Nemesis: Book Five Read Online Free PDF Page B

man, I'm betting within five to six hours." Marks paused, and wet his lips. "What would you like to do to me, Will? I know it's something awful. Something for Rigley, perhaps? Maybe, but I think it's more about what I plan on doing for myself."
    Marks turned completely to the door. His smile vanished and he stared, looking to Will like a robot. One that was waiting, and one that would continue waiting until what it was programmed for arrived.
    Marks hadn't even cared if the alien was listening; that's how sure the fucking psycho felt.
    Will couldn't listen to it anymore. He couldn't rest inside his mind and listen to this madness. He would lose his own sanity hearing Marks talk as if he could stop this thing, as if the entire world would bend the knee to him.
    And what if they did?
    Then the world ended. No other option existed, because Marks wasn't going to walk out of this cage and try to save anyone. When he left, he would try to gain control of Morena and then the human race would cease to matter.
    Will went into himself, leaving the world behind, wanting to focus on the space he had carved out mentally. The alien left him alone for the most part, not caring one way or another what he did. And now she was gone, at least partially. His body was still locked down, but he saw nothing of her inside this place. Inside his mind.
    And what if he walked out of this mental room he'd created? What if the door wasn't locked? What if he just left? He sat in here because he felt some kind of worse punishment awaited if he tried to leave; he knew if he tried to face Morena in his own mind, he would lose. But now he felt nothing.
    Emptiness.
    The worst punishment was listening to Marks. The worst punishment was watching him walk out of this place without being able to say a word. The worst punishment was that he would die anyway, most likely listening to this madman.
    Will stood up and walked to the mental door, turning the knob.

    * * *
    W ill thought Kenneth Marks resembled a robot waiting, but the truth—as Kenneth Marks saw it, and what other truth mattered?—was that he waited like a serpent. Snakes wait until they're ready and everything around them is perfect, because when they snap, it's going to be once. No more.
    Kenneth Marks would snap once, and his venom would kill all opposition.
    He wanted to tell Will what he planned to do, because he knew Will now. Knew him the same as he knew Rigley. A deep connection with the human race ran through Will, and was the only thing that allowed him to do the deeds he considered awful for so long. He killed creatures from this world and others, all because in the long run he thought it meant humanity could push on for another day. Will would sacrifice anyone for that goal, including himself, even if he didn't know that yet.
    So to tell him Kenneth Marks' plan … well, it tasted delicious. Because Will would sit in that cage without any ability to stop Kenneth Marks. He would fume and rage and look out on a world that he could no longer affect.
    Kenneth Marks wasn't lying, either. No, the world would bend their knee, and very soon.
    He stared through the cage’s bars into the open room, his mind rapidly working through formulas, ideas, and scenarios. When they came for him, which they would, begging for him to drag them out of the quicksand rising to claim their mouths, he would have the solution to his problem. Not the world's problem. The world had gone on and would continue going on whether or not humanity walked across it; Kenneth Marks would have the leverage to bend this alien when the President came and asked for help.
    The solution wasn't easy though. Indeed, Kenneth Marks had been thinking on it for two days now, by far the longest time he had spent on any problem. He had six hours left, at the outside, and then they would be here. He didn't feel pressure, exactly, but he knew the risk he took by killing Hayley would only work if, when they came, he had something for them. His