by Z. J. Cannon
A brief flick of my eyes toward the knife was all it took to stop his brief burst of temper. His face paled, and he went quiet.
“Relax,” I said. “I’m not here to question your career choices. I can do that on my own time. I’m here because I need information on one of the companies you work with.”
“All our client information is protected by—”
I flicked my eyes toward the knife again. He snapped his mouth shut.
“Arkanica,” I said. “I need to know who’s at the top, and how I can find them. Tell me that, and I’ll be on my way.”
Conley glanced at the knife again as he shook his head. “Never heard of them.”
“Funny. A reliable source tells me otherwise. Does the name ‘Engstrom’ jog your memory?”
This time, the confusion on his face looked real. He was lying through his teeth about Arkanica—I had no doubt of that. But it looked to me like he was as clueless as the rest of the world about this Engstrom.
Internally, I swore. On the outside, I kept my face neutral. I let my hand creep toward the knife, just enough to let him see. “I’m willing to be flexible. If you don’t know Engstrom, fine. Tell me who you do know. Who over at Arkanica gives you your marching orders?”
“I told you, I don’t know—” He stopped talking as the pot of water on the stove started to hiss. He turned toward it with a frown. “What the…”
When he moved to turn off the water, I stood and grabbed his wrist. “Not yet. I’ll be needing that.”
“The country’s most wanted terrorist breaks into my home in the middle of the night,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Asks about a company I’ve never heard of, let alone done business with. And now he wants to put on a pot of pasta?” He rubbed his eyes. “If my alarm wakes me in five minutes, I swear I’m never eating pizza before bed again.”
“You’re not dreaming,” I said. “Which will become very apparent a few minutes from now, if you don’t change your answer. I’ll pass on the pasta, though. I’ve already eaten. No, here’s what I’m going to do with this.” I took the lid off the pot of water. A cloud of steam billowed up, and cleared to reveal the roiling water underneath. “The next time you tell me you’ve never heard of Arkanica, I’m going to dunk your left hand in that pot for five seconds. Which doesn’t sound like very long, but the real damage will be done in the first two. The rest is overkill. The next time you lie to me after that, it will be your right hand. And the time after that—assuming you can still form coherent words—I’ll pour it down your throat. If you do plan on lying again, I suggest you figure out how to stay quiet. You won’t want your wife and daughter coming to check on you.”
His eyes darted toward the door, betraying his intentions. I caught him by the wrist again before he could move. As soon as my fingers met his skin, he froze, his breathing quick and jerky.
Then he already believed I would do what I said I would. Good. I had been hoping he wouldn’t make me prove it.
“How did you even know about Arkanica?” He asked. “That’s top-secret stuff right there. They won’t even let us say their name half the time.”
“I don’t remember inviting you to ask questions.” I kept my hold on his wrist, and brought it a little closer to the pot of water, an inch at a time. “But that’s as good a starting point as any. You say you’re not allowed to use Arkanica’s name—who gave you that order? Who’s in charge over there these days?”
Conley shook his head. “I don’t know any of the names at the top. I don’t even talk to anyone in person. I get an email every couple of weeks from some assistant or other, and that’s it.”
I didn’t believe him for a second. “And the name of that assistant?”
He had to think about it for a few seconds too long. I shook my head, and dragged his hand a little closer. “You should have had a name ready, if you thought you were going to have to lie. Preparation is everything.” I nodded toward the pot of water as demonstration. “Not that it would have mattered. I know for a fact that you bragged more than once to my source about having a direct line to the Arkanica CEO, and even called him on the phone where my client could hear you. My guess is, it made you feel important. Well, now you are. The information in your head is very, very important to me.” I brought my lips close to his ear for the last few words.
I felt, more than saw, his shudder. “If I said anything like that, I was lying. Sometimes you have to make these people think you’re higher up on the food chain than you are, if you want to get them to listen.”
“I have no way of knowing if you’re lying, of course.” Another inch closer to the water. “Which means it makes the most sense to assume you are. If I’m right, I get my information, after I’ve shown you the error of your ways. If I’m wrong…” I shrugged. “Well, I’ll hardly be depriving the world of one of its guiding lights.” Another inch. The steam kissed his fingers; his hand spasmed as he tried to jerk back.
An image flashed into my mind. A memory of breaking into the home of a woman whose sins ran as deep as Conley’s. She hadn’t bribed any politicians, at least not that I was aware of. But she had known where Arkanica’s power came from; she had seen it firsthand. And she had signed on to field-test their technology anyway. She had told me she was saving the world. Maybe she had even believed it. I had a feeling she had been more concerned with her own bottom line.
I had gone to her apartment to learn the answers to two questions. The first was whether there was any good to be found in her, and by extension, in humanity as a whole. The second was whether I had a reason to spare her life. The answer to the first question, I had decided, was no. Under her thin veneer of philanthropy, her thoughts had been petty, her motives venal. But I had left her unharmed. Because even if she wasn’t good at heart, I wanted to believe I was.
Things had changed since then. I had discovered that the human heart held more capacity for goodness than I had understood. But I had also discovered something else: that like I had told Delaney, some things were more important than keeping one’s hands clean. If I had to follow through on my threats tonight, I would. I had done it before. And if I were to confront that same woman today, I didn’t know how our conversation would end.
