Corliss titters. It's all she can do to hold back a full-throated laugh at your question. "Childe, why would I do such a thing when I could turn them all to my side? This is my coup de grâce. If Ward is lucky, he'll never know what hit him. Now watch." She gestures up at the screen where Ward seems to be yelling at Sevinc, his Banu Haqim counterpart. She's holding something in her hand. You squint to get a better look—the feed is in HD, but there's really only so much that surveillance tech can do.
Back on the feed, Sevinc kicks down the door and you turn in your seat, half-expecting to see her burst through into the council room. Nothing. She continues through a hallway, followed by several men dressed all in black carrying gasoline cans.
"Wait just a moment," Qui says. "That's a different—"
The monitors flash a brilliant white and you're just able to catch a glimpse of Ward, backlit against the camera as his flesh is incinerated, innards tearing outward before they're consumed in the flickering white-hot fire of the explosion. Less than a second later, the feed goes dead. You were so entranced by what you were witnessing that you hadn't noticed the slight rumbling beneath your feet—like a minor earthquake or bombs exploding from a distance away—surely not in this same building.
Corliss raises her arms in a preening display of showmanship. "My friends and colleagues, you've just witnessed the end of our Anarch problem in real time!"
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