Page 114 of Prey
Raphael arrives within minutes, taking over the girl’s care. Her eyes don’t open, they have no appearance of REM cycle, don’t track movement. Whatever they’ve done to her mind, the damage might be irreversible.
“How many others?” I ask quietly.
“Thirty-seven children total,” Marcus reports. “Ages five to fourteen. All alive, but…”
But damaged. Broken. Carrying trauma that will take years to heal, if it ever fully heals.
“Personnel status?”
“All eliminated except the doctor,” Damon confirms. “Facility is secure.”
Dr.Martinez begins to regain consciousness as Theon arrives with his chemistry kit. She looks around at the systematic destruction of her life’s work with growing horror.
“You’ve destroyed everything,” she whispers. “Years of research, breakthrough treatments?—”
“Breakthrough torture,” I correct.
Theon kneels beside her with a syringe.
“I developed this compound specifically for people like you,” he explains conversationally. “It amplifies pain sensation while keeping you conscious and alert. You’ll experience every moment of what we do to you with perfect clarity.”
“Wait,” she gasps. “I can give you information. Other facilities, funding sources, the people who ordered this research?—”
“You’ll give us that anyway,” Nikolai states. “The question is whether you give it to us before or after Theon starts his chemistry lesson.”
Her face goes white. “Please. I was just following orders. Just doing my job?—”
“Your job,” I interrupt, “was torturing children.”
I think about Tommy, about his hollow voice saying there is no home. About the girl who might never wake up properly from whatever they’ve done to her. About the thirty-seven children who will carry scars for the rest of their lives because people like Dr.Martinez thought their suffering was acceptable collateral damage.
“Theon,” I say quietly. “Teach her about breakthrough pain research.”
His smile is beautiful and unnerving. “My pleasure.”
What follows isn’t justice. Justice would be a fair trial, appropriate punishment, and the measured response of a civilized society.
This is vengeance, pure and simple. And it feels exactly right.
Dr.Martinez tells us everything she knows—names, locations, funding streams, the whole network of people keeping Project Architect alive. Theon’s compounds ensure she doesn’t lie, doesn’t withhold information, doesn’t die until we have everything we need.
When it’s over, I don’t feel sick or guilty or traumatized by the violence. I feel clean. Like we’ve accomplished something important.
“Facility purge in ten minutes,” Ezra reports. “All evidence destroyed.”
“Children?”
“Secure in the transport vehicles,” Raphael confirms. “Initial assessment shows varying degrees of conditioning damage, but all of them are going to survive.”
Survive. Not heal, not recover, not return to normal. But survive.
It’s more than they had when they woke this morning.
As we prepare to leave the burning facility behind us, Nikolai pulls me aside.
“How do you feel?” he asks.
I consider the question. How do I feel after participating in the systematic execution of seventeen people? After torturing information out of someone who probably deserved worse?
