Vigilantes Read Online Free PDF

standard interrogation—would be more of a statement. But you’re a failure now, right? You didn’t achieve your goal as destroyer of the Moon .
    But he didn’t dare say that. What if he pushed Uzvaan into killing himself, made Uzvaan realize that he should have died because he had done something wrong?
    Still, Nyquist couldn’t resist one question. Or perhaps it was more of a jab.
    “So, you clones are supposed to die if you failed at something,” he said slowly, “and to succeed at destroying the Moon, you would have died as well. Does that mean if you succeeded in destroying the Moon, you were a failure? There seems to be no logic to this. It doesn’t make sense to me.”
    “Of course it does, Detective.” Uzvaan spoke with great sarcasm, but his expression hadn’t altered. Was that what Peyti looked like when they were sad? “It makes sense if one does not think of us as individuals, but as tools. One tosses out tools that do not work. Tools designed for a single purpose only achieve that purpose, often through their own destruction.”
    “Like bombs,” Nyquist said.
    “Like bombs,” Uzvaan agreed.
    Nyquist let the words hang for a moment. They left him shaken. Clearly Uzvaan had thought this through. Why wouldn’t he? He’d had a lot of time alone in this place.
    “When did you realize you were an individual and not a weapon?” Nyquist asked.
    Uzvaan shook his head ever so slightly. “Your question is incorrect, Detective. I was always a weapon.”
    Nyquist was not going to repeat that question. It showed too much empathy, and that bothered him. So he just waited to see if Uzvaan would answer anyway.
    “It is a mistake, in my opinion, not that my opinion is worth much any longer,” Uzvaan said, looking down, “to set the timer on a weapon for decades instead of minutes.”
    Nyquist studied Uzvaan. Uzvaan still wouldn’t meet his gaze.
    “I had time to contemplate,” Uzvaan said. “I learned, when I came to the Moon, when I realized that no one here knew what I was, that I could be seen as something other than a clone. I achieved respect. I achieved position. I achieved a life.”
    Nyquist swallowed. He was frowning. “Then why did you continue with the plan?”
    “You act like I had a choice,” Uzvaan said.
    “You did,” Nyquist snapped. Both words were filled with fury. He couldn’t suppress it.
    Uzvaan shook his head again. The human movement was, apparently, the best way he could express himself, at least with this.
    “I did not think I had a choice,” Uzvaan said. “I would contemplate abandoning the mission, and then I would think what fools you all were to believe I was a legitimate Peyti, a real lawyer, someone who was a true individual.”
    “You were,” Nyquist said.
    “No.” Uzvaan raised his head. His eyes were blue-tinged again. “I have thought on this long and hard, Detective. It is the point that vexes me the most.”
    He paused. Nyquist wondered if Uzvaan would continue, or if Nyquist should push him. Nyquist had never been this emotionally conflicted in an interview, nor had he felt like so much was at stake.
    Apparently, Uzvaan didn’t notice Nyquist’s conflict.
    “I was trained, from the beginning, from the moment of conception—however you measure that—to believe I had no worth. I had a purpose , and only in achieving that purpose would I obtain—again, your language does not have the word.” Uzvaan said something in Peytin. “This word, it mixes what you call humanity, personhood, a soul, and legitimacy. It is the core of being a Peyti, something that no clone can ever achieve, or so I was raised.”
    “You just told me you could achieve it,” Nyquist said.
    “We were taught that we could achieve it through completion of our mission,” Uzvaan said. “It was the only way.”
    Nyquist blinked. He thought about it. He didn’t understand Peyti culture. He didn’t understand his own culture half the time. He could wander down this side corridor,