"How they piss me off…"
Bruno grimaced.
"Classic."
"He controls the commissions, the courts, the laws. Any leak of information ends up in his pocket.
Anna is going straight against him."
Flash, quietly, almost to himself:
"So she's the next target."
The man nodded.
The room grew even quieter. Even the dripping water somewhere deep in the catacombs now sounded louder.
Ethan raised his eyes.
"So…"
The man nodded.
"Police, medicine, food supply, and politics.
And only then,Gérard."
Silence settled over the shelter like a heavy blanket.
Bruno gave a wry chuckle.
"Well then.
Nobody said revolutions happen fast."
Flash looked intently at Ethan.
"Now do you understand why Maria went so deep?"
Ethan nodded.
"Yes."
He clenched the pass in his fist.
"Especially since we were told that in a week there are elections and if everything goes well… all the evidence disappears. Even us," the man said, staring at the floor.
The catacombs became quieter than a grave.
Even the people who had been hiding here for months seemed to sense the change in the air. The shadows from the dim lantern trembled on the walls like nervous fingers, and the smell of dampness and fear grew thicker, almost tangible.
Flash slowly lowered himself onto the edge of an old metal table. Dust rose in a light cloud and immediately settled again, as if even it didn't dare linger in this place.
His gaze, always cold and calculating,was now fixed on the surviving man leaning against the wall.
"Repeat that," Flash said, his voice carrying a faint note of surprise.
"Repeat it clearly."
The man nodded slowly, wearily, and began to speak as though forcing the words out of himself.
"In a week, elections. Gérard is publicly endorsing the whole scheme.
Prime-Blood will be presented as a voluntary medical program."
Bruno snorted sarcastically, arms crossed over his chest.
"Voluntary," he added mockingly.
"First for donors," the man continued, ignoring the sarcasm.
"Then for everyone. No one will be able to refuse."
Gideon's voice,tired but precise,broke through the crackle of static on the radio.
"I checked the documents I pulled from the data.
Prime-Blood will be classified as a drug for 'stabilizing blood in cases of chronic anemia.'"
Ethan's head snapped up as if the words had struck him in the chest.
His eyes, red from lack of sleep, narrowed.
"Stabilizing?"
"Yes," Gideon answered.
"But the formula… it contains a component that matches exactly what you described in the container.
The same smoke."
Flash slowly ran his hand along his jaw.
Dust fell quietly from under his fingers like sand in an hourglass.
"So they want to introduce it to people legally."
"And make them dependent," the survivor added, his voice trembling slightly.
"One injection a month. Then people will start becoming like them.
People will become slaves without even knowing it."
Bruno, quietly, almost to himself:
"Beautiful…
First we treat them, then we keep them on a leash like dogs."
Ethan stood motionless, as if his body had turned to stone. In his head, pieces of the mosaic were swirling.
Containers, Maria, the empty grave. He could see the whole picture now, and it was hideous.
"The elections will cement their power," he said slowly.
"The reform will lock in control. And dependency will eliminate resistance."
Gideon confirmed:
"Exactly.
This isn't just a plan. It's a complete restructuring of the world."
Flash raised his eyes. A cold, calculating spark appeared in them, the look of a predator that had found the weak spot in its prey.
"Then we don't strike in the basement…
We strike on stage."
Bruno turned to him sharply, confusion in his eyes.
"What are you talking about?"
Flash slid off the table in a light, almost graceful motion despite his exhaustion.
"The elections."
Silence hung in the air, thick and tense.
The people in the shelter exchanged glances; a mixture of hope and fear flickered in their eyes.
Ethan frowned, brows drawn together.
"They won't let us in there."
Flash looked at him for a long, studying moment, as though he could see not just the outer shell, but what was inside.
"They'll let you in."
Ethan didn't understand right away.
His mind, exhausted from endless shadows, slowly sifted through possibilities.
"Why?" he asked, looking bewildered.
Gideon chuckled softly over the radio the sound almost relieved.
"Because you're perfect."
Bruno blinked once, then again.
"He stinks of catacombs and looks like someone who hasn't slept in two days.
What kind of perfect is that?"
"Exactly," Gideon said calmly.
"He's a witness. He officially accepted compensation from Roy, and the vampire thinks Ethan is under his influence after the hypnosis.
He signed a waiver of claims. Case closed."
Flash nodded confidently.
"In their database, you're no longer a threat."
Ethan slowly shook his head. Memories of that day flared up in his mind.
"I took the money to buy time."
"And now it's our ticket in," Flash said, his voice growing firmer.
Bruno slowly began to understand; a grim smirk spread across his face.
"Wait… You want him to show up at the elections… as a guest?"
"Not just a guest," Flash said.
"With Roy."
The name Roy hung in the air, heavy as a lead cloud.
Ethan felt something inside him tighten at the memory of how Roy had looked at him and what he had wanted to do to him.
"Roy hates me. He'd kill me on sight…"
"No," Gideon corrected.
"Roy thinks you're his. And useful people are kept around.
He believes you're still under his hypnosis, by the way…"