Chapter 81: Ethics. Or a crude attempt at ‘em

Becca tore her gaze from Bjørn to glare at James with such horror and shock and outrage that her voice shook from the intensity of her emotions. “You murdered him.”

James swung his leg over the Wing’s saddle and sat. “I did.”

The rest of the crew was staring at him in similar shock. All of them but Serenity. She spat on the floor and walked over to James. “He had it coming.”

“I gave Bjørn one chance.” James pitched his voice to carry. His heart was pounding, pounding, like a crazed man trying to knock down a door. “Back at his place. He told me he wanted to start a new order. A new aristocracy. To use his power to control everyone and tell them what to do.”

James gazed around the group. Denzel, Yadriel, Joanna, Jason - they were all frozen in horror. Olaf was frowning, his brow beetling down over his blue eyes, but of the group the most self-possessed.

“I told him, out on the balcony, that he was never - ever - to use his power on us. I drew a line. He crossed it here and nearly got one of us killed.”

“You murdered him,” Becca said again, her hands curling into claws. “You think that makes you any better?”

“I don’t know.” James let the question hang in his mind, then dismissed it. “But I gave Bjørn a chance. I made the stakes clear.”

“You coulda cut him loose, man,” said Denzel, his voice tortured.

“And what would he have done? Gone home to hide in his apartment with his tail between his legs?” James raised his brow. “No. He’d have made his own Blue Light. Ruled over it like some crazy medieval king. I saw it in his eyes. No regret but his failure to take control of us. This was going to happen, sooner or later.” James tried to meet everyone’s eyes again. “I gave him a chance.”

Serenity crossed her arms. “None of you felt his power like I did. Saw how much he enjoyed controlling me. The man was a monster. He had it coming.”

Jason was slowly shaking his head. “We don’t do this in the army. We court martial folks, we give them a military trial. We don’t execute them in the field.”

“This isn’t the US military,” said James softly. “And with his powers, he was a threat to us all.”

Olaf inhaled deeply, then gave a curt nod. “Ja. Is hard but is right. Bjørn spoke to me a few times. Complained about James, about how we do things. I told him no. But I could see him testing.”

“Same here,” said Denzel, tone still dazed. “One time. He suggested things could be different. I just stared at him till he walked on.”

Becca rose slowly to her feet. “Bjørn never killed anyone in cold blood.”

“Not yet,” said Serenity. “And look, I know this is tough. But you saw what happened to Denzel. You know that wasn’t right.”

“You murdered him!” screamed Becca, her whole body curving with the strength of her emotion. Her cry echoed off the walls. “You’re worse, a thousand times worse!”

James met her stare. “I’m sorry. I gave him a chance. I told him not to fuck with any of us. We couldn’t cut him loose. We couldn’t put him jail. I couldn’t trust him again. There was no other way.”

Becca turned to the others. “You’re OK with this? You’re fine with James killing people who disagree with him!?”

Olaf crossed his arm. “More than disagreement. Bjørn mind control.”

“I’m so sorry, Becca,” said Joanna. “I’m so sorry.”

Becca’s eyes filmed over with tears. She straightened, looked around the group again, then ran the back of her wrist over her eyes. “Fuck you all. If you think this is OK, fuck you. I’m out. No way in hell am I going to follow this monster.”

James sat quietly.

“You know in your heart what he was,” said Serenity. “What he wanted.”

Becca grabbed her Bushmaster and strode to one of the Wings.

“Where you going?” asked Denzel.

“To Nem3’s.” She swung her leg over the Wing. “On my own.”

“Should we stop her?” asked Serenity. James shook his head. Becca rose into the air, aimed her Wing north along Bedford, and sped away.

“Fuck,” said Denzel, rubbing the back of his head. “Fuck fuck fuck.”

“I’m sorry.” James looked around the group. “I didn’t see another way.”

“Don’t apologize.” Serenity got on the back of the Wing. “We all heard him mind-fuck you mid-battle. You took a harpoon to the face because of him.”

“Yeah,” said Yadriel. “Fuck that guy. Thinking he was all better than us ‘cause he stole tons of money. He weren’t no team player.”

“I don’t know,” said Jason. “This just doesn’t feel right.”

“No,” agreed James. “It doesn’t. And we’ll talk about it again tonight. But for now, we need to help the others. Let’s go.”

He willed his Wing to rise up into the air. The others strode to their own, mounted up, and followed after.

Are you all right?

