New chapter is live.
Settle in, take your time, and let’s see what waits in the dark 🖤
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A few hours later, Adrian, T-Lilith, and Kelly sat around the dining table, each with a plate of beef curry.
T-Lilith scooped up a large bite and stuffed it into her mouth.
Happiness lit her eyes.
Kelly held her spoon with visible hesitation.
“Try it,” Adrian said, his voice flat.
Kelly glanced at the gun Adrian had set on the table, swallowed, and carefully took a small bite.
Warm spices bloomed across her tongue.
“It’s good,” she said, surprised.
Adrian said nothing.
He only snorted and tucked the gun back at his waist.
By then, T-Lilith had already finished her plate.
She tugged Adrian’s sleeve.
“Another plate.”
Adrian pushed his untouched curry directly to her and took her empty plate with him into the kitchen.
“T-Lilith…” Kelly lowered her voice once he was gone.
“Is that what he calls you now?”
“Mm.”
“You seem to like him.”
“Adrian Voss is good to T-Lilith.
He bought T-Lilith new clothes.
His cooking is good.
T-Lilith likes Adrian Voss.”
The young woman’s flat statement shook Kelly.
Kelly frowned.
“You do not understand that man.
I looked into him before I came here.
He’s the kind of mercenary other mercenaries avoid.
A war dog.
He takes any filthy job if the pay is right.
Do you know what people here call him?
The Mad Dog of Loplers.
He is an emotionless bastard.
You cannot trust him.
He must have a reason for bringing you back.
You cannot let him control you just because he bought a few cheap clothes and cooked a few meals.”
She paused.
“Though his cooking is good.”
“That day, people outside were fighting,” T-Lilith said softly.
“Guns kept making noise.
Then I fell out of the vehicle.
I saw him.”
Kelly fell silent.
“My body hurt.
I could not move.
Even opening my eyes was hard.
I forced them open, and then I saw his eyes.” T-Lilith’s voice remained calm, almost distant.
“They were clear.
Not like the fathers.
Not like Mr.
Freeman.
Not even like Miss Kelly.”
Kelly’s expression grew complicated.
“I was surprised.
I did not know humans could have eyes that clear.
That was when I knew he would not hurt me.”
T-Lilith did not seem to notice Kelly’s face.
She was remembering.
“He took off his coat and put it over me.
Then he carried me.
I think he was afraid the people behind us would catch up, so he did not take the road.
He carried me through the woods.
There were many branches.
He was very careful because he was afraid they would scratch me.”
“At first, after he carried me home, he said he would return me.
Then he would get a lot of money.
But his eyes did not say that.
I could feel that he liked me.
The way he liked me was different from the fathers.
It was clear.
Simple.”
“Sometimes he gets embarrassed and avoids my eyes.
It is cute.
He bought me new clothes.
I told him about my life, and he got angry.
He thought I should not live like that.
Then his face turned red and he said he wanted me to stay with him.
I said yes.
He was very happy then, like someone who had forgotten how to hide it.”
Kelly said nothing.
“Adrian Voss probably thinks T-Lilith is stupid,” T-Lilith continued.
“He thinks T-Lilith cannot live without him, so he worries.
But T-Lilith understands everything.
T-Lilith is very sensitive to people’s emotions.”
She turned her head toward the kitchen door.
“So Adrian Voss does not need to hide there and listen.
T-Lilith can feel him.”
Adrian walked back into the office carrying curry, his expression awkward.
The dark pressure he had carried earlier was gone.
Only embarrassment remained.
T-Lilith looked at his twisted, awkward face and smiled.
Kelly froze.
In the two years since the project succeeded, she had lived beside T-Lilith almost every day.
She had never once seen that young woman smile.
Adrian’s expression surprised her almost as much.
She could not believe a mercenary famous for brutality in a criminal pit like Loplers could look like a boy caught in his first crush.
Watching the awkward young mercenary and the silver-haired B.O.W.
look at each other, Kelly took a large spoonful of curry as if eating it might save her from the scene.
“Ah.
It’s cold.”
Adrian coughed lightly to break the awkwardness.
He sat down and looked at Kelly.
“So.
You wanted to hand her to the BSAA?”
“Yes.
That was my plan.” Kelly straightened.
“Like you, I believe she should not live in a lightless research facility waiting to be sold.
I want T-Lilith to live under the sun.
I thought handing her to the BSAA would be a good choice, so I leaked the information to them.
I did not expect the organization’s security department to put two Tyrants into the convoy.
I also did not expect the local guide hired by security to abduct her.”
Kelly emphasized the word abduct.
She was clearly not over it.
