Dahlia could have screamed but by the time she walked in on Julien bleeding on the floor, she was just mildly surprised. Even Jennifer seemed just a little disconcerted.

Neither of them would've expected Hodges to murder Julien like that. The former had been one of the most dedicated Firsts and the voice of the Seat of Authority. And as far as Jennifer knew, the two old politicians had been friends since their youth.

Whatever could've poisoned that friendship?

The thought remained suspended in Jennifer's mind for a second before she filed it away.

"This changes nothing, right?" Dahlia said.

Jennifer shook her head. "The First Leader had designed the Silver Lining Initiative in such a way that it would keep progressing despite his absence or in this case, death."

"And the troops deployed in Moudrin are already marching forward." Dahlia nodded. "We'll still need to finalize the deal with premier Ozaan."

"We can get going right a–"

Jennifer paused abruptly and frowned at a distant noise. She turned to Dahlia. "Ms. Esker, can you hear it too?"

Dahlia was already frowning. "Sounds like gun fire."

#

Ian Harper was flying the Orzstok helicopter while the standing army of the S-1 island kept firing up at them. The special grade truck was suspended by the base of the helicopter.

"We're lucky there is no anti-aircraft defense on this island," Erik said as he gazed out of the window of the truck and down at the ant-sized men who were carried on with the futile firing.

"As if it would've mattered." Lisa scoffed. "I still have two cluster bombs ready left shoot at them. It would've been like stomping a kitten."

"Are we still sticking to the 'keep-the-casualties-minimum' rule?"

"Not anymore." Erik glared at the soldiers firing at them. "We are really close to finishing this off once and for all. We can't let anyone get in our way anymore."

Lisa nodded. "Good to know."

Cathy's walkie-talkie hissed. "Cargo, this is the stork, do you copy?"

"Copy that, stork," Cathy spoke into the device.

"We are getting close to the drop-off. Be prepared."

Erik and Lisa were already putting their seat belts on.

"Roger that, stork. Thanks for the heads up."

Cathy put on her seat belt too as they arrived close to the First Leader's villa. She glanced back at the motorcycle they'd loaded in the back of the truck. She sighed. "I hope this ends soon."

#

The helicopter lowered the truck right outside the First Leader's villa and flew off for some aerial scouting. Lisa engaged the fortress mode after Erik and Cathy hopped out with their rifles and made their way into the villa.

The guards were coming up the inclined road to the Township of Authority. Lisa shot them off with the full auto machine gun before any of them could react.

Cathy and Erik didn't have to kick down the door. Someone had already left it open. So they walked right in.

The living room was vast with shiny marble floor, intricate murals on the wall, expensive furniture and exotic trees outside the windows. There were three glasses on top of the imported coffee table.

Cathy looked at the drinks in them. Only one of them looked like someone had taken a sip from it. "Someone was with the First Leader for sure." Cathy nodded at Erik.

"One of the glasses for the First Leader, the second is probably for a personal assistant."

"The third one might be for a prostitute." Cathy shrugged.

"The First Leader is in his sixties, isn't he?"

"So?"

Erik shook his head. "Just teasing the possibility of it being someone other than a prostitute."

The two of them walked deeper into the villa. Lisa was still trading gunshots with the guards outside. The storm of gunfire grew muffled as they kept walking. Erik made out quiet whimpers coming from the kitchen.

They kept their rifles cocked and entered the kitchen. A girl in a silk gown was crouched in a corner by the refrigerator. She turned pale with fear when she saw the two armed intruders. Instead of taking off running she just froze in her spot.

Erik was about to step ahead when Cathy stopped him. "I'll handle this one."

Erik shrugged and stepped.

Cathy walked over to the maid in the silk gown. She crouched down to her level and pressed the muzzle of her rifle to her chin. The mouth of the gun was still hot. The girl hissed in pain. "If you tell us where the First Leader is, we won't have to kill you."

#

The military truck arrived at the rear gate of Eli's villa. Jennifer and Dahlia boarded the truck while gunshots and explosions were going off just a few hundred meters off.

"To the airstrip, quick!" Jennifer barked at the guard behind the steering wheel.

Dahlia saw a dark combat helicopter hovering over the hill they were on. She felt anxiety tighten her chest as she looked at the thing droning around ominously like a dragon.

They started their descent down the hill from the back of the Township of Authority.

#

Lisa was still holding guards at bay outside while the servant girl was leading Erik and Cathy to Eli's villa. They saw the spokesperson's corpse bleeding by the flowerbed. A rosemary was soaked in his blood.

Cathy felt a lump in her throat at the sight of the dead man. Even though she had never met him personally, she felt a stir of sadness when she saw him. "Who killed him?" Erik asked.

"The Township guards," the maid said, her voice still trembling. "He killed the First Leader."

Erik and Cathy paused. "The First Leader is dead?" she said.

The servant girl opened the door to Eli's villa. "Another Township servant told me the spokesperson shot the Leader in the bar." She bowed her head, her eyes grim with fear. "If you don't mind, I don't want to go back there. Please." She got on her knees and looked ready to fold her hands in prayer.