Yeah, I think so. James pondered the question as they started to speed south-east. I know it was the right move. I just don’t know how to explain it right. What I saw in Bjørn.

Your group is broken.

Yeah. I broke it. But on some level, we were never really a group with Bjørn in it. We were just an accident waiting to happen.

* * *

They fought long into the evening. The day was a series of pitched, intense battles that were resolved quickly; their team, even bereft of Becca and Bjørn, was more than capable of defeating small groups of Nem3’s.

The Warthogs, Apache and Black Hawk choppers flew overhead constantly, while drones were used to track Nem3’s and help teams run them down.

But James felt numb throughout. He executed his foes without emotion or urgency, wielding Smite and Sacred Strike as needed, and twice burning Aeviternum to heal wounds from unseen harpoons or scuffles with Nem3’s that went wrong.

There was little conversation amongst their group. Most of the talk was coordinating tactics, pointing out enemies, or congratulating each other for clean kills.

The other teams were uniformly glad to see them; often overwhelmed or struggling to hold back the Nems, they would let out hoarse cheers as Crimson Hydra descended from the sky to blast the demons apart.

But James never wanted to hang around after and receive congratulations. He’d radio in, acquire a new target, and then fly away with a grim wave.

Nem3’s were appearing across the city now. Only half the Second Wavers had made it to any kind of intersection, and a mad scramble had taken place thereafter as folks tried to get into groups of 100 all over town. Anxious throngs rushed through the streets, calling out, merging like beads of water into ever larger groups until a Nem3 manifested and then they’d scatter screaming.

Soon James was flying all over Brooklyn and Queens, hunting down targets tailed by drones. It was a small blessing that the Nem3’s were often too large to go inside; they’d take to the rooftops and bound along, leaping high over streets to land on distant roofs, Crimson Hydra in pursuit.

The hours blended into each other. They ate Manna bread, and around late afternoon James ordered everyone to burn an Aeviternum to freshen up. Without their synchrony they leveled up exceedingly slowly and piece meal; by the time dusk fell they’d all advanced but a single level, except for the Shield folks who didn’t advance at all.

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James felt Bjørn and Becca’s absence like a missing tooth, a gap he couldn’t stop tonguing no matter how he willed himself to stop. Bjørn’s presence had been a smoldering one, judgmental and strong, and had balanced James out, made him feel as if there was another pole to their group which kept them all balanced, kept James thinking his decisions through and making sure he was confident of his choices.

With Bjørn gone, their team felt strangely light, insubstantial. Serenity tried to make up for it with her ribald chatter, but her words failed to rouse the others. Yadriel was clearly the least affected. After his initial moment of shock, he cast off any regret or loyalty to Bjørn and declared the world better without him. Olaf also seemed to process the death better than the others, and though his aspect remained grim, the few times he met James’s eye he gave him a firm nod.

Joanna was obviously still shocked, and both Denzel and Jason were far quieter than they otherwise would have been. James could tell Jason’s shock was institutional on some level.

But there was nothing to be done about it now.

Yet any time James wasn’t directly engaged in something, he saw Bjørn’s face again, saturnine and powerful, his eyes dark and daring, his whole manner exuding arrogant self-confidence. He thought of their three days traveling across the country together, how James had thought they’d reached… something akin to equilibrium. Mutual respect.

He’d been a fool.

Should he have simply tossed Bjørn over the balcony the moment the man had revealed his megalomaniacal sociopathy? No. That still felt wrong. It was important that James had given him a chance. Even if in his heart he’d known Bjørn would fail the test and fall to temptation again.

It was late when Command finally called them back in. Everybody in the Second Wave had either summoned a Nem3 or died when they’d failed to gather in a group of one hundred. They’d flown over several such tragic groups where they’d fallen in the streets, torn apart by Nem3’s who’d appeared, one for each summoner, slaughtered them, then disappeared immediately once more.

James wanted to keep hunting, but his divine power pool was low, most of the crew was out of Aeviternum, and the drones were simply not picking up any more Nem3’s.

The Sola Anima had remained mostly quiet. James got the sense it was processing everything it had seen that day, from the battles to Bjørn’s execution. He asked it at one point if it could sense Nem3’s, lead them to where they were hiding, and it had answered in the negative, other than being able to fly forth and hunt alone.

They returned to the Marriott.

