Crypt Quest: Rising Darkness
The Pains of Venus
Endless hot, streaking rays of sunshine, pierced out from the solid canvas of hard-blue sky onto an incognizant sea of tourists scattered throughout Rome. Myriads of people flocked throughout the ancient city, including a forlorn amended couple from overseas.
An attempt at rekindling their relationship, an eye-rolling Leanna Boswell was led by a double-purpose Martin Groves through a flock of tourists toward an ancient temple in the distance. Reese Hunter and Malik Atwell missed them completely, by a hair, as the two men were consecutively escorted in a diagonal cross direction toward the Temple of Venus and Roma.
"How are we even still alive right now?" Malik asked, apparently annoyed at his survival rate.
Reese glanced down at his chained wrists, covered by a long white cloth, before returning his gaze up at the large open structure before them. "It would seem our accomplishments at the Temple of Vulcan has awarded us a pass and a free bread and water."
"We never agreed to water!" came the angry bark of an armed Seyyid, at his wits end. He was one of several dirty-white-robed henchmen of what was left of the Followers of Caesar who had been sheep-herding the two artifact hunters throughout the despondent city from the past. Two of the other over-dressed bullies archaically rode horses behind them.
Annoyed, Reese gestured his arms as far as he could with the weight of his rusty chains. "Just because we're in Italy, doesn't mean I'm downing everything I eat with wine. They even serve it to kids here??"
"It's a 2800 year old tradition, and who are we to tell these families otherwise?" countered the 4-foot tall Malik, also chained.
The smouldering, Roman descendant and leader of Caesar's Followers suddenly strolled between the two to take the center floor of the temple. Two of its giant walls, as well as its ceiling were lost to time, resulting in an open temple, two walls and one floor of ruins and decay.
"Now, now, you turkeys. You're alive for one reason, and that's because you're going to help us find the illustrious Caesar's key. That, and I find you quite entertaining," Decima added as she turned and briefly narrowed her gaze upon them.
Malik deadpanned Reese. "Really?"
"You've obviously known about this sword for decades, and thus where to look," Reese began, trying to get back to business. "So why the obsession with this key? What aren't you telling us?"
The woman smirked in partial amusement and then pause. "Don't you pray, Reese Hunter? Do you believe in the lord? Well, we do. For centuries we prayed to our divine lord, Caesar, and only a few of us were chosen, by him, to receive the visions of what lay ahead. Like the Ancient Greeks, we too maintain oracles in our bloodline. Though, this is not known."
"You're crazy, Decima," Reese judged. "Mysticism is controlling you, and now it's bringing innocent bystanders into its wake. Not that that hasn't been done before."
She moved like lightning, pulling a small Smith and Wesson revolver from her waist, and went for Reese's throat. But its barrel was clogged when Reese brought up his wrist-tied chains to block it. "You saw the deaths of my men, Mr. Hunter," Decima recapped. "And how that did not phase me. The closer we get to this find, the closer we are being watched. Can you sense him, Mr. Hunter? He knows we're coming."
Decima moved in and hovered her lips close to Reese's, as their bodies remained frozen in mid-combat. As she carefully evaluated her own temptation, Reese knew her actions were also meant to convey complete confidence, but he couldn't help but suspect there was something else she wasn't being clear about.
"If you two are quite done with whatever it is you're doing, I believe I've found something," cut in Malik's preoccupied voice as the floor under the partial dome structure of the far wall, where he was now standing, began to eject a thin stone pillar.
Decima and Reese released each other and approached Malik and his discovery.
"I used Reese's Trojan amulet and pressed its horse glyph side into a horse glyph embossing I found in the floor," Malik explained, holding the amulet up with his tied hands.
Reese instinctively felt around his empty pockets in reaction. "You stole that from me, you thief!"
"Uh, yeah I did," Malik said, thumb-flicking the amulet like a coin, in the air, back to Reese. "That precious Hittite king you told me about on the way here must've left an impression on Decima's ancient protectors."
The knelt-down woman seared her eyes into the thin stone pillar, trying to decipher the ancient inscriptions on it. "Yes," she answered, half-paying attention. "To tribute and pay respects to his legendary fallen city of Troy was and is of great importance."
"This is talking about a pugio?" Reese reacted in shock as he took in the waist-height pillar. "Could that be Caesar's key?"
Decima waved him off while continuing to read. "You're quite slow, Reese. We've known about that for years through our own research. What this is saying, now, is that a race of Kings by the Crown of Circus brings revelations for Caesar."
