Endgame

by Kristine Smith

  Yes, Lucien ratted you out. What the hell did you expect? Jani looked across the polished ebony desk at John, who stared back as though she’d just plucked a rabbit out of thin air. “I have my sources.”

  “Without a doubt.” John shook his head, then bounced the ball atop the desk, caught it, and bounced it again. “Val is here at the PM’s request. Given the deteriorating relationship between the humanish and idomeni, Li Cao feels that a hybrid at the head of one of the largest commercial entities in the Commonwealth is too great a security risk to tolerate.” He gave the ball one final bounce, then stashed it in a drawer and stood. “Anyone want coffee?” Without waiting to see whether anyone actually did, he walked to a lowboy at the far end of the room and started assembling the brewer.

  “I’m just the messenger.” Val glanced at Jani sidelong, as though reluctant to meet her eye. “The real negotiations will go on in Karistos between lawyers from the Justice Ministry and our—” He shot a look at John, then concentrated on his hands. “—and Neoclona’s legal team.” He shrugged. “And whoever John hires to represent his interests.”

  “These negotiations began last week, apparently.” John offered Jani a chill smile. “I’m left to scramble. I’ve already contacted a firm in Karistos that I believe can hold its own.” He set out cups, cream, and sugar on a tray while the weighty aroma of his coffee filled the office.

  “Why now?” Jani edged away from the desk so John could set down the tray. “John’s been here a year. It took Cao that long to decide he was a threat to Commonwealth security?”

  Val rose and walked to the desk. “She called me in one day, about two months ago. Oh, it had been busy. Tsecha had just let loose one of his theological broadsides, a story about you had appeared in a scandal sheet, and one of the more conservative ministers questioned John’s loyalty during public debate.” He spooned sugar into a cup, then waited while John filled it to the brim. “That’s when I screwed up.” He paused to sip. “She asked if I felt whether the idomeni could win John’s loyalty.” He looked at John and shook his head. “I told her that the only two things that had won John Shroud’s loyalty were his work”—he closed his eyes—“and Jani Kilian.”

  John set down the carafe. “Very dramatic, Val, but not the wisest choice of words.” He hoisted his own cup, then set it down with a clatter, sending scalding brew in all directions. “Dammit!” He grabbed a dispo tissue from the dispenser on his desk and wiped hot coffee off his hand. “What is she afraid of, that I’ll start working for Rauta Shèràa? Even if I wanted to, Cèel wouldn’t take my help on a plate—it would be a repudiation of everything he believes. Or does she think I’ll infect the entire Commonwealth with a hybridization bug?” He crumpled the dispo into a tight ball and hurled it into a deskside trash bin. “It doesn’t work that way, Val—didn’t you tell her? Hybridization is still a slow, labor-intensive process tailored to the individual, and that’s not likely to change anytime soon. If she’s worried about hybrids by the millions overrunning her government, she’s an idiot!”

  “She wants to take out the financial underpinnings of this place.” Jani gripped her cup in both hands. John had lowered the office temperature in deference to Val, leaving it much too cold for her comfort. “Something happened, and she thinks shutting down Thalassa will help solve the problem.” Something to do with secession. Cao must have heard the rumors. She picked over one possibility in her mind, then another, until she sensed the stares. Val’s unspoken prayer that something she’d say could get him off the hook. John’s, that she could give him something to pry Cao’s grip from his throat. “I don’t know what that could be.”

  “Well, so much for that.” John doffed his medcoat and draped it over the back of his chair. “I have an appointment with my new legal team in an hour. I need to get ready.” He looked at Jani. “I’d like you to be there. I know they’ll have questions for you. I’m hoping you can at least answer those.” He brushed past her and out the door without waiting for a reply.

  The door closed. Silence settled. Jani touched her cheek. The sense of having been struck, but without the blow.

  Val walked to the wall opposite and focused on one of the framed hangings. “He still has that one.” A shade of a smile, soon vanished. “It’s hitting him now. It takes a while, with the big things. He got angry when I told him, yeah, but now it’s sinking its roots.” He hung his head. “I’m just letting you know. I don’t think you’ve seen it. It can get rough.”