James led his crew back to the Wing stables, the area cordoned off for parking, and set the seven machines down. They were the last team to return. Fabricators were busy transporting new resources down onto the level and working in shifts crafting more gear. There was no sight of Jessica, so James dismounted from the Wing and rubbed at his face.

The Animus unsocketed itself from the front, split open into its humanoid form, and hovered just above and behind his shoulder.

“Guys.” James waited for the crew to turn toward him. “With me.”

He led them to the elevators, up to the ground floor, through the bustle of returned groups to a side room. Everyone entered, the atmosphere tense, and James closed the door to face them.

“What happened today was fucked. I own that. But I killed Bjørn to protect Blue Light, to protect our integrity, and our ability to defend the rest of humanity as equals, not as superiors. My own standing and humanity may take a hit for it, but I’d rather be the one who is hurt than to watch Bjørn use his power for evil.”

The crew exchanged wary glances.

“I don’t use that word lightly. I fully own that I’ve made mistakes. I should have told everyone what he said that day on the balcony. I should have warned Hackworth, Jessica, everyone. But no. I wanted to give Bjørn a genuine second chance. For him to see he could step back from the ledge and fundamentally change his mind. I didn’t think he would. Serenity and I talked about it after. But it was important to give him the chance.”

Jason hesitated, then at James’s nod spoke up. “I hear what you’re saying, sir. And I know this isn’t the army. And that Bjørn could have done a lot of damage with his power. Maybe it’s because I didn’t see him mind control you in the fight. But…” He shook his head. “I’m still having trouble with your just shooting him like that. What it means that you thought you had to.”

“It was practical,” said Yadriel. “Bjørn wasn’t on our side. He was and only ever would be on his own side. It’s a pity Becca didn’t see that none, but hell, he was just using her, too.”

“We fight demons from hell,” said Olaf softly. “There is no room for demons in human form. It is wrong to control others.”

Joanna crossed and uncrossed her arms. “It’s… I think I’m shocked… horrified, even, by the fact that it happened at all. I was starting to think of us as… I don’t know, a family. Dysfunctional, maybe, but together. Against the bad guys. Now everything feels weird, like the ground’s still moving under my feet.”

“I had two equally important goals,” said James, trying to put his emotions into words even as he spoke. “And that was to defeat the demons and maintain our humanity while doing so.”

“No longer?” asked Serenity.

“Just a little change.” James smiled brokenly. “I’m still shooting to defeat the demons. But now I realize I’m willing to take a hit when it comes to humanity if it means safeguarding the rest of you from that kind of evil.”

“That’s not fair,” said Joanna immediately. “You’re not a martyr. We’re all in this together.”

“Maybe. But could you have stopped Bjørn in that moment?”

Joanna hesitated.

“The easiest thing would have been to let him go. But I know - in the depths of my soul, in the marrow of my fucking bones, that he’d become a far greater problem in the long run. That was it. My one chance to safeguard us all against his corruption. I took it. I’ll pay the price.”

“What price?” asked Serenity.

“I’m going to tell Hackworth what happened.”

“Don’t,” said Jason immediately. “The military’s clear on that being a major crime. There’s no excuse for killing your own soldiers in the field.”

“I don’t need excuses.” James drew himself up. “If I’m to lead Blue Light, if I’m to lead you all, then I need to play this straight. I’m not going to cover up what happened or ask you all to lie. I’m going to tell Hackworth what happened and why I did what I did. And then I’ll pay the devil his due if that’s what’s called for.”

“Bullshit,” said Serenity. “Bjørn was right about one thing: the world’s changed. You don’t need to -”

“Serenity.” James smiled sadly. “We need to be accountable to each other. That’s the main difference between the world Bjørn wanted and the one I want to save.”

Serenity opened her mouth to protest, then fell silent.

James looked around the group. Everyone was weary, scared, confused. But already the mood had shifted slightly.

He could tell why.

His willingness to confess to Hackworth had lifted a weight from their shoulders.

“You’re good people. I’m proud to be working with you. I hope you never feel differently about me.”

And before they could answer, James opened the door and stepped back outside. He strode swiftly down the broad hallway, the Animus floating along behind.

This is all very confusing, said the Animus. I thought we’d simply be killing demons.

I aim to make that my focus, said James. But right now I got some house cleaning to do.

Most interesting. Ethics.

Or a crude attempt at ‘em.

James entered the large ballroom and strode over to where Hackworth was conferring with Duffy, both of them staring at a screen covered in moving blips.

“Sir?” James paused till Hackworth looked up. “I need to talk to you.”

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