One day, you might even become a myth yourself…
"You're Dolos."
Harrington's smile widened. "That's right, Vigil. You surely can excuse me having multiple identities, can't you? Dolos, Janus — two faces, one man. Why have someone do the job for you when you can do it yourself? Janus was notoriously paranoid about his own organization. His lieutenants never had a face-to-face interaction with him. So when I discovered who he was, it was easy to remove him and assume both his resources and position. That was when the mask became essential."
"Who was he?"
"A particularly malicious man named Richard Kent. You may remember when he took his life earlier this year. Or so it was made to appear. He was bitter and vengeful, full of spite for enemies both real and imaginary. Lived in a lonely tower in Manhaven, high above the realm he desperately tried to control through his criminal empire and Styx, his sadistic death cult. Fortunately, he had a weakness: his addiction to Immersion. Living in other people's memories because his own were so bitter and corrupted."
Vigil clenched his fists. "The memory laundering. It was the key to all of this."
"Exactly. Everyone uses the tech, from your average street brat to your eight-figure business mogul. I've been working on infiltrating the system for years before finally cracking the code. Initially, I meant to use it to blackmail my political enemies, use their own memories as leverage against them. But when I discovered Kent's secret society of corrupt elites, I knew I had to act. But I couldn't do it alone. I needed an ally. Fortunately, there was a knight in cyber armor to recruit."
Vigil stiffened. "Why me?"
"The very nature of memory harvesting makes it nearly impossible to prove as a reality. If I released the data, the accused could simply claim themselves as victims of media manipulation and v-fakes. And with enough money and lawyers, they’d succeed. But I knew that if you discovered your memories were distributed, you’d act without fail. And that’s exactly what you did."
Vigil stepped as close to the forcefield as possible. "You made sure Zoe saw my memories, knowing she’d tell me."
"Exactly. And while you went to work, I continued to identify and entice the members of Janus' cult. You can't imagine the countless hours I spent in other people's minds, strapped to a chair with filth and depravity flowing through the crevices of my brain, overflowing the dams, flooding the terrain."
He paused, and for an instant, Vigil saw the toll of the stress in his haunted stare, the lines etched around his mouth. But then the moment was gone, replaced by calm and arrogance once more.
"In time, I was able to identify not just the cult members, but anyone in the city who were tied to the syndicates, those who lied, bribed, and cheated to attain their positions and secure their grip on perceived power. You saw most of them in the gallows chamber. They are the true evil, Vigil. Without them, the syndicates have no connections to conceal their income or cover up their crimes. They are the bureaucrats and highbinders that oil the gears running the massive criminal empire that oppresses the city. Eradicate them, and the machine rusts, overheats, and eventually falls apart. That is how you save a city, Vigil. You were merely cutting down the weeds. I am pulling them out by the roots so that they can't continue to grow."
Ronnie stepped up beside Vigil, glaring at Harrington with red-rimmed eyes. "So your solution is mass murder? How does that make you any different from the syndicates?"
Harrington turned toward her, sneering. "Mass murder? Just words, Captain Banks. I purged the system of deficiencies. As a result, the city's conditions will improve. You, of all people, should appreciate the efficiency of my actions. You tried to do your job and were constantly thwarted by corruption and incompetence. How did your investigation of Styx turn out?" His cyber-enhanced eyes slid over to Isaac. "Despite all your efforts, your attempts to change the system were futile at best."
He turned to Vigil. "And how fruitful was your work until I stepped in? All of your actions, all of your righteous violence, and where has it led you? Down here to me. Did you feel the vanity of your approach when you watched the corrupted hang? Or were you envious because you didn't conceive of such a plan yourself?"
"Hate to interrupt your little monologue," Vigil said. "But those people aren't dead. We stopped your mass hanging. They’re going to be brought to justice, just like you are."
Harrington frowned ever so slightly, lifting a hand that summoned a holographic screen displaying video feed from the gallows chamber. Inside, the victims groggily rose to their feet. Some wept; others pounded on the door, which was now locked.
Harrington shrugged. "An unexpected outcome, though not unanticipated. Which is why contingency plans exist." He tapped a panel on the screen. "You see? An easy fix."
Vigil felt a stab of unease. "What did you do?"
Harrington glanced up with a thin smile. "I told you — there's nothing you can do to stop me, or else we wouldn't be having this little chat. The people in that chamber must be purged, and they will be. Hanging was a bit dramatic, but I wanted to make an impression. Still, fire is the ultimate purifier in the end, isn't it? Burning away impurities, separating the trash from the gold."
"Don't do it…"
Harrington enlarged the screen and waited; lips parted in anticipation. "It's already done."
Vigil could only watch as the people in the chamber stopped and stared as nozzles emerged from the ceiling. Before they could even register the new threat, the nozzles fired. Streams of brilliant heat, blue-violet jets of liquid flame engulfed men and women who screamed in torment when their hair burned away, their skin blistered, and their eyeballs melted, dripping down their scorching faces. The fire ate hungrily, cooking flesh so that it slid from bones in sizzling clumps, fluids bubbling before the meat turned to char. In seconds, only blackened skeletons remained, sprawled across the floor in vain positions of escape. Smoke wafted from their bodies, darkening the room as if to shroud the catastrophe.
Vigil slammed his fists against the energy shield, vision blurred from impotent fury. "You psychopath!"
Harrington never moved, staring back with unflappable calm. "Spare me your judgment, Vigil. Didn't you just kill an entire squad of Warmongers to get in here? That's the problem with society today. Killing soldiers, syndicate thugs, or even mass crowds of people — no one bats an eye. It's acceptable carnage. But I torch a group of corrupt public officials, and suddenly I'm insane? You didn't stop to think that more damage is done with legislature than with any type of gun. A gun can kill a limited number of people, but legislature destroys generations when abused. And those people you're getting all worked up over, they were the very definition of abuse. I did the city a favor by eradicating them. I did you a favor, Vigil. Maybe you just can't handle that someone beat you at your own game."
Vigil's fists clenched at his sides. "This isn't a game. And you'll never get away with this."