Ta’Zan narrowed his eyes at him. “So you knew.”
“She’s quite a firecracker, I’ll give her that,” Raphael replied. “Though, she’s not exactly proud of her choice to help you come into this world. You haven’t really given her any reason for that.”
“All she did was carry me in her womb,” Ta’Zan shot back. “I don’t need her approval.”
“Then why are you so hung up on her?” Raphael asked, grinning. “You could’ve brushed her off. Why are you so angry about her? Or about the fact that we knew? Does it even matter anymore? You stuffed her in the diamond dome with the others.”
“It irks me. Well, I suppose I am disappointed in you two,” Ta’Zan replied. “You should’ve been the first to tell me about her, the moment she showed up at the gate. Had you been loyal to me, your maker, that is.”
Movement behind Ta’Zan caught my eye. Isda. She stayed out of the room, but she crouched for a moment, before she got up and disappeared somewhere to the right. Something was happening. Our escape was imminent, but how could it unfold with Ta’Zan still here?
My pulse quickened, and my chest tightened.
“Where is she now?” I asked.
“In my private quarters. She and I have some catching up to do,” Ta’Zan replied.
Raphael chuckled. “And you said you don’t have mommy issues.”
“Bogdana is not my mother!” Ta’Zan shouted.
Both Raphael and I stilled. That was one tender nerve we’d struck.
I mouthed the word “wow,” then looked at Raphael. “You were right,” I said. “He’s completely irrational where any form of true family is concerned. He says she’s not his mother, but he clearly feels a bond, given that she carried him in her womb. You were absolutely right.”
“What are you talking about?” Ta’Zan cut in, frowning and becoming increasingly aggravated.
“I was just telling Douma before you came in that you lose your mind whenever your parents, your lineage, or even your surrogate mother are brought up,” Raphael replied. “You play this cool and reserved leader, empirical and determined by nature, detached and resilient, but, in the end, you’re as weak as the rest of us. As dependent on family as anyone else.”
“You raised us to be soldiers, but you didn’t think for one second that you couldn’t erase our social need to be with family, with friends, no matter what circumstances you put us in,” I added. “You completely erased the concept of family to begin with, but you are hung up on it. You’re suffering. You’ve been suffering for years. You probably cried when Mudak died.”
Ta’Zan moved toward me. “You will regret—Argh!”
He jumped to the side and looked down. His eyes nearly popped from their orbits. Raphael and I followed his gaze.
“Oh, damn,” Raphael muttered, struggling not to laugh. “That can’t be good.”
A devil-viper had been let loose in this room. This had to be why I’d seen Isda by the doorway. Judging by the blood trickling from Ta’Zan’s ankle, the serpent had emptied its venom reserve through its wide fangs. The bite was painful and messy, since the fangs were long, arched, and sharp enough to reach the larger veins.
“What… What… Where did it…”
Ta’Zan’s voice trailed off as his eyes rolled into his head. He fell forward, flat on his face. His blood turned black, myriads of capillaries and veins visible on his face, his neck, and his hands.
“It’s not going to kill him,” Isda said as she came in with a rectangular piece of glass in her hands. The circuits inside it glistened silver and gold. “But it will keep him down for a bit. Devil-viper venom is deadly in a full bite like that, but Ta’Zan—”
“Has acquired Perfect regeneration abilities,” Raphael completed her sentence. “Yeah, we know. How long will the venom keep him down, though?”
Isda pressed the rectangular glass against Raphael’s box. It was a key. As soon as it touched the glass surface, its circuits revealed the box’s own wiring, in an active connection. Two seconds later, the glass wall to his right dissolved and withdrew, allowing Raphael to step out.
“An hour, for sure,” Amal replied as she came in, accompanied by Amane, who was carrying a strange device in her lap. “Maybe more, if we’re lucky.”
“Is that the—” I asked, but Amane beat me to it.
“The mass memory wiper, yes,” she said, smiling.
Isda moved to unlock my box next, while Amane pressed the deactivation code on Raphael’s collar. It snapped off and dropped on the floor.
“We’ve got two minutes left before this whole place blows up,” Amal said.
I stepped out of my glass box, thankful to be so close to freedom again. Amal removed my collar next and dumped it on the floor by Raphael’s.
“We should take him with us, then,” I said, looking at Ta’Zan. “His presence here was unexpected, but if he’s going to be out like this, he’s vulnerable. We could end it all sooner.”
“Let’s cut his head off now, before he comes to. As soon as we reach the others, we can just grab a pulverizer weapon and finish him off,” Raphael suggested.
Amal and Amane looked at each other, while Isda carefully placed the mass memory wiper in a backpack. She handed it back to Amane, who put it on her back.
“They’re right,” Amane said, a tinge of excitement in her voice. “We could—”
The swish of a blade cut her off. Amal cried out in pain, then dropped to the floor.
Ta’Zan was awake!
He snaked an arm around Amal’s neck and started choking her, gritting his teeth in pure rage. “You traitorous bitch! I raised you! I taught you everything! I gave you everything!”
Amane was quick to react, before either of us could move. She kicked him in the ribcage, while Isda struggled to get Amal out of his suffocating grip. She was already pale, unable to breathe properly.
Raphael and I helped get Amal and Amane away from him. Ta’Zan got up, wiping the foam from his mouth with the back of his hand. His veins were gradually returning to their original color, but he wobbled slightly on his feet.
