Thinning her gaze, she considers Zade’s request for a moment before acquiescing. Reluctantly, her guards spread out across the front entrance, ensuring they all have a perfect view of us.
“Lay it on me, Claire. What’s your proposition?” Zade asks but then holds up a hand to stop her when she opens her mouth. “Make sure it’s good, too. You had my girl kidnapped, raped, and tortured, and her mother nearly killed.”
Her red-stained lips tighten into a firm line, seeming not to appreciate the reminder of all her wrong-doings. Makes me wonder how the fuck she sleeps at night. Or maybe she’s secretly a reptile and doesn’t need to. That’s honestly more believable at this point.
“I will help you eliminate trafficking,” Claire says. When Zade and I stay silent, processing her offer, she continues, “While the skin trade is vastly profitable, there is something more that I desire.”
“And what is that?” Zade prompts, voice deep and low.
“Absolute control over the human population, of course. Right now, people are too self-aware of their useless existence. I want full power—us both to have full power.”
My brow pinches, a nasty look on my face.
“To do what with?” he asks. “What exactly do you intend to do with this power?”
“Create a whole new era, of course. We can do anything we want. We could make their lives useful, give them a real purpose.”
“And what would that purpose be?” I cut in. “To be mindless robots that would serve you?”
“Suffering would end,” she snaps, turning her glacial green eyes to me. There really is no soul in there. “And this planet would thrive. If humans had real law and order, we could do so many things. End world hunger, close the gap between the poor and the rich, and lessen poverty and homelessness.”
I shake my head. “You’re trying to make taking away people’s free will sound virtuous.”
“It is,” she retorts.
I blink, absolutely confounded. “Are we in a movie? There’s no way you’re serious.” Turning to Zade, I find him staring at Claire, absently rubbing his fingers together, his brain churning. “She’s serious, isn’t she?”
He cocks a brow. “It would appear so.”
More than anything, I’d love to know what he’s thinking. This is something you only see in theaters or books. Some new world order shit that seems so far outside the realm of possibility, people turn it into fiction for entertainment. I’ve literally written books like this myself.
“You’re exchanging one form of slavery for another,” he says finally.
“I’m exchanging human suffering for a new, better world,” she argues. “The technology you could create would advance us into an entirely new era.” She turns her attention to me, and I realize she is a fucking reptile. She’s a goddamn snake. “No one would ever suffer through what you have ever again. No more children sacrificed. No more women sold. I would dismantle it all.”
“What’s stopping you from doing this now?” I argue. “What’s stopping you from trying to take over?”
“Zade,” she answers simply, turning to address him. “You’ve been a thorn in my side since you created your organization and have set out to destroy everything I’ve worked hard for. And I’ll admit, you’re quite good at it, which is why I want to form an alliance where we’re working together, not against each other. I will give you what you want so badly, and in return, you help me with what I want.”
“Talk to me like I’m stupid, Claire,” Zade says dryly. “You want me to stop exposing the government? No, you want more than that. You want me to create some type of technology to implant in people’s brains and make them actual robots? Make it to where they have no fight?”
She raises her brows, a smile forming. “Now there’s an idea. I can create a new world with laws and consequences for breaking them. Your technology could advance us and make it easier to enforce these laws. We could force people to walk in a straight line, wherever we draw it. But taking away their ability to think for themselves? My God, that’d be wonderful.”
Her eyes alight with excitement. “Could you do that?”
I can only gape at her, utterly speechless. Does ending human trafficking sound like a dream? Absolutely. But in exchange for some fantastical idea to rip away people’s free will and turn them into zombies.
I’m not even sure what exactly she’d do with them all, but I don’t care to know. I want the same thing Zade has always wanted. To eradicate the skin trade. But that desire has never come with unrealistic expectations.