"Thanks. Whatever that means," Reese said, annoyed. "Inscriptions about an ethnic group, perhaps?"
The Roman leader stood, pushing even more confidence than before. "Not even close. Through our oral traditions, we surmised this as one of many possibilities. I now understand such a ritual is what we must do for our great lord." She snapped her fingers and two of the horse-drawn men rode over at once. "Noi iniziamo! Circo Massimo!"
"So, you speak Italian now?"
- - -
On the other side of Roman Forum, outside a small café, Leanna Boswell and Martin Groves sat at a table with small coffees, attempting the impossible.
"You see how we could make this work again? You and me embracing the ancient world," Martin suggested.
Leanna looked uncomfortable. "You stole from the university, Martin. Then you were going to fraud them for money. Whatever this is, it has more to do with you than it does me."
"Hey, the university reneged on my return. You see, I have high expectations for people, Leanna. It's my gift to others for not dumbing them down. Which brings me to why I brought you here." He took her hand, much to her chagrin. "You're the smartest woman I know, and I think you would understand and appreciate my new role."
She took her hand back, confused. "You? Working? You once told me 'doing things' was an obstruction of our freedoms."
"That's a legitimate perspective! But let me show you what I've discovered," he said as he stood up. "As a history buff, it's right up your alley."
- - -
Reese and Malik were escorted to the ancient Roman oval racetrack known as Circus Maximus, only a kilometre away. After 12 minutes of ignoring confused looks from passer-byers, the Followers of Caesar, who had stayed hidden for centuries, were now gathered at the abandoned entertainment complex.
"Speaking of shock and confusion," Malik turned to Reese, while Decima and her men were busy scavenging and digging around the site for age-old markings or switches. "What the hell was that back there? You let that psycho get that close to you?"
Reese rolled his eyes. "I didn't exactly have a choice, Malik. She just went for it."
"Yeah, but you liked it," he accused. "Something is definitely messed up about you, that you would, first, be into who I assumed was your sister, and now this crazy murderer!? Who knows what kind of insane hook-ups you had back where you came from!"
The taller man held up his chained hands in defence. "Hey, Emma and I are just two people who get along that go out sometimes!" Reese admitted before realizing his remarks were confusing. "Emma is a friend from back home."
"Gentlemen," came the vocal and then approach of Decima herself. A modern, horse-drawn chariot was suddenly brought in from wherever Decima and her men came from. "If you truly want to live, you'll have to choose."
Suddenly, one of her digging men called out in excitement. He had discovered part of a stone mechanism, from deep in the ground. Activating it caused the entirety of Circus Maximus to vibrate and two short, oval stoned walls ejected within the inner circle of the racetrack and the outer circle.
"Choose what?" Reese inquired, hesitantly.
Decima smirked. "Who lives and who dies."
Two large horse-drawn chariots were suddenly brought onto the track. Reese and Malik were forced toward them, unchained, and then onto them, by a fuming Seyyid who flashed memories of his murdered brother in his own mind.
"Can someone please explain to me what is going on here?" Malik demanded, aghast in confusion and absurdity. "My Doctor says I should always know things."
Reese shook his head in disbelief. "A race of Kings by the Crown of Circus brings revelations for Caesar."
"You're quite good, Mr. Hunter," Decima said as she walked and followed the two chariots being led to their starter line. "The difference now being, if either of you wants to live, you'll find us that revelation. You see, it's the end of the line."
The two men were roughly escorted, each, onto a chariot, positioned next to the other on the ancient track. They were both given a whip and the reins for their horse.
"This is an obsession, Decima," rationed Reese. "After an awkward landscaping job, I promised myself I'd never reach your level of removal."
Decima smirked. "This is the closest you and your pathetic society is going to get to reality before we reign supreme. All we have to do is meet him and finish it. He's here, now. Feel him, Reese. He knows about you."
"Really?" Malik turned to Reese, in utter annoyance of him. "You had to use your words again?"
- - -
Martin escorted Leanna into the oval racetrack, where he was met with several robed guards of the Followers of Caesar. In the back of her mind, she knew this whole thing was a bad idea, but, until the oddity of these men, she had been ignoring it.
"I almost had you pegged, Martin," she started, foregoing any desire for an explanation. "I thought you were just misunderstood, but it turns out you're just missing marbles."
Martin narrowed his brow. "Don't sell me short just yet, my darling. Do you know about the ancient sword called Yellow Death?"
