Alien Invasion 04 Annihilation (20 page)

“Just you for what?”
 

“We have a visitor coming.”
 

“To a formal dinner?”
 

“Just a sit-down.”
 

“So you don’t need your cufflinks.”
 

“I guess not.”
 

Heather shifted her weight to her other leg, very aware of her body. She’d spent too much of her adult life willfully blind. She’d looked away from so much that she should have stared in the eye. Heather felt like she’d gained a new sense of vision in the past half day, a new way of seeing the world around her. With half of her mind, she felt defenseless, as if facing an attacker without armor even without anyone physically present. But with her other half, she felt a fresh curiosity. A new level of no-bullshit, and this one without all the biting sarcasm.
 

“When Raj killed you,” Heather said, “did you see the light?”
 

“What light?”
 

“The light people see when they die.”
 

Meyer still seemed distracted. He didn’t look up. “I didn’t see any light.”
 

“What was it like, dying?”
 

“I didn’t die, Heather.”
 

“You definitely died. If you want me to believe that you’re you, then don’t insult me by saying you didn’t die.”

“Maybe medically,” he said. “I don’t really remember.”
 

“But you remember what you said.”
 

“Of course.”
 

“What did you say, Meyer? Just so I believe you.”
 

Like a robot, Meyer said, “Love you.”
 

“Do you?”
 

“Do I what?”
 

“Do you love me?”
 

“I don’t know, Heather. I’m busy here.”
 

Heather’s jaw moved side to side. She wasn’t precisely wary of Meyer anymore. She was more curious than anything.

“Why did you attack Raj?”
 

“He was insubordinate.”
 

“I’m insubordinate all the time, and you’ve never attacked me.”
 

“That’s different.”
 

Heather nodded, but of course Meyer didn’t see it. “Because I’m a woman.”
 

“That’s right.”
 

“And you don’t hit women.”
 

“No.”
 

“And Raj tried to kill you.”
 

Meyer stopped with his hands mid-rummage. Heather didn’t know what he was doing and wondered if he did. He’d already said he didn’t need his cufflinks for … for
whoever
was coming to visit. So what was he trying to find? He struck her as an animal pacing its cage, unsure what else to do with his time.
 

“He did.”
 

“So that’s why you beat him up. That’s how ‘insubordinate’ he was.”
 

“Right.”
 

“Terrence said you nearly killed him. An eye for an eye.”
 

Meyer paused, looked up, then resumed his pointless rummaging. That should maybe ring some bells that, for whatever reason, weren’t ringing. What had changed for Meyer? Her question about seeing the light wasn’t a joke; Heather didn’t believe in afterlife but did believe in how people always seemed to change after near-death experiences. That’s how Meyer was now. Before he’d been shot, he’d almost become the man he hadn’t been for years: the strong, independent, bullheaded man she’d fallen in love with more than two decades ago. He’d finally stopped toeing the line to do what was right. He’d fixed things with his ex-wife (whom he seemed still to love) and his daughter, before turning against the force occupying the planet after years of working on its behalf. That had seemed to make sense.
 

But this? This blank return to business as usual? This didn’t.

“Maybe. I don’t know, Heather. Why don’t you head back to your house for a bit? I need to get ready.”
 

“For what?”
 

“I’m meeting someone. Someone from outside the city.”
 

“On behalf of the Astrals, I assume. Like a stand-in for them, since they don’t talk.”
 

“Divinity says they may use me as what they call a surrogate. Them talking through me.”
 

“And this makes sense to them. Using
you
, who turned on them.”
 

Again, Meyer looked up. “That was a mistake. I wasn’t thinking straight.”
 

“They must know. Raj told them, and they’re not stupid.”
 

“They know it was a mistake. They know I understand.”
 

“Enough to trust you completely?”
 

“Yes.”
 

“How can they trust you when you turned on them before? They must have their doubts, right?”
 

Meyer looked up again. This time, his jaw seemed restless, chewing on something that wasn’t there. Shifting side to side. Annoyed and tired of the discussion.
 

“You should go back to your house,” he repeated.
 

“There’s no power in my house.”
 

Meyer grunted, still staring at her.
 

“Because of the virus you released.”
 

“We need to focus on the solution, not the problem,” Meyer said.
 

A hunch told Heather to move forward. She kept her usual sarcastic vampiness out of her walk, and the annoying lilt from her voice. She tried to act normal, straight. It was possible, with effort, even for Heather Hawthorne.
 

Six steps closer to her ex-husband, she asked, “Why did you do it, Meyer? Right or wrong, why did you help us, if you now realize it was a mistake? Why the
temporary insanity?”
 

“It was just that, Heather. A lapse of judgment.”

“But you remember it.”
 

“Of course I remember.”
 

“It was Lila, wasn’t it?”

“I was weak. I forgot my responsibilities.”
 

“Because you saw that your daughter hated you. Because you thought you were going to lose her.”
 

“The best way to ‘lose’ anything is to keep doing the stupid things I did then.”
 

Heather wasn’t buying it. Meyer sounded brainwashed.
 

