Offspring (48 page)

“You son of a bitch,” Keith hissed. The knife quivered. “You and your Outback bullshit. You’re going to join the Real People real soon and there’s no way you can stop—”

“Help!” Kendi yelled. “Ben! Lewa!”

Keith shoved the knife downward with surprising strength. Kendi felt a pinprick as the point pierced the skin above his jugular vein. He struggled to push Keith’s hand away, gained a centimeter, lost it.

And then Keith vanished. Kendi heard a crash and a cry of pain. He got to his feet and saw Tan pressing Keith face-first against the wall. His right hand still was still clutching the knife, but Ben was beating his wrist against the wood. Three blows, and the knife clattered to the ground. Tan used her body to keep Keith pinned and pulled out a set of wrist restraints. In one swift movement, she got his hands behind him, closed the silvery bands around his wrists, and activated the restraints. The bands stuck together with a firm
click
.

“What the fuck is going on?” Tan demanded.

“Are you all right?” Ben asked. “You’re bleeding.”

Kendi checked his neck. A streak of blood smeared his hand. “Just a scratch.”

“I’ll
kill
you, Outback boy!” Keith snarled at the wall.

“Shut up,” Tan snapped.

“Why did he attack you?” Ben asked. “Where’d he get the knife?”

“The kitchen, I think,” Kendi said. “As for why...” Kendi stared at Keith as several thoughts came together. “All life, we’ve been idiots! Ben, we have to get into the Dream. Now!”

“Kill you!” Keith howled. Tan rapped his head against the wall.

“What are you talking about?” Ben asked.

“Do you have your dermospray with you?” Kendi rummaged around in his pockets and found his own. “We don’t have much time.”

“For what?” Ben demanded, producing his own dermospray. “You don’t even have your spear.”

“I don’t
need
it,” Kendi said. “It’s just easier if I have it. Lewa, keep an eye on Keith. We’re going in.”

“But—”

“This will go faster if you quit talking to me,” Kendi said. He lay down on the recently-rumpled bed and
thumped
the dermospray against his arm. Ben shrugged and lay down next to him to do the same. Kendi closed his eyes. It was hard to relax at first. The adrenaline from the fight hadn’t worn off yet, and he was tense. It also felt strange not to be leaning on his spear. But eventually years of practice took over, aided by the drug. Colors swirled behind his eyelids and he found himself in kangaroo form on the flat, empty plain of the Dream. Whispers swirled around him. A moment later, Ben flicked into view, his rapid appearance creating momentary distortions in the air and ground.

“What’s this about?” Ben asked.

“Shush!” Kendi said, and stretched to his full height, listening hard. “This way!”

He bounded off, leaving Ben with little choice but to follow. Kendi dashed over the flat, gray ground as fast as he could, knowing that in the Dream, Ben could keep up with him on foot. Moments later, he crossed a boundary, and both men found themselves in a plush office that overlooked a skyscraper skyline. The strange Silent Kendi had chased several weeks ago sat in his executive chair, eyes shut in concentration. They popped open when Ben and Kendi appeared on his turf. Kendi didn’t hesitate. He leaped over the desk and landed with his full weight on the man.

The man yelped with pain and surprise as the chair went over backward. Kendi shifted shape into a camel. His great split hooves pinned the man’s shoulders to the carpeted floor. Kendi felt the man’s bones creak and the man cried out in pain. With his hind legs, Kendi kicked the chair backward out of the way, and it crashed against the rear wall.

“You were whispering to my brother,” Kendi snarled at him. Thick camel spittle spattered the man’s face. “You took advantage of the fact that he was suffering from depression and that his mind had been damaged from the time he spent on Silent Acquisition Station. You whispered to him, made his depression worse, made him attack me, and
I want to know why.
”

The man shut his eyes. Kendi bit the top of his head and ripped out a hank of dark hair. The man screamed. Kendi spat out the bloody hunk of scalp.

“No concentrating,” he said. “And no leaving the Dream. Ben! Can you keep watch and make sure the son of a bitch doesn’t disappear?”

