The Sovereign Era (Book 2): Pilgrimage (36 page)

I’d seen him on television.

“Nathan, I’m William Donner. It’s an honor to meet you. I’m sorry it had to be under these circumstances.”

I shook his hand, which was dry and firm and smooth. He smelled vaguely of cedar and more than a little like spearmint. I think he’d been chewing gum. He wore black dress slacks and a pale-yellow dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. I caught a whiff of the polish on his shoes.

“Hi,” I said.

He released my hand and nodded. “Please join everyone else.” He looked right through Uldare and the other prisoner to Denver and everybody. “If you all would take a seat, please. Ewing, are you ready?” His tone was all business.

Kass held up a little tape recorder. “Yeah.”

I went over and sat in the first row in the seat closest to the door. Denver was in his chair on my left, Sandy directly behind him in the next row, Byron on my right, and his dad next to him. Spencer Croy remained standing just behind the first row of chairs. Ewing Kass leaned against the wall near the door, tape recorder in hand.

Denver put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. He looked tired, sad, and very serious. I didn’t know what to say to him or if I even should say anything. I just nodded.

Donner stood near the door. “You two,” he said to the prisoners, “stand with your backs against that wall. Keep two feet between you.”

The white-haired guy glowered. “What’s the point of this, Donner? You know what you’re going to do. Why bother with this…kangaroo court?”

“Mister Greene. Mister Uldare. Do what I’ve asked you to do.”

I jumped a little in my chair. Donner’s voice was fucking scary. It scraped on my bones.

Uldare said, “Come on, Greene. Keep your dignity.” He shuffled to the wall.

Greene frowned and followed suit.

Donner regarded them. “This isn’t a kangaroo court.” He looked at us. “This isn’t any kind of court.” And back to his prisoners. “There isn’t going to be any kind of trial. That’s not what this is.”

Denver shifted his shoulders next to me. A frown creased his forehead.

Greene’s eyes were bright. “Like I said, then. Do what you’re gonna do.”

Donner said, “Good. Let’s start with you.”

Greene paled.

Donner smirked. “You’re here to answer my questions, in the company of the people you’ve done wrong.”

Greene’s glance flicked to Byron’s dad, then back to Donner. “I’m at war with you, you unholy, abominable freak. Don’t you know that? There’s not a damn thing I wouldn’t do in the service of my species.”

Greene’s anxiety made him sweat. The air was a little thick for me in the closeness of the room.

Donner, on the other hand, broadcast level calm in every way my sensorium could receive. It was creepy.

“In the service of your species?” His eyebrows drew together. “Mister Greene…I misspoke. There are two people you did wrong that aren’t here to witness your…testimony. Eddie Schwippe is resting in our infirmary, no thanks to you and all thanks to Mister Teslowski.” Donner smiled very briefly at Byron’s dad, who looked deeply troubled and confused.

“The other…” Donner sighed. His lip curled. “You, Rayford Greene…you gave us reason to use our morgue for the very first time.”

He stepped close to Greene, who, I was not really surprised to see, shrank back against the wall.

Uldare didn’t move, despite Donner’s proximity. I wished he would. I wanted him to try something. Anything, even with the handcuffs and shackles and cast and missing fingers. Anything.

“Tell me you killed Yvette Schwenck, Greene,” Donner whispered. “Say it out loud.”

Greene tried to suppress a shudder, but I noticed it, and I bet Donner did, too. Greene straightened up a little, looked Donner in the eye.

“Well, now, Mister Donner.” His voice had the slightest tremor to it. “It was my boy who pushed the bitch out of the car.” Despite the fact that he smelled like terror, Greene held his head up.

“But it was my distinct pleasure to smear the bitch all over the road. Yes, sir.”

Uldare laughed. Fucker
laughed
. My legs twitched with the urge to destroy him.

Donner took two big steps back away from Greene. His face was dark. “I wonder if it felt like this?”

Greene’s whole body spasmed. He made a croaking sound, kind of like, “Urk!” and doubled over, retching, jerking.

He collapsed onto his side. His eyes were wide open and blank with pain. Blood and puke shot from his gaping mouth.

“Jesus!” Marc Teslowski pushed himself back in his chair. The metal legs screeched on the floor.

Behind me, Sandy gasped. Denver said, “Goddamn it.”

Byron gripped the sides of his seat and stared at Greene.

