“Well, this should be good,” Dan said. He turned and made himself comfortable on the edge of his bed. Honestly, he highly doubted that anything Kate tried to tell him would change his opinion of her. What could possibly justify her betrayal and getting two of his former squadmates killed?

  The blond exhaled then began pacing around the cell. “For what it’s worth, I wasn’t thinking of the harm I would be inflicting on my old team when I walked down this path.”

  “Of course not, why would you?” Dan said bitterly. “If you were offered money, status, and all sorts of other promises by a rival shard, I guess it’s that easy to think of what you have to gain versus how it would hurt your teammates.”

  Kate shot him a glare. “It’s more complicated than that. I’m not that greedy Dan. No amount of credits could bring back what I lost.”

  Dan shuffled back further into his bed until his back was against the wall. He crossed his arms. “Okay then. If it wasn’t for the money or something else equally vapid, how did Kodak tempt you into their arms?”

  The blond stared at the floor and swallowed before speaking. “I had a brother. His name was Mark. He was an aspiring artist who wanted to work for the Alpha Corp one day. Not as an agent, but as someone who could handle artwork and designs for their marketing department.”

  Dan’s gaze softened, if only a little. During the brief period where Kate still acted like a teammate in his rookie days, Dan never heard her talk about having a brother.

  “My brother came down with something. At first I thought it was just a common flu. Those things usually go away after a day or two even without medicine. But then his condition got worse and worse. He soon couldn’t walk on his own and could barely feed himself. Regular doctors had no fucking clue what was going on with him. Since I had recently passed my training and became an Alpha agent, I thought I could take up the situation with the Alpha Corp itself. They have medical facilities and technologies far above what the general public has access to.”

  Dan leaned forward. “Wait a second, so the healing stims we use and all the injuries I suffered after the heist that took only week to heal, that shit isn’t available to a civilian?”

  Kate tilted her head and looked at him as if he asked her if water was wet. “Normally it isn’t. But I heard that family members of agents are granted use of the Alpha Corp’s medical facilities. It’s one of the compelling reasons why young people have become Alpha agents in recent years, even if it isn’t the line of work they want. Health care directly from the shard that could wipe away disabilities and even regrow lost limbs and organs would be life changing to unfortunate family members. I tried to leverage the same thing to find my brother the help he desperately needed. But there was a catch.”

  Dan’s initial resistance before the conversation began about ever changing his mind about Kate slipped when he felt his chest tighten.

  “It’s true that the Alpha Corp allows it’s agents to extend extra health benefits to their family members,” she said. Kate brought her gaze up at Dan, but something about her was off. She was staring at him, but it was like she was trying to see what was behind him rather than truly focusing on him. “But that was only true for agents of a certain rank. I was a lowly tier zero at the time and I was not allowed that privilege.”

  “What the hell? Why not? Didn’t the shard realize that your brother needed help and fast?” he said. Dan never met Mark or even knew what the guy looked like, but his couldn’t help but feel heavy for a complete stranger who was ill and needed help.

  Kate narrowed her eyes. “It didn’t matter. I simply wasn’t high level enough. It’s the same logic the shards give you when you need to have a certain amount of credits and be of a certain rank to buy specific guns and armor. You want something, you have to prove you were worth it. Nobody gets a free ride, no matter how much tears you shed or how much you beg. The Alpha Corp was no different. I was a newly recruited tier zero who hadn’t proved herself yet. I wasn’t allowed the privilege of finding my brother help for whatever was weakening him so much.”

  Dan wondered how something like this could even happen. Advanced care being withheld from the general population didn’t surprise him since he was from the United States, a corrupt shithole where whoever held the power could simply do as they pleased while everyone else got breadcrumbs, the bare minimum just to breathe and live day to day.

  But hearing the Alpha Corp pull this shit, even if it wasn’t as overt, caused Dan to dig his fingers into the mattress.

  “My brother began coughing up blood and losing a lot of weight,” Kate continued. She stepped toward his bed and sat on the edge across from him. “It didn’t take long until Mark’s body gave out and I lost him.”

