Kinzer’s instincts made him lash out, try to punch Quintz, but all he could manage was rattling the chains binding him. “If that’s true, fuck you. Fuck you and your goddamn operatives for not stepping in and doing a goddamn thing to help us. You’re the reason Janka has the most powerful weapon in all creation, and I lost the ones I cared about.”
“Kinzer, it wasn’t safe for any of us to be known at that time. Fuck, we didn’t know what the hell was going on when that shit went down. We were trying to figure it out so we could do something and step in. What were we supposed to do at Veylo’s last hideout? Come forward so the Council could arrest us all? You’re smarter than this. You know how this works. No. One of our contacts followed you, stalked you after that night. We’ve been keeping tabs on you ever since.”
“So why now?” Kinzer asked. “Why do you come to me at this moment? And keep in mind, I don’t even necessarily fucking believe this whole bullshit operation stuff. I’m just saying, if that is the case, I need a fucking good explanation for why you guys ambushed my place and now want me to be a part of your little club.”
“Because we need more help for this next phase, and we need someone we know we can trust, someone we can trust even more than we can trust the people that work in this operation.”
“And that’s me?” Kinzer asked with a chuckle. “I sincerely doubt that.”
“You must not realize how infamous you have become to the Almighty and to Janka. A hero to us, though. We have all watched from behind the scenes. Your work—alone, scattered, fumbling—has become legendary, even over such a short span of time. I’m sure you know what that means to immortals.”
Kinzer scoffed. “I know the things that matter to immortals—beauty, privilege, anything that makes them higher on the totem pole.”
“Yes, but those things seem to matter a lot less to you.”
“If you say so.” Everything Quintz had introduced warred within his head, which was still throbbing from all the pain he was in from the torture. “So if I’m to believe all this, why the fuck do you need me, some random fallen without wings, without powers, without anything?”
“We require your loyalty. We have to stop Janka. This has become our priority, even more important than fighting the Almighty, as He is certainly scrambling as much as we are to keep this catastrophe from destroying the heavens and Earth. Janka is mad with power.”
“I noticed,” Kinzer said, recalling Janka’s devious monologue at Veylo’s mansion when he told Kinzer about how he wanted to seize control of both, usurp the Almighty Himself.
Quintz went on. “To disarm this weapon Janka now has, we have our own weapon—”
“The Antichrist?” Kinzer asked.
“That’s what we’ve called it for years, yes. It’s a machine we engineered.”
“Wait. The Antichrist is a machine?”
“Yes, that’s correct. For a very long time, we disseminated propaganda that would leave people convinced otherwise, but really, it’s a powerful machine we have here at this location. It’s a bomb we can use against the Christ. The issue is that, to keep it safe, to keep it from being activated, we spread out codes among certain contacts. The only surviving contact we have access to who is in possession of these codes is Treycore. He’s not even aware he has these codes—no one who was given them is. It was done in secret to prevent the intel from falling into the wrong hands.”
“You dummies gave your codes to Treycore? Well, good luck finding him.”
“Our sources have confirmed he and his mortal friend are alive and being held in the Nest for a Day of Judgment.”
His relief in knowing Kid was alive was quickly trumped by his awareness of the cruel fate that had put him in the Nest. He could imagine what those savage immortals were doing to him. How they were brutalizing his body…to the point of death. Those monsters could so easily destroy him—such a good, sincere mortal. But it wouldn’t have been the first time he’d seen injustice to one of his mortal friends.
“We already have our plan to regain control over Treycore.”
“Have fun trying to control Treycore at all,” Kinzer warned.
“That’s not what I meant. We have a plan to reobtain Treycore from the Nest.”
“And how are you going to do that?”
“We’ll get to all that in good time. Right now, we need to get you healed, and most importantly, on our side.”
“I still don’t trust you, whoever the fuck you guys really are. How do I know this isn’t all some ploy? How do I know that the moment I start helping you I’m not really helping the Almighty?”
Quintz pulled his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “I considered that. I think we all are considering that these days, but I think you’ve learned more than anyone that you can be helping the Almighty without even realizing it…or Janka. We never know who our true allies are in all this, who the moles and the ones who will betray us are. The war has become too complicated, the sides too many, so rather than appealing to you as an ally, I will appeal to your desperation. These are your options as far as I’m concerned. You say ‘fuck off’ to me and my team, and being that I have no issue with you myself and that our operation is not hindered by releasing you, outside of being devastated to not have your assistance, you go on, trying to take on Janka, and the Almighty even, by yourself.”
“Maybe I would just get some drinks and stumble around some bars until the end of all creation,” Kinzer said.
Quintz smirked, as though he had some great secret on Kinzer. “I know you better than that.”
“You don’t know me at all.”
Quintz’s gaze drifted, and it was clear by the expression on his face that he didn’t believe Kinzer’s threat, and for good reason.
