CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
"Have you eliminated any trace of the aberration?"
An ominous voice asked Zeke over the phone.
"Yes. And the remnants will be delivered to you shortly. The increment in aberration manifestation is troubling, we can only hope that this is all we have to deal with."
"That is for us to worry about, focus on keeping Rothschild occupied. Once we contain and extract the aberration, we will re-evaluate strategies for future manifestations. In the meantime, we will assign the boy a mock mission to send him outside the radar for a bit. Make the briefing convincing."
"I am always at your service, Great one." With words of reverent submission, Zeke ended the call and returned to the normal flow of things.
The elevator door opened and March stepped in with Kaleb while Zeke left them, giving a parting gaze at the body of Celeste Fleck lying lifeless on the ground without any visible form of injury.
"Rest in peace. I made it as painless as I could." Zeke muttered this prayer under his breath as the door shut, removing Celeste from his sight.
As he moved through the floor directly underneath Ives' penthouse, he felt an invisible weight pressing down on him. Having watched and shaped Ives into the man he is, he couldn't even imagine saying that he didn't feel anything for him.
Ives trusted him and he trusted Ives too. Yet here he was executing the person he wanted to see more than anything in the world, simply because it threatens the state of affairs the cabal wants to maintain.
'I'm the one who roped you into this and now look, we are both puppets on strings forced to dance till we drop.' He mused internally at their shared misfortune.
Zeke Igles began his journey as a modest man in eastern Aureas selling shoes to get buy then the new regime began and waves of mass genocide surfaced across the fragile state.
He did what any sensible person would do and left with his family - Elma, his newly wed wife. Rüger, his father and Mina, his mother along with his cousin, Fyinn.
They moved through their cities which now became a warzone, watching man killed and gutted like pigs all for being in the wrong ethnic group. Children violated in broad daylight while passer-bys watched unwilling to help with sinister smiles or pitiful gazes. Babies were flayed then hung on stakes showing that even the young of their enemies are no less than a pig in their eyes. Women were even worse, tied down and strapped into wooden stints with their butts exposed, anyone and everyone could help themselves even animals were allowed. The hollow looks they had on their faces as the white seed of strangers overflowed from their bodies was deplorable. Somehow they survived through the rallies, air raids against the retaliation and searches by hiding out in the back of trucks whose drivers made sure to tip the officers at the checkpoint generously and of course, they paid for it. With money and valuables when they could or Elma's service whenever the driver felt like it.
Zeke heard the speeches of Premier Kohan on the radio encouraging the massacres against the fair skinned Romanai by the brown Jaztis.
"The white skinned are evil, they stole our land. Hoarded our resources while our chidren starved. They contaminated our culture with their filth. And supported foreigners as they took and never gave back. This land is ours and we won't stop until Jazti is on top once again…."
Every single speech was met with thunderous appaluse and roars of victory as they watched an illiterate imperialist drive the country to hell, the most vexing part was that he was right about the Romanai but leading a genocide was the worst possible thing he could be doing to solve this issue given that Aureas was a poor nation without any valuable natural resource or skilled labour and had to accept aid from foreign bodies who were sometimes not so nice and Romanai was pushing this progressive movement which turned them into the villains.
Leading a genocide while international law and expecting the democratic alliance to stay quiet was fool hardy that was probably why Aureas no longer existed at the moment, what is in its place is Mon Retid, a vassal to their more advanced neighbour, Brxit and unfortunately Zeke couldn't witness this change since he was right in the middle of the height of the genocide and had no choice but to flee.
They arrived at the port to board a refugee ship heading to United Columbia, they all boarded ready for a better life outside Aureas. Some survivors say it would have been better if they stayed and died.
The sea was unforgiving and the ship crew incompetent and perverse, soon the ship full of nealry five hundred people were straded in international waters without any navigation or power. A three month cruise lasted a year and each day was hell as they drifted far off further away into the empty blue.
Starvation led to horrifying behaviours, people recycled their faeces as meals and their urine as clean water.
Any fish caught was immediately seized by the armed crew who kept the decent meals for themselves and their favoured hosts - women willing to do degenerate sexual favours so grotesque even Zeke had to look away whenever they are forced to watch, such performances usually involved married women, young girls and willing boys with fellow crew mates.
