The Gender Game (10 page)

Mr. Banks slid the paper back to his side of the table and glanced over it briefly before nodding. "Good," he said. "Now…" He dipped behind his desk again, opening another drawer, before appearing this time with a small black velvet pouch.

He handed it to Lee, who opened it and drew out a single golden ring, then Lee twisted in his chair to face me.

"Do you, Violet Bates," Mr. Banks spoke up, "accept Lee Desmond Bertrand as your lawfully wedded husband?"

My voice caught in my throat as I stared at the ring. I realized that it was engraved with a name.
"L. D. Bertrand."

It became clear to me in that moment that Mr. Banks would pull out no second ring. There would be no exchange of vows, either. Just a single vow. A single ring.

A single leash.

This ring means nothing,
I reminded myself again firmly.
I'm not actually getting married. Lee won't be my husband. We are business partners and this is all just an act.

I gulped before answering: "I do."

A
fter Lee placed
the ring on my finger, our business in the marriage office was done. On exiting the building, we both took a moment. As I stood on the sidewalk, the fresh air against my skin was soothing. I couldn't wait to get out of this dress. Out of these shoes. Out of Patrus.

I had to keep my mind on the prize at the end of the tunnel: my brother—seeing him again would be all the reward I needed.

Lee gestured to my ring and said in a low voice, "Whenever we're out of the house, you should wear it. It’s important that you have it on you at all times in case something happens—in case you get separated from me. You will be safe with that ring."

I narrowed my eyes on him. "What do you mean by 'safe'?"

He began to walk me away from the building, back to the alleyway at the other side of the street. "Let's just say there are some less-than-gentlemanly men here in Patrus."

Okay…

"I don't mean to worry you," Lee went on. "Most men here are decent, albeit different from what you're used to. Just keep the ring on your finger, eyes to the ground, and you'll be fine… Now," he said, looking straight ahead at the street we were about to emerge on—the street filled with women's shops. "I suggest we head home for lunch. By the time we eat, we won't have long before we have to return to the city for our lab visit this evening."

I'd hardly spent any time in Lee's house so far, but it was already feeling like a haven compared to the rest of this disconcerting place.

* * *

L
ee
and I changed into more comfortable clothing when we got home. He had cooked a lot the morning before and frozen the leftovers, so we ended up finishing them off for lunch.

As we sat at the table, I couldn't stop thinking about the marriage office, keenly aware of the new weight on my finger.

"Patrian marriages," I said, chewing slowly, "do they all take place in an office like that? Are there no proper ceremonies, like we have in Matrus?"
Are they all so perfunctory?
was what I was curious to know.

"No," Lee said, dabbing the sides of his mouth with a napkin. "There are traditional ceremonies here, too. Some men opt for lavish arrangements, while others prefer to keep it low-key. It just depends on the man… and how much he takes into consideration the preferences of his bride."

"I see," I muttered. Whatever weddings took place in Matrus were almost always accompanied by ceremonies. Even if they weren't grand or lavish, efforts were made to hold a small gathering at least.

"Well," Lee said, finishing his meal and standing, "I'm going to take Samuel out for a walk and then we can head off. In the meantime, feel free to do whatever you want around the house. Make yourself at home and maybe freshen up for this evening. I suspect we'll end up going to a restaurant for dinner, so we could be out fairly late."

My eyes followed him as he moved across the room to drop his plate in the sink and then headed out of the kitchen. He called for Samuel and led him to the door.

Finishing my food, I rose from the table and moved to the window, peering through the blinds as they left.

I glanced furtively at my ring again before walking to the sink to wash up the few dirty dishes.

Make myself at home
. That was something I'd had to try to do a lot over the last decade, though I hadn't had a true home since my mother died.

I headed to the bathroom and after splashing cool water on my face, I decided to wander around the house a bit. I found myself roaming the stories of the triangular building, gaining a better understanding of Lee in the process. He really didn't like clutter, we were alike in that sense, and there were hardly any ornaments or decorations, except for the odd abstract painting on the wall. His own bedroom—bigger than mine but hardly containing more—also held a single bed.

