There’s a sharp hitch in my breath. “And what happened?”
“Nothing at first. I was tugging on a thought about Khem’s wife—Milla. I twisted it a little, then got a bit creative, wrapping it around another thought of needing to see Fiona later for a wellness check. Nothing happened, the session ended, and then…” Adrienne averts her gaze. “Later, everyone was at the mess hall for dinner. Khem waltzed in, planted a kiss square on Fiona’s lips, and sat beside her instead of at his usual table with Milla.” She stops, guilt flashing in her eyes. “He thought Fiona was his wife.”
“Whoa.”
“Gets worse. He genuinely couldn’t remember he was married to Milla. He recalled who she was, that they’d met in upper school, the ward they lived in, joining the Uprising together, but anything to do with their marriage, theirentiremarriage—gone. Luckily, the confusion about Fiona didn’t last. He had enough wiring left about her that he was able to piece together that no, she was not his wife, but a fellow Authority member. But not Milla.” Adrienne rubs her face with both hands. “I erased his wife from his head.”
I can’t fathom what she’s saying. I stare at her in shock, trying to process it. “Corruption erases people’s memories?”
“Sometimes. Other times it just scrambles everything. Khem knew he had a wife, but somehow that wife became Fiona. I can’t fully explain what corruption does. From what we’ve gleaned, those thought strands are more than just fragments that someone is thinking in the moment—they’re connected to both short-term and long-term memory storage. Pull and twist enough strands, and you create pure chaos. Eventually the wiring is totally fried. The brain can’t function.”
“Did Khem know what you did?”
“Yes. I confessed to pulling the strands. He claimed he forgave me, but he never looked at me the same way. And Milla never spoke a word to me again. She left the Dagger and went to live at Bramble Base. She’s a civilian now. Refuses to run ops. I think she resents taking orders from me.”
I can’t mask my disbelief. “And you continued to use the ability? Why would you ever corrupt again after that?” There aren’t enough Luxury credits on this Continent you could pay me to use a power like corruption.
“I didn’t, not for a few years. But when I was fourteen, I wanted to try again. Kallister had just joined the Authority. He was ten years older than me, like a big brother. We were talking one day, and he offered to help me train again. We both wanted to see what else I could do with it. Whether it could be reversed.” Her gaze meets mine. “So Kallister brought me a test subject. A Prime from the wards who’d been scheduled for execution.”
A sick feeling flutters in my stomach. “He made you intentionally corrupt someone?”
“He didn’t make me do anything. I wanted to. I was a stupid teenager, and it felt great to possess so much power, especially over a Prime. I spent my entire childhood listening to my dad’s friends talk about Mods like we were vermin. Aberrations.”
“What did you do to that Prime?”
She doesn’t break eye contact. “I went into his mind, and I didn’t pull just one strand. I pulled all of them. I twisted them, knotted them. And then I severed them.”
“Holy hellfuck, Adrienne.” I wrench my gaze away, rubbing my own temples as if it were my mind she’d damaged.
“I know,” she says quietly. “I destroyed that man’s brain.”
“What happened to him?”
“He fell into a vegetative state, and they shot him later that day.”
“How could you do that to him?”
I rise from the sofa, unable to sit still. Her words are stirring up too much agitation. At least for me. Adrienne remains seated in her armchair, unfazed by what she’s telling me.
“He was going to be executed regardless. Kallister and I made the decision to not waste a perfectly good lab rat.”
“You tortured him.”
“Corruption doesn’t cause physical pain. Only confusion.”
“Mental anguish is still fucking torture, Adrienne.”
I feel the heat of anger flushing my cheeks. Or maybe it’s disgust. I can’t believe how nonchalant she sounds about what she did. She’d exhibited genuine remorse over what happened with Khem. But with this Prime, he’s just a lab rat?
“Did you corrupt those people in Ward C?” The question pops out before I can stop it. “The ones in that hospital?”
“No. I wasn’t lying about that. The incidents I’m relating to you happened two decades ago. Corruption is not something I take lightly anymore, especially when it comes to innocent civilians, and it’s not something that should ever be performed on a mass scale.”
She sounds sincere, but then again, this is the Uprising. Thesepeople are trained for covert ops, for deception. Adrienne could be telling me what I want to hear.
Either she’s a phenomenal actress or that’s a genuine crack in her voice as she adds, “Every mind I’ve corrupted chips away a little piece of my soul. Believe me when I say it’s not an ability I’d ever choose for myself.”
“Did you corrupt the General’s wife?”
