Chapter 58
**Orian POV**
I use the sickle-shaped blade like a scythe to peel his skin, rending flesh from bone. His ear-piercing scream only contributes to my splitting headache, and yet I draw a sense of serenity from the slaughter. The air reeks of blood and rotting flesh. I inhale a deep breath as I shave off another patch like threshing grain with a flail. It reminds me of a distant time when I tended the fields of Saruga, when I was at the only place I called home. With a woman I considered to be my mother. Obaasan. And Santos took her from me.
He doesn't fathom what destruction he has brought unto himself.
"I swear to you, I don't know anything more. I told you everything!"
I take a step back, meandering towards a former employee. He's strapped to a chair, untouched, forced to watch me mutilate his brother for the answers I seek. I know he's telling the truth. But I also like to be sure. I appear behind him and I lift the blade and the curvature fits around his neck perfectly. I bend over so my head is aligned with his, sharing his view of his skinless brother, his eyes swollen shut. He can't even see. He can't even speak; only scream. His fear has unmanned him and the agony he feels devolved him into a primal state of savagery.
He doesn't even remember his own name.
"You are to blame," I whisper calmly.
Dried vomit stains his shirt, sweat drenching through it, shivering violently.
"You took orders from my brother, but he took orders from me. Your betrayal did this to him, not me. Now it has cost you both your lives. I hope my brother was worth it."
"I never knew." Raw panic in his voice. His shoulders start shaking and he breaks down sobbing, crying uncontrollably. "I thought I was acting on your orders. I never questioned it because I never questioned his loyalty to you."
The hollow of my chest fills with a dark emotion; depthless and all-consuming.
"Neither did I." I hold the edge of the blade to his throat, exerting slight pressure. "However, Torin gained initial access somehow. I never gave him power of attorney over any of my assets and operations because I trust nothing with a fucking heartbeat."
He frees a smattering of snorts, sniffing, snot dripping from his nose.
"I don't know how he managed to funnel money to offshore accounts," he says with his voice thick with fear. "But it's completely untraceable. His primary account we were able to drain most of it. By now, he's almost flat broke."
He's a Moon. His backup plans have backup plans. He'll know what to do or ally himself with someone who does. He doesn't have money or refeinforcements but he can get it because he has the book.
"Chīfu."
I straighten, and my hand drops to my side.
"I assume this is important."
"Phone call for you. It's about her."
*"Onegaishimasu*," he yells, straining his neck to try to look back at me. "Let my brother go, he has nothing to do with this. I was the one that gave him the keycodes and the information. Let me suffer for it."
"How is Melony Adler?"
He goes frozen with dread. "No," he breathes. "Don't touch her, please."
"I told you, I have done nothing. You did."
"You can't, you monster. You're the devil!"
"He doesn't exist. But I do."
In a flash of movement, I hook the point of the blade in one end of his neck and it sticks out from the other. He gags, spurting out a gush from his mouth. I rip out his throat—an explosion of blood. I chuck away the drenched blade, and it clatters on the earthen ground.
"Bring in a cleaner." I point at his flesh-peeled brother. "And him. He lasted longer than I anticipated... clean him too."
I exit the cell, leaving the underground dungeon to resurface up top. Torin has done a good job hiding her, and himself. Of course he would. He knows me, at least he thinks he does. Torin doesn't know how much of me is in him; and him in me. I am the brick and mortar of who he is, and as I built him. I will tear him back down. He thinks his defection and his amatuer rebellion can threaten the empire I forged with blood and bone. I almost pity him. I scale up the metal black steps. Shortly, I emerge atop, burned by the light. Akio hands me the satellite phone on my advent.
"You have sixty seconds."
"There was a cyber breach at Langley. They were able to trace it back to Berlin, Germany. The Deputy Director has already deployed a grab team and notified Interpol. They have agents standing by and they will be closer. The CIA assets are just a contingency."
"What does that have to do with me?"
"Cyber signature is linked to a Calum Taylor. We have been monitoring his international activity. And since he landed in Germany, he has been off the grid. He booked severnal nights at a hotel but never checked in. He just vanished."
I heave out a breath. "Torin has him. You couldn't track the equipment he was using?"
"The computer terminal is using a highly sophisticated encrypted complex. No one seems able to track down a precise location remotely. But once they have boots on the ground, they might be able to capture a signal."
I nod, a smile inching on my face. "I want to know the moment they discovered their location. I'll have my own team sweep them up before they can even plan a raid."
"If we intercept them, what are your orders if we're unable to secure either of them? Once they are in their custody, they will be rendition'd at a blacksite and thrown in the deepest hole they got. If we can't capture them. Do we shoot to kill?"
"No," I say firmly. "I want all three of them."
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