18

“Lucia!” Dave shouted, dropping to his knees beside her. He eased her into a more comfortable position, though it was clear she was past feeling anything. He leaned over with his cheek to her mouth, then felt along her neck for a pulse. “Her breathing is shallow, and her pulse is thready,” he said. “What the hell did you do to her?”

Jun looked bewildered. “I didn’t do anything. She dug her nails into my hand—look,” she said, displaying the sore red crescents.

Dave touched his ear. “I need a couple of bone magi in the hub immediately. Lucia is—she’s ill.” He glared at Jun, who flinched. “No, I don’t know what’s wrong, that’s why I need the damn bone magi.” He lowered his hand and looked up at all of us. “You,” he said to Jun. “You touched her, and she collapsed.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Jun protested. “She clawed me. Look!” She waved her hand in his face again. Dave grabbed it and turned it over, examining it, then thrust it away.

“Don’t move,” he said. “Any of you. I—it’s about time,” he shouted to a couple of tall, muscular men who looked more like bodybuilders than doctors. They said nothing, just went to their knees beside Lucia. One of them lifted her head to rest on his knees, and the other took her left hand as if taking a pulse, though he used his thumb instead of his fingers.

The one holding her head let out a hiss of surprise almost immediately. “Poison,” he said. “Jerry, give me a hand.”

“Poison?” I said.

The two bone magi ignored me, which was just as well because I hadn’t meant that as a query, just an expression of surprise. I looked at Jun, whose face was rigid and expressionless. But Jun couldn’t have poisoned Lucia. She barely knew her, so what would be the point?

The invader’s words came to mind. We have already taken our revenge on the Wardens, it had said, and I’d been so afraid and overwhelmed I hadn’t thought to ask what it meant. Lucia dead would be a tremendous blow to the Wardens, not just at the Gunther Node, but all over North America and probably beyond as well. And Jun had lied about her escape. If she’d been suborned by the Mercy, been given something she could poison Lucia with…no. I couldn’t believe it. And yet, what other explanation was there?

Lucia’s darkly tan skin was even darker than usual, and her lips were blue around the edges. The bone magi had clasped hands and didn’t appear to be doing anything else. I held Malcolm’s hand and kept my gaze locked on Lucia’s face as if that would keep her from dying. The idea was ludicrous. Lucia was too much a force of nature to be discommoded by something as banal as death.

A trickle of blood ran from Lucia’s nose down her face to pool in her ear. She didn’t appear to be breathing. I wiped away tears and ordered myself not to be stupid. I wasn’t going to grieve for her when she was still alive.

“Watch it,” the bone magus named Jerry said, but again nothing happened—nothing visible, anyway. I couldn’t begin to imagine what the magi might be doing beneath Lucia’s skin. Then Lucia’s chest rose as she drew a deep breath and released it in a long, slow sigh. I sniffed. The air smelled of onions. The bone magi sat back, sagging as if exhausted. “That’s all we can do for now,” the one said. “But it’s good news. We’ve put her into a coma—”

Viv gasped. I held on to Malcolm more tightly. A coma was a good thing?

“And as soon as she’s stable, we can get a team working on extracting the poison,” he continued. “It resisted being converted into something neutral, so right now it’s in stasis with her.”

“How was it administered? Something she ate? Or topical?” Dave asked.

Jerry shook his head. “Slipped beneath the skin. It would have been encapsulated, so when it entered her body, it didn’t start poisoning her immediately—not until the encapsulation dissolved.”

“How long would that take?”

“No idea.” Jerry shrugged. “A few seconds, half an hour…no way to tell because her body absorbed the encapsulation vector.”

Dave grunted acknowledgement. “Take her to the infirmary, and let me know when you start work on removing the poison.” He stood and faced Jun. “You and I are going to have a talk.”

“You don’t think she did it?” Victor exclaimed. “Why would Jun want to poison Lucia?”

“I’m supposed to believe it was a coincidence that you touched her, and almost immediately she’s poisoned?”

“Nyla touched her first,” Jun said, pointing at Nyla. “It wasn’t just me.”

Acosta cleared his throat. “But you’re the one who lied about what happened when you were escaping the Mercy compound.”

Jun’s eyes widened. “What?”

Dave said, “What are you suggesting, Detective?” He’d turned his furious gaze on Nyla after Jun’s first words, but now he looked back at Jun, his eyes narrowed.

“I’m not suggesting anything except that Jun is hiding something, and it might be something deadly to the Wardens.” Acosta’s dark, lean face was impassive.

Jun took a step back, and Dave grabbed her wrist. She stopped. “I didn’t do it,” she said.

“We’ll find out. Come with me.”

“You have no authority to hold me. Let me go.”

Dave smiled. There was no amusement in it. “The laws of the Long War aren’t the same as those of the mundane world. If you’re innocent, you have nothing to fear.”

