R. R. Quan
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Chapter 62 - Question of Morality
🕑 Added 2022-01-11 00:01:03 +0000 UTCAdam Seezy eyed the group beside him nervously. He may have come off as confident, but this entire situation was nothing more than a calculated gamble by that of his boss. There was no concrete evidence to his identity other than his obvious resemblance to Jane Carter, who they were already actively monitoring, and he was immensely relieved that they did, in fact, turn out to be related.
It was for the same reason that he subtly neglected to mention the names of the others present, simply because he did not know them or much about them. Fon, the somewhat gaunt, ebony-skinned woman standing in between the two boys with a sprinkle of annoyance in her expression, had revealed her name to him upon their initial meeting, however. The teenager was still yet to identify himself.
And Adam was fine with not asking, as there was only one man he was actually ordered to talk to. On paper and by logic, the boy was the most powerful person present, himself included, but Adam knew that it couldn’t have been a fact farther from the truth.
One of the organisation's operatives had been present in the town when Brock Carter had arrived, having been preparing to make contact with the teleporter there and allow them backdoor access to Australia. What the scout hadn’t expected was that the spatial manipulator and his entire gang would be beaten down by the unassuming man they had tried to ambush.
Adam hadn’t been there to experience it himself, but from the impression the woman had given of him when she reported back, he could tell the man held a significant amount of power under his belt. And if they factored in the knowledge that he was from Australia, Adam – and Maxwell too – thought it accurate to say that he was probably the individual that they had noticed killing the high levelled beasts overseas.
The appearance of the man somewhat nullified their initial desire to access the isolated island continent, although they still wished to be in the know regarding the entirety of the world, not just a large portion of it like they currently were.
Well, Maxwell wished for that. Adam just wanted humanity to get through it all in one piece.
The charismatic diplomat didn’t dare to prod the aura of the man beside him, instead satisfied with the knowledge that he seemed to have some way to mask his true level, whether through some sort of supernatural illusion or superb aura control that they were yet to see anywhere else. He certainly didn’t possess the power of a level 27 otherwise.
Finally, a ding resounded, and they stepped out of the elevator shortly after the doors hissed open, only for Adam to lead them right onto another. Two separate elevators were required to reach the top of the Eiffel Tower. The coming of the System didn’t change that.
Based on merely first impressions, Adam immediately deemed Brock to be the most dangerous one present. And that wasn’t just because it was the obvious choice. When he thought that, he meant diplomatically. Initial insights had shown the man to be rather savage yet contradictorily easy-going, speaking at lengths of his unpredictability.
Fon was clearly meant to be the designated spokesperson of the group for whatever reason, and while Adam had to admit she had shown herself to be somewhat capable with her words, she was still naïve, lacking the certain critical instinct required for efficient diplomacy. Brock Carter didn’t seem to be the man with the most common sense around, yet behind his sharp gaze, Adam could see the gears turning as the man intuitively tried to understand what he was doing.
The teenager, well… aside from having an amount of power that would certainly give him or any of Genesis’ high-level operatives a run for their money, he seemed relatively clueless, if not just outright daft. Adam didn’t mean to insult the boy and felt quite bad after leading himself to that impression, but it truly looked to be that way.
Eventually, though, the group arrived at their destination at the peak of the landmark and the elevator doors hissed open once more, revealing cloudless blue skies and the bustling remnants of Paris below, the rather dulled panes of glass the only thing separating them from the racing winds of the sky. Beyond all that, Adam could spot the stretch of earthen wall that guarded their city and the ivory fog lying dormant behind it.
He politely stayed back as his guests stepped out and regarded the view. Adam didn’t even have to look at her expression to see Fon’s barely restrained enthusiasm for the place, and he wondered if she was a previous resident of the city, or maybe even a hopeful tourist. The teenager on the other hand pressed his face up to the glass and whistled, fogging up the transparent surface.
Adam’s eyebrow twitched. He’d have to wipe that down later.
Ignoring that for the moment, however, Adam narrowed his eyes in the direction of Brock as he stood unmoving, his deep blue eyes staring out to the skies above, glazed over as he seemed to deliberate on something.