There was an exercise room on the second floor, containing dumbbells and several large pieces of equipment, and next to it I discovered a library. Its walls were lined with tall glass bookcases, and I noticed he had an awful lot of books on guns, explosives and other weaponry, a lot more than he had about biology, which was supposed to be his primary occupation—this kind of unnerved me. Then there was a whole shelf dedicated to psychology.

I picked a book up—one about the history of arms development in Patrus, which listed every single gun invented by Patrian natives—and sat down with it in an armchair. A few of them were familiar to me from my training with Ms. Dale. Although I was sure the weapons I'd trained with had been produced in Matrus (it would be rather hypocritical for Matrus to import goods as destructive as guns from Patrus) the design was practically identical.

I paged through the dusty pages until Lee and Samuel returned, both panting as they moved inside. Apparently their walk had turned into a jog.

Lee headed to his room to take a shower and get ready for the evening—something for which he only needed fifteen minutes. Then he was downstairs again, looking crisp and fresh as ever, wearing a new suit—deep burgundy in color.

Leaving the house, we rode back down the mountain to the city, while the sky darkened overhead. On arrival at the lab—a seven-story building whose walls consisted entirely of shiny, dark-tinted glass—Lee punched a code into a number pad and the gates drew open, allowing us inside. After parking and removing our helmets, Lee took my right hand and planted it firmly around his arm before leading me through the revolving doors.

My heels clacked against the sleek floors of the reception area. There was nobody behind the long white desk, even though a phone was ringing. Lee moved to it and, leaning over the counter, picked up the phone.

"Hello?" he answered, frowning. "Oh, Viggo. Yes, Lee here. Nobody's behind the desk. Why were you calling? Maybe I can help. Huh. Okay, yes." Lee moved behind the desk and examined a computer. Then he read out a string of numbers. "Did that work? Okay."

Lee hung up and looked at me. "That was Viggo Croft," he murmured, moving to my side. "The code to the back gate was changed, he was calling in for it. He'll be heading here—"

A door creaked from some distant part of the building. Then footsteps grew louder. A door opened to our left and in stepped a tall, handsome man with a mane of dark brown hair. Wearing a trench coat and heavy boots, he looked less unkempt than in his photo, with just a little stubble darkening his thickset jaw, though he had a scar across his right cheek which I hadn't noticed in the photograph. His olive-green eyes swept over the room and landed on us. They paused on me for but a second before he gave Lee a brief nod and headed across the room to another door.

"Viggo." Lee spoke up before he could reach it. He took my hand and led me toward the warden. "This is my new wife, Violet." My attention was drawn momentarily to Viggo’s hands as we neared; his knuckles were red and raw, like he'd punched someone or something one too many times without adequate protection.

Viggo's eyes returned to me, his right brow raising a fraction. He nodded, his expression remaining stoic. I nodded back just as curtly.

Then his focus resumed on Lee. "Good evening, Mr. Bertrand." He turned and left the reception.

The room went quiet, still, in his absence. As though his presence had brought with it an aura of tension.

"Well," Lee whispered, blowing out softly. "That was quick…"

"Yeah," I said dryly. "He didn't seem to approve of me."

Lee chuckled. "There aren't many people he does approve of, apparently. He's a loner. Lives in a cabin by himself up in the mountains."

Lee fell silent, his eyes narrowing like he was straining to listen to something. Then he said, "Do you hear that?"

I strained to listen and nodded. I could just about make out voices murmuring somewhere in our vicinity.

"My colleagues, a few rooms away. The work day is over, but they often hang around in the evenings… Anyway, let's take a look around."

We moved to an elevator and Lee punched the button for the seventh floor.

"There are seven levels in total, as you can see," Lee said, trailing a finger over a map of the facility that hung against the elevator door. "The lab is huge with hundreds of rooms. It's recently been renovated and expanded," he explained. "It was less than half the size only last year."