Jun matched him mirthless smile for mirthless smile. “That’s about as reassuring as it would be coming from a real cop.”

I looked from Dave to Jun and then at Lucia’s body, being carried out of the hub by the bone magi. “Jun, please cooperate,” I said. “We just want to know the truth.”

Jun looked at me. Her eyes were dark and distant. “You don’t believe me.”

“I—you need to tell us the truth about what happened in the Mercy compound. Please, Jun.”

Jun’s lips thinned. “It was no one’s business but mine,” she said, “and I’m not telling you anything.”

“That’s enough for me,” Dave said. He tapped his ear. “Send enforcers to the hub. Yes, now.”

Jun tried to pull away from Dave, but his grip was implacable. Victor said, “Uh, maybe this is the wrong idea. You’re not cops.”

“Stay out of this,” Dave said. He waved at a trio of people who were even more musclebound than the bone magi. “Jun Li, I’m ordering you bound over for investigation. Cooperate, and you won’t be harmed.”

“Dave—” I said.

“Get the rest of them out of here, Helena,” Dave said. “Ms. Li, give me your earbud.”

“But this is still just circumstantial evidence.”

“Then the investigation will prove that.” He pocketed the piece of glass Jun handed him.

I didn’t like the hard, cold look in Dave’s eyes. For all I’d never known him to be less than impartial, this was Lucia we were talking about, his lover, and I wasn’t sure his impartiality would hold up under these conditions. “I’ll stay with Jun,” I said.

Jun’s eyes widened again.

“Helena, you need to let Henry deal with this,” Malcolm said.

“She’s only here because of me,” I said. “I want to know the truth.”

“Sounds like you don’t have any faith in our system,” Dave said.

I squared up to him. “Systems make mistakes.”

Dave’s eyes narrowed. “Are you suggesting I’d engineer some kind of accident?”

“I’m suggesting that you’re angry and looking for someone to blame. That’s natural. But you have to stay impartial, and I think if I’m there, you’ll remember that.” I kept my gaze on his face, willing him to see reason.

“Helena—” Malcolm said.

Dave held up a hand. “Fine,” he said. “You can babysit and make sure she doesn’t accidentally fall on some bullets. Happy?”

I wished I dared touch him in reassurance. Under that anger was a wellspring of hurt trying to get out. “Dave,” I said, “they’ll save her. And we’ll find out who did it.”

Dave let out a deep breath. “We will,” he said, glaring at Jun. She stared back at him with no expression. “Take them both to detention. I’ll be there shortly.”

“You are not locking Helena up,” Malcolm growled.

“It was her idea, Campbell, weren’t you paying attention?” Dave nodded to the enforcers, who surrounded Jun without touching her. If her force field made them uncomfortable, they didn’t show it. “I’ll join you shortly.” He turned on his heel and walked away toward the green door.

“I’m coming with you,” Malcolm told me.

“It’s all right, Malcolm, nothing’s going to happen to me,” I said. “You need to make sure the—everyone gets back to the hotel. Oh, and they need to return the cardigans and the earbuds.”

Malcolm took me by the shoulders and turned me to face him. “If she’s a traitor, you could be in danger.”

“She’s not a traitor.”

“And you know this how? Helena, this is a bad idea.”

I shook my head. “I just know. She’s not going to hurt me.”

With a scowl, Malcolm said, “Then I’m coming with you.”

I hugged him, rejoicing in how warm and strong and living he was. “I think it would be overkill if we both went with Jun to detention. Go. It won’t take long.”

Malcolm’s lips thinned in disapproval, but he nodded. I kissed him once more and turned back to face the enforcers and Jun. Jun still looked expressionless. The enforcers looked confused. “It’s all right,” I said. “I’ve been in the cells before. Should I lead the way?”

The enforcer on the right, a man whose dark skin reflected the fluorescent lights, let out a little snort of amusement. Jun looked confused now, which relieved me; I’d thought she was going to stay impassive forever. Surrounded by the enforcers, we set off in the direction of the detention cells, following the black line.

I caught Jun casting furtive glances my way as we walked along the corridors. “Let me guess,” I finally said. “You’re wondering why I was ever locked up here.”

“It crossed my mind,” Jun said. Her mouth barely moved, as if she were afraid the enforcers might crack down on her if she talked too loudly.

“You remember I told you about the Accords, how they govern all the Neutralities, including the custodian of Abernathy’s? I was arrested for violating the Accords.”

Jun raised an eyebrow. On her, the gesture looked sinister, possibly because her eyebrows were thin and flexible enough nearly to reach her hairline. “You were? I thought you were the most law-abiding person the Wardens had ever produced.”

“I had my limits. Specifically, I was in love with Malcolm and I didn’t care that the Accords said we couldn’t be together. I admitted to our relationship in a situation where I couldn’t keep it secret anymore.”