Cathy waved her hand at the woman and she followed Erik into the villa.

The servant girl wasn't just gibbering non-sense. The First Leader was indeed dead on the barroom floor, bleeding from his shin and his throat and his chest.

Cathy and Erik just stared at the corpse. "Shock" was a mild way of putting they actually felt as they gazed at the First Leader's empty eyes.

"So...did we win?" Cathy asked. "Is it really over?"

As if to answer the question, her walkie talkie hissed. "Cargo, this stork, do you copy?"

"Copy that, stork. What's the update on scouting?"

"A military jeep has just left the Township of Authority. I repeat, a military jeep has just left the Township of Authority. They are headed down the hill."

#

Lisa opened the rear shutter of the truck after she received Cathy's message.

"Someone is trying to escape!" Erik snapped as he unloaded the motorcycle off the truck. He fired the bike's engine and twisted the accelerator. Cathy hopped pillion, rifle in hand.

"Good luck, you two!" Lisa cried out before they both took off in the opposite direction.

Lisa turned back to the Township guard that were now hurling hand grenades at the truck. As the dust and smoke from the explosion cleared up, she noticed more guards trying to close in on her. As if they were going to do any better getting close.

She was getting annoyed now. She entered another sequence into the panel. She unleashed the last cluster bombs.

#

Jennifer was shouting orders into her cellphone over the roaring air and the growling engine of the military jeep. "Prepare the jet, we have to evacuate ASAP. Tell the pilot to–"

She paused when she felt Dahlia's hand on her arm. The Nesokan heir was pointing at something in the rearview mirror. Someone was following them. A man on a motorcycle and a girl rode pillion behind him.

And she was about to shoot them with a rifle!

#

Before Cathy could take a shot, one of the township guards sitting in the back of the jeep started to fire at them. Erik managed to maneuver to dodge the shots. But it hindered their balance. It wasn't helping Cathy steady her aim. "Can't you keep it still?" Cathy snapped.

"You wanna get shot?!"

"Hold still!"

"They're firing again!"

Cathy groaned and instead of trying to get a lock on the two guards leaning out of either sides of the jeep to fire at them, she aimed for the rear windshield. A much bigger target

The bullets of her full-auto assault rifle tore through the glass at the back of the jeep. They could hear the screaming of two women from inside the vehicle. "Just get a bit closer to the jeep," Cathy said.

"How close?"

"Around thirty feet."

Erik shifted gears and twisted the accelerator. The motorcycle roared the tarmac as they descended the hill. Once they were close enough, Cathy pulled out her flare gun. She fired a single shot through the crater in the rear windshield.

"Fire in the hole!" She cried out as red smoke exploded inside the vehicle.

The jeep lost balance, swerved around as its tyres screeched and burned on the asphalt. The driver hit the brakes and the thing came to a screaming halt.

Two women and two Township guards jumped out of the smoking truck, coughing and wheezing.

"We got 'em!" Cathy cried out before she shot the guards.

Then she hopped off the motorcycle and made a run for the two women who were about to run for the woods.

#

Jennifer and Dahlia were about to jump into the lavender brush next to the road but they halted just for a second after feeling the bullets wheezing past them. They started to run again. Dahlia grabbed Jennifer's hand and started to run again.

The girl in the kevlar suit was already bounding towards them like a starving wolf.

The two women shrieked as they made their way across the road and towards the bushes. But Dahlia's heel snapped when she put her foot down rather heavily, She cried out as she twisted her ankle.

The girl was just inches from them now. Dahlia did the first thing that came to her mind. She whipped the .38 out of her handbag. She aimed at the girl.

#

Cathy leapt a few feet off the ground and swept the air in a vicious arc with her leg. She slammed her boot across the woman's face. The gun fell out of her hand. And the woman thumped down on the ground, already unconscious.

The other woman cried in horror as her companion fell. She scrambled away, pleading for mercy, wailing like a baby.

Cathy grimaced under her plexiglass helmet. "Pathetic," she muttered before smacking the other woman across her jaw, knocking her unconscious as well.

#

By the time Erik and Cathy came back with the two unconscious women, Lisa had burned a good many bushes and trees and about three dozen Township guards lay dead on the ground.

Erik climbed out of the military jeep he had been driving. Cathy got off the motorcycle. They gazed quietly at the destruction. A lone blue weaver sat on a half-scorched tree and let out a grating call of mourning. Maybe its home had turned to ash.

When Lisa got out of the special grade truck, she had a look of remorse but her eyes seemed almost cynical. Maybe she hadn't wanted to kill so many. But what was the point of remorse now?

No one said anything to each other for a while.

Erik and Cathy each carried an unconscious woman in their arms. They laid them both next to each other on the porch of the First Leader's villa.

"This woman is the Leader's personal assistant," he said as he stood over Jennifer and read from her identity card he'd found in her billfold.Then he looked at Dahlia. "But who the hell is this?"

"Prostitute."

"Wasn't the First Leader in his sixties?" Lisa said.

Cathy rolled her eyes.

After a brief pause, Lisa said, "So did we really do it? The First Leader is dead. His personal assistant is in our custody. The man who weaponized the Fragment is in our custody. And on top of that we burnt the Seat of Authority. Did we really win?"

