Chapter 105 Bite More

No. Calm down. Don’t let them strip the momentum from you.

That was the command I gave myself in the small, loud room in my head, the one voice I trusted more than any paper, and more than Mrs. Mind’s calm assurances.

“You have to get a hold of yourself,” Onyx purred in my skull, the little devil in me. “They’re all looking at you like you’re the joke.”

“Self-awareness is good, Nick,” Silver said, steady as a metronome. Her worry was a hand on my shoulder. Real, warm, and human.

I rubbed my temple until the lids of my eyes ached. The file Mrs. Mind handed over was elegant, everything a professional would appreciate in any job. It suggested an approach, a bait, a play to flush Assessor into the spotlight.

“I don’t like the plan,” I said aloud. “So no, I don’t want to use it.”

“Admit it, when you get too ahead of yourself,” Thirdhand huffed from his sofa. “Kid, it happens. You’ve been given responsibility, and you want to prove yourself. The same thing happened with Assessor.”

Don’t patronize me, I thought. Proving myself wasn’t the point. I didn’t owe my competence to them, or to Mrs. Onyx’s whisper cut in, sharp and amused. “I think I know why you’re like this. You haven’t killed for a while, haven’t you? Withdrawal. Like an addict.”

“Nick isn’t like that!” Silver snapped back, flushed with indignation. She always spoke for the part of me that wanted to be better.

Lovelies leaned forward, glossy smile in place. “Is there a problem?” She sounded bored and predatory at once.

Thirdhand’s voice was practical. “There’s an existing strategy. Mrs. Mind designed it. You were given operational command… use it. We follow the procedure. You don’t improvise and risk the fucking optics, ya hear me?”

“No,” I said, louder this time.

Thirdhand’s mouth twisted. “You’re tossing out the boss’s plan.”

“I’m not tossing it out.” I kept my voice flat. “I’m altering it. We need contingencies. We need anchors. If Assessor’s pride is bait enough, fine. But I don’t want to rely on pride alone. I want guarantees.”

Lovelies chuckled, derisive. “Guarantees? Cute. You think life hands you guarantees?”

“I’d rather build them,” I answered. “We put more eyes on the lanes Assessor would use. We craft incentives for him, things only he would go to claim. We make the bait irresistible.”

Thirdhand snorted. “So you’re going to bribe him into a trap.”

“Strategy,” I corrected. “Not a bribe. A story with a payoff he can’t ignore.”

There was a reason Mrs. Mind glued Lovelies and Thirdhand to me; whether it was caution, testing, or control, I had to play along long enough to get my footing. Still, the thought of doing it alone kept crossing my mind.

“And what’s the new plan, then, genius?” asked Thirdhand with impatience.

“I walk up to Assessor and I kill him,” I said, plain and simple.

Mrs. Mind could have sent me straight to him if she wanted him murdered. This ‘bait’ tactic felt like a test and too roundabout a method. I refused to play by her rules.

Lovelies toyed with a strand of hair, eyes half-lidded. “How are you going to find Assessor, then? The Council is a sprawl. Cities, towns, dead zones. If you’re going to go after him, you’ll have to work people. And from my experience, the Monarchy doesn’t like chatter.”

“Then I’ll talk to them,” I said.

“You are fucking insane,” said Thirdhand. “The Monarchy isn’t a gang you stroll into asking for directions. They monopolize psychic tradecraft. They can read markets, minds, and motives in ways you can’t even conceptualize. They’ve got techniques that would shred you cognitively. Ten generations of psychic application. You think you can just knock on doors and ask? I’m out. You want to be solo, be my guest… don’t come crying.”

He stood up like a man shrugging off a cloak. “You’re on your own, kid. Lovelies, you still have a quota. Good luck.”

He didn’t wait for an argument. He left.

Lovelies chewed her lip. “Now, what? I can’t refuse this mission… the penalty is huge, and I’d hate my bank account suffering—”

“Shhh.” I cut her off.

“What?” she whispered.

Bunny’s speakers chirped. “It’s done. You have fifteen minutes at most, Nick.”

I forced my face into calm. “Play along.”

She blinked, the practiced mask of a predator slipping for an instant. “What—”

I closed the gap between us with a wordless push of empathy, a suggestion shaped like smoke. Camouflage. Thought-quiet. Lovelies felt it and, to her credit, followed without a fuss. Her empathic ratings were high; I sensed the friction like two metals grinding and then settling into a fit.