“You’re married. Something must have changed.”

I smiled in memory. “I convinced the Board of Neutralities that it was an unjust law.” And then the oracle had extorted five million dollars from the Board so I could afford to pay the fine they’d imposed. The memory still warmed my heart, almost a year later. I knew I was in the right, but having the oracle back me up felt like the ultimate vindication.

The dark-skinned enforcer looked at me as if he wanted to order me to silence, but didn’t quite dare to speak like that to Abernathy’s custodian. I fell silent anyway. The enforcers were doing their jobs, and I didn’t want to make that harder.

The magenta line, which had paralleled the black line, made a sharp left turn. After about twenty more steps, the cyan line turned right. Now it was just the black line, snaking down a curving tunnel. Ahead, I saw a steel door painted beige I remembered. Even though I wasn’t here as a prisoner—or at least was a voluntary, temporary prisoner—my heart still beat faster at the sight.

One of the enforcers withdrew a key card from his breast pocket and dipped it into the reader beside the door. The light went from red to green, and the enforcer pushed the door open. Beyond was a short corridor lined with more beige metal doors, their steel riveted together. Each door had a key card reader next to it. All of them glowed with tiny red lights like malevolent stars fallen to earth.

The enforcers marched inside and closed the door. Two of them took up guard positions on either side of Jun and me, and the third, the one who’d opened the door, continued down the hallway to the far end and did his door opening trick again. We waited. I was starting to feel stupid about my grand gesture. Dave was a good guy—he wouldn’t arrange for Jun to be tortured or killed in custody. You don’t know that, I told my sensitive, trusting self. The Long War was hard, and Dave had executed or ordered the execution of dozens of traitors just a year ago. Staying with Jun was the right thing to do.

The enforcer returned, holding a key card—black, not white like the first. He stopped at the fifth door on the right and beckoned to us to join him. Jun and I walked toward him without waiting for the enforcers to prompt us, which made me angry with myself for being cooperative with my jailors. I reminded myself that they weren’t the enemy and waited patiently beside the door.

The enforcer swiped the key card, and the door swung open. Jun entered the cell without looking at anyone. “Thanks,” I said, then hurried inside before I could feel too stupid about having thanked them for locking me up. The door swung shut beside us, not with a clang, but with the faintest click as the lock engaged.

The cell was just as I remembered from last year—a concrete cube about twelve feet on a side, lit by a single bulb, with a bench attached to one wall and a sink with one handle on the tap attached to the wall next to it. Jun had already taken a seat on the bench. It was long enough for someone to lie down on, but with no pillow or blanket, it wouldn’t be very comfortable.

I worked the tap at the sink and filled my cupped hands with water, which I drank down thirstily. Then I dried my hands on my pants beneath my cardigan and freed my hair from its ponytail. It was messy and frizzy from all the running and how my head had rubbed against the plastic tunnels of the Mercy compound. I combed through my hair with my fingers and put it back up again. “So, what should we talk about?” I asked. “It might be a while before Dave comes back.”

Jun was staring at me as if I’d gone crazy. “Why did you do it?” she asked. “You barely know me. And I might be a traitor who’d try to kill you next.”

I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms over my chest. “I know you’re not telling the truth. Det—Greg said you lied about what happened to you in the Mercy compound. But I don’t think whatever happened made you a traitor. Tell me, Jun. Why did you lie?”

Jun looked away, her lips thin and straight. “You believe that detective?”

“Strangely, given our history of mutual antagonism, I do. Come on. Whatever it is could clear you of attempted assassination!”

Jun was silent. She crossed her arms the way I was doing and stared at the door.

“Thirty-one,” I said.

She turned to look at me. “Thirty-one what?”

“Rivets in the door. In case you were counting them. I did that when I was here before and there’s thirty-one. Seems like a strange number, huh? Why not an even thirty or thirty-two?”

Jun’s lips curved in a reluctant smile. “You’re an odd one,” she said. “You volunteered to be locked up to protect the life of a woman who might have killed your friend. And you put your life on the line not just to save your husband, but to stop an organization you’re not even remotely qualified to fight. I don’t understand you at all.”

“I think you do,” I said. “You want to make a difference in the world. You just don’t know how. And you’re alone because your talent makes it hard for people to be close to you, and you wish that was different but you don’t know how to change that either. I think you wanted a reason to join the Wardens that would be…incontrovertible, maybe. Something you could point to and claim it was inevitable, that you couldn’t fight it. I wish I could prove to you that I can be trusted.”

Halfway through my speech, Jun’s smile disappeared. When I finished, she said, “You think you know me? Part of the investigation you conducted?”

