“Well,” Alex said nervously, “what about all the people who would be killed? I heard that, like, a third of the people who get injected with them die.”
Anastasia appeared to consider this for a moment.
“Do you know what a cartel is, Alex?”
“Don’t ask me,” Alex complained, rubbing the back of his neck and looking petulant. “You’re in one, right?”
“A cartel is an agreement, between competing parties to control or manipulate a specific concern, for mutual benefit,” Anastasia said, ignoring Alex’s eye-roll. “An open conspiracy, if you like. We are all inherently competitors in the same business, all of the cartels. We have simply agreed to try and limit competition from the outside. Flowery rhetoric aside, the Hegemony is no different from any other cartel. Did Margot tell you what the Hegemony’s alternative to mass nanite introduction is?”
Alex shook his head, not at all surprised that she knew the details of his conversation with Margot from the night before. He was starting to adjust to the idea that Anastasia always seemed to know what was going on, even the things she wasn’t there for.
“The Hegemony wants to come to an accommodation with the Witches,” Anastasia said acidly, her voice dripping with contempt. “They are willing to consign a percentage of humanity — that would be the majority, if you are curious — to serve as livestock for the Witches, in perpetuity, as long as they agree to Hegemony rule in Central and the cartel-controlled areas.”
Anastasia saw the disgust in Alex’s face, and seemed satisfied by it.
“What price for peace, no?”
Alex rubbed his jaw absently, staring off at a point above Anastasia’s shoulder, trying to digest it all. The Hegemony seemed more benign than the Black Sun on the face of it, and to be truthful, Anastasia’s demeanor didn’t help matters. At the same time, it would be mistake, he knew, to confuse the messenger and the message, no matter how pretty Emily was.
“That makes more sense,” Alex allowed, reluctantly. “But, still…”
Anastasia waved him off, pressing her face close to the glass, reminding him of a child entranced by the view. Alex looked down as well, but saw nothing other than the same mass of picnickers, dogs, umbrellas and coolers that had crowded the hilly green patch, since they had taken their perch in the disused office space, more than an hour before. On the table beside Anastasia, her cell phone buzzed discretely. She punched the speaker button.
“Hey boss?”
The connection was bad, tinny sounding, and it was hard to make out the voice. But the wording made it obvious that it was Renton. No one else addressed Anastasia so informally.
“You see what I see?”
Anastasia continued peering through the window at something Alex couldn’t find for himself, much to his frustration.
“Yes. What do you want me to do?”
Anastasia seemed to Alex to hesitate for a moment before she responded.
“Stay where you are. I’m going to go collect Mitsuru.”
Alex continued to look out the window for whatever had attracted their attention, seeing nothing but a crowded city park in the late afternoon.
Whatever had been planned had been planned without him — Anastasia, Margot, Renton, and Edward had left him and Eerie to watch TV, while they held a hushed conference in the hall outside the room. Alex had resented it; actually, he was still resenting it. But, on another level, he did kind of understand. He was virtually defenseless, after all, and Eerie was bat-shit crazy. It had irked him a bit, though.
Eerie hadn’t seemed slighted by being left out, but she’d been weirdly reticent all morning, hardly speaking at all, and going out of her way to avoid him. Admittedly, lodging in Anastasia’s suite for the afternoon had been awkward despite its spaciousness, but that still didn’t explain it.
On the cab ride here, Eerie had made it obvious that she was trying not to sit near him, practically insisting that Renton take the back seat instead, resulting in near-constant knowing glances from him for the whole drive. Even now, she wandered around on the other side of the vacant office, walking aimlessly from room to room, occasionally pausing to examine where the walls had been crudely torn open to allow wire stripping, or to rummage half-heartedly through the personal effects and scraps of paper that remained, abandoned in the ruins of the office furniture deemed too worthless to sell. She’d hadn’t spoken since they’d arrived, the hood of her sweatshirt pulled up, and Alex was pretty sure that it wasn’t Anastasia that she was avoiding — or, rather, that it wasn’t just Anastasia that Eerie wanted to avoid.