“I can’t give you what you want. Please. I’ll give you anything else. You want money? Name your price. I can make it happen. But what you’re asking… you don’t give out information on Arkanica. Not if you don’t want to die in a freak accident the next week. This is deeper than state secrets, all right? Really, I’m doing you a favor. You don’t want to mess with these people. Especially not—” He clamped his lips shut.
“Especially not who?” My voice was a soft purr. The steam turned his skin pink, then red.
“You think you want to know, but you don’t. Trust me. Don’t make the same mistake I did. He’s friendly enough on the outside, the kind of guy you could meet up with for a beer after work. But I’ve seen what’s underneath. I used to be his fixer, before I got out and let some other poor sap have that job. I know where the bodies are buried. I’ve buried some of them myself.”
It looked like he was going to make me prove my willingness to follow through after all. “Last chance,” I said into his ear. “Whose fixer were you?”
He shook his head, stared miserably down at the churning water, and said nothing.
My stomach twisted. But I was used to my own physical reactions by now. I knew how to tune them out. Slowly, giving him as much chance as possible to change his mind, I lowered his hand toward the water.
Abruptly, he tried to break free, like his survival instincts had kicked in all at once. I held his wrist tight in my grip, and used my body weight to pin him between me and the counter. He wasn’t going anywhere.
“Please,” he babbled. “We can work something out. Just don’t. I don’t want my daughter to see this.”
“Then you’ll need to be quiet.” I lowered his hand another inch—and froze as fire erupted underneath my skin.
There were no visible flames, of course. Not even so much as a hint of red. But that didn’t stop me from feeling as if someone had just lit the underside of my skin on fire. Or maybe peeled up the skin to spread a layer of hot sauce underneath, and then smoothed it back down again. I almost lost my grip on Conley’s wrist.
I clenched my jaw so tightly I was surprised my teeth didn’t crack. It wasn’t just a reaction to the pain. It was what that pain meant. I had felt this before. Every time I had broken a promise. My own magic was turning against me, and if I pushed it any further, it would burn me alive from the inside. I was told it was one of the most painful ways to die. And after some of the other deaths I had experienced, I wasn’t eager to find out what could be worse.
There was only one thing my magic could be objecting to. I had promised Delaney I wouldn’t do any unnecessary harm to her Arkanica contacts. According to my magic, dunking his hand into that pot of boiling water fell into that category.
Then how am I supposed to get the information from him? I asked irritably. Sit him down for a nice cup of tea?
My magic, of course, didn’t answer. But the burning didn’t subside.
Reluctantly—although a not-so-small part of myself was relieved—I pulled Conley’s hand away from the water, although I didn’t let go of his wrist. I felt him relax against me—only a little, but that was enough to make me clench my jaw harder. That, along with the way the fear had already started to fade from his eyes.
“Couldn’t do it, could you?” said Conley. “It’s okay. Most people don’t have the stomach for this sort of thing. It’s why I stopped working for him directly as soon as I could. After a certain point, I would have taken any size pay cut just to make the nightmares stop.” He turned his head to look at me. He had already plastered a faux smile on his face, like he thought he could con me into thinking this was going to turn into some kind of bonding session. While he called the cops as soon as my back was turned, no doubt. “It will be better this way, anyway. For both of us. Sit down with me, and we’ll work out a deal. Something that will end well for you—unlike if you decide to go knocking on my old boss’s door.”
“You’re right,” I said, still as softly as before, my lips inches from his ear. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“You’re making the right—”
“Clearly you’re willing to die for this man, whoever he is. So let’s see what other sacrifices you’re willing to make.” I yanked him away from the stove, hard, and propelled him toward the hallway. “Which of these rooms is your daughter’s?”
At first he frowned, like he honestly didn’t understand. Then he went rigid against me. “No. No, please.”
I took a step toward the hallway, pushing him forward in front of me. I kept his hands wrenched behind his back, his wrists at an unnatural angle that made it nearly impossible for him to break free. Not that it stopped him from trying.
“There on the left,” I said. “With the hand-drawn sign dripping glitter onto the floor. That looks like a good place to start.”
“I’m telling you the truth. I can’t give you that information. Don’t you think I would have done it before now if I could?”
“I think—or rather, I hope—you still have enough of a soul left to value some things more than your physical safety.” I took another step toward his daughter’s door, keeping him in front of me.
“Take another step, and I’ll scream. My wife will wake up and call the cops.”
“And by the time they get here, there will be nothing left of any of you to save. With any luck, they’ll be able to identify you afterward.” I maintained the same low, threatening tone I had used with him in the kitchen. I hoped he couldn’t feel the way my muscles had clenched tight, or hear my pounding heart. Don’t call my bluff, I willed him. Listen to your fear, and those primal protective urges, and give me what I want.
In order to bring down Arkanica, I was willing to cross a lot more lines than I had thought when I had first begun this fight. But I still had my limits. This was one of them. I would not, could not, harm the little girl in that bedroom. My promise to Delaney probably didn’t technically cover her, since she had never been one of Delaney’s Arkanica contacts herself. It didn’t matter. She was safe from me, no matter what I wanted her father to believe.
