“Nah,” Phoenix drawled. Only a brief pause gave away his surprise, a few seconds that he must’ve used to reassess the situation and pick his next words. “I doubt you killed anyone, let alone your husband. You humans are all talk, but when it comes to action, you freeze. Just like mice.”
“I did what I had to do,” she spoke through her teeth. There was a pause, and then words poured from her in a hushed, breathless torrent, as if she’d been carrying them inside for a long time. “He begged me to put him out of his misery. The nightmares, the phantom pains—he couldn’t take it, and the doctors couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t do anything.” She sat hunched on the bed, her gaze on her hands. “It took away who he was, little by little every day. I thought I could fix it. But it only got worse. He wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t drink, he lashed out at me, tried to kill himself half a dozen times. Until I couldn’t take it anymore, and he… he was so convincing. He lied…” Her voice broke off in a sob. “He lied about everything. It wasn’t right. It never felt right. It’s he who didn’t want to get better, and he used me.” Her voice became a whisper, and Peter strained his ears to hear. “I should’ve never listened to him.”
A few seconds passed in silence. Phoenix glanced at the camera but didn’t say a word, probably knowing he would spoil it if he opened his mouth.
She scoffed. “You happy now? Knowing I’m miserable, and nothing you say can make it worse?”
He only tilted his head, still silent.
Victoria wiped her face, standing. “Your kind is like a plague. You’re everywhere, everyone believes you can do anything, the government, the army… Those agents, they were supposed to save him, but they fucked up and made him a cripple instead. Not for the first time, too. I’ve looked into it, plenty of cases like that. And now they’re shocked we want to make them pay for it.”
“Pay for it?” Phoenix prodded.
“Yes, pay,” she broke off suddenly, and for the briefest of moments, Peter saw her eyes flash at the camera.
He sighed. They were this close.
“I’d love to see you do that, sweetheart,” Phoenix said. “But trust me, if there was a way, someone would’ve found it already.”
A shaky, hysterical laugh spilled from her lips. “Oh, there is a way. But I doubt you’ll live to see it, Beast.”
With that, she went back to her bunk and lay down, turning to the wall. Peter rubbed a hand over his face, reminding himself to be patient. They’d already gotten something out of her; another day, and she would spill enough for them to untangle this mess.
One thing was clear: Victoria hadn’t gone off the grid to seek out help—she’d done it for revenge.
The office door cracked open, Luke’s head popping in. “Marco and Chad want to see you.”
“Nix, I’m out, you’re on your own,” Peter said into the headset before taking it off. “Send them in,” he told Luke.
He got up and stretched, stiff from the hours spent in the chair.
“Oh, you better sit down for what you’re about to hear,” Marco said as he walked in.
Chad came in after him, his appearance more than a little haggard.
“What is it?” Peter asked, leaning against the table.
“No, I mean it.” Marco’s voice turned serious. He stopped a few steps from Peter, crossing his arms.
Peter looked at Chad, genuinely puzzled now, but the young man ignored him and took a seat at the table.
“Fine.” Peter sat back down into his chair and held up his hands. “Shoot.”
“You know how we’ve been trying to follow the Commandos, but they kept vanishing into thin air?”
Peter shrugged. “Sure.”
“That’s because they’re using our tunnels.” Marco stared at him, unblinking, and Peter stared back.
A few seconds passed, and Peter laughed. “No way!”
“That’s what I thought at first, but we just got a confirmation from Rooney. I’m serious, Peter.”
The smile slid off Peter’s face. “What kind of confirmation? That’s insane. Why would they use our tunnels, and how would they do that without running into us?”
Marco blew out a breath as he ran a hand over his mohawk. He took off his coat and took a seat next to Chad. “They wouldn’t run into us if they only used old exits, the ones we abandoned after Eugene split. They’d only need to go in and out to lose the tail. Besides, it’s winter, and with how much they know about us, I wouldn’t be surprised if they knew that we barely ever use the tunnels now. It’s already dark by six.”
Peter listened with a detached frown as the truth sank in. Marco told him about the lead at Archie’s and the Commando disappearing exactly where their old tunnel exit was.
“That still doesn’t prove it,” Peter interrupted him. “If he knew he was being followed, he could’ve had some other way out. Someone waiting for him, maybe?”
Marco nodded. “That’s why I asked Rooney to check another location. The one where Jane and Ryan lost a Commando, the bastard who tased me? There’s another old exit, and I bet if you show it to them on the map, they’ll confirm that’s where the Commando was going.”
Peter blinked a few times, struggling to wrap his head around this. “The map…” he said, taking out a stack of papers from a drawer. He found an A5-sized sheet with all the locations the Commandos had been spotted at, then got up and went into his room to look for an old tunnel map.
Coming