No, of course not!” I threw up my hands in exasperation. “Why is it people always object to other people understanding them? Like you’re too…too special for mere mortals to comprehend your motives? Jun, I don’t know for sure that’s what your life is like. It’s just a guess I feel comfortable making. Would it really be so bad to let someone else in?”

Jun looked away again. “You don’t understand.”

“Because you won’t explain. Just tell me what happened in the Mercy compound. I’ll defend you to Dave—I’ll even explain it to him. But don’t think you have to hide anymore.”

Jun said nothing. I walked to the door and leaned against it with my face pressed against my arm. I couldn’t force Jun to talk, and for all I knew she actually was a traitor and would attack me next, never mind what I’d told Malcolm.

“If I tell you what happened,” Jun said quietly, “you really will think I’m a traitor.”

I turned around. She had her hands clasped loosely in her lap and was staring at them. “Why is that?”

She shook her head. “Honestly, I’m not totally sure what happened. Whether it didn’t make me a traitor without me knowing it. But I didn’t agree to its terms.”

I held my breath and suppressed a dozen questions.

Finally, Jun said, “I tripped, and Nyla ran past me. I thought I followed her immediately, but when I got through the next tunnel, she’d vanished. I had no idea where I was, so I just took as many down-sloping tunnels as I could find. And after about the fifth one, I ran into it.”

She let out a deep breath. “I’d never seen anything so terrifying. It had arms and legs like an insect, multijointed, but thick and muscled like a bodybuilder’s. Other than that, it looked almost ridiculous, all those rainbow colors…it looked like the offspring of a goliath beetle and a unicorn. But it didn’t make me want to laugh. I stood there staring at it because I was afraid to turn my back on it to run. And it called me by name.” Jun finally looked up at me, and I was caught even more breathless by the look of bleak despair in her eyes. “How did it know my name?”

“I don’t know. They seem to know a lot of things they shouldn’t. The—” I’d been about to tell her the one who’d spoken to me had known I was married now even though Santiago hadn’t, but I decided that would derail the conversation. “What did it tell you?”

“My name. My talent. How it feels to always keep people at a distance.” The corner of Jun’s mouth went up in a half-smile. “Do you know why I hate it when people say they understand me? It diminishes who I am. If someone understands me, that’s like saying I’m not unique in my trials. I hate that. But I also know it’s stupid, because who am I to be—what did you say? Special?—to be too special in what I’ve endured? There’s only so many kinds of misery in the world.”

“But you’re the only one with that talent,” I said. “I don’t understand how that must feel. I can only imagine it, and maybe I’m wrong in my imagining.”

“It doesn’t matter. That…thing…knew exactly how I feel. It told me details I’ve never shared with anyone. And every word it spoke sickened me more, made me feel smaller and more terrified. Maybe it did that on purpose, so its offer would be more compelling.”

“It made you an offer?” Despite what I’d said to Malcolm, fear touched my heart. If Jun was a traitor, we were trapped together in this cell and she, for all she was twice my age, was taller and stronger than me.

Jun looked away again. “It said it could remove my talent from me. Make me normal.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Is it?” Jun shrugged. “Maybe. It was very convincing, and you know I’m not easily convinced. I believe it could do what it promised. And it chose exactly the promise guaranteed to make me consider its bargain.”

My muscles tensed, preparing to fight. “But you didn’t.”

She glanced up at me, and this time her smile was real. “You’re afraid,” she said. “Smart of you. No, I didn’t agree. I’ve been part of enough negotiations to recognize when the person across the table from you isn’t showing all his cards. That creature might have been able to free me from this curse, but once I did as it asked, it would go on asking me to do more, until it stopped asking and went to ordering instead. I’m nobody’s puppet.”

“Even though it offered you your heart’s desire?” I hadn’t relaxed, though part of me knew Jun was telling the truth.

Jun sighed. “This talent has benefits as well as drawbacks. I’m not sure I could adjust to being normal. So even if the creature had been completely honest with me, I probably still would have said no.” She stood and stretched. “Besides, I draw the line at poisoning someone.”

I shifted my position so I wasn’t quite so tense. “That’s what it wanted, then. Poison Lucia. Which means somebody else took that bargain.” I paced a short circle in front of the door. “It has to be Nyla. If it was someone Lucia touched earlier today, the invader wouldn’t have tried to get you to do it. But Nyla didn’t lie about what happened to her.”

“She also wasn’t very specific,” Jun pointed out. “She might easily just have left out her encounter with the creature, and Greg wouldn’t have picked up on that.”

I sighed and sat on the bench. “We just have to convince Dave. Which means waiting—”

The light went out.

I froze. In the distance, I heard a faint thunkthunkthunk sound, like an airplane engine stuttering to a halt. Then the light came back on, dimmer than before. A voice I recognized as the woman who made recordings for the Athenaeum and the Gunther Node’s elevators said, The node has been breached. Prepare for invasion. The node has been breached. Prepare for invasion.