My guns are gone.
“Where’s Evelyn?” I step forward but Xavier raises his gun at me and all the dread inside me makes my toes curl.
Tell me this is a fucking joke.
“I can’t…” His words falter even though his expression is hardened, and he swallows almost unnoticeably before injecting resolve into his next words.
“I can’t have you ruining this for me, Christian.”
“Xavier.” Something is unfurling inside me. Something broken and furiousand uncontrollable. “What did you do?”
“… What I had to.”
I swear this strange world is shifting beneath my feet, “I had the shot. Xavier, I had the fucking shot—”
“And if you’d taken it, Evie wouldn’t have been able to fulfil her purpose.”
Her... purpose?
I’m splintering.
Splintering. Shattering. Breaking.
“You left Evie to die.” My realization is quiet. My thoughts are far from me. Far from where I think I am.
“Reuben gave me full autonomy.”
“You betrayed me.” Those words are heavy in the air. They roll in a silence that is so heavy it threatens to pull me back beneath the darkness.
Yet still, Xavier’s aim doesn’t waver, his lips are pressed tightly into a thin line, before he finally responds.
“And you have no grenades to stuff into my mouth this time.”
I step forward to lunge at him but he fires a single shot. One that grazes my cheek and makes me hold my ground.
“You were going to put a bullet in her, Christian,” he grinds between clenched teeth, as though he’s trying to get me to see reason—to convince me he had no choice. “Then they would’ve just thrown her body overboard, then we would’ve lost them all.”
“And where thefuckare they now?!” I yell.
“They think they’ve won,” he rattles on. “They’ll take her to their base—”
“And then she’ll bedead!”
“And then she’llleadus!” Xavier shouts back—losing his patience momentarily before continuing, “To the people who did this. She’ll lead us toPhilip!”
There are footsteps nearby, rushing toward us, but I don’t care to see who it could possibly be—another realization is sinking into my fractured mind. One that drives a wild and raw chuckle from my lips, “You chipped her.”
Xavier's nose flares. “Their interference jammed our communications. But it won’t jam the GPS I placed on her.”
“You never fucking cared about Evelyn—”
“This mission isn't about Evelyn!” He screams at me and I see it there. That madness deep in his eyes. Hidden behind rage and torment and obsession. An exact mirror of the one I saw in the case room with all of the photos relating to the victims.
“This is about finding the Harvester! Finding who he works for!” His eyes glower darkly with promise, his next words softer.
“And making them all pay.”
That’s always what this has been about.
