by Gini Koch
Trevor stared at me. Then he looked at White. “How did you recruit her?”
“The same way we did anyone else,” White replied calmly. “By telling her the truth.”
“We-ell, you know, as much of it as they were telling everybody else. I figured out a lot of it.” Because most A-Cs sucked at lying. Wondered if Trevor was one of them. Figured I’d find out, one way or the other. “So, what’s your play here, Trevor? Cackling at us while telling us you’re about to blow up the city? Snarling about how we’ve ruined all your plans right before you try to kill us? Frothing at the mouth while telling us new, bigger, badder, scarier aliens are coming to get us? Trying to steal my children?”
“No. I’d like to have Stephanie learn from you.”
“Seriously? God help me, if this was all to try to arrange a playdate for me and Stephanie, I have only two words for you: Epic Fail.”
“No, that’s not what I mean. I mean, I want to propose a truce.”
CHAPTER 75
WHITE AND I BOTH STARED. Prince shared that, while Trevor smelled hella wrong, he also didn’t smell like he was lying. Algar, meanwhile, shared “Truth Be Told” by Megadeth.
“Come again?” I asked finally.
“A truce.”
“Why?” White asked flatly. “You’re here. Missus Martini and I, with the assistance of Prince, should be more than able to stop you, even if you are a, ah, cyborg.”
“You might,” Trevor allowed. “But if you do, then Stephanie will stop behaving and go on a rampage. And we know we don’t like that.”
“We might be willing to take our chances.”
“Don’t be,” Trevor said, and finally there was a knife in his tone. Just a flash, but it was there.
“Better give me a reason better than ‘because I said so,’ then, because I’m ready to whack your mole head right now.”
“I want to deescalate. Detente, if you will.”
“I echo Missus Martini. Why?”
Trevor heaved a sigh. “Because we’re not winning.”
Waited. That seemed to be Trevor’s entire statement. “Um, so? I mean, that never stopped anyone else.”
“And yet, it should have. They’d all still be alive, for one thing, if they’d stopped and truly assessed their enemy. I have. You’re formidable. LaRue felt that it was all luck. However, I watched you tonight. I set in motion something simple, but something that should have killed at least one A-C. No one was harmed. No one. Because of you.”
“Look, spiking the punch is a nasty idea, true, but if that was your entire plan . . .”
“Why would I have needed more? Simple is always better. Always.” He sighed at our expressions. “Normal people don’t pay attention to what’s inside a trash can. Normal people don’t grab a dinner roll and throw it like a baseball. Normal people don’t spot terrorists based on one sentence.”
“That last one was my mom.” Hey, she deserved the credit.
“Yes. She raised you. Of course she’s not normal, either. Your family is filled with the abnormal.”
“Humans tend to find that to be an insult. Just sayin’. And all that.” The music changed to “We Are the Normal” by The Goo Goo Dolls. Perhaps Algar didn’t feel it was an insult.
“I don’t mean it that way. I’m abnormal. Richard is as well. And so is Stephanie.”
“So are a lot of people.” Jeff and Christopher and Chuckie for starters, followed closely by Reader and Gower and Tim and everyone else we worked with. Siler maybe should top the list, but it was a hella long list.
“I just saw you mentally tally off people you feel are abnormal in the way I mean,” Trevor said. “And I know all of them work with you or are related to you, or both. That’s my point. Because of you, the abnormal people were pulled together, making all of you stronger. You forgive your enemies and the abnormal ones accept that and they join you and you all become stronger.”
“It’s called seeing the best in people, and some of you could freaking try it.”
“No. It’s the abnormality calling. It’s what pulled you into this world you live in now.”
“That’s true,” White said quietly. “Human agents were rare, and females rarer.”
“Go me. Go being nice. Go whatevs. Look, I’m not going to forgive Stephanie. I realize that that’s what half the A-C population wants. But I know her. I know her in the bone. She will never be anything but our enemy. And, since you’re with her and protecting her, you’ll never be anything but our enemy, too.”
“The United States has many enemies. And yet, they work together or leave each other alone.”
“Not always.”
“No, not always. The stronger, the craftier, the more willing to die for the cause, they win. That doesn’t mean they were the best, or right, or even good, or that they had the superior numbers or firepower. It just means they were better when it mattered most. You’re consistently better when it matters most and we are not. And I want to call for a truce, so that Stephanie can actually have a life.”
“Explain this truce,” White said, before I could reply. “Because I don’t know that we believe it.”
“I, for one, don’t believe it, so right on, there, Mister White.”
Trevor shrugged. “We stop bothering you, you stop hounding us. We continue our practice in France, you stay away from us and don’t try to stop us.”
Thought fast. There had to be a reason he wanted this, and it wasn’t the reason he was stating. He’d compared Stephanie to Yates more than once, and we already knew that he saw her as the true heir. So, what was it he wanted her doing to be more like Yates?
“Your practice is turning people into machines,” White said.
“They know that. It’s their own choice. Their eager, willing choice. We have a waiting list in the hundreds right now, and that’s without any form of advertising. Imagine the possibilities when we do advertise. And they all pay us well for our work.”
