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“That sounds pretty annoying,” said Jercash, hardly even listening to the words coming out of his own mouth. “You must have lived a difficult life, eh?” He was more concerned with the environment. The town of Orobell had held a special place in his heart, once upon a time. To see it reduced to rubble was leaving him with mixed feelings. Partly solemn, for that angelic woman who had lived here a hundred years past; and partly ecstatic, for all the insects who would no longer be a drain on the planet’s resources.

“I have had my share of sorrows, yes,” said Germal, “but now I find the future looking rather bright.”

“That so?”

“Yes,” said Germal. “A-and please allow me to apologize again for my indiscretion. I hope I have not soured you to me as an ally. I have nothing but admiration for you and the work you’ve done, ledo.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it so much.” Jercash waved his hand. “I’m a very forgiving person by nature.” He wasn’t.

‘In that case, would you mind telling us why you wanted to come to this place?’ said Nerovoy.

“Eh, I suppose there’s no harm in it at this point,” said Jercash. “See, the idea was to infiltrate this group, not exterminate it. I had reason to believe that they had ties to the Hammer, so it would’ve been nice if we could’ve used these poor dead folks here in order to get a leg up on him.”

“Are you saying that this was Kane’s hometown?” said Germal.

“That, or something similar. Supposedly.”

“Wouldn’t that mean he could be on his way here, at this very moment?”

“Heh. Wouldn’t that be something?”

Germal’s expression suggested that he did not agree.

‘If you truly had credible intelligence,’ said Nerovoy, ‘then why did you not spread this information far and wide?’

Jercash snorted. “‘Credible’ might’ve been a strong word for it. And who would you suggest I tell, exactly?” He spared the reaper a brief glare. “I am Abolish.”

That gave Nerovoy pause, perhaps only then realizing precisely how true that statement was. ‘Y-you could’ve told Dozer, surely.’

“I did. But he’s got plenty of other concerns. And he never listens to me, anyway.”

Jercash knew that he mostly had Jackson to thank for his recent “promotion,” such as it was, but that was only insofar as appearances were concerned.

The truth of the matter was that Jercash had been the tip of the spear for quite a few years now. Decades, arguably--though he knew many who would indeed argue that.

Sure, the names Dozer and Morgunov still struck far more fear than his own, and they likely would continue to do so for many more years--which was fine with him. Preferable, actually. But the reality, at least from his perspective, was that those two barely ever did anything anymore.