Despite my homeless appearance I did all I could to at least act civil – starting with a smile. “I’d like to speak to Arthur Benson, please.”
The woman seemed surprised. “I’m sorry,” she replied, “but Mr Benson is extremely busy at the moment.”
“Just tell him that it’s Abigail.”
I had to stare her down, quite threateningly, and she probably could have called Fred and Peter over but she didn’t – either way I’d be seeing Benson soon enough.
The lady picked up the phone. “Mr Benson, there’s a girl here who wants to see you, she says her name is Abigail… yes sir, I’ll send her though right away.” She set the phone down, rather confused, and then smiled at me. “Mr Benson will see you right away. Do you know where his office is?”
I nodded. “I do.” And then I was going down another hallway and straight to Benson’s office. I was probably beyond manners by this point, but when I arrived at his door I still had the courtesy to knock.
After a few seconds I heard Benson’s muffled voice say, “Come in,” and so I opened the door and there he was.
Benson was younger than Lace, and despite the divine gravity that I had felt when I first met his older brother, there was something about Benson that was just absolutely terrifying. He stood in his office, facing away from me with his hands clasped together behind his back, with a posture that told me everything I needed to know about his authority. His finely combed hair and beard were like silver with neat streaks of coal, and he wore a black suit with lines of grey – his very appearance reminded me of death.
His voice had always been deep and demanding, like that of a sorcerer casting spells and summoning demons. His eyes were the type of eyes that saw everything, and that could read people like books, determining their strengths and weaknesses at nothing more than a glance.
He turned around and I felt the urge to step back – there was anger in his eyes, masked by composure.
“So the lost sheep returns,” he said slowly. “I’m glad you’re not hurt, but tell me, where is Aizel?”
I took a deep breath and swallowed my fear. “He’s dead,” I told him.
“Dead? Such a shame, I was rather fond of that boy’s talents. Perhaps if you had simply trusted me to begin with we could have avoided all of this, and I wouldn’t have lost such a valuable soldier.”
He was trying to place the blame on me however I knew exactly what he was thinking: I have no need for disloyal soldiers.
“Have you finally decided to give me the code?” Benson asked.
I took another deep breath – I needed to be careful with the words that I chose. “I’d like to make a deal with you, Benson, one that serves for both our interests.”
Benson looked at me with his powerful eyes and stroked his beard with a strong hand. “And what might that be?” he inquired.
“You want the war to end, right? But in order to do that, you’re brother needs to die – I know you share no love for him, not enough to let the fighting rage on. It just so happens that I want him dead too, after all he was responsible for Aizel’s death, and I believe that he was responsible for the death of my father and the Adrian Sierra, too.”
Benson continued to stroke his beard. “Is that so?”
“I propose that you let me be the one to activate ATLAS and put an end to the war. We fire it on Lace and his officials and no one else.”
“You still don’t trust me?” Benson said slowly, and I swear I could feel his eyes digging into my skull to the point where it was almost physically painful.
“What does it matter?” I replied. “The war will be over and the city will be yours. All you have to do is trust me.” I extended my hand to him and he looked at it for a while. I began to feel anxious, as if I’d be waiting forever, but then he took my hand and shook it.
“Very well,” he said. “You’ve got a deal.”
The next thing I knew I was sitting down in a black armoured vehicle with Lace by my side. We were pulling out of the garage and heading straight back towards the capital – I even saw Aizel’s friend. What was his name? Uh, Robin! It was sad to think that he didn’t know… hell, no one other than Lace, Benson and I knew about poor Aizel’s death, but I hoped that once all of this was finally over, it would be a sacrifice that everyone remembered – I think Aizel would want that, even though it seemed unlikely.
“We had better hurry,” Benson was saying as he checked his little golden pocket watch. “The attack has already begun.”
“Attack?” I asked, suddenly remembering what Angelo had said about the full-scale assault and the citywide shootout.
“Yes,” Benson confirmed. “My brother and I have been playing this game of cat and mouse for far too long. I’ve deployed the bulk of my forces all throughout the capital. Even if my brother gets away, he won’t be able to protect ATLAS, and I have seen to that. Once the weapon is in our control there will be no place for him to run, not even his little bunker to the west.”
I would have asked if we’d be in any danger getting back to the capital, however I knew that there’s no way Benson would ever risk his own life for anything. And so, just as it was this morning, I was once again speeding off towards ATLAS, and before me I could see thick clouds of smoke rising from the city lights. We were heading right into that. Benson was braver than I thought.
The long drive gave me even more time to think, just as the long walk here had done, however this time my thoughts were moved by the slow rise of battle forming around me. This chaos that was unfolding before my very eyes made me realise that a lot of really terrible things had happened to me in the past four days. I had learned that my father and the professor had been murdered, I was kidnapped and tortured for an entire day, I killed a man and was forced to suffer from the nightmares that followed, and then I lost Aizel. Damn it all.
Soon enough I could smell fire and gunpowder, and I heard the distant crackle of weapons being fired and the low boom of bombs going off followed by the crushing rattle of buildings collapsing. When the capital building was finally in view, I came to realise that Angelo wasn’t kidding at all, and that Benson had wasted no time and spared no expenses in this attack. Jesus, he must have been planning this for months!
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