And sometimes, I didn’t even need a song cue. Though hearing Oingo Boingo right now would be nice. “That’s it!”
“What’s it?” White asked.
“What Trevor really wants. Because there’s nothing wrong with capitalism.” On cue, the song changed to, sure enough, Boingo’s “Capitalism.” Nice to know that Algar was paying attention.
Trevor’s eyes narrowed. “Hardly.”
“Dude, stop trying to lie, you’re not that great at it. You want Stephanie to be the next Ronald Yates. While she has all his drive and his mania, and she has talent, and she has an inferiority complex that manifests itself in being a bully, just like he did, and she has his voracious taste in the opposite sex that she constantly screws up, what she doesn’t have is a modicum of business sense. Ronaldo Al Dejahl did, but Stephanie doesn’t.”
“So . . . what?” White asked.
“So, that’s how you get true power in this world. You own things. You create wealth and you buy things. Not yachts and mansions, but companies. Media conglomerates, utilities, oil, stocks, the list goes on. And once you’re hella rich, the kind of rich most people in this country can’t even conceive of, then you buy things. Like countries, and politicians, and high public office. And the more money you have, the more media you control, the more lobbyists working for your cause, the more powerful you are and the more people believe your lies, because your many businesses focus on your lies and call them truth.”
“Yes,” Trevor said. “Exactly. The others truly didn’t understand that you’re someone they should have cultivated. And they still don’t.”
Filed that last sentence away for later. “I wouldn’t have said yes.”
“Oh, you never know. But yes, that’s what I want. To have Stephanie grow in power, wealth, and experience. So that she becomes a titan of industry, just as her great-grandfather did.” He sounded proud. He looked proud. Prince took a few
deep sniffs and shared that he smelled proud, too.
“You really do love her as your own, don’t you?”
He nodded. “I do. As I said, I had no children and I never married. Ronald was my world.”
“Were you in love with him?”
Trevor rolled his eyes. “No. I don’t waste my time on that kind of thing, on either side of the fence. My one true love is possibility and all it holds for us. No, I loved him for who he was, but I was not ‘in love’ with him. Any more than I am ‘in love’ with the girl I do think of as my granddaughter, lest you make another disgusting assumption.”
“Geez, sorry. I don’t think men being in love with each other is disgusting.”
“I find all of that disgusting, frankly.”
“He’s asexual,” White said quietly. “Just in case you weren’t picking that up. Seeing as how I know you don’t roll that way.”
“Mister White, while I love it when you go all ‘street’ on me, don’t make me hurt you. I got it, I got it. Everyone’s a critic. Okay, so, we call a truce and, what, let you perpetrate your evil on Europe while allowing someone who is probably our most formidable enemy still alive to become more powerful? I’m not seeing the upside for us. I am seeing the take Trevor into custody and see what happens side as being the way to go.”
“As I said, if you do that, then Stephanie will counterattack, and this time I won’t be there to temper her.”
“I shudder to discover what you call ‘tempering,’ but fine. So does that mean you’ve already put wires in her brain so you can control her?”
He looked aghast. “Absolutely not!”
“Dude, you’re the Tinkerer, and I want to be on record that that’s what I’ve been calling you even before I learned your alias.”
He smiled. “I’m impressed. But not surprised.”
“But you are someone who tinkers.” In Bizarro World, Alfred tinkered and came up with a million and one new things. There was no way Trevor wasn’t doing the same here. “So, why wouldn’t you tinker with Stephanie’s brain to make her all docile and crap?”
“Because that would be wrong.” He sounded sincere. “I want her to become all that she truly can be. On her own. As herself. Not as some machine of mine. I never tinkered with Ronald—I could have done something about his cancer, but then he joined with the parasite and I didn’t need to. But I would never have altered his magnificent brain. And I won’t alter Stephanie’s either. Besides, the wiring helps the brains work better, it doesn’t control them. But until such time as Stephanie is ready—and that won’t be for quite some time—she remains fully organic.”
“Okay. Let’s say I believe you. I kind of do and I kind of don’t. But let’s pretend that I’m with you all the way. What the hell do we get out of the deal? Because if we don’t get something good, why would we agree?”
“Well, I’ve offered the Treatment. You’ve said no. For now.”
“Yeah, you’re not selling me, Mister Captain Of Industry. You want us to give you a free pass. Right now, you’re the best bargaining chip we have. I see no reason to let you go. Stephanie might turn herself in to save you.”
“She won’t.”
“She might,” White said. “And I agree with Missus Martini. We want far more than what you’ve offered if we’re to broker any kind of deal with you.”
“What is it you want, then?”
“In order to leave you alone and give you time to get stronger? We want a lot. We want all nefarious activities stopped. No more making Bots or androids or illegal cyborgs. If someone chooses the Robotic Lifestyle, fine. But you’ll be sending us copies of every contract and, if you don’t, we come in and kill you.”
“You don’t know where we are, and you can’t find us or catch us.”
Siler appeared behind Trevor, grabbed him, and had a gigantic knife at his throat in a matter of a moment. “Yeah? Think again. ‘Uncle’ Trevor.”
