Ultima Ratio

Chapter 69: Forbidden Temptations

It was like time had frozen, and no one wanted to be the one to make it move again. Because forcing that chain of events to continue would only lead to disappointment.

But Akira needed to know.

"What?" she exclaimed, carefully rounding the desk with her gun still aimed. "What do you mean?"

Again, Danya didn't answer right away. Instead, the stealth collar slipped from her fingers as she slowly stood and approached the window, her gaze still pointed at the ground, but her eyes lost in the sky.

"He's not Verus Rex," she whispered, lifeless.

"I know!" the mysterious man on the ground wailed, his hands still clamped over his face. "They remind me of that constantly! I'm a bloody fraud!"

At the sound of his voice, Akira felt her heart sink. The man sounded nothing like how Verus Rex did during his infamous, "inspirational" speeches.

His admission was enough to spur Akira into action, keeping her gun aimed with her right hand while pulling one of his arms away with her left. When she finally succeeded, the man merely splayed his other fingers out to compensate. It took Quyen's interference to pry the last of his defenses away, and the resulting sight was enough to fill Akira with dread.

Danya was right.

The man before them wasn't the Verus Rex she described. Instead, his face had softer, rounded features, and the slight pudge and silky brightness in his cheeks made him appear innocent and near child-like.

"Who the hell are you?" Akira blurted out, unintentionally tightening her grip on his wrist.

The man's eyes widened in fear and discomfort, his pupils darting around Akira's camouflaged figure. "I'm...Verus Rex?"

Quyen closed the meter-wide gap between her gun's muzzle and the man's head. "What's your real name?"

"Alright, alright!" the man exclaimed, futilely writhing under their invisible hold. "Barry! Barry Shoop!"

Akira glanced at Danya, hoping for even the slightest reaction of recognition. Instead, her attention continued to wander aimlessly over the clouds outside.

"Well, my legal name is Barnaby," the man continued without needing prompting. "But only my mum would call me that, and only when she was really miffed."

Quyen scoffed. "What the hell kind of name is that?"

The man, Barry, opened his mouth to reply, but closed it when an answer didn't come forth.

"But you're really Verus Rex?" Jivan asked from the opposite side of the desk. "You're the one that was elected president in the nineties and just never left office?"

"Good heavens, how many of you people are there?" Barry asked, then yelped when Akira twisted his arm a couple degrees. "Sorry, sorry! Yes, that's me! And honestly, I'd kind of like a vacation at the moment! But they always insist it's a bad time."

"Bad time?" Quyen repeated. "No shit. Don't you know there's a war going on? A war that you started?"

"I mean, yes, I understand tensions are high..."

"Who's 'they'?" Akira asked as Quyen released a quiet curse. "Are they the same people that say you're a fraud?"

Barry nodded glumly in Akira's direction, looking more pathetic with his body restrained helplessly on the ground. "My advisors. They're very passionate, I'll admit, but they can be really...mean."

"How the hell did you get here anyway?" Quyen asked, then disengaged the camouflage on her gun pressed to Barry's head. "And don't you dare say a plane flew you here, or I swear I will shoot you right now."