  “Thanks for the warning.” Jani turned to look at the image. It must have dated from Val’s and John’s medical school days. Two gangly young men with toothy grins standing on the steps of a building. Val’s hair flopped over his forehead, while John wore a wide-brimmed hat that he’d angled to shade his eyes from the sun. “Is there anything you can do?”

  “My influence with Li Cao doesn’t extend beyond the tip of my nose.” Val’s shoulder twitched. “She’s declared this a matter of Commonwealth security. If I fight her, she’ll take away both our shares and hand them over to Eamon, which would be pretty much the same as her taking over the company.” He walked back to the desk and set down his cup. “But there’s the election in three months. Yevgeny Scriabin is standing against her, and he’s a reasonable man. Most of the pundits are predicting he’ll beat her.”

  “That’s three months. A hell of a lot can happen between now and then.” Jani swallowed hard as John’s coffee took up where the aroma of the curry had left off. She set down her cup, then rose and headed for the door. “I need to see Tsecha before I meet with John’s lawyers.”

  “I’ll go with you.” Val hurried after her. “At least part of the way. I need to walk. Cooped up on a ship for six weeks with—” He stood aside so Jani could precede him through the door, then hesitated. “This isn’t like I thought it would be, to say the least.” He stepped out into the corridor, glancing up as though he feared the ceiling might fall on him. “I envisioned a nice, relaxed visit. Dinners in little out-of-the-way places, capped off by dancing and plate smashing. Maybe some sailracing during the day. Then one day, Li Cao calls me, and it all falls apart, bit by bit.” He quieted until they entered the lift and the door closed. “I have…some explaining to do.” He tried for a weak grin, but managed only a wince. “I tried to work up the nerve after lunch, but His Highness sent me out of the room.”

  Jani shook her head. “Not now, Val.”

  “If I don’t tell you now, I’ll lose my nerve.” He stepped aside so she could exit the lift first, then fell behind her as they cut across the central courtyard and through a series of demirooms separated by aquaria and low screens.

  Jani waited until they departed the Main House and rounded the vast rear yard. “Val?”

  “I think I’m losing it. My nerve.” He dragged off his suit jacket and slung it over his shoulder. “Dammit.” He stopped at the top of the cliff road and looked out over the water. “It’s so beautiful here. Hotter than fucking hell, but—” He ran a hand across his brow, already dotted with sweat. “But everything beautiful has a price, doesn’t it?” His eyes brimmed. “I’m sorry.”

  Jani waited until Val cleared his throat and wiped his eyes. “Want me to tell you what happened? You can nod or shake your head at suitable intervals, and it will be like you never really said anything at all.”

  “You think you know all the words to this one, do you?” Val started down the road, his step slowing as the soles of his dress shoes slid on the gravel.

  “In several languages.” Jani tried to study him without seeming to. He kept his eyes fixed on the road, braced for the words he didn’t want to hear. “First verse—Lucien started hanging around your flat after I left Chicago to return to John. His pretexts were feeble at best. Some bit of news from one of the ministries, or a rumor he’d heard at Sheridan. Being a man of the world, you saw through his act immediately, even felt irritated by his lack of subtlety. But even though you knew he was trying to play you, you just couldn’t make yourself send hi
m on his way. He had a connection to me, and he offered all the right responses when you railed against John, which I’m sure you did at least a few times or you wouldn’t count as a living, breathing being.” She looked away as Val’s face reddened, allowing him an illusion of privacy. “Besides, he’s just so damned decorative. You did once tell me that you could watch him all day.”

  Val snorted, denying the inevitable even as he worked closer to admitting to it. “He’s not the first good-looking boy to stake me out.”

  “No, but he’s the best-trained. He’s an assassin, Val. Gauging the victim is what he does.” Jani held up two fingers. “Second verse—after you got used to his coming around regularly, he pulled back. Stayed away for a week or two at a time, then turned up with weak excuses. Just to see how hooked you were.” They came upon a small sitting area wedged between two houses, and she stopped and sat on a stone bench.