Alex tried to follow her stare through the glass, hoping to pick out which part of the park she was looking at. He didn’t like that Anastasia had sent him out with Margot to make that phone call last night; he hadn’t given it any thought at the time, but when he’d come back, he’d found Renton and Edward bringing a bunch of heavy duffel bags up to the room, so he knew that Anastasia had worked things out to be alone with Eerie. Whatever had happened between them, Eerie didn’t seem to want to talk to him anymore.
He snuck a look at Anastasia out of the corner of his eye — she was sort of pretty, he had to admit, in a rigid sort of way, her hair pulled tightly back in a bun, her black dress excessively formal for the occasion, frilly and fringed with ribbon. Her sober demeanor and her childish appearance were constantly at odds. When she was focused on something else, like she was now, the cell phone in the palm of her hand as she waited for a response, her gaze fixed on something below, he could pretend she was a regular teenager — a bit spoiled, maybe, and probably awkward around people, the kind of bookish girl that he usually felt a little sorry for.
Something about the idea of pitying Anastasia struck him as amusing, and he found himself grinning. Anastasia caught it in the reflection, and shot him a look that combined curiosity with annoyance, but Alex didn’t care. Lately, he’d been feeling that he was spending too much time worrying about what Anastasia thought.
It was funny, in a way. He’d always thought of himself as independent, maybe even a bit headstrong, but then things got scary. And then, all of a sudden, it became very easy to take orders, when the person giving them sounded like they knew what to do. If they were good at it, like Anastasia was, Alex worried that he might not even notice himself obeying.
“Alright.” Renton’s voice crackled through the hiss of static. “She’s parked herself. As far as I can see, we’re all clear.”
Anastasia pursed her lips for a moment, looking out the window. This time, Alex was able to follow her gaze, to a figure shaking out a red picnic blanket, not far from the near edge of the park. Mitsuru, in trainers and a white t-shirt, her eyes hidden behind overly-large sunglasses, the kind they sell in the drugstore, looking uncomfortable amidst the sun and crowds.
“Boss? You sure you want to be the one to meet her? Ed says that he’s closer…”
“No,” Anastasia said curtly into the radio. “No, I’m going.”
“But, what if this is…”
Anastasia looked angrily at the radio, as if it could convey her glare.
“If it is,” she said firmly, “then we already discussed how to deal with that. Follow the plan, Renton. Everything will be fine.”
Anastasia put the radio down on the desk top, and then sat up, brushing off her dress and looking mildly perturbed.
“Very well,” she said, gathering herself with an effort, and dispelling any trace of nervousness. “I shouldn’t be long. If things go poorly, take her,” she said, pointing at Eerie, who was still sulking at the far end of the office, “and run. Get out of the state, to a city, somewhere big. Check into a hotel, and call Alistair. He’ll bail you out.”
“Right,” Alex said, nodding.
“No, ‘What about you guys?’ No worrying over your friends, or wanting to play the hero? We are here to rescue you, after all.”
“Friends? No,” Alex said firmly. “I can’t imagine there’s anything out there more dangerous than you, Ana
stasia. And if there is, you can be sure that I’m not going to try and fight it.”
Anastasia shook her head, as if she had tired of tolerating his foolishness.
“What, haven’t you met Mitsuru? Don’t be so dramatic, Alex. They come worse than me, I assure you.”
Alex waited until the door shut behind her before he went back to looking out the window. Despite the big talk, he did feel nervous, and yes, a tad bit guilty. It wasn’t that he had some particular desire to risk his life, in fact, he was still scared after his last encounter with the Weir. But, the idea of watching people that he knew fighting and dying in front of him, even if he couldn’t exactly call them his friends, well, that made him very uncomfortable.
Not that he wouldn’t run, though, if things looked bad. He’d worry about feeling guilty over it later.