“With Thirdhand out of the way,” I said low, “we can talk real business.”

“What is the meaning of this?” she asked.

“I want you to meet an acquaintance.” I gestured. “Introduce yourself, Bunny.”

Bunny shifted. The machine folded its rendering and became a perfect replica of Lovelies for a beat, then me, then back to the Courier form; his hologram was a mocking mimicry of perfect details. His form revved softly behind the sofa. “Nice to meet you, please call me Bunny,” the bike intoned in a voice that borrowed politeness and refused to smile. “Now, I might look like this, but I used to be quite a handsome chap myself back in the day.”

I let my empathy tighten like a noose. “You must’ve deduced by now that my bike is not just a piece of machinery. He’s a living mind. He thinks, he plans, and he has powers that would make this building uncomfortable if we let him. Of course, he could do more than that... I just want you to know, I am not alone. And even if you miraculously make the slip from me, you won't do the same to my friend here. Now: questions. You will answer. Fail to meet my expectations and you die.”

Lovelies’ empathic powers went against mine as if to rip the psychic link.

“Don’t you dare,” I said. “Or I will bury you where you sit.”

If she decided to do so, I would have no power to stop her with my Empathy. Except, there were other ways to stop her, like, say, physical violence.

Lovelies froze. Pride and calculation warred in her eyes. I had leverage in the form of fear, presence, and Bunny. That was enough to make her behave. As for what I’m doing, it had to do with Missive and everything I learned from her in the duration of the supply run. I now have a goal, after so long, and I will make it come true.

“Now, hopefully, we can move on without further complications,” I told her. “The Tenfold Keep is watched in two ways. Mechanical eavesdropping with cams and mics, stuff that listens to air and light. And then there’s the more pernicious kind: telepathic nets, Mrs. Mind herself.”

Her facade cracked for a second. “You… What do you want with me? What the hell are you thinking?!”

“I don’t think,” I said. “I know, see... There are more into things than they appear to be, so I want you to listen very carefully.” I leaned in, voice cold. “Right now, Bunny is looping a clean feed to the eavesdropping machinery. He’s feeding them nothing but static, and maybe the two of us cordially talking about our differences, maybe even you scolding me how dumb it was not taking an already tailored plan with little input on my part. And our combined empathic camouflage? It should be enough to fool even Mrs. Mind. This gives us enough time to talk.”

Fifteen minutes was too short, but I would make use of them.

One of the things I’d learned to do with my Empathy was strip a lie down to its skeleton. It wasn’t pretty work, more like a surgeon with dirty gloves, but it was reliable. Tonight I used it full-on against another empath for the first time. Locking onto Lovelies’ feelings was like putting a hand into warm water and finding every hidden thing bobbing up.

“Do you know you were being surveilled by Mrs. Mind?” I asked.

“Of course I do,” she said, the words smooth and practiced, “but I didn’t know she was using technology to spy too! Was it Dullahan? Who set it up?”

“How much do you know about Mrs. Mind’s connections?” I pressed, letting my threads slither into the fine print of her fear.

“None,” she admitted after a moment, honest for once. “She keeps everything close. Global scale, rumors only. Whatever you’re thinking, drop it. Assessor betraying us is one thing, but you—”

“Betray?” I cut her off. The word tasted small in my mouth. “You’re mistaken. Betrayal requires little effort. I don’t intend to merely betray. I intend to take over.”

Her laugh was quick, sharp like a snapped wire. “You’re insane. You think you can take her down? It's Mrs. Mind we are talking about, the Witch of Minds!”

“I think I can take this building.” The thought unspooled without ceremony. Saying it aloud made it heavier, more real. “Better yet, take the Nth Contract. Steal her connections. Convert her capes to my own, turn her people into mine. So yes, I think I can take Mrs. Mind down.”

She blinked. “Your greed knows no bounds.”

“It’s not greed,” I said. “It’s what I am. I take what I want because I don’t play by the rules anyone else wrote. I’m a bad guy; I admit it. But bad guys can be organized. Bad guys can be powerful. I… I want to be powerful…” That admission was simple and brutal. It felt like a stone dropped into a calm pond. Ripples spread. I watched her эмоtions fold: dismissal first, then curiosity, then the thin sheen of calculation. Empaths like her always betrayed their logic with a pulse somewhere under their composure. I traced it.