She paced closer.
 

“What if it happened again, Meyer? What if you had to face the same thing again, and on one hand you could make your daughter keep loving you … but on the other hand, you could
do your duty
and she’d think you were a son of a bitch?”
 

“I wouldn’t be that stupid again, Heather.”
 

“Why were you stupid that time?”
 

“I’m tired of answering your questions. Go. I have a visitor.”
 

“A visitor. Is there a chance to redeem yourself here? To do something at your ‘meeting’ to stop being a son of a bitch in your daughter’s eyes?”
 

“I’m not,” he said, an irritated look in his eyes. “You saw what happened in the dining room.”
 

“Lila is happy because she thought you were dead.” Heather took another step, confidence growing. “And because the last time she saw you make a choice, you chose to be noble.”
 

“She’ll respect a father who does what’s right.”
 

“But what if you had to choose? Duty on one hand, her respect on the other.”
 

“I won’t govern one-ninth of the planet based on the opinion of a twenty-year-old.”
 

“And yet,” Heather said, pointing toward the ceiling, toward the network center where he so recently made his act of sabotage, “the last chance you had, that’s
exactly
what you did.”
 

“Get out of here, Heather.” Now he was coming forward, his pointless business in the office concluded.
 

Heather didn’t back up. “I’m not saying you should do it. I just want to know why.”
 

“That’s immaterial.”
 

“And I want to know why, when you were dying, the last thing you thought to say was that you loved me.”
 

“It doesn’t matter, Heather.”
 

“Just tell me. Tell me why you chose to do either of those things, even if you now think they were stupid and a
dereliction of responsibility
. Just tell me, Meyer.”
 

“I don’t need to explain myself to you.”
 

Again, he took a step. Again, Heather refused to back away.
 

“Just tell me,” she said, “and I’ll leave you alone.”
 

Something seemed to war beneath Meyer’s skin. His eyes shifted. He bit his lip. He looked away then back to meet Heather’s eyes.
 

Then he pushed past her and walked out.
 

But at least he seemed angry, Heather thought. And that was a start.

CHAPTER 40

Christopher looked up to see something hobble through the police station’s door that almost made him want to laugh. But then he got one look at the thing’s face and pressed his lips shut.
 

It was Raj. He looked like he’d been dragged behind a squad car for blocks then stepped on by something enormous. His face was bruised and starting to puff, tinged a black and blue that showed even through his dark coloring. Beneath his nose was a crust of blood. It seemed to still be seeping. One of his eyes was swollen half-shut. He had a severe limp, as if one leg was broken and he was insisting on walking atop it anyway. There was blood all over his uniform in the most random spots. Observing the pattern, Chris couldn’t tell whether Raj had been repeatedly stabbed or if he’d just gushed blood like a geyser to land in many small pools.
 

Christopher drew to half attention, more acknowledging Raj’s pathetic presence than deferring to his authority.
 

But Raj didn’t go to Christopher. Instead, he detoured once through the door, drawing looks from humans and Titans alike in the generator-lit atmosphere of bright lights and knife-edged shadows.
 

Christopher followed.
 

“What happened to you?”
 

“Fuck off, Christopher.”
 

“I’m just asking.”
 

“I slipped in the shower.”
 

“Was there a fight?”
 

“That’s none of your concern.”
 

“Who did you fight with? Was it … is Terrence still at the house?”
 

Christopher tried to cover the awkward, telling fumble, but Raj spun to meet his eyes. One of Raj’s whites had a spot of blood in its corner, as if the eye itself had been punched.
 

“I know about you,” he said.
 

Christopher tried to play the accusation off but couldn’t quite manage. There had always been something comical about Raj’s anger and pointed fingers. He’d been given his honorary position because it was befitting the father of Heaven’s Veil’s princess, and none of the many tasks the household had given him meant a thing.

Usually, his tirades were met with an eye roll and a silent chorus of,
Oh, Raj. Nobody would ever take him seriously
. But this was different.

“I was just asking if — ”

“No, Terrence didn’t fight me. Yes, he’s still up there. Still being watched. Not escaping. Everything he’s doing with the computers is being sandboxed. Once he claims to have a solution, I will inspect it personally. He will not be able to get you a message under my nose.”
 

“Not for me,” Christopher stammered. “Why would he need to get in touch with — ”

“Save it,” Raj snapped. “I know about your talk with my wife, on top of your
fucking
her. You knew they were coming. I know you’ve been with Terrence all along. You might have fooled Meyer, but you can’t fool me.” Raj’s head cocked. “Or maybe you didn’t need to fool Meyer. Maybe he was with you from the beginning.”
 

“I don’t know what you’re — ”
 

“Where is Jons?”

Christopher said nothing. He felt too gobsmacked. He wasn’t sure if he was frightened or not. Raj’s threats had always amounted to nothing, dating all the way back to the bunker under Meyer’s old house. Nobody took him seriously, but now Christopher couldn’t help but feel a target on his back — possibly because they’d left Mary’s house not a half hour ago, and he’d thereby painted it himself.