Alex turned his attention back to the window. He knew that Renton was on the roof with some sort of scoped rifle. Edward had gone up with him initially, probably to help with the bags, and then had come down a bit later, alone and empty handed. He wasn’t sure where Edward had gone after that, but it couldn’t have been far. Alex got the impression that it was rare for Anastasia to not be under the watchful eye of at least one of her guards. There was no way, he knew, that they were letting her walk out alone and unprotected, no matter how it looked to him.
Alex had to admit, however, that was exactly how it appeared, at the moment.
Anastasia seemed a bit tentative when she stepped outside, before squaring her shoulders and crossing the street, marching firmly through the throng on the sidewalk at the edge of the park, ignoring comments from a group of teenagers clustered near a fire hydrant. Alex couldn’t decide whether she was actually worried, or whether it was an act, for the benefit of their unseen observers.
“Anastasia looks jumpy,” Eerie observed, causing Alex to start and glare at her resentfully. She was standing next to him with her fingers pressed up against the glass, staring down below them. “She’s not into being out in public.”
“Go figure. I thought you weren’t talking to me?”
Eerie looked surprised, and then a bit sad.
“Not talking to Alex? No,” she said, shaking her head emphatically, “I talked to you this morning at breakfast.”
Alex turned to her and stared in frustration.
“You asked me for the salt,” Alex objected. “That doesn’t count as talking to me, damn it!”
Eerie glanced over at him and raised an eyebrow.
“Picky. Alex is so sensitive.”
Alex winced without meaning too. He wanted to yell, but he bit his tongue, and forced himself to calm down. He’d been getting angry too easily lately, and he had the feeling that he was being played every time he did. At a certain point, it became difficult to say who was doing the manipulating, but Alex couldn’t discount the notion that there was someone who preferred him angry and impulsive.
“Whatever,” he said, shaking his head irritably. “What did Anastasia say to you last night, anyway?”
Eerie pointed at something outside the window.
“Anastasia and Mitsuru are coming back this way,” she said, nodding at the window. “Aren’t you supposed to be watching this?”
Alex shrugged.
“My only job was to run away with you, assuming everything went south,” Alex said wryly, sitting back down on the desk, his back to the window. “Given the lack of screaming and dying, I think it’s safe to say it won’t come to that.”
Eerie stared at him, her expression unreadable. After a moment, Alex looked away, feeling unaccountably embarrassed.
“Run away with me?” Eerie said, wonderingly. “Alex gets all the good jobs.”
Alex stared for a moment, until Eerie finally cracked a smile, and then started giggling. Alex had to laugh himself, partly out of relief, and partly out of shock that Eerie had made something resembling a joke.
“What’s so funny?” Anastasia demanded crossly, leading Mitsuru into the vacant office, Edward trailing a few feet behind them, smiling affably.
“Nothing,” Alex said, waving her off. “It’s good to see you, Miss Aoki.”
Mitsuru looked up from where she had dumped her bags on a vacant, dangerously listing desk, clearly a bit surprised.
“Right,” she said, shrugging and opening a bag that, to Alex’s eyes, appeared to be filled entirely with guns. “Let’s talk about how we get you kids home.”
Twenty Eight
“Where is this place, anyway? What’s up with all the trees? Are we even in the city?”
Anastasia shook her head, trying to ignore Alex’s complaints, trying to match Mitsuru’s relentless pace through the brush and hilly ground. She held the edges of her skirt primly, determined to avoid snagging it on the bushes, sprinklers and debris that littered their path. She was sympathetic to the boy’s point, at least to an extent. Her dress, after all, was an expensive, one-of-a-kind piece, custom-made at a little shop in the Shibuya neighborhood of Tokyo that specialized in such things, and therefore delicate and irreplaceable. Certainly, Mitsuru had said nothing about traipsing through the woods on their way back to Central.
But the endless stream of questions and complaints that he had produced over the last hour were beginning to strain Anastasia’s composure, something for which Alex seemed to have a particular gift.
