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Damien let go of me, causing his temporary influence over me to break. I couldn't help but feel relieved that something else had caught their attention for the time being.
"Can you tell what it is?" he asked Naomi, sparking with electricity as he went on guard. His eyes darted across the sky. "What direction is it from?"
Naomi looked around at the rubble that was once the Sadio Power estate.
"No, it's not Avarice if that's what you're thinking," she commented, pointing somewhere among the debris. "It's coming from there."
Damien told us to stay back as he slowly walked over to where Naomi had pointed.
"Odd. Something's still working. I can feel some electricity over here," he said as he casually tossed aside pieces of heavy debris to reach something buried underneath it. He hovered his hand over the rest of the debris, and soon after, out popped a large, strange storage device—maybe a hard drive? Based on the teal color, it wasn't difficult to guess whose office it belonged to.
"It has Custov's name etched onto it," Damien willed the metal box to spin for us to see as he walked back over to us.
"An indestructible backup? The guy's paranoid reputation wasn't exaggerated, I see," Arne commented as we hovered over the device.
"Apparently, he was a nasty guy," Naomi replied. "Bad people make a lot of bad enemies."
I tapped the box curiously, getting a slightly hollow echo in response.
"It looks like an old hard drive, doesn't it? Since it's physical, we can't connect it to our c-chips. We'll need a laptop."
"There's a few at the manor," Michael announced, taking hold of the box. "We've been out for too long anyhow. We should be returning."
A few short minutes later, we were back at his manor, surrounding a laptop Michael had dug up from somewhere. After connecting the box to the computer, we found many files had been transferred to it. Most were in video format and encrypted, but the most recently uploaded file hadn't had time to be encrypted yet.
The timestamp on it was the day Custov had died. After clicking on it, a first-person recording commenced. We quickly realized it was a recording from Custov's point of view. The guy even recorded and stored his day–to–day details...
"Let's see how you died," I murmured as I skipped to the part of the day after we'd visited.
I pressed play when I finally reached the video segment of us leaving. Shortly after we'd left, Vicki entered the office through the balcony window Custov had left open. We watched in silence as the two exchanged words before Vicki ultimately killed him in cold blood.
"...she pretended not to have anything to do with it. She's been playing me. Of course, she has..." I muttered, my fists trembling. I felt disgusted by my gullibility.
Before I could be talked out of it, I quickly called her. As the transmission went through, I pretended to be clueless—to test something first.
"Lisa?" Vicki answered.
"Yeah, it's me," I replied, sounding slightly doleful.
"Hey, I'm sorry about what happened to your family."
"Thanks. That's part of the reason why I called. I'm trying to figure out who's responsible."
"Verin is. Didn't she make you watch as the others...?"
"Yeah, I know she pulled the strings, but I also want to know who her puppets were. You know, to figure out how'd it lead to this..."
"O-Okay, sure. That might be difficult now, and I can't promise much since the Holders and Sub Deities are all dead, but if you're looking for names to put yourself at ease, I can understand that. Want me to look into it?"
"Vicki, the day your dad died and the Russos were attacked, did you have anything to do with that?"
There was a pause.
"Why would you ask me that?" She spoke.
"Before all this happened, rumors were going on that a dark-cloaked female was seen fleeing the building at the time of his death," I lied. "You're the only person I know who fits that description."
"You seriously think I killed my dad?"
"You're not denying it," I stated steadily.
"No. How would you feel if I accused you of killing your parents?" Vicki countered.
I sighed as my shoulders slumped.
Vicki laughed nervously.
"You okay? You seem...different. Let me help. I'll come to y—"
"I know the truth, Vicki," I interrupted. "Your dad was so paranoid that he recorded every moment of his life—including his death."
There was silence over the call again before Vicki responded.
"If you knew, why ask?"
"To see your response—to see if you were really the liar others suspected you to be," I answered, my voice dripping with slow-rising contempt.
"Deception isn't like you."
"No, but it seems to be everyone else's nature, so I'm adapting."
"He deserved it. You don't know all the monstrous things he's done. Why do you think he was so paranoid? All the people he betrayed, the innocents he stepped over to get to build his wealth?"
"And then you turned around and spent centuries working for someone much worse," I criticized. "You even aided in the annihilation of thousands of people. You're no better than him."
"No...I..." Vicki muttered, at a loss for words.
"The others were right," I continued, "I shouldn't have trusted you. I knew nothing about you, and you were conveniently always there at the right moment with just the right amount of information..."
I inhaled to stay calm.
"Correct me if I'm wrong. Verin sent you to Custov. It was a big enough move to get all the Sadios into one spot. Then, someone else attacked the Russos with the same effect in mind. The Hearts weren't attacked because Verin knew once the pattern was evident that we'd bolster our defenses on our own, but just in case, you were told to call to ensure we would."
"Lisa..."
I exhaled deeply before continuing scornfully.
"Vicki, I can't trust you. I was an idiot to do so in the first place. The next time we cross paths..."110Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD03BxF0iRp
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