norris walked towards him, pleading and totally willing to take another strike from the man.  He felt more than just rotten, now; he felt entirely corrupted and wanted to be cleansed from the Earth.

“Ryan, you have to know I
didn’t
know
.  I couldn’t have.  Looking back I should have thought about it more, but I
didn’t know!
  I wouldn’t have done it, mate.  I don’t have it in me.  That’s
not
me,” Edward begged, but at that last statement Ryan pushed him and drove him against a nearby wall, shoving his face too close for comfort.

“Really, Ed?  That’s NOT you?!  You’ve been killing people too long, Ed.  I just can’t believe it anymore.  And after what you did to Jess?  You’ve changed,
mate
,” Jenkins said as he retreated and turned away, breathing in hard.

“I know,” Edward said as he looked down at the ground.  Norris needed some way to make this right, but it was never going to happen.  He had killed an innocent woman, a friend to the cause and an asset.  But the fact that she was innocent hurt the most.  “I’m so sorry, Ryan.  Though not to you,” Norris said as he looked up at the raging messiah, feeling the anger come off the man in waves as he turned to glare at the Englishman.

“You
what
?” he asked in a soft voice.  Norris was actually afraid of his former teammate, a man he would have died for so many times now.

“I’m not sorry to you, Ryan.  I didn’t betray you.  I might have killed an asset, but that’s not what I feel awful about or what I’m sorry for.  I’m sorry for this Laurie character.  I never wanted to kill her.  I just got caught up in my own vengeance.  I will regret that for the
rest of my life
, Ryan.  I will
never
forget this, never be able to get past this.  The only thing I can do is try to make up for it.”

“Get out of my sight, Ed.  I don’t need your services anymore,” Jenkins said as he turned away, shaking his head and rubbing his hand at the stress headache forming on the side of his head.

“I will soon, Ryan.  And I will make it up to that poor woman,” Norris said, but Jenkins turned on his heel and walked up to the red-headed killer.

“No, you fucking won’t, Ed!  Thomas and Goldstein are going to meet Garrison right now and hopefully arrange a peace offering.  You’re not getting a chance for redemption, Ed!  You’re going to live with your guilt for the rest of your life.  That’s what you get for being such a coward and an idiot,” Jenkins said as he pointed at the Englishman’s face.  Norris breathed out in terror as he realized the implications of what Ryan was saying.  His former teammate, his former
friend
, was shutting him out of the resistance.

“You can’t mean that,” Edward said, but Ryan backhanded him so hard that Norris thought a tooth might come lose.

“I do.  You have no place in my army, Ed.  I need people I can
trust
,” he said as he turned and walked a meter away.  Norris was still reeling from the blows, mental and physical, when he saw Jenkins look over his shoulder.

“You can try to make it up to Abrams, though,” he said, his rage starting to subside.  Norris looked at him with a desire in his eyes, a desperate claim to some form of redemption.  “You can help her.  Even now she doesn’t blame you, you English bastard.  I wanted to destroy you but she stopped me the other night,” he said before sighing.  “She’s alone, Norris, and she doesn’t like it.  She’s way too strong to admit it and she can definitely go without it, but that woman wants someone by her side.  Jess needs to have someone who can take the burden from her if she wants to.  She needs the option.”

“I would kick your ass a thousand times for the way you abandoned her, but I know that you can be that person.  You jumped at the chance at being a father before, Ed,” Jenkins said as his voice softened and real concern coming through his voice.  “What’s it matter if you
might
not be the father?” he asked before turning to look at Norris from his side, pausing with some internal thought process.  He looked back up from the ground and into the Englishman’s eyes.  “I’ve been told most of fatherhood was simply claiming it,” Jenkins said before turning back his head and walking towards the gaping civilians.  All eyes had been on the two Crows, but Jenkins was determined to stop the show.

“Back to work, people.  We have way too much to do and only a few hours to do it,” he said as he grabbed a paper from the civilian and started to read it over.  After a moment of silence he sighed in disgust and looked around.  “Now, people!” he boomed as he gave a quick glare to every dumbstruck revolutionary.  Quickly the room turned into a tornado of activity and Norris felt like there was an ocean moving around him.  He stared at the man he once considered a friend and could see Ryan look at him for a moment.  After a tense few seconds of eye contact, the messiah figure looked back to the woman by his side.