"Everything that is happening now was once seen as preposterous. Who would have thought that the leader of the NSA was a madman who uses humans for experints? With sothing like this, we can't rule out any possibility. We're more than prepared to take Sasha out if we find out that she's on Gutner's side."
Luna didn't say anything for a few seconds, but then she spoke in an accusatory tone.
"Is that why they wanted to co so badly? They wanted to know whether or not I was on their side. Were you all prepared to take out as well if I didn't show up?"
Alec turned to Luna with a piercing gaze, and Luna narrowed her eyes at him as he just stared at her without saying a word. Alec didn't need to say anything in response; Luna could tell she was right. The Superhuman Alliance was very wary of any of the SOVEREIGN right now, and they were more than ready to take down anyone who seed to be against them.
Henry, the director of the Superhuman Alliance, was not playing around at all.
Alec finally spoke up with an undertone of relief in his voice.
"Regardless of what they thought, I'm glad you're on our side. I hoped you would be."
Luna turned away from Alec and looked down at the multitude of reporters who were trying to get past the security holding them back. The reporters were taking hundreds of pictures at the sa ti, making them look like a massive gallery of light.
"You know, my niece was turned into an anima."
Luna blinked and turned back to Alec when she heard him say this. What the hell? Alec smiled slightly as he saw the surprise on her face and continued in a nonchalant voice as if he were talking about the weather rather than one of his family mbers being experinted on.
"My niece had been missing for a few months, and we were trying everything to find her. If only… if only I knew that a governnt agency could do sothing like this, maybe I might've been able to save her. I trusted the NSA so much that it blinded to the possibility. I saw her corpse after they recovered the DNA of the anima.
She was fused with an old man, and their bodies had been fighting for control over the anima. I looked into her eyes and—and I cried."
Read exclusive chapters at empire
Even though his face was perfectly calm as he spoke, Luna noticed how Alec's hand tightened into a fist. His forearm and biceps were tensing, and there was a sharp undertone to every word he said. It was obvious that he was pissed.
"Why are you telling this?"
Alec sighed and ran his hand through his hair, and that one act actually surprised Luna more than everything that he said. Luna had never heard Alec sigh before.
Alec started to walk into the courthouse while talking.
"I don't know. Maybe I just felt the need to say it to soone before it ate up on the inside. I had a lot of chances to kill Salazar, but I held back because I knew he was going to face justice in here."
"They might not give him the death sentence. This is the International Criminal Court. We never know what could happen."
Alec paused for a mont before he started walking again.
"If that happens, then I will know the governnt has truly fallen apart, and no one will be able to bla for what I do next. Co on, we need to appear in court before they begin the hearing."
…
"For court case number 123544, the people of Arica against Ryan Salazar; the honorable judge Arnold Gregory presiding. All rise."
The court clerk announced the entrance of the judge as the hearing began, and all the people who were allowed into the courtroom rose from their seats to welco the judge. The judge was an aged man with white hair and a full beard. He walked with a small limp in his right leg, but there was a strength behind his movent that showed that the limp did not impede him as much as it seed to.
He walked over to the seat and raised his hands to the people in the courtroom, telling them to sit down as he also took his seat. Once he sat down, the clerk announced that the hearing had begun.
Luna was seated at the right side of the courtroom, close to where Salazar was kept. There were three ard guards surrounding Salazar, and from the amount of pressure she could feel from them, she knew that they were all S-ranks.
"… The evidence brought forth against Mr. Ryan Salazar is too erroneous to be disregarded, but I want to appeal to the court to reduce his sentence. Although what he did was grievous, I believe that it is only right that he is given a chance to repent for these actions…"
Luna listened half-heartedly to the lawyer who was trying to defend Salazar. Even though the man was saying a lot of words and gesticulating animatedly, Luna could tell that he was not at all interested in what he was doing. Even a lawyer who was trained to hide their hatred and defend anybody, no matter who the person is, would not be able to defend soone like Salazar with full gusto.
Luna turned to look at Salazar, and she narrowed her eyes when she saw that sa smile on his face. It was the sa as the one she saw on his face this morning when she ca to the courthouse. It was just a small tilt of the side lip, but it looked like it was mocking everyone in the room, like there was so big joke being played, and Salazar was the only one who knew the punchline.
Luna shook her head and decided to just ignore Salazar as she turned back to the hearing. This ti, the person prosecuting was the one talking; and damn, she was absolutely destroying Salazar's image.
The woman prosecuting was a chubby middle-aged woman who looked like soone who had enjoyed the better part of life for a long ti now, but her vocabulary and the fluency of her words made everyone listen to her with rapt attention.
She tore down Salazar—from his character to the twisted nature of his actions, and even to the lack of any real personal relationships that could have shown he possessed any empathy at all.
She delved into his personal life, his military life, his governnt life. Everything and anything that Salazar was ever a part of was used against him.
After this went on for a while, Luna could see the judge nodding along with her, and Luna knew at that mont that the only thing that would stop Salazar from getting the death sentence was if the judge had been bribed sohow. The prosecutor was fucking cooking him.
Reviews
All reviews (0)