It was faint, but the diplomat could sense the aura contained within the man’s body vibrate with streaks of gushing power. A feeble breeze ruffled the man’s messy brown locks, though Adam had no clue where it could have come from.
Then the very next second, Brock was moving again, joining his comrades in admiring the view, and Adam was left standing there, confused. He didn’t miss the way the corners of his guest’s mouth quirked up as he resumed movement once more, and Adam wondered if he had made a breakthrough with one of the two Augments he had been shown to possess.
It was not exactly uncommon to have the sight of something related to it be the catalyst to advance one’s Augment, but the event certainly didn’t happen often. From what Adam had seen at least.
A table for four had been previously set up in the centre of the viewing room, a plaid tablecloth laid atop and disguising its aged beechwood surface. Several plates and platters of various foods and baked goods were resting upon it, steaming with their freshness. He nodded imperceptibly. The deliverers were skilful. Adam didn’t even detect them arrive nor leave.
“Please, sit.” He gestured to the chairs and let them take their pick before joining them at the table.
Adam smiled knowingly as they indulged in the foods he had prepared, the boy going so far as to taste multiple of them at a time. He too enjoyed the selection quite a lot, though, like Fon seated to his right, he partook in small nibbles in case he was required to speak.
“Would you care to tell us why you’ve brought us here?” Fon swallowed a minuscule mouthful and regarded him softly.
Adam met her eyes and nodded in acknowledgment of her opening question, “As I assume you’re well aware by now, the continent has been plagued by the threat of Skin Walk-”
“And you want me to be the one to fix it, yeah?” Adam flinched, unexpectedly having been cut off by Brock as he gulped down a sizeable bite of croissant.
He hesitated for only a moment before he gave a wry smile. The man wasn’t exactly off the mark. It was indeed his intent to enlist him in the task force they were planning to put together once they located the person responsible for the beast’s continued creation. For him to so directly guess his intentions wasn’t exactly surprising, but it had certainly given Adam pause.
“That…” he sighed after a brief second of consideration, “yes that was our intention. We would like you to help us eliminate the person responsible for the issue.”
Across from him, Brock nodded slowly. Harry swallowed a significant bite of freshly baked croissant and spoke out as he licked his lips clean, “So it was another human who was making them, right?”
Adam didn’t miss the way his eyes automatically shifted toward Fon as he talked. His gaze had meaning hidden within, he could tell.
“You would be correct. Currently, we are unaware of the individual’s location, although we do have leads which we are actively follo-”
“Nah.”
Adam blinked in confusion and his head shook marginally, believing he had misheard, “Pardon?”
“Nah. I’ll stay out of this. I have my own things to worry about right now.” Brock shrugged apologetically, and Adam could hear the subtle finality in his tone.
Don’t give up just yet…
Business was a brawl of words, and if there was anything Adam was confident in, it was a verbal battle. He and his boss thought - knew- it was imperative to their success that they gained the support of this man. They knew the power of a person this strong would make the eventual operation realms easier on their forces.
He trusted the organisation's operatives and soldiers, but casualties were an inevitable result of any gruelling battle. At least with the presence of Brock Carter, they could be minimised.
“Certainly, you understand the threat these creatures present?” he ventured.
Brock raised a brow slightly and nodded in affirmation, “Yeah, I do. They’re a pain in the ass. But you don’t need me to help you.”
He snorted after a short pause, “I’m not pest control.”
Adam chewed the inside of his lip as he deliberated on whether to reveal his trump card so soon. He was banking on the morality of the man to persuade him, but he assumed he wouldn’t have lived this long with selflessness. He clicked his tongue and steepled his fingers. Taking a breath in, he leaned forward and met Brock’s eyes directly.
“What if I know the current location of your sister, Jane Carter?”
“…”
A deafening silence settled over the room. The boy paused in his eating at the revelation. Fon stiffened and threw a wary glance at her boss. Even Adam felt his shoulders knit with tension and his lips threaten to curl with disgust as he essentially held the man’s sister as ransom. As Maxwell had convinced him, however, all that mattered in the end was that the world would come out unscathed.