"Uh, I suppose?" She took a moment to recall. "Also known as Crocea Mors, it was said to be an undefeatable weapon wielded by Ceasar himself until he lost it in battle. Some even say it was forged by Vulcan, given to the hero Aeneas, which Aeneas used in the Trojan War."
The man smiled. "That was more informative than any normal person would admit. What if I were to tell you, we can now get to that sword? What if I told you that the Followers of Caesar know exactly how to acquire it?"
"It'd be a fascinating find," she shook her head unsure where he was going with it. "But that's all it is, Martin. A find."
Martin gestured to the group of Followers and the two chariots in the distance. "I've been funding the Followers of Caesar in their endeavours for some time now. Finally, a people, unlike that university, who I can share vision. I believe that the Crocea Mors is more than just some ancient blade. I believe it has the power to bind the world and command it with a limitless edge! Perhaps we may even rule it all."
"Another one, Martin? First it was the aliens, then the lizard people? All you ever do is jump onto these fads??" scoffed Leanna.
He shook his head. "Those are all still viable! But being a Follower will give me status."
"I don't care anymore, Martin Groves," she cut, attempting to turn and leave: But she was blocked by the two guards they previously passed, and her arm was gripped by Martin himself.
He gritted his teeth. "You're not going anywhere this time, sweetheart, until you see it. These chariot racers are running exactly to open the door to Ceasar's key, which we will use to acquire the ultimate weapon. They call this a holy race."
"That's..." Leanna squinted as she thought she recognized the taller man on the chariot to the left, in the distance. But, suddenly, they were off!
The horses were slapped and provoked into charging into a chase, leaving the two inexperienced treasure hunters to beastly whims in perpetuum.
- - -
Reese struggled to keep his stance as the horses pulled his and his partner's chariots at incredible speeds. The grown man began to feel queasy in his stomach.
"You getting bugs in your teeth too?" Malik shouted over the chaos and noise of the track, noticing Reese Hunter's momentary lapse in cool.
The other man snapped out of it. "Yes of course I am!" Then he switched his mindset into focus, raising his voice over the loud gallop and giant wheels coming out of Ancient Rome itself. "I was just wondering. How exactly are we going to recognize this revelation? And what do these short walls around us have to do with it?"
"What? You're asking me??" Malik panicked.
Reese was suddenly hit by a second, deeper sensation of madness, from out of nowhere! A powerful vision of evil dark-flashed in his mind: Thoughts of Decima's lunacy coming true over his meandering. Was this about his competence as an artifact seeker, leaving his life behind for over-the-top quests into sites of ancient death?
Damn. She must be getting to me, Reese concluded.
Knowing he couldn't let himself falter, give in to that way of thinking, nor lose the weapon, Reese doubled his focus and then pointed at the wall. Each lateral section had an engraved shape, and as they moved passed it, the shapes appeared to join and sync as one. "It's an optical illusion!"
"Are we racing here, or what?" Malik said over the noise, further annoyed at being interrupted.
Reese dismissed Malik's dismissal. "No, I mean it's forming several shapes. It looks like a word in Latin?"
"Of all the ridiculous ancient puzzles to—" Malik complained, before giving in to the already ridiculous situation at hand. "Uggh. Let me see, then." Malik attempted to read it, while driving, looking passed Reese at the passing short walls. "The word is— It looks like— the words for hidden? And Venus?"
As they continued in-speed and chaos, Reese tried to tie it all together in his head. "The race of Kings reveals that the sword was hidden by Venus? When? Before Ceasar got it?"
"You're the genius!" short-tempered Malik, having no idea what else to go on.
The two had completed one lap, and Malik was now looking for a way out. He could divert his horse off track, but almost every exit was being blocked by a Follower of Caesar, aiming a firearm at he and Reese.
"That's got to be it," Reese surmised as he began examining the same thing Malik was. "We need to get out of here before one of us is shot."
Malik pointed in the distance, before the next upcoming bend in the track. "Forget that! —Another crazy chick!?"
Before them, Leanna Boswell had managed to grab a handgun off Martin Groves and used it to divert a gap in the exit by aiming and directing the Followers of Ceasar aside. She suddenly took notice of Reese and they locked eye contact for just a second, enough for her to realize a change in course was immanent.
"No. It's the museum director!" Reese exclaimed in amazement. He then chose to step off his chariot and leap into Malik's chariot. He took the reins and directed the horse toward the exit, prompting the other gunmen from the sidelines to open fire on them.
