Page 122 of Xerxes Ascendant
“Fuck you,” the caller snarled as soon as the incoming call was accepted. “Fuck you, Akira, and every single one of the bastards at that table. Do you not understand that I did it allfor you? The Coterie would have been destroyed!”
“Theta,” Akira said coolly. “Foolish of you to make this call, considering you’d be aware the Coterie can track it.”
“I’ll save you the trouble.” The vid feed switched to the camera on the back of Theta’s runepad, displaying anunremarkable metal door. It was a front door to a residence, the same as hundreds of thousands of others on Xerxes, but Akira recognised the little burnished dent above the handle. He saw it every morning he returned home.
The world turned blurry andloud. Fuck, no.
No, no, no.
“Simon...!”
“Save your begging for when you get here, darling.” Theta turned the camera back to himself, his silver hair gleaming in the dim light. “And I know that slut of a boyfriend of yours is listening in. I want to hear him begging, too.”
“Don’t you dare touch them,” Akira warned, bringing the device nearer to his face as though he could transport through it and stop Theta from getting any closer to his family.
“Just you and Randall,” said Theta. He wasn’t smiling. “If I see anyone but you two...”
“Don’t worry, Theta,” Kyle said, appearing in the frame at Akira’s side and staring stonily at the screen. “Two is all we need.”
The artificial air systems on Xerxes that maintain oxygen levels lack the microbial diversity of the natural atmosphere. This has been shown to hinder immune system development, especially in children.
Further, poor management has often led to raised CO2 levels, causing fatigue and reduced concentration. Incidentally, these errors in air flow rarely occur on Upper Xerxes...despite the sealed nature of the city meaning that all levels have identical filtration and recirculatory infrastructure.
-Anonymous musings
CHAPTER 37
Kyle
They found Sarah in the Miyasakis’ kitchen. She was splayed across the tiled floor, eyes closed and blood matted in her blonde hair from the vicious wound on her temple. Her fragile limbs were twisted beneath her. The wheelchair lay bent and broken in the corner, now nothing more than a discarded and useless piece of metal.
The violence of it all turned Kyle cold. This was Akira’s home, hisfamily, and Theta had brutalised both.
Rushing blindly to his wife, Akira dropped to his knees at her side without bothering to check for danger. He seemed only dimly aware of Kyle standing protectively over them both as he desperately hunted for a pulse.
Which, thank every star that had ever shone, he found.
Akira’s shoulders slumped with relief and he clasped his wife’s limp hand within both of his own. “Sarah.”
“Get in here, Akira.” Theta’s harsh, uncompromising tone cut through from the darkened living room next door.
Akira hesitated, glancing first at Kyle and then back at his unconscious wife. “She needs a hospital,” he murmured. “We can’t-”
“Dad!”
Akira was on his feet in an instant, darting through the doorway. Kyle followed on his heels to find him facing off against Theta with his hands outstretched in careful placation.
“It’s going to be okay, Robby,” Akira soothed with the steady reassurance of a father. “You’re okay. I’m here.”
She summoned a weak smile.
It wasn’t okay. Theta had a fucking gun pressed to the side of the girl’s head, and his other hand clutched a large kitchen knife.
Kyle was seized by both rage and terror when he noticed blood welling on Robby’s swollen upper lip.
The asshole had hit her.
But like her father, Roberta Miyasaki hadn’t gone down without a fight. Theta sported an impressive red mark across his left cheek that was just beginning to bruise, and the back of the hand holding the knife had been clawed by determined fingernails.