  Dan remained silent as Kate told her brother’s story. He didn’t have any inclination to make any more digs at her. He imagined if someone made remarks about him if he retold how his mom died, he’s rip the asshole to peices.

  “Shortly after his death, I kept his body preserved. Something I heard made me take a leap of faith. I heard of something called a resurrection chamber used by our enemies. For agents who have been killed in battle, as long as their head and brain were intact, these archaic chambers could be used to bring back agents who were dead.”

  “The fuck?” Dan said. Bringing the dead back to life fundamentally went against nature. When someone dies, they stay dead no matter how much you wish otherwise.

  Kate glanced at him and probably knew it was absurd. “Adam had actually died during his fight against Jane back in Amethyst. Jane even double-tapped him to make sure he stayed dead. Her mistake was not going for the head. His body was extracted and Kodak put him into a resurrection chamber, captured technology from the Church of Nanotology.”

  He frowned at the mention of the Church once again. After his battle against the cult master and his fellow agents and cultists, Dan wasn’t shocked that such an enigmatic bunch had technology that could bring the dead back to life.

  “So you heard that bringing the dead back to life was possible and you threw everything away just to get your hands on that tech to resurrect your brother?” Dan said.

  Kate pinched the bridge of her nose. “It… just the idea of bringing my brother back outweighed my loyalty to my teammates at the time.”

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  “Then you’re an idiot. It’s that simple,” he said. “You sacrificed the bonds you could have had with new people just to bring back a dead family member. And when you finally backstabbed us and joined Kodak, how could those assholes even guarantee that they will deliver on their end of the deal?”

  The blond turned her entire body and put her feet on his bed. “The resurrection chambers and info on how they worked all came from Adam. And I told you that he was literally brought back after Jane killed him. Dan, you lost your mom before you ever became an agent. Someone important was ripped away from you. You of all people should know what was going through my mind when the possibility of bringing my brother back formed in my mind.”

  Dan shifted himself to the edge of the bed and planted his feet onto the ground. He stared down at his feet for a moment before looking up and turning to the blond.

  “It’s because I love my mom that I wouldn’t go down that road,” Dan said. When Kate blinked at him, he elaborated. “It sucks that she was killed and it would be nice if she were still around, but when I think of all the bonds I’ve made when I became an agent. Jane, Allen, Li, Angie, even you at one point, that put things into perspective for me. You guys were my new family. I would never sell any of them out just on the false hope that a dead family member could be brought back through technology I can’t even comprehend. That’s why I think what you did was really fucking dumb.”

  Kate continued staring at him, but then her gaze dropped and she stared at her knees for a while, not saying a word.

  “You wanna know how my mom spent her last moments? We were running our asses away from a group of gangsters wanting to rob us, specifically my mom since she had some fancy valuable jewelry. She told me to keep running while she stayed and bought me time to escape. She died defending me,” Dan said. He drew another breath to keep his composure from slipping. “Bringing her back to life using a so-called resurrection chamber would shit all over the sacrifice she made so that I could live. My mom went out protecting her son and that’s more than anything I could ever demand out of her.”

  Dan let the silence hang and neither of them said a word to each other. He had made his case why he disagreed with Kate’s choices. What more could he possibly say that didn’t boil down to calling Kate an idiot?

  One question did come to mind. “By the way, how did you meet Adam in the first place? I would imagine that maintaining communication and having a full relationship with an enemy agent wouldn’t be easy. Then keeping it a secret would be pretty difficult too.”

  Kate looked up and her lips formed a smile for the first time in their conversation.

  “I was pissed off with the Alpha Corp for not helping me and my brother when we needed it most. But since the shard was providing me work, I had to lock down my resentment and keep it hidden. I made enough to take a few vacations to blow off steam. I took a trip to some random city near the edges of the border between Alpha and Kodak territory just for the fun of it. Maybe by being spontaneous it would help take my mind off my dead brother, even if it was only temporary. That’s where I met Adam.”

  Dan wondered how it was possible for a Kodak agent to cross over the border without immediately getting gunned down by Alpha agents or numerous other defense systems guarding such areas. But since Adam was a higher tier agent, he assumed he was trained in espionage tactics and had his ways.

