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The first thing Jack saw when he stepped off the elevator was the blood pooled outside the Lady's door. Heart in his mouth - he'd heard the expression, now he knew how it felt - he rushed forward and grabbed the doorknob. An instant of hesitation while his brain screamed Don't let it be! and then he pushed it open and -

Blood. So much blood. Where could it possibly come - ?Advertisement

And then he saw the headless corpse sprawled on the floor. And beside it a head with Eddie's face, so pale, the eyes so wide.

Jack's gorge rose. Eddie ... innocuous Eddie who'd joined the Order just to network, who'd spent his days crunching numbers, who'd never harmed a soul in his life. Who would ever - ?

But Jack knew who.

He stood transfixed, staring until a low moan shook him free and he looked around. There, farther into the room, another pool of blood, another form on the floor, back to him, huddled in the fetal position. It moved ...

Weezy?

Oh, no!

He stepped past Eddie, slipping and almost falling in the sticky blood of their merging pools, and dropped to his knees beside her.

"Weezy! Weezy!"

Her eyes fluttered open. "Jack?" Her voice was barely a whisper. "That you? Can hardly see."

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He looked down to where her hands clutched her abdomen, saw a loop of intestine between her bloody fingers.

"I'll get help."

He fumbled out his phone, punched in 9-1-1, then noticed "No Service" flashing on the display.

"Too late," she rasped. "The Lady..."

Jack looked around and spotted a katana next to a nearby wooden chair lying on its side. He recognized the Gaijin Masamune and his heart sank as he realized what had gone down here.

He spotted Glaeken sitting silent and immobile on the far side of the room, staring. Was he too - ?

No. The old guy blinked. Jack knew what Rasalom had done to him. Jack had been frozen like that a couple of times himself.

He turned back to Weezy.

"I've got to get you out of here, find some help."

"No," she said. "Too late. I love you, Jack."

And then her eyes went blank and she stopped breathing.

"No! No!"

He rolled her onto her back and jammed his fingers against the side of her throat. No pulse. He parted her lips and blew into her mouth, then placed his palms one atop the other, and began thrusting against her chest.

"It's no use, I'm afraid," Glaeken said.

Jack glanced up and saw him approaching in a slow, stiff walk. Apparently he'd been released.

Jack felt a surge of blind anger. "Don't tell me what's no use!"

"She should have died some time ago, but he wouldn't let her. He kept her alive for you ... so you would see her die."

"No." He kept pumping on her chest. "No!"

"I loved her too, Jack." Glaeken's voice was thick with pain. "But she has no blood left to pump."

When the inescapable truth of that simple statement penetrated, Jack stopped. He slumped forward and rested his face against her silent chest. Pressure built in his own chest until it burst free in an explosive sob.

She was gone. His Weezy was gone. Forever. The light of that brilliant, unique mind, snuffed out, never to shine again. pqdm.com