Variant Exchange

by Fox J Wilde

  ***

  Vivika and the Dragon Lady stared at each other, as the two sat across from one another in the small cafe. Vivika was trying to decipher Dragon Lady’s expression. It was an odd facial contortion; yet it seemed to be her natural expression. It was like her mouth struggled for congruence with those eerily wide and freakishly dead eyes. Whatever the expression was, natural or otherwise, it clearly said any number of terrible things.

  “Well, now.” Dragon Lady began, “Here we are.”

  “Is that supposed to mean something?” Vivika responded impudently.

  “I suppose it doesn’t mean anything convicting, no.” she responded without the slightest inflection.

  “Why exactly are we here, then?”

  “Reasons.”

  All things considered, it was pretty obvious why they were here. After Lena and Vivika had opened up to each other, they had both walked to Little John where Patrick and Dragon Lady had been waiting. Patrick wordlessly picked Lena up and drove off as quickly as he could, leaving Dragon Lady to babysit Vivika. Perhaps ‘babysit’ wasn’t the correct word, however. After the events that had transpired over the past few weeks had approached the crux of today, well, it was clear that both Lena and Vivika were bargaining chips.

  Thus far, Dragon Lady seemed to be an amiable person, at least in regards to Lena’s description of her. Vivika had half expected to be removed to some torture cell where Dragon Lady would, I don’t know, perform vivisection without anesthesia or something similarly terrible on her—she certainly seemed like she was someone who would. Yet, thus far, Dragon Lady didn’t seem to care all that much about her. It wasn’t like Vivika was even an annoyance to her. It seemed…well actually, it wasn’t all that clear how it seemed. Dragon Lady was exceptionally hard to read.

  “Can we...” Vivika began, “That is…”

  “Can we what, dear?”

  “I don’t know. I’m just trying to make conversation.”

  “Probably not the easiest thing to do, I’m assuming?”

  “No. It’s really not.”

  “Had a strange few days, I take it?”

  “I think that’s fairly obvious.”

  “I’m not just talking about the bruises, dear.” Dragon Lady said, motioning towards Vivika’s face. “I’m talking about all of it. Do you want to talk about it?”

  “Not really, no.”

  “I understand.” she responded with a tone that seemed caring enough if you used your imagination. “Emotions are difficult. Believe me, I know. I’ve never really had them. And having never had them, I never really saw the need. But everyone else seems very confused by them.”

  “What’s it like?” Vivika asked. “What’s it like not liking anything?”

  “Oh, I like plenty of things, dear.” Dragon Lady laughed strangely. “Granted, I may not like the things that you—or your friends, or even my coworkers—like, but I do get enjoyment out of my hobbies.”

  “And what are your hobbies?” Vivika asked, before wishing she hadn’t.

  “Oh, probably nothing that you would be interested in.”

  “Oh.” Vivika said, secretly thankful that she had been spared an actual answer. It was probably something like pulling the legs off of insects, or people.

  “I suppose my greatest hobby is people. I like figuring out what makes them tick.”

  “I don’t want to know how you find that out.” Vivika said with a note of disgust.

  “Oh, I’m sure Lena has told you all about that.” Dragon Lady half-laughed again. “But that’s only part of it—that’s only how I get the truth out of people when we really need to know every ounce of it. In truth, everyone is constantly lying. They might not know they are lying when they do it, but they are.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Every time someone says anything to someone, they are saying three things. The first is what they are supposed to be saying: ‘How are you?’ for instance, or ‘I’m doing fine’; the sorts of things people are socially obliged to say. The second thing they say is what their body language communicates: whether or not they actually want to have that conversation, or whether or not they are wanting to have it with the person they are having it with.

  “But the third thing they say is said through how they lace the rest of the conversation…subtle word-choices or changes in direction that give away what is really on their mind. For instance, you are trying to make conversation—that’s the lie. You don’t want to make conversation. Or more specifically, you don’t want to make it with me. Yet you persist in trying to. You are persisting in trying to because it’s socially required, and you know that I understand that—that’s the lie. The truth is, you are only trying to talk to me because I terrify you, and you are hoping that befriending me in any capacity will make me not want to hurt you. You are only using the social requirement of conversation as the excuse to do so.”

  “I suppose that’s honest enough.” Vivika admitted, before asking, “Are you going to hurt me?”