There were other reasons, too. Missive’s terrified confession, her loops of death and return, had lit something in me. She called me a destroyer and, in doing so, reminded me of the role I used to live. Maybe I would be a destroyer again. Maybe I’d be a builder afterward. Maybe that part didn’t matter. What mattered was the opening. Mrs. Mind had resources. If I could take them for myself, I might find a way to get the happy ending I want.

“Now, this is what’s going to happen: you are going to convince Mrs. Mind for us to bring Missive. With your word and mine, it should be possible.”

“And what makes you think I’ll cooperate?” Lovelies asked, voice steady but eyes wide. “That if I leave this place, I won’t tattle?”

I didn’t answer her right away. Instead, I lifted the porcelain mask and slid it onto my face. The fit was perfect, cool against my skin, and weightless once it sealed itself.

“Bunny,” I said.

“I’ve connected it to my system,” Bunny replied through the comms, his tone precise. “No spyware. You’re good to go, Nick.”

Lovelies tilted her head, her suspicion palpable. “What are you doing?”

I stepped toward her. “Making sure you don’t ever think of betraying me.”

Before she could move, I phased my hand through her chest. The sensation was strange. It felt warm, with slippery pressure as my arm passed through flesh and bone without resistance. I deposited a small capsule, a chem bomb, nestled between her lungs, aided by the mask’s perfect spatial overlay. Then I pulled my hand free.

She froze, gasping, her fingers trembling as they hovered over her sternum. “What did you do?”

Bunny answered before I could. “Inside your chest is a chemical solution that can be remotely activated. Simply put, it will liquify your insides if you dare disobey us. Better yet, I must send a code to it every twenty-four hours to keep it inert. If I fail to do so… well, you’ll die anyway.”

Lovelies’ composure cracked. Her mouth twisted, the corners shaking. “You monsters!”

I stared at her through the mask’s mirrored surface, my voice even. “That’s ironic, coming from someone who used to thrive on blackmail and abuse. You’ve ruined people you thought were beneath you, crushed them just because you could. Consider this a lesson.” I leaned closer, my reflection distorted in her dilating pupils. “There’s always someone ready to screw you over, so be careful not to get screwed yourself. This—” I tapped my chest, then pointed to hers, “—is for trying to manipulate me. And because, if I’m honest, I find it fun trampling on your dignity.”

Her teeth gnashed together, fury shaking her frame, but she said nothing. The sound of her grinding enamel echoed softly in the quiet room.

“Oh, fuck you,” cried Lovelies. “Fine, I’m now your bitch!”

“Fifteen minutes almost up,” Bunny said through the mask’s comms. “Counting down. Ten… nine… eight… seven—”

“We’re done,” I said, cutting him off. My voice came out distorted through the mask, metallic, almost inhuman. “Now, don’t fail me.”

Lovelies didn’t respond. She just glared at me one last time before turning sharply toward the elevator. I unraveled the empathic camouflage between us, severing the thread that connected our minds. The sudden quiet was almost deafening.

So what did I need Lovelies for, really? It wasn’t just to make her help me convince Mrs. Mind to let Missive join the mission. That was just a convenient excuse. The truth was simpler and more practical. I needed a pawn. Someone already in the system, trusted, valuable, and expendable. Someone I could push first when the time came to play my hand.

When the elevator closed behind her, Bunny’s voice filtered back through the comms, his tone lower this time. “Nick, if you truly plan to take over the Nth Contract, I recommend you not start anything drastic now. Leave Missive alone, if you have to. The surveillance network extends through the intercomms and the building’s architecture itself. Mrs. Mind might already be listening. I am not perfect.”

“Hide our traces as much as you can, Mrs. Mind probably wouldn’t care about me showing a little ambition with me, now,” I replied, though I was barely paying attention. My gaze drifted toward the window. “But Bunny… I’m not sure about the Nth Contract itself.”

He paused. “You’re not?”

“No.” I leaned against the wall, letting the porcelain mask’s reflection stare back at me. “That was an afterthought. What I really want is the building itself… and the connection Mrs. Mind possesses.” In other words, the higher power she answered to.

“Still, ambitious,” he said finally. “It doesn’t change the fact that you might be biting more than you can chew… Care, I remind you of Royal? Or pray-tell, Crow?”

“I’ve always been ambitious,” I murmured. “It’s only recently that I am finding that fire in me again. So, if you think of leaving my side now, then do it quickly… because at some point, I won’t be able to let you go so easily.”

“Don’t think too much about it. I think I might enjoy this villainy more than I’d like to admit.”

With that, I removed the mask and set it on the table, the blank face staring upward, expressionless and plain.