The Eden Projects (EDITING)

Chapter 25. Devour.

- Ace -

Something felt off...

Ace huffed, wrapped a stretch of leather around his wrist as the car jostled, and glared at himself in the side mirror. He didn't look his best, but it would have to do. He'd been doing a lot of thinking lately and his looks weren't his main focus. At least, to the degree they normally were.

"...Kind of a bad time to do this, don't you think?" Fog flipped on the wiper blades and let the car swing right, around a blockade and back onto the street. "All this rain's just gonna weigh us down."

"it'll be fine. A deals a deal. It's our fault for waiting so long." He took in the surroundings. "-and I never back out." Ace was an empire built on fulfilled promises, he wouldn't let that weaken because of a little rain.

They hadn't been in the area long and yet they had already managed to make contact with several groups. Set up a temporary base in a quite luxurious location, and form a few small contracts. Their first had been handled. It was a years standing contract that dirtied his record. One he couldn't wait to be rid of but curiously every time he neared the end, it only grew in need. Therefore, it was an endless list in and amongst itself. This was their second. To burn down a nest. 

Simple. 

He liked simple.

Fog cleared his throat with a hefty chortle. "What ever happened with the guys?"

At this Ace smiled and pushed a small gathering of his hair back behind his ear. If he had a favorite thing to talk about. "The guys" was that thing. "I made Kasper choose what happens next." He cackled, it barely cracked his lips. "He still thinks he has a choice, what a shame. From there... I don't know where they've gone. They're probably lost in the fields around here. I doubt they'd try for the Tower so soon. The failsafe is still active."

Thunder cracked overhead.

"It sure is coming down..." Ace pulled a journal from the dash and turned to a page with his most recent "to-do list" and circled the next set of words. "Nest... tsk tsk tsk. Humans... They don't understand that there are worse things than these. If anything the presence has kept them safe." He closed the book and slid it gingerly back into place. "Hives... Nests... If only the dang people left the cities, the numbers would go down drastically. Everything starves. Everything dies."

Fog only nodded.

Ace lived his life by the book. His book. His code. His story. He had it penned in pristinely kept tasks and well executed plans. This was what made him comfortable. His control. Though now, after years of planning and keeping to the book, he couldn't help but feel a flippant sense of disregard for it. He had begun to understand the meaning of survival. To him it was all a game, so long as he didn't take surviving too seriously. But he was beginning to. He was feeling that distant storm welling...

A storm called desperation.

The plan, the end he was leading up to, had been dragging and now things were beginning to unravel. Not everything was as it seemed and finding just what lacked truth was taxing is patience. His business with certain parties was hidden between the lines and within the words. It was all just that. Taxing. But worse yet, he wasn't the only one looking for the truth. There were others. He had competition, and he was running out of tricks to subdue them with. His place at the top was slipping.

And he was growing bored of his own game.

"Maybe if you told them about Ark-"

"-NO." Ace sneered. "I can't do that. He'd have my head on a pike. If I ended all the fun we'd be the entertainment and I don't plan to play funny man for a bunch of assholes." He studied Fogs posture. "Oh what? Don't tell me you've grown a conscience."