Ewing Kass said in an even voice, “Will…”

Spencer Croy didn’t so much as blink.

Donner didn’t acknowledge Kass. He looked at us. “This is not a court. I said that.”

Sandy said, “You didn’t say it would be a chamber of horrors. What the hell is the matter with you?”

“Ms. Graves, if this is troubling to you, I’ll have Byron escort you to an apartment, where you’re welcome to…maybe watch some television? Every room has one of those Atari machines. Maybe you’d like to play
Pong
?”

Donner was too scary-fascinating to look away from him to Sandy. She didn’t say a word.

Donner smiled quickly. “I know you came here looking for a story. Take notes, if you like.”

Denver cleared his throat. “What did you do to him?”

“Mister Greene’s abdominal muscles contracted quickly and severely,” Donner said. “If I’m right, the result is muscular tearing and, hopefully, rupturing in his internal organs.”

Greene jerked and whined. Red drool dribbled from his lips.

“I think I’m right,” Donner said. He bent his legs, set his palms on his knees, and regarded Greene. “This might be a little bit of what that poor girl felt before you finished her off, you piece of shit.”

He stood up and kicked Greene in the face with sudden and precise violence.

“And that’s a little something like what you and your band did to Mister Schwippe.
Feel
it.”

I had been worried about my augmentation messing with my sanity, my self-control. My dad, he had lived the last third of his life like that.

It didn’t seem like Donner was losing it. Everything I knew told me he actually in perfect control. One hundred percent.

I wondered if that meant he was crazy.

I still wonder.

Knowing all he knows…with all he’s seen…how could he be right in the head?

Donner turned to Lou Uldare. I leaned forward in my seat. Crazy or not, Donner was doing god’s work now, far as I was concerned.

“Lou Uldare. The man who made us use our morgue the second time, and took a boy’s father from him. You’re known to us, Mister Uldare.”

Uldare didn’t seem too worked up over Greene’s punishment. “That means I’m doing my job.”

“That’s what we’re going to talk about,” Donner said. “You’re going to tell us all about PrenticeCambrian and your master, Mister Quince, and, ideally, his masters. You’re going to talk about how you helped Mister Greene’s organization, and how they helped you.

“Oh…and you’re going to help us understand, in detail, how young Mister Charters fits into it all, and why you assassinated his father.”

Donner turned his head toward me. The compassion on his face, the empathy I saw there…my eyes filled up. I blinked and my cheeks got wet. I didn’t care.

The corners of his lips twitched. “I’m sure we’ll learn a great deal.”

He turned back to Uldare.

“Do you understand?”

Uldare smiled. “Fuck you, Donner. You crazy freak.”

Donner didn’t flinch. “I don’t usually bother with threats, Mister Uldare. After all, you, of all people, know what I can do. I imagine my jacket is quite thick, back at the home office.”

“I’m not inclined to discuss the topics you suggested,” Uldare said. “You loony fuck.”

“Reconsider,” Donner suggested.

Uldare shook his head. His forehead was slick with sweat. “I’m a company man, Willy. Besides,” he smiled, “as soon as I feel you begin to manipulate me like you did that old fool…bad things happen.”

Uldare looked at Marc Teslowski. Byron’s dad squirmed in his chair.

Byron said, “Dad?”

Donner paced away from Uldare, shaking his head. “This is not how I wanted to spend this day.” He pivoted on his heel.

“Seriously, Uldare. Do you think we don’t know about the nanomech explosives you had Greene slip Marc Teslowski?”

From The Journal Of Nate Charters – Thirty Five

I couldn’t believe it. “What? He what?”

Uldare shrugged. “It doesn’t matter what you knew or know. I’m telling you that if you fuck with me, we’ll learn, very quickly, just how much energy a human body stores. Ought to be more than enough to rid the world of one room full of vermin and their friends.” He glanced down at Ray Greene writhing on the floor. “This whole thing was worth it to get Teslowski in the room with you.”

Byron turned toward his dad. “Did…did you know? Is that why—?”

Before Teslowski could respond, William Donner said, “Remain calm, please.”

I wasn’t calm. I knew the score. I understood what nanomechs are. I’d seen a guy dissolve from the inside out, just fall apart, last year at the battle of Kirby Lake, thanks to those little machines. I knew Project: Ranger used nanomechs to add the augmentations to my dad. Maybe that’s how they did the camera thing at Denver’s house, too.