Cathy frowned, rolling her Milo pendant between her fingers. "Feels like something is still left," she said.

"I get the same feeling." Erik nodded.

Now Lisa wass frowning too. "You guys are making me nervous. The truck is all out of ammo now. Of course we can still load the machine gun. But the cluster bombs, the missiles–they're all used up."

"Let's just take a break for now." Erik sighed and settled down on the floor after brushing away empty bullet casing.

Cathy thought of Eli's body again. "What are we gonna do about Hodges?"

"We're taking him, of course." Erik shrugged. "The man needs a proper burial."

"Then let's just get going already." Cathy nodded and pulled out her walkie talkie to call for Harper.

#

It was late in the afternoon when they arrived at Kingsville. They met up with Luce at the High house of justice. The agent gawked at them when he was told the First Leader was really dead.

After the initial shock wore off, he gave them a debrief on how the situation had been since they'd captured the house of justice.

"Some steel heads tried to put up a fight but we outnumbered them. It's been pretty tame since the raid began."

"What about the scientist guy?" Cathy asked. "Did he say anything important?"

Luce shook his head. "The man has been quiet since you guys left him here."

"Didn't you try to make him talk?" Erik asked.

"Command did try but the man is just too rigid." Luce shrugged. "We even had operatives look into his background but it's all just a blank slate. No family, no home, no friends we could use as leverage."

"How about I try something?" Cathy said.

Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"Just get me a pair of pliers and I'll have him dictate you his autobiography."

"You're sure about this?" Erik asked.

Cathy nodded.

"We couldn't find pliers. But here's some wire cutters instead," Harper said as he handed her the tool.

Cathy snapped at the air with the cutter. "Good." She nodded. "I'll be back in five minutes." She walked into the room where they were keeping Atron.

#

It had only been three minutes when they heard the man screaming and sobbing in agony. Erik and Luce rushed inside.

Atron's face was red and drenched in sweat and tears. The wire cutter lay on the table in front of him, smeared in red. "I'll tell you everything! Just get me away from her!" he screamed, snot dripping out of his nostrils.

Cathy was taking off her bloody gloves and dropped them on the floor. They made a wet slapping noise as they hit the ground. She walked out of the room without saying a word.

Lisa and Command watched the girl, awed and terrified. "What did she do?" Lisa asked Erik as he walked out with Luce.

"She cut his fingers. Two of them," Luce said.

Cathy finally turned to them and shrugged. "You guys said he had no family, no friends, no home. Nothing to use as leverage. Well, the only thing you can threaten a man like that with is his own body."

The adults, who'd seen some messed up stuff throughout their life kept gaping at the girl who just shrugged it off as if maiming someone like that was nothing. "We should send her to question the two women we brought from S-1 next," Harper said. "She'll have them singing in no time."

Erik shook off his initial shock and looked at Cathy hesitantly. "You wanna use the wire cutter again?"

Cathy shook her head. "No, I won't need any tools for this one. I'll try something different with the ladies."

#

Dahlia and Jennifer came to in what seemed to be a courtroom. They were dumped in a corner, restrained with handcuffs and their heads were heavy.

Somewhere in the big courtroom, a door opened. Footsteps echoed through the empty chamber of justice, stalking closer until the girl in kevlar armor appeared in front of them. She was wearing a bird's skull as a pendant.

Dahlia was terrified when she saw her. The girl stood over them, blotting out the bright glow of the halogen bulbs as if she was a human abyss swallowing all light.

She pulled up the chair from behind the judge's table. She dragged it over in front of them and settled down. Before she could say anything, Jennifer let out a whimpering squeal. "I'll tell you everything!"

Dahlia seemed appalled. "What are you saying?!"

"I don't care! I don't wanna die. I'll tell you everything you wanna know. Just don't hurt me, please!" Jennifer teared up, she looked ready to kiss Cathy's boot.

Cathy smirked. "Now, aren't you a co-operative little assistant. Get up. We'll leave your friend to contemplate her life's choices while we go and have our little chat."

Jennifer nodded and sniffled. Cathy helped the woman up to her feet and started to lead her away.

That's when Dahlia let out blood curdling scream. "What are you even going to tell them?! You think it's going to solve anything?!"

"Don't pay attention to her," Cathy whispered to Jennifer.

"You and your scumbag revolutionary group won't change anything!" Dahlia screamed. "Julien Varon put ME as the next leader of everything. It's MY word that matters more than anything else! I'm Dahlia Esker, the true heir of the Nesokan empire! If I don't get my rightful ownership of Moudrin, I'll burn it down. In fact, its going to burn down anyway. The Silver Lining Initiative is in its next phase now. We'll make it rain on Moudrin!"

Cathy paused. She turned to look at the woman. Dahlia was smiling. There was nothing but madness in her eyes.

"The special grade trucks have also been deployed. We'll paint the land with the blood of Moudrin's soldiers. And you can't do anything about it! If I can't rule them, I'll burn them all to the ground! Just like we burned all those useless cities in C3."

(to be continued...)