One was hunched over a body on the nearest table. A woman. Her skin was gray. Her eyes were open and staring at nothing. Her jaw hung slack. And the man's hips were moving, his hands gripping her thighs, spreading them wider while he grunted into her neck like she was still there.
Like she could still feel him.
She couldn't.
She'd been dead long enough that the bruising on her body had turned yellow at the edges.
Further in, another man sat in a chair with a body draped across his lap. He was stroking her hair. Talking to her. Whispering things I couldn't hear and didn't want to. His otherhand moved between her legs with a slow, casual rhythm, like they had all the time in the world.
They did.
She wasn't going anywhere.
The smell was overwhelming—copper, decay, and acrid chemical scents that burned my nostrils.
Formaldehyde.
They were preserving them just enough to keep them usable.
I heard groans, moans, and the wet slap of flesh against something that should have been in the ground a long time ago.
My stomach turned.
I'd seen evil. I'd done evil. But this was something else. This was a depth of depravity that made me understand why they called this place the Depths.
It wasn't just underground. It was the bottom of what human beings were capable of.
I kept my eyes forward and kept moving.
If I had the fucking time. . .
Clearly thinking the same thing, Hiro raised his gun to shoot one man.
I touched his arm. “No, Hiro.”
Hiro frowned and glanced at me. "We should kill these sickos."
"Can't waste bullets. We'll get them next time."
“Promise?”
“Yes. We’ll figure it out.”
If this is what the Council is allowing, it might be time to bomb the Depths and end the Council.
A minute later, we burst through the other side and into another hallway.
This one was cleaner.
Quieter.
Hiroko led us to an elevator at the end of the corridor. "This is a service elevator that will take us up out of the depths.”
“Good.” Reo looked at it. “Where will we end up at?”
“Backstage at the Kabuki-za theater. There’s a hidden panel backstage. We’ll arrive there."
Reo pressed into the microphone. “Team C get to Kabuki-za theater. Team D ready the helicopters.”
