Heart Pangs

Chapter 34 - All For Them

Camille barely gets time to rest and heal before McMullen is having her meet and talk with a number of people. At first it's just one-on-one meetings. They're all with prey who have done dangerous undercover work, befriending or seducing preds with ties to the Facility. It's these prey who have managed to gather everything Epomis has on the Facility, and they're eager to learn even more.

Benji has to sit in on these meetings each time, trying not to let Camille's story get under his skin. He doesn't usually do a good job. His only reprieve is that he knows there can only be so many of these undercover prey that Camille can talk to.

And Benji is right. The well of prey who extort Facility information from unwitting preds dries up quickly. What Benji doesn't expect is for Camille's next step to be telling her story to entire crowds at a time.

McMullen calls a meeting and has Camille speak in front of everyone. And then he calls another one. And another one. The meetings aren't large, nothing like the first one Benji attended or the one at the execution, so the spread of Camille's tale is slow. That doesn't seem to matter to McMullen. He simply wants her to speak to as many Epomis members as possible.

People always come up to Camille afterwards, thanking her for sharing her story, telling her how inspiring it is, admiring her bravery. Some tell her they've lost friends or family to the Facility and hearing her story has brought them a new perspective. Others come to her, wide-eyed and frightened, explaining that they had no idea how terrible the Facility truly is. Their admittance is often followed by a solemn vow to dedicate themselves more firmly to Epomis and its work.

It's at this point that Benji realizes what McMullen is really doing. He's turning Camille into an icon, a figurehead. The horrors she relates are not only to educate but to instill fear, to make prey see Epomis as a sort of savior. Benji tries explaining this to Camille, but she doesn't seem to care.

"They have a right to know," is her only response.

Her main concern is for how McMullen treats her, and the way he treats her is a vast upgrade from before.

He lets her into his inner circle. He invites her to private meetings and planning sessions. She's involved in the decision making process for some of Epomis' more important missions. Most prominently, she's part of their talks for how to impair and take down the Facility. Permanently. Sometimes there are even discussions for planning a breakout. And, of course, there's always time for everyone to share their thoughts on the best way to take out Supervisor Simeon Bakula and Lux Feuerbach.

This last point always spurs people to shift uncomfortably and glance at Benji because, just as McMullen promised, he's by Camille's side for everything, including private meetings. And, of course, just as everyone knows Camille's story, somehow they also all know Benji's. Or at least the version he and Camille had woven— that Benji signed his life away to get back his sister.

There's one meeting, at McMullen's own house no less, where things get particularly heated. Oscar gets into an argument with a woman named Amber. It's the same woman, Benji recognizes, whom McMullen had been speaking with backstage after the execution. He quickly learns that she deals with a lot of sensitive intel within their sect of Epomis. Meanwhile, Oscar handles more physically dangerous work, such as the missions. He pushes for a more upfront move against the Facility. He's impatient and believes Epomis has the numbers to do some real damage. Meanwhile, Amber cautions against such a move, calling it brash and unnecessary.

At one point, Oscar stands from his seat and points to Benji saying, "Marotta signed his life away for his sister. The longer we fuck around doing nothing, the more likely he is to die by a pred's hand. And not just any pred but one of our number one enemies."