Chapter 535

“So what have you gathered us here for?” Rachel asked.

She and Chen stood in the center of the small control room, staring at Fernand, who sat behind the main control console. There were no other Spartans in the room.

“Yeah,” Chen chimed in. “What’s all this conspiracy about?”

Fernand looked up at them from his chair with a smug smirk that suggested he’d been waiting for that exact question.

“I finally figured it out,” he declared.

Rachel frowned. “Figured what out?”

“Remember how, a couple of days ago, we talked about how the morphus, or rather both of them, should be dealt with?”

“Yeah,” Chen said with a shrug. “So?”

Fernand’s grin widened. “So I’ve been thinking about it ever since.” He let the words hang in the air for a moment, deliberately making a theatrical pause. “And I finally came up with a plan to deal with them.” He leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice as though sharing a dangerous secret. “Or at least with one of them, the one who calls himself Jake.”

Rachel raised an eyebrow. “The hell are you talking about? We all agreed it’s impossible for us to kill either D or Jake. We’re way out of their league.”

“Well, I’ve come up with an idea for how we can, if not defeat Jake, then at least get rid of him for good,” Fernand said confidently, the grin never leaving his face. “If everything goes according to plan, we’ll never see him again.”

Rachel and Chen exchanged another look. Chen’s eyes brightened with cautious hope, while Rachel remained openly skeptical, her arms folded across her chest. After a brief silence, they looked back at Fernand.

“So what did you come up with?” Chen asked.

“Glad you asked,” Fernand said, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms behind his head as if he were about to explain the simplest thing in the world. “We recently fixed the teleporter, right?”

“Yeah,” Chen replied. “But we can’t teleport to Mick’s base. He blocked us.”

“It doesn’t matter. We don’t need to go there.” Fernand shook his head. “Before we restored the teleporter’s intended function, we accidentally unlocked a new one.” His grin widened. “The teleporter can open a Dark Void anomaly whenever we want. That’s how we created D. So now the teleporter basically has two functions. It can either open a portal or open the Dark Void. All it takes is switching between the two modes.”

Chen frowned thoughtfully, trying to follow where Fernand was going with it.

“What are you implying?” he asked.

Fernand gave him a wide grin. “When Jake visits us again, we lure him into the teleporter room. Once he’s there, we activate the Dark Void from here, and the freak gets pulled in. That’s it.” He spread his hands as though the answer were obvious. “Sure, it might not actually kill him, since even we don’t know for sure what happens to someone inside the anomaly. But one thing we do know is that it’s impossible to come back from the Dark Void. So he’ll never be able to get out on his own, that’s for sure.”

He finished speaking and simply looked at Rachel and Chen with a satisfied grin, clearly expecting them to be impressed. Neither of them answered right away. They stood there in silence for a few moments, turning the idea over in their minds.

“We know it’s impossible to survive in the Dark Void,” Chen finally said. “At least not for long. If we do that, Jake will be dead, not just gone.”

There was a note of excitement in his voice. He clearly liked Fernand’s idea. Rachel glanced at him briefly before returning her gaze to Fernand, her expression remaining unconvinced.

“Alright,” she said slowly. “So what’s the plan?”

Fernand’s grin faded into a puzzled frown.

“I just told you,” he said. “Were you even listening?”

Rachel stared at him incredulously for a long moment, searching his face for any sign that he was joking. She found none.

“Bring the freak down here and somehow lure him into the teleporter room.” She shook her head in disbelief. “That’s your entire plan?”

“Yeah,” Fernand replied, still frowning. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Everything.” Rachel threw her hands up in exasperation. “That’s not a plan at all. It’s just a general idea of what you want to do. Tell me, how exactly are you going to get the freak into the teleporter room? He isn’t dumb, you know. The second he realizes something’s off, the whole thing falls apart.”

“But he can’t view our memories,” Fernand pointed out. “The tech Mad Mick invented prevents him or D from reading them, so he’ll never find out about our plan beforehand.” He leaned forward in his chair, his voice growing more insistent. “We have to do it, guys. Once the freak visits our base, you two lure him into the teleporter room. Once he’s there, I press the button, and voilà, the freak gets pulled into the Dark Void, never to be heard from again.”

Rachel let out a dry, humorless laugh.

“Of course it’ll be you who presses the button, huh?”

“Well, yeah.” Fernand shrugged. “Someone’s got to do it.”

“So you want to sit here in safety while the two of us take all the risk trying to lure the freak into the teleporter room?” Rachel asked, narrowing her eyes. “Convenient.”