CHAPTER 76
THE SONG CHANGED to Joshua Kadison’s “Invisible Man” and, for the first time, Trevor seemed freaked out. “What? Benjamin? How are you here?” He struggled, but Siler was strong and clearly prepared. Cyborg or not, Trevor went nowhere.
“I’m everywhere,” Siler replied, sounding like the most badass assassin the world had ever known. If Cologne could hear this, he’d dump the Code Name: First Lady crap in a heartbeat in order to do the Sexy Alien Assassin series, and he’d for sure take the starring role. “I know where your precious Stephanie is. I have no love for any of you. In fact, the sooner you all die for good, the better. Kitty’s the only reason you’re not all dead right now. So, if the First Lady says she wants something, you give it to her, or you and Stephanie both die. And yes, I know how to kill a cyborg.”
“What? How?” Trevor seemed honestly shocked.
“Really? We have, like, the best reverse engineers in the world working for and with us. You guys made Ben the most dangerous weapon you could at the time, he escaped, and he’s his own dude. And, as he said, he doesn’t like you. I don’t like you, either.”
“I’m with Benjamin and Missus Martini. In case you weren’t sure.”
The music changed to “My List” by The Killers. Back in full sync with Algar, always a plus. “We all don’t like you, Trevor. Sorry. I’m sure you’ll just hurt someone to get over it. So, let’s get back to the nitty and the gritty before Ben’s arm gets tired and he accidentally slices your head off. I’m ready to share my List of Demands.” Wasn’t ready to share what I called Siler, though. That was a nickname the Tinkerer didn’t get to hear.
Trevor nodded carefully. “They are?”
“I wasn’t being funny—we want the list of everyone who wants to have the Treatment, and we want the list of everyone who’s had the Treatment, and we’ll want the list of those who get the treatment, ad infinitum, and we want to see all their contracts. I want all the ones you’ve done already, and then I want to receive applications and contracts as you receive them.”
“We promise our clients anonymity.”
“And Hoover promised a chicken in every pot. Sometimes you lie for the greater good or because someone with a gigantic knife at your throat makes you promise to do so. This is one of those times.”
“That makes you like your enemies,” Trevor said.
“Does it? Let me see if I can find the will to go on. Gimme a mo . . . well, it’s a shocker, but I can indeed manage. Here’s how I’m different from our enemies—I’m not taking this list because of who they are but because of what they’re actively choosing to become, I don’t want to coerce these people into doing anything against their will, I don’t want to take them and force them to do terrible things to themselves or others, and I don’t want to hurt them. I do want to know who and where they are, so when the zombie switch I’m sure you have installed in all their brains is flipped we know who we have to stop and why.”
“We don’t have that, but I understand why you think we do. That was standard on all androids.”
“And it’s standard on the Bots, too.”
“Yes, as far as I know, it is. But it’s not in the cyborgs.” Well, we certainly hadn’t been able to find bombs or kill switches, in anyone, so he might be telling the truth. “What else?”
“Stop all the crap. No more evil, either straight up or on the side. You want us to leave you and Stephanie alone? Then you give us no reason to go after you.”
“Agreed.”
“That was easy,” White said.
“I wasn’t lying. I want to give Stephanie a chance to become a real person of power. She can’t do that if she’s focused on ridiculous vendettas against people who, if she just leaves them alone, will willingly leave her alone.”
This was true enough. Jeff would welcome the opportunity to keep everyone away from his niece, and he certainly wouldn’t be the only one. Anyone related to Alfred would want
that, and since all the A-Cs were related somewhere back there, most of them were going to side with the live and let live policy if they possibly could.
“And if we discover you’re up to something, I’ll be watching you, and so will others. Then I kill you,” Siler said silkily. “Without asking permission of anyone other than Kitty. What do you think she’ll tell me to do?”
“Kill ’em all, Ben, that’s our motto when it comes to the Tinkerer and his Protégée. Kill ’em all and take along your friends so they can help kill ’em all, too.”
“I love working with you,” Siler said.
“The feeling is very mutual.”
“If you’re done with the lovefest?” Trevor asked snippily. “Really, get a room.”
“The First Lady’s taken,” Siler said, with a wink for me. “Despite your best efforts tonight.”
“Which brings me to Part B of this particular entry—the ‘stop all your crap’ directive includes plans currently in the works.”
“We have none. Other than my attempt tonight.”
“Really? Then why were you invited to tonight’s party and who the hell sent those Bots to the Intergalactic School? And that’s just a for-starters two-part question.”
“Part one—Zachary is my client. He invited me because we assumed I could recruit new clients here, though I did promise not to recruit anyone who might have a political edge against him. I have a list of names of interested parties, and yes, yes, I’ll give that to you. I added on tonight’s attempt to see what a simple yet wholly effective plan would reap. It reaped your stopping it without a single casualty, which, to me, proved that my initial choice to force Stephanie to stop her vendetta was the right one.”
“Go team.”
“Yes, truly. Part two—you have more enemies than us. We are not involved with the Bots, as you call them, so I have no idea what went on or why or what the goal was, other than scattered news reports and what was being discussed by those who were at the school tonight, none of whom appear to have the information you seek.”