Midnight at the Lawyer family home. It was the time Cathartes had arranged for the mutual destruction of the murderers. Brett Lawyer was slumped on a couch at the centre of the living room, right next to Walter’s coffin. The guests had just departed from the funeral wake. Wreaths adorned the walls of the hall. Chrysanthemums and lilies littered the floor. Political posters were repurposed as some sort of shrine ornaments. With tears in her eyes, Brett Lawyer spoke to the corpse in the coffin, what was once her husband. 

“Walter. It’s been a while since we could speak like this. Now everyone has left and it’s just you and me. No, it’s—it’s just…me now. Just me. Where are you, huh? Where did you go? This—? This is not you. This can’t be you!” 

She breathed with difficulty and leaned over the coffin, staring through its transparent cover at his face. A white sheet had been placed over him, which was unfolded halfway to reveal the upper body of the departed man, with his deceptively peaceful face and posture. The body was well embalmed, but still bore all the injuries sustained in the gang attack and mortal wound from the assassination. 

“This is you? Really? Really? The media and the world will just remember you as a corpse. Ha! And I don’t give a shit about them. But you are a person! You were a person. What did you do to deserve this? Nothing! For the cheap aspirations of some bloody opportunist and charlatan, you have to be reduced to this? This?!” 

What strength she had gained from the visit to Black Balsam now felt like just a facade. It had now dissolved. The man was dead. What had comforted her was a false sense of security from what potential resolution she had the hope of obtaining. She glanced at the windows. All boarded up with makeshift metal and wooden boards. “Look at that. This is what life has become.” But that real security would come soon. As soon as that call came. That was what she needed. To break free of this twisted siege on her mind.

Her daughter stood behind her, not saying a word. Her face was stained with tears. She was not tall enough to look into the coffin.

Brett Lawyer picked up a stack of cards from a table. “Look what the residents gave you! You have done nothing but good around here. They all love you. See, this one says, ‘We could not have asked for a more upstanding leader’ and this one says, ‘I’ve never found anyone as sweet as you, you know? I still remember when you shook hands with my dog!’ Ah, always the goofy guy…” She laughed with a cracked voice and weak breath. 

“Mummy,” her daughter suddenly said, “can you let me see Daddy?”

Brett Lawyer gasped and turned around. “No. Sarah, go back up and go to bed.”

“I want to see Daddy. Don’t you think he wants to see me too?”

Brett Lawyer swallowed hard and forced a laugh. “What? Don’t be silly—”

“Can you carry me up? Like how you always do when he goes to speak on the stage to all those people. At the rallies.” 

The mother could no longer hold back her tears. Yet she still smiled as she obliged. She lifted her daughter up. It felt just like life before, when she held Sarah up to see past the crowds whenever a BN event was held. Whatever her daughter understood of it, she could tell it made her happy and proud and glad to have such a man as her father. They both looked at what he had become, smiling in awe of what he was. Now the family was reunited for a final moment.

“I will miss you, Daddy,” he daughter said, before she lowered her onto the ground.

Brett Lawyer’s phone rang. She checked the contact. BB. Black Balsam. It was 12:00am. The time had come. 

“Who is that?” Sarah asked.

“Business,” Brett Lawyer bent down and kissed her daughter.

“Mummy, I thought you took leave from work? You can’t work! I don’t want you to fall sick!”

“I won’t.” She smiled. “I am stronger than that. And it’s important. It’s good for health. It will make everything better. Everything.”

“Huh? Okay…”

“Now, be a good girl and go to bed. Tomorrow you will wake up and find that things are even better than today. And the day after that, even better. And then one day you’ll realise everything is fine…”

Her daughter nodded obediently as Brett Lawyer guided her up the stairs. “Stay safe. Goodnight.” She locked the door from outside.

She descended the stairs and sighed as she answered the call. A smile flashed across her face, and she muttered to herself, “Yes, that day when ‘everything is fine is coming soon.’ The cure for this sickness called bereavement.”

“Hello, Mrs Lawyer!” The scrambled voice of Cathartes was no longer sinister, but the most calming tune one could conceive of. “Your crafty false Vance email has been sent, and has borne fruit. Audio retrieved from Sagitarius’ remote hacking of the officers’ phones has revealed that they bought it. All of it. The IP spoofing was thanks to us, but great job with your linguistic trickery! From what we gather, a strike will occur at the Vine Creek base in approximately 30 minutes, or less, if we’re lucky. At least 4 vehicles worth of guys will be attacking the building. Now, as per our instructions, turn on your laptop. Answer our call, sit back and watch the magic of orchestrated karma.”

She did so, and set it up on a high stool in front of Walter Lawyer’s coffin, as she had always intended. Having answered the call for a video-conference from Black Balsam, she sat back down on the couch. But this time, she sat up straight. A collage of livestream footage began to play. Beside that, Cathartes appeared in the grid in his vulture costume and waved.

She gritted her teeth. “For you, Sarah, for your Daddy, and for me. Those bastards will pay.” “Vance, your underlings will be dealt with, and then I will come for you!”

“Let justice be done, though the heavens fall,” Haliaeetus added in the background.

“Uh, remember your earphones,” Cathartes gave a friendly reminder. “This could get a little noisy. You don’t want to wake your daughter, do you? Or your husband, for that matter.”

Haliaeetus could be heard gasping and hitting him in the head, and immediately grabbing the device from him to say, “Ma’am, I apologise—”

But Brett Lawyer shook her head to indicate everything was fine. She could not wrap her head around this unbelievable character, but he had somehow convinced the police of a legitimate threat and induced such a mobilisation.

“Behold! Destruction shall be visited upon them for their transgressions!” Cathartes declared. “We can only show you what footage we can capture from the bugs, but it’ll be sufficient to keep track of what happens within their base. Now, for what you have lost, you shall view the work of your red right hand. Lo! By your very own Writ of Revenge, let Act III begin!”