  “Adam was a… peculiar one. When I spotted him, it was after I busted into an abandoned townhouse just to be alone and smoke a few cigars. He just so happened to be there as well. Apparently, sometimes he challenges himself to sneak through the border and hang around where ever he found himself in for as long as possible without getting spotted.”

  “Wouldn’t that be a challenge with the pale skin and red eyes?”

  “A pair of contact lenses would solve the red eye problem,” Kate said. “And skin that pale wasn’t unique to just Kodak. He wouldn’t stand out too much.”

  “So… when you guys met each other, what happened after?”

  “We just… hung out? Since he also happened to be in that townhouse smoking his own joints, we just smoked together and talked. Then we began hanging out and even going out on dates. Eventually, we both opened up to each other about what was on our minds. I spilled my guts over what happened to Mark. Adam listened to every detail I threw at him, especially after having to bottle all of that inside. Then Adam opened up about where he came from.”

  To Dan, Adam Torrent was just another enemy agent who he had fought on numerous occasions before who happened to be Kate’s boyfriend. He was nothing more than just another asshole to him. But admittedly, he wondered how Adam became a Kodak agent in the first place.

  “Adam used to be under the oppressive rule of the Church of Nanotology. Kodak-Cresh launched an invasion on their turf. We used to call it New Zealand, you know, before all the shards captured their share of land and stripped away all the names and redrew the maps. Before then, Kodak had been working their way through Southeast Asia then down toward the islands to secure better routes to the Dead Zone.”

  Dan thought of all the times he heard the Dead Zone mentioned during his time as an agent. The Alpha Corp also seemed desperate to invade the Dead Zone and securing the meteorite.

  “He was so grateful to Kodak. Adam and whatever was left of his family who secretly rejected the beliefs and teachings of the Church pledged their loyalty to Kodak ever since. Eventually, Adam brought up the resurrection chambers that Kodak had captured from the Church when they invaded. The Church had strange archaic methods of bringing the dead back to life. After I told him about how I preserved Mark’s body, Adam promised me that there was a chance I could bring him back.”

  He narrowed his gaze at Kate. Making such a leap of faith based on a “chance” seemed to much for him. Especially if it meant betraying the Alpha Corp and his friends. He also found it surprisingly endearing how two people affiliated with rival shards who would destroy each other on site could connect with each other and find love. Of course, he didn’t say that out loud. He didn’t need someone like Kate making jokes at his expense over what was developing between him and Ada.

  Kate leaned back and stared at the ceiling. “When my vacation time was coming to an end, we agreed to keep in contact and keep our relationship a secret from our respective shards. And after that, Adam would constantly tempt me to ditch the Alpha Corp and just join him at Kodak.”

  Dan knew he would be an asshole to pipe up after Kate had poured her heart out during this discussion.

  “You know, in my past life, I was nothing but a kid trying to survive the shithole that was New York. I might have lost the last person who was blood-related, but now I have a second chance at a life. At meeting new people and having new experiences. It sucks that my mom couldn’t join me, but the past should stay where it belongs. I’d rather continue building with what I have now and for a better future. Of course, that all depends on whether I survived the next few days.”

  The blond looked at him and simply gave him a nod. She got up from his bed. “I came here because I was curious about what your stance was on Judith’s offer. Well, I guess I got my answer.” Kate began walking toward the end of his cell and the wall shimmered and revealed the outside.

  A spinning icon popped up in the middle of his vision. Dan was surprised since most of his HUD functions were disabled while he wore this restrictive collar that limited his corrosia abilities.

  Kate’s voice entered his mind.

  “Don’t say a word about this to anyone,” she said through a private channel. “I ran a bypass and gave you access to nonverbal communication, even through the collar’s effects.”

  “Thanks? You know this changes nothing between the two of us right?”

  Kate gave an amused huff. She looked back at him with a coy smile. “You should also be thanking Ada. She was the one who taught me how to do it. Whatever you choose to do afterwards, I hope this little hack helps.”

  The blond left through the panel within the wall before it slid back into place. Then the wall polarized before blending in with the rest of the interiors. Dan exhaled and simply laid back on his bed.

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