Ducking shots, Reese gave the reins back to a scared Malik and then extended his arm out of the ancient vehicle to grab Leanna's. The woman caught on and followed suit by extending her own arm to catch the invite. Reese pulled her around and onto the chariot while they escaped Circus Maximus together with minor grazes.
"When in Rome, eh, Mr. Hunter?" was all Leanna could expulse, by way of shock and castigation, as she had yet to process everything.
The Followers of Caesar, suffering the same failing, scrambled in craze and anger. Decima would forego being impressed, this time, for she knew the end was near.
- - -
As the three gained enough distance, Reese directed Malik back to the Temple of Venus and Roma. They were successful in pulling the horse to a complete stop, under the half-open-to-sky broken ruins, next to the previously ejected mini-pillar.
"What are we doing back here? Is our return a metaphor for something? And who is this??" Malik cried.
Reese looked at him, deadpanned. "Too many questions, man. Everything can't always be explained, as it's happening. We're not explaining-machines."
"The name's Leanna. I met Reese at the Trinity Museum of Antiquities, when he broke into my research facility and got into a fight with some goons," she said as she followed Reese off the chariot.
Malik nodded in understanding. "Sounds about right. He is as crazy as you describe." Then, to introduce, "Malik. Ancient artifact hunter. Expert in languages."
"So, I guess we are explaining everything," Reese gathered, before addressing the two. "We're here because I've discovered that these 'revelations of Ceasar' aren't about the key at all. They're about Venus."
The shorter man turned to him. "Well, that's an irritating let down! Why are we even bothering then, anyway?"
"Because it confirms that Venus is the key to the pugio this pillar is talking about— The pugio, which is a key in itself," Reese replied, phasing passed redundancy.
Malik threw up his arms. "Saying that word doesn't make it any more meaningful! And what about the race of kings? The whole point of that was, what, to experience Rome??"
"So, you two are after Crocea Mors, then?" Leanna questioned by way of eliciting confirmation. "The Yellow Death?"
Reese looked at her. "Yes, and— wait, did you come here to get back together with Martin? That guy??"
"Oh, like you've made healthy life choices? If you'd recall our last conversation, I made a conscious decision not to become like that woman from the Roman curse slab."
Malik interrupted. "Once again, I have to urge you back on track," he cut in, feeling like a broken record. "If I'm following along correctly, Venus previously gave the sword to the hero Aeneas, and then, for some reason, she later attempts to hide it for all time?"
"Malik," Reese turned to him in utter shock at his deduction. "You're a closet puzzle solver."
The shorter man tilted his head, uneasy, for a moment. "Don't try and friend me, Chariot Lackey. As soon as we reach this thing, I'm taking this find for myself. The moment you got intimate with that crazy Ceasar fan girl, I was out!"
"And you're judging me?" Leanna said, turning to Reese in shock.
Reese ignored them both as he was now knelt and examining the etched tiles circling the mini-pillar. "Great. Glad we could all get along. As for this, I'm willing to bet the chariot carvings in this stone weren't here before."
"No," Malik replied, diverting his attention. "Those stones flipped over when the pillar ejected."
Leanna knelt and breezed her hand over them. "Then one of these must connect to that race you just did. There are symbols for different states on them, some of them duplicated, but each with a different god image."
"We should start with the question of 'why did Venus hide the sword?' Why renege on her original intent?" Reese thought out-loud. "We know she originally acquired it from Vulcan and then Aeneas used it in the Trojan War."
The woman to his left, nodded. "A war that left Troy in ruins."
"Maybe Venus blamed herself for the Trojan War?" Malik surmised as he watched Reese kneel down to the tiles.
Reese agreed with that notion. "So, regretting the war, Venus gets Vulcan's help in keeping the sword buried forever, presumably inside her own temple."
"An interesting story, but we know it didn't end there. Besides, the Romans can't have meant for it be anything more than that," commented Malik.
The taller man agreed. "Well, let's test out our fable, shall we?" He then took a chance and pushed onto the chariot-inscribed tile with the city state symbol for Troy matched with the god image of Vulcan.
Suddenly, the ground beneath them started rumbling and all the tiles that lay claim as part of the Temple of Venus began shifting, complicatedly, in varying directions. The area surrounding the small pillar ejected several more small pillars out of the floor with inscriptions and pictographs on each.
"Whoa! Test passed with flying colours," Reese observed, as the group stepped back to give the new objects room.