  “I passed that test.” Val unfastened his shirt collar, then bent over a tiny fountain and let the water spray over his face. “I wasn’t a complete idiot.”

  Jani nodded. “He figured that out. So when you told him that you were leaving to visit John, his request to accompany you was completely businesslike. Being under orders from Mako himself, he claimed billet privileges, then left you to mull it over. He knew he had you backed in a corner—what could you do but agree? You already suspected that Cao didn’t trust you, that her summons was a warning to you as well as to John. It worried you what might happen if you added to your troubles by tossing out Mako’s chosen rep on his perfectly formed ear.”

  Val dragged a linen square out of his trouser pocket and wiped his face. Then he sat beside her and sighed. “Jani—”

  “Pressure points, Val. Weakness. Like I said before, he has a talent for spotting them.”

  “He’s not the only one,” Val said through his teeth.

  Jani hesitated. “Now, the chorus. He had set you up so you had to cart him here or risk appearing disloyal. So, cart him here you did. He should have been content, you’d think, but this is Lucien we’re talking about. You had rejected his advances up to that point, and that was a situation that could not be allowed to continue. Even engineered sociopaths have their pride.”

  “There are only so many places to hide on a ship, and none of them works for long.” Val spoke low, as though to himself. “Every damned time I turned around, there he was. His favorite trick was to catch me in the gym locker room or sauna, wander in stark naked and pretend to be surprised to see me. ‘I’m so sorry, Doctor Parini—I didn’t realize you were here.’ Yeah, right.”

  Jani grinned in remembrance. “A bit obvious, but a tried and true method with some history of success.”

  Val returned her grin, but the expression withered. “After a few quiet days, I thought he had finally gotten the message. Then one ship-morning, about three weeks out, he showed up at my cabin door with a copy of whatever newssheet had been transmitted that day. He was fully clothed, believe it or not. A little rough around the edges, actually. Tired. Distracted. As though he’d given up.” He paused, his eyes clouding.

  “He handed me the newssheet,” he said after a time. “I took it. I said ‘Thank you, Captain Pascal,’ and he replied, You’re welcome, Doctor Parini.’ We—” He stopped again, inhaling with a shudder. “We just stared at one another. Might have been for a minute or so. Might have been an hour for all I could tell. Neither of us said a word, we just…” He swallowed hard. “Then he stepped inside, let the door close behind him. Took the newssheet from my hand, folded it, and set it atop a nearby table. Then he—” He closed his eyes, lips parting ever so slightly. His breathing quickened as his hands clenched and flexed, twisted the linen until it tore.

  Then his eyes snapped open. He shook his head as though emerging from a daze and sat forward, elbows on knees, hands dangling between. “You’re going to tell me it was an act.” He examined the damage he’d wrought upon the linen square, then wadded it and shoved it in his trouser pocket.

  “It’s all an act.” Jani put a hand on his shoulder. “Trust me, it’s better when you accept it. It makes him a known quantity, with no surprises. A certain brand of simple comfort when the real world becomes too complex to deal with.”

  Val’s lip curled. “Aren’t you the understanding one?” He fell silent for a few moments, then sat up and eyed her expectantly. “Your turn.”

  Jani considered a display of innocence, but decided confusion more believable. “My turn for what?”

  “I’m not the only one laying bare my soul here, am I? Be fair.”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “The story behind that pearl. He showed it to me on the way here. Told me he bought it, but we both know that’s a joke. He never paid for anything in his life.” Val straightened his legs and examined his dust-covered shoes. “I read his MedRec once, remember? I know he keeps souvenirs of events in his life he considers memorable.”

  Crap. Now it was her turn to shudder, to hem and haw. “What makes you think the pearl’s mine?”

  “I have my reasons, which I will explain after you tell me the story behind it.”

  Jani felt the heat creep up her neck. “It’s from my dowry.” She fielded Val’s surprised look. “My parents turned over my dowry to me when they first came to Chicago, and one of the pieces was a pearl necklace.” She paused. “One…night, I wore it during…”

  “During…?” Val leaned toward her. “During a fire drill? During charades? What?”