“If you’re scared of him, I’ll gladly switch roles with you,” Fernand said grimly. “You sit here while Chen and I lure the freak into the teleporter room.”

There wasn’t even a hint of mockery in his voice. Fernand was completely serious now, his face devoid of even the slightest trace of mirth. He held Rachel’s gaze without blinking, making it clear he meant every word.

For a long moment, neither of them spoke. Rachel and Fernand simply stared at each other across the control room, the tension between them thick enough for even Chen to feel it. His confused gaze kept darting from one to the other, unsure whether he should say something or stay out of it.

The standoff was broken by the sharp, synchronized chime of their PDAs announcing incoming messages. All three instinctively reached for the devices clipped to their belts and glanced down at the screens. It took only a few seconds to read the message.

Chen was the first to react.

“He did it, guys,” he exclaimed, unable to keep the excitement out of his voice. “Jake just killed the final Titan! And he brought the percentage of the city contaminated by the Ravage down to zero.” His sparkling eyes flickered between Rachel and Fernand, growing wider with every word. “Does that mean our city is completely free of the Ravage now? Can we finally go outside?”

For the first time in a long while, genuine hope crept into his voice. Fernand jumped to his feet so abruptly that his chair rolled back a few inches across the floor.

“It doesn’t change a thing,” he snapped. “We all know what Jake did. He killed the Commander!” His voice echoed through the small control room. “And Silvia took his place. Not that I have anything against her. She’s a good leader. But she convinced the rest of us that we should just forget what Jake did. Pretend it never happened and move on. That isn’t right.”

He took a step toward Rachel and Chen, his hands clenched into fists.

“The three of us are the only ones who still think Jake has to pay for what he did. Sure, the Commander wasn’t the easiest person to work with, but he was one of us. He was our leader. All he ever wanted was to destroy the Ravage so we could all leave this damned city.” His voice hardened. “And now he’s gone. Because of Jake. The freak has to pay for that.”

When he finally fell silent, the room was filled only with the low hum of the equipment surrounding them. Nobody spoke for several long seconds.

Then Chen lowered his PDA and nodded.

“Of course I agree with you,” he said quietly.

“Yeah, me too,” Rachel added after a moment. “That’s why we stick together.” She sighed. “But your plan isn’t a plan. It’ll fail before it even starts. Even though Jake can’t read our memories, he isn’t dumb. He’ll quickly realize something’s off. And what do you think he’ll do to us once he figures out what we’re up to?”

For the next several minutes, they argued back and forth, going over the same points without getting anywhere. Rachel kept poking holes in Fernand’s idea, while Fernand insisted they were running out of options and that waiting any longer would only make things worse. Chen mostly listened, occasionally siding with one of them before changing his mind again.

Then Fernand noticed movement on one of the control console’s surveillance screens.

“Guys,” he said, his voice suddenly turning grave. Rachel and Chen looked over. “He’s here. Jake’s arrived. He’s talking to Silvia upstairs right now.”

The argument died instantly. Fernand kept his eyes on the monitor for another second before turning back to the other two.

“We don’t have any time to waste. Do we do it or not?” he asked. “Just remember, this is our only chance to get rid of Jake. If we pass it up, we probably won’t get another one anytime soon. But if we’re doing this, we have to do it right now.” He looked from Rachel to Chen, his expression hardening. “So don’t think, just answer me. Are you in or out?”

Rachel and Chen exchanged quick, uncertain glances. Neither of them looked completely convinced, but they both understood what they had to do.

Chen nodded first. “I’m in.”

Rachel hesitated for only another second before giving a slow nod of her own. “Me too.”

A grim smile spread across Fernand’s face.

“Great,” he said. He immediately stepped aside and motioned toward the chair in front of the control console. “Take a seat, Rach. Chen and I are going to lure the freak into the teleporter room. Once he’s inside, activate the Dark Void so it can suck the freak in.”

“No,” Rachel said firmly. “I changed my mind. I’ll go with you. Chen, you stay here, alright?”

Chen looked from Rachel to Fernand, then back to the rows of monitors surrounding him. “Okay.”

He seemed all too glad to remain in the safety of the control room instead of having to face the morphus himself.

Rachel and Fernand exchanged one last look before heading for the exit. As the automatic door slid open, Chen called after them. “Good luck, guys.”

Neither of them answered. A moment later, the door slid shut behind them, leaving Chen alone in the quiet control room with nothing but the humming consoles and the surveillance screens to keep him company.