Leanna looked at the ancient imagery. "And here's the extra credit. These are depictions of love and sexuality, fitting for Venus and a tribute, no doubt, by its designer."
"Did he also hate life?" Malik pointed to another pillar, which showed inscriptions of death and destruction by an unrecognizable creature.
As Reese observed, he was hit with an eerie feeling, remembering what Decima told him earlier about oracles in her bloodline. Was the ancient engineer of this place one of them? "This has got to mean something. That Roman maniac told us he is coming, earlier. A metaphor, perhaps."
Then, the tiles beneath them continued their elaborate dance, ejecting larger pillars and overhead-crossing stone arms. As the group moved back even further, they were delayed in noticing the arrival of Decima and two of her men, in the other horse and chariot.
"It's just too bad you'll be dying now, Mr. Hunter," Decima said, as she took in the view in front of them.
Before everyone, a giant, 10-meter high, complex maze of short-spaced poles and cylindrical arms, wrapped around and within itself in a chaos of randomized direction. At the center of the conglomeration was a pedestal with an ancient Roman dagger on it.
"Your orders?" growled a bloodthirsty Seyyid, as the contraption completed its formation.
Decima smirked. "Kill them all."
Malik and Reese immediately sprinted for the two gunmen. Reese knocked Seyyid's weapon out of his hands, while Malik flew his upper body weight and momentum into a jumping shoulder-bicep impact that knocked the other guy to the ground.
"It's unfortunate Reese," Decima smiled as she ignored them and approached the human puzzle. "You and your little friend couldn't work fast enough to beat me here, because you fools lack an allegiance. You're rogues, unable to comprehend the true magnitude of all this."
Reese dodged an incoming fist, grabbed its wrist and returned his free palm directly into Seyyid's face. "You criticized my principles back at Vulcan, but you're the one perpetuating a doctrine of servitude against society."
"Well, someone's got to," cackled the Roman queen as she began crawling into the three-dimensional maze of stone pipes. Each obscure path was marked with ancient symbols. "And, let's face it, society is so dysfunctional now that it was just waiting for us."
All Seyyid could focus on was the hatred for the circumstances which led to his brother's death at the Temple of Vulcan. He launched a kick for Reese, which was caught and countered with a punch. "You want justice for Namir, Seyyid?" Reese's voice cut in through the swell of emotion like the piercing hack of a scythe. "I'm not the one who killed him."
"Ugh!" Seyyid was knocked across the face. A cluster of tears and blood flew out, but he recovered quickly and threw several jabs in succession back. He then stopped and watched as Decima was on her way, through the maze. "My brother and I spent years being a Follower of Caesar," he said as he stared at her. "It's gotten us nothing but frustration, failure, and now he's dead."
Leanna watched as Reese stopped fighting Seyyid, enough to address him again. "Because your cult is dead," Reese argued. "It died centuries ago!"
"I don't care what you think. That sword is mine," he growled, ran toward the Maze of Venus and began climbing through it from a different entrance.
Delayed at trying to comprehend the other man's logic, Reese decided to dismiss it and run to a different section of the maze. He quickly examined the varying symbols throughout each arching stone pillar. They appeared to be marking different paths within the maze, leading directly to the pedestal and dagger in the center.
"The sword of Aeneas is lost to her," Malik read on outside inscriptions as a final leap and powered, backward-moving, mid-air roundhouse knocked the other lackey in his head, out, and to the ground. The short-stuff landed, expertly, next to Reese Hunter.
Leanna curled a half-smile, watching from a few meters away, recalling the curse slab she and Reese observed back at Trinity Museum. "Well, well. I do believe we've done this homework before, Mr. Hunter."
"The Carthage Queen Dido killed herself with what would later be called the Crocea Mors, out of love-spite," the puzzle man replied through realization. "There are worse ways to go."
He left Malik and began climbing through the path marked with symbols for Ancient Carthage, all three of them moving at a fast pace. Decima was getting close, but Seyyid's path was quicker and as he neared the pedestal, several surrounding stone pipes ejected hard spikes at diagonal angles right into him.
Seyyid was killed instantly, with spikes piercing his entire body from head to toe! Decima and Reese stopped in their tracks and watched as the blood spilling man released his muscle tension and fell limp.
"That idiot!" Decima cursed. "I wish I'd ended his life myself!"
She looked at a shocked Reese, clear now he had an edge over her, and, instead of continuing her crawl to the center of scattered pillars, abandoned her path and began moving toward the self-proclaimed treasure seeker.
