time we stopped, we couldn’t see the walls of the stronghold anymore; they were hidden behind layers of fallen buildings. I couldn’t have reliably said where Aegis was.
I stopped in a cave made from broken cinder block and fallen timbers. Virgil was still struggling, but shock had set in and he was moving out of habit rather than genuine desire to get away. I held him until he stopped and just settled in to an empty stare.
“Poor kid,” said Fraser. I about jumped out of my armor at the sound; I hadn’t realized that he’d followed so closely.
“You okay?” I said.
Fraser nodded. Virgil said, “I want my mom.” I looked down at him, and saw that he understood that there would be no more comfort from Lynette’s arms, that he was lost in the world without an anchor.
Like fuck he was.
I held him, careful not to let the armor bite into his unprotected skin, and I rocked back and forth until he fell asleep. Fraser remained quiet, checking his equipment to give us the semblance of privacy. Once Virgil was asleep I laid him on a board and covered him with a spare shirt. He curled into a ball and went silent beneath it.
I turned to Fraser. “Okay,” I said, “Who do you know who can translate what’s going on in that video?”
“Um. Well, I can probably find someone, but it’s going to be a difficult-“
“Do it.” I glanced at the tiny ball that Virgil made sleeping beneath his meager blanket. “I want to find out what happened, and then I want to stop it.”
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