Now they’d somehow turned Marc Teslowski into a living bomb?

Fuck that. I got up and grabbed Uldare by the throat. My fingers just naturally went right back to the bruises I’d put on his neck a few hours before. My fingerprints.

“You don’t even try it! You turn it off!”

“You can’t do anything else to me, boy,” Uldare said. “I’m already dead. But as soon as I go…so do all of you.”

“Turn it off!” I wanted to squeeze, to finish this monster, to pay violence back with violence. “Kill my father with a
gun
? With a gun? Fucking coward!”

“That’s why they pay me the big bucks.”

That was enough. Fuck it. I didn’t care, at that moment, about anything other than wiping this shitstain off the face of the earth. So what if it killed me. So what if Marc Teslowski got blown up—that guy had always been an abusive, bullying piece of shit, anyway.

I didn’t care.

Byron did, though. “Nate, come on! Chill! My dad!”

His dad. Worthless fuck that Marc Teslowski was, Byron still had a dad.

I glared at Byron. “That’s not fair!”

It worked, though. Pulled me back from the ledge. I eased my grip. Slightly.

“Call it off,” I said to Uldare.

“Can’t. I live, or every one of you freaks and freak-lovers dies. Looks like you get to choose, Nathan.”

William Donner said, “Nate, let him go. This is pointless.”

“No! He doesn’t have the fucking right to do this! Play with us! Fuck him!”

Donner stepped over Ray Greene and stood next to me. “We’ve been deactivating PrenticeCambrian nanomech since 1980, starting with the kill switch in your father. We cleaned Mister Teslowski while you were eating breakfast.”

Uldare said, “You what?”

Marc Teslowski said, “Fuck you, lard-ass.”

Byron’s laugh was a high, nervous chirp. “You knew?”

“Will asked me to play along. Sorry, son.”

Marc Teslowski was on a first-name basis with William Donner? What?

Donner said to me, “You can kill him, Nate. No one else will come to any harm as a result. But I really hope you don’t.”

I looked at Uldare. His eyes had a lot more fear in them than a minute ago. I wished his eyes didn’t show anything at all, just blank, glassy vacancy.

“Why not? Why shouldn’t I? He deserves it. You know he does. And it’s what I’m fucking made for. It’s what they made me for.”

Denver Colorado spoke up. “You don’t have to be that, Nathan. It’s not what Andrew wanted for you.”

“Shut up!”

Donner’s voice was calm. “We need him alive, Nathan. We need him to talk…and I want you to understand, he
will
talk. And when he does…all the people who hurt you, and your father, and your mother, and Byron, too…they’ll all be exposed. Your legal troubles will be over. You’ll be free to live your life.”

I squeezed Uldare’s throat a little tighter. The bruises on his face—marks I’d put there—darkened. His eyes bulged.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I need to…I need to feel him die!”

Donner said, “Nathan, look at my face.”

I had to.

“Do you think your father was this monster’s first victim? Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to have him at my mercy? Tell me you really don’t think I intend to show him that I have none.”

I saw it again.

I don’t know what drove him to it, but I think when William Donner killed, he did it for vengeance. And I’m telling you: he relished it. The guy was one damaged piece of work. He made me feel about as dangerous as Don Knotts.

I believed him.

“Okay,” I said. “It’s fine. Don’t worry. I won’t kill Uldare.”

Donner nodded slowly. “I appreciate that. It’s for the best. For now.”

“He still has to pay.”

I made the devil sign with my free hand: a fist with the pinkie and index finger extended.

When I killed Evelyn, it was out of desperation. I’ve wanted to kill out of rage, out of frustration.

But I understood a little something about the need for vengeance, too.

Uldare’s right eye got my pinkie. His left eye got my index.

He didn’t have time to close them.

There was a split second of resistance before a hot, sticky fluid covered my fingers.

We both screamed.

For different reasons.

Byron Teslowski – Eight

Byron really needed her to be there, but he still stood outside her door for a good minute before he got up the nerve to knock.

Haze opened the door blinking. She wore a big white tee shirt. Her feet were bare.

She rubbed her eyes. “Hey. What time is it?”

“Sorry,” he said. “It’s, like, late. It’s not Friday anymore. I just couldn’t sleep.”