Consequences were the privilege of a man who wasn’t fuelled by desperation.
For a long few seconds, Brock didn’t move, and Adam increasingly began to fear he would lash out. Fortunately, the man finally licked his lips and sighed, “It’s good to know that she’s at least alive then. But I don’t need her location. She can handle herself.”
Adam’s shoulders sagged in a mixture of relief and defeat, “Then…”
“The location of my mother is a different story. Do you know where Maryanne Carter is?” Brock mirrored the steepled fingers of the man opposite him and leaned forward expectantly. There was sparkling hope within his eyes.
Adam paused, racking his brain for any and all information on the woman mentioned. Alas, he was certain he knew nothing about her, and the organisation itself was yet to locate anyone by that name or by resemblance to her children. He sighed and resisted the urge to hang his head.
“I’m sorry, but I do not.”
Brock followed suit and sighed, “well, that’s it then.”
In the silence that followed, Adam reached out and secured a croissant of his own, taking a large bite out of its mass. In his peripheral, he could see Fon eying him with pity. He didn’t want it, but he felt it was deserved. He only really had one job here after all.
“What I would like to know, however,” Adam brightened up immediately as Brock’s voice filled the room once more, “is how the fog around the city works
Maybe the situation was still salvageable.
As for the gaseous barrier guarding the city, it worked under relatively simple principles. It was created by one of their members, someone with a fog-based Ascendancy, and worked like a charm against deterring the infestation of Skin Walkers.
Undisguised, the creatures were no different than common beasts, relying fully on their hunger and animalistic instincts to get by. It just so happened that most monster’s instincts recommended them from veering away from that which they didn’t understand. A massive barrier of ‘blindness’ fit in that category perfectly.
So far, they were yet to realise an issue of Skin Walkers hiding within their midst, so they assumed it to be working quite well.
Although with the recent unproven evolution that the creatures had been rumoured to have undergone, Adam feared the effectiveness of the fog would begin to decline significantly. Intelligence played a heavy part in the decisions of any being, and if the beasts could decide to enter the fog against the warnings of their instincts, it was only a matter of time before one of the guards were slain under the cover of white and their form was taken.
A wordy explanation of it all followed out of Adam’s mouth to accurately convey the purpose and principles behind the main aegis of the city, but afterwards, the impressed looks from all three individuals were more than worth it, he thought. As long as they believed the city to be inventive and of value, he knew he could sew good relations between them.
“That’s… genius…” Fon muttered, and Brock nodded silently in agreement, his expression portraying his bafflement at how it all worked.
In his pocket, Adam felt his phone buzz, and he covertly checked it. The muscles in his jaw tensed as he saw the message from Maxwell. It seemed he had been listening in on the entire conversation. It only consisted of two words, yet it made the sensation of self-disgust pool within his belly at the thought of using what was mentioned.
Use it. That was all he had said, but Adam understood what he was saying perfectly.
The leader of Genesis had just ordered him to use a certain item and its location as bait to help… persuade the group to understand the severity of the issue they had been presented with.
Willingly, Adam had joined Maxwell’s cause, although he found the man at times to be lacking in his humanity. It wasn’t to the point where he’d readily murder people, although Adam knew he wouldn’t be hesitant to order a hit on a troublesome individual, but it certainly meant that the man had no qualms about manipulating and twisting people for his own gains.
Genesis was starting to look less and less like the organisation of saviours that Adam had thought them to be, and more like a pantheon of selfishness.
Regardless of his thoughts, however, he knew it was either he gave up and let the safety of the world hang by the unpredictable balance of chaos, or he acquired the support of Brock Carter. There was no in-between in this situation, and he had long realised that having what it takes to save the world wasn’t a test of resolve, but a question of morality.
Adam hid a gulp and forced the disdain from his facial expression, “As a gesture of goodwill, what says I make you privy to the location of something I’m sure you’ll be interested in?”