Which meant that if he didn’t cave before I reached that door, I was never getting that name. He would see that I wasn’t willing to follow through on my threat, and then I would have no leverage.
I took another step forward.
“You won’t do it,” said the man, half asserting, half pleading. “You aren’t like me. Whatever they say about you on the news, I can see you’re a good man.”
“People keep telling me that. They say I got it from my father. The same father who first tried to kill me when I was your daughter’s age. What do you think? Did I take after him?” Another step forward.
“I can give you the name of a friend of mine. He’s a lawyer. He’s handled a few contracts for Arkanica.” He hesitated for a fraction of a second before saying the name, and flinched as it left his mouth. That secrecy conditioning went deep. “He’s worked with them a lot more closely than I have.”
Which would put me in someone else’s kitchen tomorrow morning, going through the same rigmarole all over again. “Not good enough.” Another step.
“It’s Eddie Ellison, all right? He’s the one at the top. Arkanica is his baby. His secret project, and he’s made it very clear what will happen to anyone responsible if that secret ever gets out.” Tears shone wet on Conley’s cheeks.
“Eddie Ellison,” I repeated flatly. I wasn’t buying it. It sounded to me like he wanted to give me a name high-profile enough for me to recognize, and hoped it was enough to get rid of me before I pushed further for the truth. He should have tried harder to make it plausible. Eddie Ellison was the mastermind behind Nexegence, a rapidly-growing maker of smart devices and wearable tech that had been making headlines for the past couple of years. He hadn’t designed any of the products himself, of course; he left that to his underlings. His expertise lay in cultivating a sleek-but-approachable image for himself and his company, and siphoning up cash from investors who liked the image he was selling. And, credit where credit is due, he was very good at what he did.
There were two reasons I had a hard time seeing him as the face behind Arkanica. One, he was already well on the way to world domination in the field he was known for. He had no need to dabble in the much riskier—both financially and personally—business of pissing off half of Faerie to sell their blood at a markup. And two, the man had never met a camera he didn’t love. I couldn’t see him keeping something like this a secret for so long, when the lure of the kind of publicity that would come from news of a fuel that ran on literal magic would have been irresistible for someone like him.
“Try again.” I forced him forward another step. “And make it believable this time.”
“I don’t know what else I can give you.” He was full-on sobbing now, all his earlier bristling offense gone. “I already gave you his name, and you don’t want to know what he’ll do to me for that. I don’t have anything else to give.” He shuddered against me. “Please.”
We were almost to the bedroom door now. I was still skeptical, but I couldn’t carry this bluff much further. At this point, I had two choices: take what he had given me and leave, or walk through that door. And I already knew I wasn’t going to do the latter.
Sometimes I thought life would be a lot simpler if I were more like Vicantha, the Winter fae who had brought me into the fight against Arkanica in the first place. She would have walked through that bedroom door by now, no matter how hard Conley had tried to convince her he was telling the truth. If life were as simple for me as it was for her—if my morality began and ended with what did and didn’t serve my objectives—maybe Arkanica would be long gone by now.
Then again, life wasn’t even that simple for Vicantha herself, these days. The l
ast I had heard, she was still in Faerie, embroiled in a doomed fight of her own with the Queen of Air and Darkness herself to stop Mab’s war against the human world and save the Winter lives it would cost. Maybe that kind of moral simplicity was a luxury no one got to keep for very long.
I pulled Conley hard against me, and brought my arm up to wrap around his neck. “If I find out you lied to me,” I said in his ear as he struggled for breath, “you might see me in your kitchen again sometime soon. Only next time I won’t be here for you.”
He didn’t have enough breath for more than a wheeze in response.
“Don’t call the police,” I said. “Don’t contact anyone at Arkanica. Go to work tomorrow morning as if nothing happened. Say nothing about this to anyone, not even your wife. If you breathe a word of it, if you so much as speak my name, I’ll know. And you understand what will happen then, don’t you?”
He nodded frantically, his face turning red.
I released him, and pushed him roughly away from me. He stood frozen, afraid to even turn around and look at me. Slowly, like a deer trying to avoid catching the attention of a predator, he turned his head to peer over his shoulder. I met his frightened eyes with a level stare.
“One more chance,” I said. “Do you want to change your answer?”
His face blotchy, his tears drying on his cheeks, he shook his head in silence.
I had been hoping he would take me up on the offer. But it looked like Eddie Ellison’s name was the best I was going to get. I was going to have to proceed as if there was at least a chance it was true.
Which meant it was time to figure out how to get to one of the richest men in America.
Chapter 9
The glass silhouette of the Seaport Tower was shaped like a woman’s body. All sleek lines and soft curves, it tapered from the bottom to form a subtle suggestion of a waist at the center, before opening back out again like a bell as it approached the penthouse at the top. During the day, the blue of the sky—along with the water of the seaport from which the tower got its name—reflected off the walls, making it look like a column of water rising high into the air. Now, at the height of sunset, the glass blazed red and orange, as if the wrath of God had descended on the city of Boston.