E-UNIT: The Blue Angels of Death.

Chapter 119.5: Architects of the Fall. (Interlude)

V O L U M E F I V E

Chapter 119.5: Architects of the FallInterlude‎ Jason sat on the bench at the edge of the Ministry of Defense rooftop. It wasn't the tallest building in Frostholm, but the view across the city's downtown had a way of making everything else disappear the moment your hands touched the cold railing. The sun was low and unhurried this morning. The west always ran cold, high mountains pressing in from the east, the Aqua Frost range keeping the warmth at a distance year-round.

He had been sitting there for nearly an hour, watching the sun climb, a cup of coffee going cold in his hands and filling the rooftop with the last of its warmth. He'd taken a few sips early on and forgotten about it entirely, the kind of habit that grows when your mind is always somewhere else.

The metal door opened behind him. Footsteps, calm and unhurried. He didn't turn. The man came to stand beside him, arms resting on the railing, breath producing slow clouds of steam in the cold air. His glasses caught the morning light and threw it back.

Albert.

"I never pictured you as someone who sits still," Albert said. A small smile, barely there.

Jason kept his eyes on the orange circle pulling itself above the horizon. "It wasn't a choice. Life shapes you the way it wants without asking. I think if anyone were offered a chance to go back and do it again, knowing everything, nobody would turn that down."

"Who would refuse that?" Albert turned, putting his back to the railing and looking at the rooftop instead of the city. "Knowing what happens, when, and how." He paused. "What's behind the shift, though? I thought you had real confidence in the new weapons."

Jason scoffed. "I never said that. Every time I get close to finishing a prototype, Zeek cuts the budget back to nothing and orders a new design. We get more funding, we spend it on the next version, the cycle repeats, and then that machine walks into the city and suddenly I'm the one being screamed at from the wrong end of everything."

Albert crossed the roof and sat beside him. "Is there another option? We can't exactly switch sides again. We moved once when Nick shifted the project toward civil work, but that side over there is a human enemy. That's a different line to cross."

"We can cross it."

Albert went still. "What?"

"Reaper made me an offer. His hands in this country, working for him." Jason looked at him. "I know he made you one too. When he came to your room."

Albert looked away. "I haven't given it any thought."

"Yes you have."

"Jason, I'm telling you—"

"Open your email."

"No."

"There it is." Jason stood and leaned against the railing, facing the city. "I'm not blaming you. I've been turning it over since that coded message landed. Decoding it line by line, my brain resisting the whole way, but my eyes kept going back to it."

He turned to face Albert. "I'm tired. All I see is the same pattern running again. The military holds this part of the country right now. Do you genuinely believe they hand it back to a civil government once we 'somehow' reclaim Altea? They'll produce another Tamer. They'll place another Vegas. They'll keep their hands on everything and turn what was once the leading country in this region into another military state." He exhaled. "I'm tired of watching people walk the streets looking like that."

"So we hand the country over? Why not fight from the inside?"

"Did that ever work?" Jason's voice came out flat. "That's exactly what Nick tried. He had androids that could tear through walls and bypass courts, and the government was on his side. What did it get him? Prison. And that same government was either killed or locked up with him." He looked at Albert. "Nick didn't steal the project from us. He was trying to protect us from being responsible for what it became."

Albert stood abruptly and started moving around the roof, circling without direction. "When did you get there?"

"A long time ago." Jason's voice was quiet. "Saying it to Wallmore back then was apparently a punishable offense."

Albert sat back down, working through it. "What exactly did the email offer?"

"Protecting the civilian population. Moving whoever survives to Kasparia or the Veridian Coast." Jason paused. "And a lab in Elysium. Unlimited budget."

"The second one is a trap." Albert shook his head, something close to a laugh in it. "But the first, he did the same thing in the east. That part holds up."

"Even if he turns on me afterward." Jason looked at his cup. "Even if it ends badly." A pause. "I think I'd have it coming."

Albert's head turned sharply. "Don't say that."

"I already said it."

Albert looked at him, the set of his jaw, the particular flatness in his eyes that meant the decision was already somewhere past the point of argument. Regret sitting openly on his face. "We didn't know Tamer would use the sonic weapons on people."

"Stop lying to yourself." Jason picked up his forgotten coffee, stared at the dark liquid. "Cold," he muttered. "They told us to tune the frequency to affect organic tissue, just in case the military needed it. You knew what that meant. They gave you that exact framing so you'd have something to tell yourself later. And here you are, using it."

Albert leaned back in the chair and pressed both hands over his face. "When did you get this direct?"

"The moment I watched people getting shot in the street for wanting something better." Jason moved toward the roof exit. He stopped beside Albert without fully turning back. "You should make a decision soon. I'm not going to that robot alone. When you're ready, call me."

"You're doing it again," Albert said, something like a laugh underneath it. "Leaving the hard part to me. I thought you'd changed."

"I have a brilliant friend." Jason smiled. "Might as well use him."

He pushed through the door and was gone.

Albert stayed where he was, watching the space Jason had occupied.

"Nick would have made a dry joke right about now." He looked at the city below. "I wonder if his androids picked that up from him."