"I don't know," he admitted. "I also think it was Joshua who poisoned him—or at least he had someone else do it."
"Me too." She turned to look up at his face. "If I was your partner, we could figure this out together and then stop it. I could help you, Sin."
He reclined back into the chair with a soft sigh. "You are helping me, Riss, but you can't be a priest yet. Deal?"
She groaned and shook her head. "Why no-"
A loud blast interrupted her. The echoes of it bounced through the city, the sound turning higher-pitched each time it reverberated. Neither of them moved for a moment, then they both jumped up together, scanning the skyline for where it had come from.
"I need a network," Rissa gasped. "I need a map of the city, centered around where we are, and I can tell you where that was."
A few blocks over, the windows were shattered out of buildings. A block further, a dim glow and a thick plume of smoke stood as an announcement to the tragedy. Even in the darkness, it was black, like a shadow against the night.
"It's Pharmacon," Sin said softly.
Rissa turned and looked to her right. "Sin?" she pointed.
The neon green sign in the distance proclaimed the company's headquarters—and was still standing.
"That's the headquarters." He pointed at the burning rubble just visible through the narrow streets. "That is the manufacturing center."
Rissa sucked in a breath and clutched the railing. "Stabiltrol," she breathed. "Oh, shit. Sin? Sin! That's what they were talking about!"
"Who?" He grabbed her shoulders. "Princess, breathe. We're ok, we're in one of the safest buildings in town. Breathe first, then explain."
She nodded. "The new Praetor is Joshua, right?"
"Yes," Sin said, then added, "I did not vote for him."
"Didn't think so. Look, the same MAC address that responds to comments on the Legion's social media under the name Joshua has been creating discussions in locked forums."
"What?" he asked.
She ticked things off on her fingers. "Same device. Same location. One for the church, one for an extremist group. Most likely the same person."
His head started bobbing as he tried to process that. "Ok? Do I want to know how you found this?"
"I'm an Ingénue." She waved that off and kept going. "He's been inciting a group that calls themselves the Devoted. They're civilians who support the Legion—usually radically. They've been discussing lynching the enhanced. Between the conversations in the group and some news reports, I've beenable to verify eleven different attacks that were instigated in the main forum, all by someone with the same virtual address as the new Praetor."
"Shit." Sin gestured for her to keep going.
"They've been making threats against both Pharmacon and OutLink for their support of cybernetics, along with a few others." She took a deep breath. "This morning, while I was waiting for an assignment, they were discussing the fireworks. One person said it would be a show to make all of the enhanced cry." She pointed at the destroyed building. "That's what they meant."
"What about OutLink?" he asked.
She shook her head. "I don't know. They never name anything specifically. I only know they meant OutLink because of the tangent about 'Brains.' They just said they'd shut the whole thing down with their display, and that it would be a night to celebrate. There were comments about barbecuing with the tears of the enhanced."
"Rissa," Sin said, keeping his voice calm. "Are they going to attack OutLink?"
She looked up at him. "I don't know. They haven't hit more than one place in a single night, so probably not yet."
The words were barely out of her mouth before another explosion rang out. This one, thankfully, was further away. Still, Sin and Rissa both turned to the sound, hurrying to the railing so they could find where it came from.
***
Her eyes scanned the night sky, looking for anything out of the ordinary, but Rissa wasn't used to seeing the skyline like this. It all looked new to her.
Then Sin pointed. "There." And his arm slowly sank back down. "Shit. That's Sisec's cybernetics plant."
