Rose shook her head.
“Yes, he is making a move soon,” Violet said. “We don’t know what, just where not to be.”
“When?”
“Within the next few days.”
“Have you met the Reaper?” I asked them.
Rose tutted at me, sniffling. “Don’t move so much.”
“We haven’t. The Reaper is not known by many,” Violet told me, leaning against the vanity, handing Rose different items as she painted my face.
“How do the Elite know him then?”
“He has a style to him,” Violet said in a hushed tone.
I raised my brows at her, and Rose swatted me. “If you can’t sit still, you two cannot talk.” She shot Violet a stern look. Violet raised her hands, conceding as she smiled. A reluctant smile tugged at Rose’s full mouth in response.
“What’s his style?” I asked.
“Being an efficient killer,” Rose said tersely, as if his methods bothered her.
Violet added, “He’s very lethal, capable of taking down twice as many men as anyone else, but he leaves a message every time.”
“Close your eyes,” Rose told me.
“If he has time, he cuts the chips out of the Elites’ arms.”
I kept my eyes closed as the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
I only knew one person who had cut out their chip.
“What does he do with them?” I asked, voice trembling.
“No one knows. Some say he is making his own chips, others say it’s just to send a message, and some say he’s taking their MINDs and raising the dead to take down everyone in the clouds.”
“How do you raise the dead?”
“He’s reusing the cutout chips to grant access to his followers.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Your Defect MIND isn’t allowed in the clouds unless the Illum approve it, but the MINDs of the dead Elite are allowed to move freely in the clouds. Scan that MIND instead of your own and suddenly his army is in the sky.”
“Army?”
“Don’t move your mouth for a moment. I know that will be difficult for you,” Rose said.
I grumbled as I closed my mouth for her. Violet continued, “Yes, army. It spans from Beneath to Above.”
Rose finished painting my lips, and I immediately asked, “Why kill the Elite, though? Why not just take their MIND chips and leave them?”
“Because they weren’t stupid when they inserted our chips. This right here”—Violet took my glowing wrist and tapped a bluish vein under my skin—“that is called a radial artery. The chip is right by it. If you aren’t extremely exact when you cut it out, and you hit that, you’ll bleed out. If you want the chips, then the owners have to die.”
“So he kills them for the chips or just to kill them?” I asked. I needed to know.
“I don’t know. You would have to ask the Reaper. They kill us. Marginalize us. Why shouldn’t we retaliate?” Violet seethed viciously.