“For someone in science, your brain should work better than that,” Adrian said bluntly.
“But somehow you still sound brain-damaged.”
“Why?”
“I know things you don’t.
Someone like T-Lilith, with B.O.W.
traits, is better off outside the reach of governments and the organizations they can pressure.
That includes NGOs.”
Adrian thought of Sherry Birkin from Resident Evil 2 and Manuela Hidalgo from The Darkside Chronicles.
Sherry survived, but the U.S.
government kept her under protective custody and constant observation.
Manuela survived too, only to end up in government custody.
“So,” he said, looking at Kelly, “T-Lilith is better off staying in Loplers.
Like it or not, her nature is still that of a B.O.W.
She isn’t suited for the civilized world we think of as normal.
Loplers is different.
This place is paradise for criminals.
If you’re strong enough, you can live here in peace.
T-Lilith has enough power to protect herself, and outside forces don’t like stepping into a swamp this tangled.”
“I don’t think this filthy place is suitable for her physical or mental health,” Kelly said at last, with less conviction.
“Honestly?
The young woman who got shot with a minigun in a lab already lost the chance at a normal life.”
Adrian drove the point home without mercy.
T-Lilith chose that moment to step in.
She hugged Adrian’s arm with both hands.
“T-Lilith wants to stay with Adrian Voss.”
Kelly watched them for a while, then sighed and said nothing more.
More than a hundred kilometers from Loplers, a tall white man in black tactical gear sat beside the road near a gas station.
An HK416 rested on his back.
Sunglasses covered his eyes.
His usually gleaming scalp was dulled by blood and mud.
Norman seemed to be waiting.
After a while, helicopter rotors thudded overhead.
More than a dozen armed men in matching black tactical gear rushed out and secured the area.
Last came a tall Black man with a terrifying knife scar across his face.
He walked straight toward the battered bald man sitting by the road.
“You look like hell, Norman.
I hear you made a mess, and the higher-ups sent me to clean up after you.”
“Go to hell, Naraza.
The cargo is already in BSAA hands.
Your reinforcements mean nothing.”
Naraza smiled.
“Don’t be so cold.
I didn’t come just to laugh at you.
Here’s something fun.
Do you know why your convoy was intercepted by the BSAA?”
“There was a mole in the T-Lilith project.”
“Bingo.”
Naraza snapped his fingers.
“Now guess who leaked it.
Relax, it wasn’t our security department.”
Norman sat there as if thinking.
Then his blank expression slowly twisted into something vicious.
“Kelly, that bitch.”
“You guessed that fast?” Naraza was genuinely surprised.
“How?”
“That neurotic idiot treated the monster like a daughter.
I knew she would cause problems.
I didn’t think she’d pick this exact moment.”
Norman’s voice remained cold.
“How did you confirm she was the traitor?”
“After Freeman’s message came in, the boss had every phone and laptop tied to the project compromised.
I only learned about it later.
Turns out our dear Miss Kelly had some interesting conversations with the BSAA.” Naraza’s smile widened.
“The boss is furious.
Speaking of Freeman, where is he?”
“Dead.
I didn’t recover the body.”
“So why are you here?” Norman asked.
“The men you brought don’t look like security rookies.
They’re from the internal crisis-response unit, aren’t they?
Seems excessive if you’re only here to pick me up.”
“Of course we’re not here for that.
We have a new mission.”
Naraza smiled.
“Kelly’s computer held more than her messages to the BSAA.
We found something else too.
For example…
T-Lilith’s location.”
“Near Loplers?” Norman sounded surprised.
“The BSAA didn’t extract her?”
“That’s what I wanted to ask you.” Naraza scratched his head.
“Freeman hired a local guide through some Loplers fixer named Agor, right?
What is that guide’s deal?
Intel says he ran off with our prize asset.”
Norman looked like he had swallowed something rotten.
“Kelly got here ahead of us.
By now, she’s probably already met the local guide.
Honestly, if it were me, I’d shoot the bitch, hand the asset back, and collect a fat payday.
That’s classic mercenary thinking.” Naraza laughed.
“So the situation may not be that bad.”
“So the boss wants to buy the asset back from some third-rate mercenary?” Norman asked.
Naraza sneered and pointed toward the black-clad unit behind him.
“If the boss planned to pay, why would I bring all these men?”
“Then how do we handle the mercenary?
He knows too much.
I assume that idiot Kelly told him everything she should and shouldn’t have.”
Naraza smiled and drew one finger lightly across his throat.
“We kill him.
Problem solved.”
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Want to keep going?
I hope this chapter gave you another reason to stay with the story.
There’s still plenty ahead, and things are only starting to unfold.