That would explain why everything looked so new and shiny.

Arriving on the seventh floor, I realized why Matrus ought to be afraid. I wasn't a scientist, but the apparatus contained within these labs looked sleek and sophisticated. The building itself seemed to be almost as large as the city lab in Matrus. That was saying a lot, considering that Matrus' lab was also used for routine euthanasia of criminals. In Patrus, from what I knew, they didn't bother with all that hassle. If somebody committed a serious crime like murder, they were publicly hanged.

"Are you aware of everything they're developing here?" I asked Lee in a whisper as we moved along the wide hallway and peered through open doorways of the labs.

"Not everything," he said. "But a fair amount. A lot of time and resources are going toward developing the 'smart drug'. Its official name is Benuxupane," he added. "The drug has already been formulated and deemed fit for consumption. Several scientists in this lab are going to take it within the week."

"Will you?"

He shook his head. “No.”

"Do you know the real reason they're developing it? What exactly do they plan to do with it?"

"Matrus' news channels have basically got it right," Lee muttered beneath his breath. "Emotions are a hindrance to King Maxen's plans."

Before I could ask anything more, we turned a corner and arrived outside a closed white door, next to which was a screen. Lee swiped his thumb, and the door opened.

We emerged in another lab, the largest I had seen so far, with row after row of tables lined with microscopes, Bunsen burners, and specimen racks filling the room from wall to wall. Around the edges were glass cabinets, some containing books, others piles of folded lab coats… but as we roamed the lab, one in particular caught my eye. Lee noticed where my attention had flown, and it appeared that this was where he was leading me.

"You've spotted it, haven't you?"

It was hard not to spot. One of the glass cabinets was unique from the others. It didn't have shelves, and the glass looked much thicker, even reinforced. Perched in a tall, black metal tripod was a silver egg.
The
silver egg. I moved up to the cabinet and stared at it. I couldn't believe it was just here… visible to anyone entering this lab. Just a few feet away from me.

I turned to Lee in confusion. "So this is definitely it?" I asked.

He nodded. "This is the egg."

"Can't you open this case?" There was a number pad next to it.

He grimaced. "No. I'm not high up enough to access the code."

I dared reach out and touch the glass. "But it's just… glass. Couldn't it be broken easily?"

Lee reached for my hand and pulled me back. He began leading me to the other side of the lab. He didn't answer until we'd exited and returned to the corridor.

"We ought not linger in that room," he whispered as we made our way to the elevators. "As for the glass, yes, it could be broken if enough force was applied. You're talking about explosives, though. That glass is tough as hell. It wouldn't be so simple as smash and run… and then"—we moved into the elevator and he hit the button for the ground floor—"of course, you'd have to escape Patrus… Trust me, if it was simple, I would have done it already. Remember also that we cannot get caught—neither you nor I. If one of us was, they would quickly place the blame on Matrus."

I was mired in confusion. We had to retrieve the egg from the glass cabinet, but at the same time, nobody could suspect that it was us? What about when we suddenly went missing? Even if Lee didn't come with me, but stayed behind, what about me? I'd had these doubts before, and Lee still had not clarified them.

"You'd better start giving me details," I said irritably, no longer able to hide my frustration. I was fed up of being led blindly along.

"I will," he said. "Tonight, when we get home."

The elevator reached the ground floor and we stepped out. "For now," he said, his tone raising and brightening, "I ought to take you to briefly meet my colleagues." He glanced down at me, an artificial smile on his lips, clearly indicating that I assume the same. "We got married today, remember?"

Right.

He led me across the reception area toward a pair of double doors. Before pushing open the door, Lee whispered, "The head scientist of this lab is in here. My boss, Richard. He's the overweight one."

He replaced my arm through his and walked me inside.

A group of ten men were gathered around a billiards table, all of them older than Lee—I suspected in their mid-forties—except for one, who looked about the same age, perhaps in his late twenties.

My eyes lingered on the short, rotund man with blond hair and a thick mustache. Richard.

"Lee!" the youngest man cheered.