“This is the Presidio. It used to be an army base, I think, years ago. Now it’s a park," Margot said, from somewhere behind her. She didn’t sound thrilled at the situation, either, but then again, Margot never did. “Now would you please shut up?”
“I don’t think so,” Alex responded, a touch out of breath. “I want someone to tell me what the hell is going on! I’m tired of going along with whatever I’m told without knowing why. This is all a bunch of crap, as far as I’m concerned.”
Anastasia ignored the commotion behind her. Margot had seemed more than usually edgy with Alex all day, and from the sounds, had resorted to violence to get him to shut up. Not that Anastasia had any problem with the vampire slapping Alex around a bit. Still, Anastasia was surprised to see Margot so worked up, and couldn’t help but wonder how much Eerie’s obvious fascination with the boy played into it.
She stepped gingerly over a half-rotten log, and then threaded her way carefully through a series of muddy puddles, wincing when one of her patent leather shoes sunk into the marshy soil. Anastasia was so distraught by her ruined shoe that she didn’t notice Renton behind her, not until he had swept her up in one effortless gesture, one arm hooked underneath her bunched skirts, the other behind her shoulders.
“Renton!” she hissed, trying to keep her voice down. “What are you doing?”
Renton smiled and shook his head, plodding through the mud indifferently.
“Your dress will get ruined,” he said lightly. “I would not have the Mistress of the Black Sun embarrassed or discomfited by such a small thing.”
He smiled at her, in a way that was both indiscrete and completely inappropriate.
“Particularly when she is so easy to carry.”
Anastasia grimaced, but relaxed in his arms. She knew from experience that there was no point in arguing — he would agree, of course, and do whatever she told him to, but she would have to make a scene in order to make that happen. And he was right — appearances were part of her responsibility, after all, even if Renton’s motivations were a bit less than proper.
“At least make sure they don’t see us,” Anastasia grumbled.
Renton had done this for her often, growing up, but that was when she was a child. He hadn’t changed much at all, she thought, her head leaning against his chest, overcome by a wave of memories going back almost as far as she could remember.
Joseph Martynova, her father, had called her into his office, the first time she’d ever been there without her mother, or a nanny, to look after her. It was a vast, book-lined room with deep red carpet, an imposing walnut desk placed in front of a giant bay window facing ea
st, oriented so that the sun rose directly behind it much of the year. Her father was a man who appreciated the value of symbolism, something that was not lost on his daughter.
He’d barely looked at her, speaking in his low voice while writing something with a beautiful antique pen, sounding tired and distracted. He’d explained to the four-year old that she lived in a dangerous world, and even though she was not the heir to the Black Sun, she was expected to hold a position of prominence one day. This would, he explained indifferently, make her the target of all sorts of potential violence, blackmail, intimidation, and kidnapping attempts, something her father could attest to, since he was an expert at using those very same techniques to subdue rivals. Anastasia hadn’t fully known what to make of it, at the time, but she was already smart enough to know when not to speak.
Then he’d called Renton into his office. Renton walked in and stood nervously in front of her, obviously uncomfortable in his formal attire, his posture stiff, and his bow deep and clumsy. Renton Vidor, her father explained, would be her bodyguard for the next few years. The second-eldest son of one of the minor cartels in the Black Sun’s orbit, he had been pledged into their service as a sign of his cartel’s loyalty, and therefore Anastasia’s father was obligated to find a function for him. If she was satisfied with his performance, he said, she could elect to continue his employment in this capacity when she left for the Academy. Then her father had motioned for them to leave, and Renton had offered her his hand, his smiling face then exactly the same as the one that she saw now.
It was like that, sometimes, after activation. The nanites affected the aging process in inconsistent and unpredictable ways — some Operators appeared to age normally, while others aged only until a certain point, and then simply stopped, seemingly not aging a day until they died. Some Operators had lived for more than a hundred years, according to the Black Sun’s archives, while others had died in their teens of what appeared to be old age. Renton had been a young-looking twenty when he had been assigned to guard her, and only his hairstyle had changed since then.
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