“Not a problem.”

Kendi glared down at the man. “Explain what’s going on.”

“Fuck you.”

Before Kendi could respond, a small sledgehammer popped into Ben’s hand. With a sickening
crack
he broke the man’s little finger. The man howled in agony. Kendi gasped and shot Ben a startled glance. Ben’s attention, however, remained riveted on the man’s contorted face. Kendi recovered his composure. They could talk about it later. Right now they had to extract information. The man continued to yowl like a kicked cat. Kendi leaned down and snorted saliva into his mouth. The yowls turned into spits and sputters.

“Let me tell you what I already do know,” Kendi said. “Maybe it’ll loosen you up. Keith was—or you were—behind all the attacks on me from the beginning. I was too stupid to see it because it never occurred to me to suspect him. Keith knew I was going to meet him at the shopping center, and Keith knew I would cross that particular walkway. The amateur hologram showed him with his hand in his pocket because
he
was detonating the device that severed the branch.

“When that didn’t work, you got him to try the poisoned dart. He oh-so-casually volunteered to walk me home from his house after the rain cleared up, then let the bodyguards get ahead so he’d have a clear shot from behind me. I even saw him move, but I thought he was looking for the culprit.

“After that, you got him to plant the pieces of the bomb. He was right there in the nursery just before it exploded. In fact, Keith was the
only
person who was on the scene for all three murder attempts. You were whispering to him the night of the explosion, telling him to start the detonation process. Except I was in the Dream, and my subconscious picked up on what you were doing. I must have known even then it was Keith, but I didn’t want to face it. So my subconscious mind scared me out of the house. It should have been obvious what was happening. What I want to know is
why
.”

“Who do you work for?” Ben interjected. “Tell, or I’ll break your thumb.”

The man’s face contorted as he struggled with his dilemma. Blood ran from his scalp where Kendi had torn out the hair. Ben raised his hammer and the man flinched. So did Kendi, though he tried to hide it. He had never seen Ben bloodthirsty before.

“All right!” the man said. “I work for Silent Acquisitions.”

“Of course you do,” Kendi sighed. “S” would be in a perfect position to know that Keith’s mind is weak and that you could whisper him into doing things he would normally never do.”

“You’re also working for Padric Sufur,” Ben growled.

The man nodded.

“Can I say ‘I told you so’ now?” Ben asked.

“Save it for later,” Kendi said. He shifted back into kangaroo shape and sat on the man’s chest. It made for easier conversation. “Why does Sufur want me dead?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” the man spat. “He wants to make sure Reza loses the election. You—and the Offspring—keep giving her chances to win.”

“And Sufur wants Foxglove to win,” Kendi said. “He’s funding Foxglove, isn’t he? It’s where Foxglove got the money to take over Othertown’s mining corporations and everything else he’s snapped up.”

“He’s funding Ched-Pirasku, too,” the man said. “It doesn’t matter to him who wins as long as Salman Reza loses.”

“Why?” Kendi demanded. “What’s so important about Salman Reza?”

“I don’t know,” the man said, and Kendi knew it was the truth—lies were impossible in the Dream.

“Is Sufur the one behind the missing people?” Ben asked.

The man remained silent.

“Trouble remembering?” Kendi said. “Let me remind you how the story goes. A whole bunch of good Bellerophon citizens have turned up missing, and all of them are either Silent or Silenced. Including our friend Gretchen Beyer. What do you know about her?”

“I don’t know any Gretchen Beyer.”

“That doesn’t answer my main question. Why is S” making people disappear?”

The man shifted beneath Kendi’s heavy hind feet. “Look, S”
owns
me. When Mr. Sufur says ‘jump,’ I jump. You think I liked manipulating your brother? His mind is so sad, and I had to make it worse.”

“My heart is bleeding like your head,” Kendi said.

“Do you know who Padric Sufur
is
?” Ben said. “He’s the guy who touched off the Despair.”

“He owns me,” the man repeated quietly. “I have to do as he says.”

“What’s he planning?” Kendi persisted. “What’s he want that Salman could stop?”