  Jani tried closing her eyes, but images flashed that she didn’t want to see at that moment. Instead, she concentrated on a scatter of stones at her feet. “I wore it to bed. I had worn it that evening, and didn’t take it off. During a particularly active moment, Lucien…yanked on it, and the string broke. Pearls everywhere. If I’d known they hadn’t been tied properly, I never would have worn them. Those damned things turned up under the furniture for months.” She shrugged, forced herself to look Val in the face. “See? No big revelatory episode. Just something I’m sure he saved to embarrass me.”

  “Probably.” Val sighed. His mood seemed lighter, as though her confession had bought him some degree of dispensation. “Why did we let him get under our skin? We’re grown-ups. We should have known better.”

  “They tell you everything you want to hear, and they know how to show you the face you want to see. Even when you know in your bones that you can’t trust them, you still try, because you can’t accept the fact that they can’t feel and that there’s nothing they won’t do to ensure their survival.” Jani rocked to the side until she bumped against him. “Guess who told me that?”

  “Dirty pool, Jan.”

  “I’d just let him into my home when I knew he had set me up to be killed. You tried to warn me.”

  “But I was wrong. You figured out later that he had blocked the attempt. He pushed you out of the way, took the shot himself. He saved your life.” Val frowned. “Granted, he was the one who got you into trouble in the first place.” He raked a hand through his hair, then sat forward and buried his face in his hands. “Oh, crap.”

  “He leaves behind wreckage wherever he goes—compared to some, you got off easy. You’re here, in one piece. No one shot at you. You’re a bit chastened, but you’ll get over it.” Jani held out her hand. “You survived. Congratulations and welcome to the club.”

  “Hip, hip, hooray.” Val sat up. “Remember when I said that I knew the pearl had to have belonged to you?” He took her hand and squeezed it, then continued to hold it. “About four days out, he started pulling away. Moved his things out of my cabin. He said that he needed to prepare for Niall, but I knew that was bullshit. As if any amount of prep in that regard would do him any good.”

  Jani tried to reclaim her hand, but Val had it locked up tight. “I wonder how Mako was able to shove him down Niall’s throat considering—”

  “Don’t change the subject.” Val glowered a warning. “By the time we were two days out, he’d started avoi
ding me. Last night, as we were getting ready to dock at Elyas, I lay in bed, alone, stewing in my own juice, when it hit me how much of our time together had been spent talking about you. Your accomplishments. Your background. Things you and he had done together. I even recalled a rather spirited discussion concerning the exact color of your eyes.” He regarded her with something akin to pity, mixed with something else that looked a lot like fear. “I’m not very happy being me at the moment, but the one thing I can take comfort in is the fact that I’m not you. I was just something to help pass the time, I know that now. But you, you’re his obsession.” He smiled sadly, then held her hand to his lips and kissed it. “I need to get back. I want to talk to John before he meets with his lawyers.” He released her hand and stood, then circled around the bench and headed back up the road to the Main House.

  Jani massaged the spot on her hand that Val had kissed. “Welcome to the club.” Problem was, after you paid the initiation fee, you kept paying and paying and paying…

  I should have guessed that Lucien would keep a souvenir of that night. Like most of their eventful evenings, it hadn’t been planned. Lucien had finessed them an invitation to a dinner at one of the ministries, but she hadn’t wanted to attend. When she tried to beg off, however, he listed the reasons why she needed to go, all sound business-related incentives of the sort he could recite in his sleep. The issue settled, he had arrived to collect her, passing the time in her sitting room while she finished dressing.

  What the hell got into me? She had donned the requisite undergarments and ridiculous shoes. A conservative gown in dark blue. Removed the jewelry satchel from her armoire and opened it, revealing her dowry, the trays filled with gems, gold, and platinum. Picked through the necklaces, bracelets, and earrings.

  Then she removed the gown, the ridiculous shoes and undergarments, and dressed herself in as much of the glittery stuff as she could hang from her neck, loop around her waist, hips, and ankles, and wrap around her arms. Out of fifteen kilos of chains, links, and set gems her parents had brought her from Acadia, she managed to don at least five. Gold, topaz, and emerald. Strings of diamond beads. And the pearls.