Refusal to comply meant death by being strung overboard with a rope and your corpse dragged back for harvesting into bait or food.
Zeke lost his father who tried to protect his small catch with reasonable pleas, a gun to his jaw and he was lost at sea forever.
Then his wife and Fyinn when he had to watch Elma defecate for the amusement of the crew and Fyinn have a nice time in an orgy with the captain.
At the inch of his will, he was prepared to fight. He stood his ground and was rewarded with being the punching bag for Fyinn and Elma adding to the amusement before being thrown off board on a plank with his mother, to drift in the open sea.
What happened to that ship, he didn't care to know but what happened to him afterwards he felt all too well.
After a week, he watched his mother wither till Death felt like a welcome relief. A helicopter whirled overhead and he followed its path, rowing till he spotted a shoreline.
"Brxit." Zeke said in disbelief.
He arrived and was welcome with the sympathetic gaze of beach visitors then the gruff police force.
He explained his situation and was given sanctuary, still his mother's condition didn't improve, her body had endured too much and there was only some much aids were willing to spend on penniless immigrants.
Zeke heard her talk to him in one of her rare moments of Lucidity,
"Are we here in Columbia?" Zeke smiled and agreed.
"Almost."
"Rüger would have wanted to see it. Make sure when you get there, you become a rich man.."
Zeke held her hands and laughed, she was dead the next day. Zeke eventually worked his way up, through menial jobs and skillful gifts to a new identity, education and a passport to Columbia with the ashes of his mother.
"I'm here, Mom." He said as he spread her ashes over the bridge to Valkyren city.
Zeke moved like a phantom through dubious gatherings, seeing and seizing whatever opportunity he could find and learning more about the surprisingly complex new world he had stepped into.
He spent his thirty second birthday in a cell, enduring burning torture and having his organs removed and sold off for knowing too much.
He had managed to track down and aid in the stealing of a revolutionary piece of technology being peddled by the mafia, one which allowed a person to take control of another person's body through some remote method.
Honest to God, he didn't know such was the case and he offered to pay, that was how he was getting this deluxe treatment.
A slip up later and he escaped and somehow managed to take down the entire cartel single handedly in a ludcrious gun fight, the men were good at fighting not good at surviving.
Looking over the black box holding the remote, he knew his time had come. He returned with the power of a god able to broadcast intent into the heads of unsuspecting folks and control their actions, thoughts and even memories.
Barely a day later and he was surrounded in his apartment by some masks, one in particular came up to him, venerated his skills and offered him two choices - Die fighting or work for them.
That was how he met the order and got a bomb implanted in his spinal stem as a loyalty insurance because of how dangerous he could be to them.
Being roped into things he shouldn't even know about, building the fantasies of the wealthy never his own, a fitting punishment but Ives was a different matter altogether, he saw kindred in him and that was enough for him to feel the least bit of guilt when killing off his mother for the past three weeks now.
Zeke ringed the doorbell, waved at the camera above and watched the door slide open for him.
He met Ives at the balcony enjoying the cool evening reading a book with Isolde who was sitting on his laps with her head resting on his shoulders.
"I hope I am not bothering you both."
He stepped out of the shadows into their view.
"Where were you?" Ives asked without warning.
Zeke's eyes narrowed and he said as convincingly as he could, "Someone came to book an appointment, I saw to their needs and scheduled for next week."
"I meant at the gala." Ives suddenly corrected him.
"The gala was strictly only for true veiled initiates, anyone else would drop dead at the door and that includes a humble acolyte like me. I apologise for leaving you so vulnerable that is why I agreed to Miss Aura and Lord Dawn going with you. Fellow brethren to aid your adjustment."
Ives remained silent for a bit then continued,
"Thank you then. I am tired and I wish to go on a light vacation. Can you make that happen?"
Zeke smiled, he understood that after attending to all his priorities Ives was worn down mentally, a small holiday was in order.
"Of course sir but not too long, we have business to attend to afterwards along with a mission for your enforcer identity. I hope a week of rest is to your liking."
Ives nodded without taking his eyes off the book.
Zeke stepped out to make this happen but at the door, he heard Ives ask.
"Can I trust you, Zeke."