Within Consul Goredolf's figure was a "Worm of Time" Angel had seen countless times and even used to make charms. This proved that the legal amendment targeting the loophole of "replacing the consul" fourteen years ago had come too late to save him.
That alone would not have surprised Angel too much. After seeing the wild bird with a faint ring around its right eye last night, she had already decided that the consul was the prime suspect. This was merely the other shoe dropping.
But the scene in the living room of 26 Sassen Street that appeared in her other eye made all the blood in her body run cold.
The "Weapon Master" Kaya, the short "Biologist" Lai Li beside her, the fish-farming specialist and "Folk of Rage" Yasin, the "Detective" Wilson, who was over sixty, and the "Archaeologist" Neumann had all been parasitized by Amon!
How was that possible? Didn't a law prohibit parasitizing and replacing other residents?
Had they suffered deep parasitism, becoming full-fledged avatars of Amon, or was it the shallow kind that only allowed him to perceive what his hosts saw and heard, without controlling their actions?
Why hadn't the "Pyromaniac" Nemo been parasitized? Was he truly "different," or did his time in the Iron and Blood Cross Order, which worshipped the "True Creator," give him some special quality that made him unsuitable for parasitism? Or had he merely escaped because there weren't enough "Worms of Time"?
What was this gathering, almost entirely controlled by Amon's avatars, plotting in "Hope City"?
Questions bubbled up and burst in Angel's mind, but she did her utmost to keep her expression steady. She also lowered the hand she had pressed against Klein's, as though she had merely made a small, affectionate gesture.
"We're interested in joining your gatherings,