Chapter 28: Fighting Ghosts
“I am no ghost. I AM a person!” I roared, the sound exploding from my chest. I slammed my fist into the wall next to her head, the wood splintering with a sharp crack. Dust rained down. We both froze, breathing heavily in the sudden, ringing silence. My knuckles screamed in protest. The violence of the act hung between us, stark and ugly.
She didn’t flinch. She just stared at my bleeding hand, then back at my eyes. The fire in her gaze was gone, replaced by a chilling, weary calm.
“Yes,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “You are. That was my mistake.”
"Mistake," I scoffed. "So now I am just a mistake you plan to rectify." I sigh. "I should have never set foot in this fucking town!" The rage drained out of me, leaving a hollow, aching exhaustion. The fight was over. We were just two broken people in a ruined church, surrounded by enemies.
“They know about the command center,” she said, her tone all business now, the moment of vulnerability gone. “They know about the tunnels. Finch is feeding them intel. Brody is their muscle. We have nothing. No resources, no allies.”
I leaned my head against the wall, the rough wood pressing into my skin. She was right. The anger was a luxury we couldn't afford. "Finch isn't just supplying subjects. I killed a thing that was once a man. That thing killed the paster here. The Oracle might predict a war, but Finch is making supersoliders to fight them. Also, I think you might have other rats in your cage, Maddie. It looks to me like you are out of options, as I am the only one you can trust. So what now?" I asked, almost regretting my tone… almost. I need her to see the flaws in her little game. I need her to realize that I will not be caged. I am as much a viper as she is, but there's a difference between us.
"You're right, Jack," she conceded, her voice a low murmur that scraped against my raw nerves. "My network is compromised, my leverage gone. Finch is a snake, and Brody's our leash. We're cornered." She finally looked at me, her eyes holding a flicker of something I hadn't seen before – a desperate, raw vulnerability. "But we're not out. Not yet." She thought for a moment.
Maddie looked at me, her expression unreadable in the dim light. “Now,” she said, her voice as hard as steel, “we become the ghosts they think we are. We burn it all to the ground. Together.”
"Burn it all down? Sounds like a plan," I said, a grim smile spreading across my face. "But we do it my way this time."
"Your way involves less planning and more brute force," she retorted, a hint of her old fire returning. "But right now, it's the only way we have."
It wasn’t an alliance. It was a declaration of mutual destruction. And in the ruins of Calico, it was the only thing that made sense. I pulled my hand from the wall, ignoring the pain, and nodded.
The dust still hung in the air of the ruined church. My hand throbbed, a dull echo of the rage that had just consumed me. Maddie stood before me, not as the reporter, not as the lover, but as the general.
"The Mongols want the town," she said, her voice cutting through the ringing silence. "But they want it quiet. Their 'Oracle' needs a stable environment."
"And Finch? He's playing a longer game," I said, the thought solidifying. "He's not just a doctor; he's an asset stripper for Chiron. They want the Oracle for themselves, or its tech, and they'll use the Mongols' mess to get it."
"Exactly," she replied. "Two predators, one meal. We're going to make them fight over it."
"How?" My gaze swept the desolate interior. "We have no army. You have no Kings left you can trust."
"We have the town itself," she countered, a glint in her eyes. "Calico thrives on gossip, on whispers. And it always remembers a good ghost story." She turned, walking toward the church's broken door, the desert sun a harsh halo around her. "The Rusty Pick Saloon. It's a hotbed of information, and the locals still see it as neutral ground, especially now."
I pushed off the wall, following her. "Planting rumors? That's your grand plan?"