"Seriously, Decima? Face the fact your desperation is causing you and your people to die," Reese said, truly sick of her method. He crawled through the surface maze and reached the pedestal. Pulling the dagger off it, a second and empty pedestal where the main find would have been presented, elevated from behind the first. Despite that, he looked down at the smaller weapon and paused in desecrated awe.
Decima's gaze stopped as well, sharing its veneration. "The pugio is Caesar's Dagger, Mr. Hunter. They say he was stabbed in the back with it by Brutus himself."
"The key to Crocea Mors. Yellow Death," Reese added, continuing in shock. This, alone, and everything he had worked for, nearly made his efforts worth it.
But before he could double back to his exit, Decima had caught up with him. She pulled out her Smith and Wesson revolver and attempted to close-range fire at Reese, but Reese moved faster and caught her arm. A return punch was caught by the woman and they were once again locked in action.
"Join me, Reese. Let's meet him together," she moved closer to him. "I know you sense him as well."
Reese couldn't calculate for a second what was going on. Her power was clouding, now mixed with the madness and dark-flash of evil he had manufactured during the chariot race. How far was he willing to remove himself to get what he wanted? "Caesar," he realized. "You actually think his spirit is alive and here. What an incredible leap."
"Reese, honey," she smiled, getting closer. "You couldn't be more—"
But, the youthful man pushed his lips into hers and they kissed. At that moment, he had tasted and shared her confidence, her destiny, and they were both laced with anarchy.
He used the distraction to knock the revolver out of her hands, into the maze, and push her into an angle between two diagonal-crossing Roman pillars. Two spikes ejected and pierced her shoulder!
"Yellow Death won't be yours," Reese claimed as he crawled passed her, toward the exit. "I'll send you a postcard."
As she struggled to get free, Reese made his way, back out the maze where he met Leanna and Malik. They stared at him in utter shock of what they witnessed. Leanna, more speechless than the other.
"Well, you certainly got it," Malik broke in with the Understatement of the Year. "Though, you've proven you're just as messed up as that Rome-obsessor. But, maybe, a kind of lunacy is exactly what we need to get what we want."
Reese shook his head. "It's clear that Venus didn't want the sword in the wrong hands. Decima is certainly the wrong hands."
Leanna finally said something. "And ours are any better? Is this what you do, Mr. Hunter? You break into catacombs and kiss the bad guys?"
"I can't explain it, but there's something about her madness that's got inside of my head all of a sudden," Reese attempted to deconstruct, as he gazed off into nothing. "It's given me a foresight into her way of thinking and this obstacle has provided me with the perceived desperation of a remorseful Venus: There's something waiting for us at the site of the find. Something big."
To that, the collective footstep-sounds of more of Decima's left-over men, faded toward them from the far-off Roman track. The three looked at each other in sudden awareness of their luck.
"Shall we find this sword, then?" Malik offered, never having felt closer to something like this before in his life.
Reese, feeling the same way, nodded. "Let's do. There's only one place it's known to be, and we now have the supposed ancient method to access it." He held up the thousands-year old Caesar's Dagger and looked at it for a second. "She may have more Followers there. It's time we met a fate by this 'Decima' and faced her offset reality head-on."
Just as they were about to run, Leanna grabbed Reese's arm, momentarily. "Then I'll say 'good luck', Mr. Treasure Hunter. Learning about the madness Martin continues on with suggests I need to rethink my priorities. He was right. I did need to see it. It's obsessions— preoccupations with artifacts, with changing ourselves, even for the best intentions— and their profits that dangerously distorts who we are. We're altered to the point where we can barely even make the right decisions."
"Come with us," Reese suggested. "We can still do good by standing up to the bad. Self-aberration shouldn't mean we end trying all-together. Help us put a stop to the Followers of Ceasar."
She shook her head. "It's not my game, Reese. To be in the company of liars and thieves is to be a liar and a thief. I'll just say this: Bona Fortuna, Mr. Hunter."
"You know what? We need guns. I mean, right? Right? Or, is that not our thing?" Malik trailed as Leanna sped off around a corner and Reese and Malik sped off around a different one: Both sides disappearing into the mass grave of ancient buildings that was the Roman Forum.
The last of Decima's men, the Followers of Ceasar, arrived with Martin Groves to find her pinned and unmoving within the absurdity of an ancient above-ground stone pipe dream. The pedestal was empty. The sword was close. They would now meet death where it lay.