“Do you honestly think he’d tell me?” the man replied. “A slave?”

“Where’s your body?” Ben asked abruptly.

“Back on S” Station. Look, I can barely breathe.”

Kendi stepped off the man’s body. “Get out. Go home.” The man closed his eyes and vanished. The office went with him, leaving behind the flat, gray plain.

“Why did you do that?” Ben said. “The bastard tried to kill you. He tried to kill Ara and Evan, for god’s sake.”

“And what should we have done, Ben?” Kendi asked tiredly. “He’s thousands of light-years away. Did you want to kill him like you smashed his finger?”

“He tried to
kill
us, Ken. He turned your
brother
into a puppet.”

Kendi rubbed his forepaws together. “Since when did you become an advocate of torture?”

“Since someone tried to kill my son,” Ben spat. “God, Kendi—it isn’t like I really hurt him. The psychosomatic carryover will probably give him a sprained finger. Why is this such a problem with you?”

“The problem is that this isn’t like you,” Kendi said. “I’d expect this kind of thing of Harenn or Gretchen. Maybe even Tan. But not you.”

“You don’t think I’m strong enough to torture someone?”

“I didn’t think you were weak enough to have to,” Kendi said simply.

Ben spun around. He was still holding the sledgehammer, and his fingers were white around the handle. After a long moment, he let go. It vanished before it hit the ground. Kendi let out a long, heavy breath.

“What do we do now?” Ben asked without turning around.

“We take care of Keith,” Kendi said, and let go of the Dream.

“So what happened?” Tan demanded when Kendi and Ben sat up. Keith sat on a chair, his hands still fastened behind him. His head drooped and his eyes were shut.

“We saw a man about a plan,” Kendi said, and gave a short explanation. Keith didn’t react to any of it. “We should take Keith to the medical center,” Kendi finished. “He needs a lot of help. And we should call—”

“The Guardians?” Tan said. “They’re on their way.”

“Then we should get Keith out of here before they can ask awkward questions about him,” Kendi said. “He needs a therapist, not a jail cell.”

They took the unresisting Keith up to the flitcar, explained to Lars what was going on, and went back down to the apartment. Two human Guardians were just arriving. Kendi, Ben, and Tan answered their questions about Gretchen, carefully leaving out any mention of Keith’s presence in the apartment. Kendi, however, couldn’t keep his mind off his brother, and it was hard to concentrate. Ben seemed restless as well.

After the Guardians were finished, Kendi boarded the flitcar with Ben and Tan. Keith, on the seat beside him, seemed nearly catatonic. Ben stared grimly out the window. Tan conversed with Lars in a low voice. Kendi squeezed Keith’s hand, but his brother didn’t respond. Kendi’s mind ran in a hundred different directions. He didn’t know what to worry about most—Keith’s condition, Gretchen’s disappearance, or Padric Sufur’s plan. That the latter two were connected, Kendi didn’t doubt. But why would anyone kidnap Silenced people? And why was Sufur going to such lengths to ensure that Salman lost the election?

It struck him that Foxglove had mentioned a “generous private donor” whose funds had allowed him to hire the private forensics team and finger Petrie. That donor must have been Sufur. Kendi clenched a fist. Salman needed to know what he and Ben had learned. But would it do any good? The election was already in progress, and they had to get Keith to the medical center.

This actually turned out to be easier than Kendi anticipated. The staff took one look at Kendi and Ben—the famous Father and the blessed Offspring—and whisked Keith into a private room. A psychologist named Dr. Lev Mayfield arrived shortly thereafter, and Kendi was able to explain what had happened to Keith, who was now almost completely unresponsive.

“We won’t be pressing charges,” Kendi said. “And I’m hoping to keep things confidential.”

“We keep all our patients confidential,” Mayfield said reassuringly. “I’ll see to his care personally, Father.”

“I’ll come and visit as soon as I can, Keith,” Kendi said, squeezing his brother’s hand again. Still no response. Kendi choked down a surge of anger and he kept control with difficulty as he and Ben left.