  “There’s the lie.” Dragon Lady responded. “You aren’t asking if I’m going to hurt you, because you don’t want to know. In truth, you have already decided that I won’t, because that’s the only outcome that your nervous-system will allow you to consider. The other lie is that sheepish tone you take. You don’t feel sheepish; you feel weak, powerless and unsure about the future. The truth is that you are trying to sound small and inconsequential, so that I won’t feel some sense of triumph if I do decide to hurt you…but will instead choose to enslave you, trading your capitulation for the promise of minimal harm.”

  “So, you aren’t going to, then?”

  “Again, another lie—you aren’t asking, you are confirming. You are trying to steer the conversation in a direction that confirms I won’t hurt you. The problem is, even if I say I won’t, that doesn’t mean I won’t. But that’s another lie you are trying to tell yourself, because that is—once again—the only outcome that your brain will allow you to consider. You logically know that I could change my mind…but you are lying to yourself in the hopes of finding temporary solace in the ludicrous proposition that I will be a woman of my word.

  “For all you know, I might lull you into a false sense of security and then do terrible things to you later. You don’t know, and you never will know. The truth is that, until you are completely out of my clutches, you will forever wonder when I’m finally going to hurt you. The truth is that you will always live in fear of that, and the truth is that I enjoy that.”

  “Why do you enjoy that?”

  “There’s the lie—the question as to why I enjoy that.” Dragon Lady said. “You already know why I do, and you don’t care why I do. The real reason you ask me that is because you realize that it’s socially unacceptable for me to enjoy the things that I do, and you are hoping that by asking in the tone you used, I will somehow spontaneously come to grips with an understanding of how wrong it is.”

  “So, everything I say is a lie?” Vivika responded, annoyed.

  “That’s another lie—you don’t believe that everything you say is a lie at all. What you are actually saying is that you don’t like the direction the conversation is going, and you want me to know that.”

  “You are incredibly difficult to talk to.” Vivika said, sitting back in her seat with her arms crossed.

  “And that, my dear, is the first honest thing you have said to me this entire conversation.”

  “Well, it’s true.”

  “And that’s another lie!” Dragon Lady laughed. “You didn’t say that to confirm anything—you are saying that because you are hoping I will realize that it’s a bad thing. But it doesn’t negate anything else you have said. If I were you, I would recognize and appreciate that you are finally having a conversation with an honest person—someone that has no reason whatsoever to lie to you. I would use the rest of this conve
rsation wisely, and try to get information that might actually be useful to you. Because you and I won’t be sitting in this booth for very long, and the next place that we go might be any number of places…some of them terrible.”

  “Are you going to hurt me?” Vivika asked again, staring the Dragon Lady in the face.

  “Yes,” she responded blankly. “I’m going to hurt you so very badly.”

  The touring van pulled up outside of the venue and parked. It was a building much like the last, with a beat-up, brick-laid facade. Crumbling pillars were plastered with band flyers and beer labels, and the walls were covered in layers upon layers of graffiti. The windows were cracked with millions of pock-marks from god-knows-what smashing into them on particularly youthful weekends, and the ground was littered with cigarette-butts and the stomach contents of parties long since concluded. It all smelled atrocious, like teen spirit mixed with morning shame; yet Lena loved it. Oh, and the billboard that brightly displayed, “Tonight only! Madeline Dangerbunny and The Dead Weights!” certainly didn’t hurt. Although it did raise almost as many questions as it answered.

  “I guess I’m somewhat at a loss.” Lena said as they both stepped out. “Did I just join a band?”

  “Maybe you did and maybe you didn’t.” Patrick responded, apathetically. “Just do whatever the hell you people do, and stick around. I have business to attend to.”

  “What sort of business is that?” she asked.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact I would.” she replied impudently.

  “As it so happens, I’m meeting with Matt. We are going to put some cards on the table and see who has the better hand.”

  “What cards could you possibly have?” Lena scoffed.

  “Oh, more cards than you might think—the least of which being Vivika.”

  Lena stifled a response. There wasn’t a chance in hell he knew anything about the secrets she and Vivika shared, but it still irritated her all the same. She knew Patrick was just trying to get under her skin and, she knew that he was lying. Something about the way he said the things that he said belied his false confidence in the situation and his plans. She could see right through his false bravado now, and this made her want to press the issue even more.

  “So what about her?” Lena said. “Vivika is the only card you have right now. If anything happens to her, plenty will happen to you.”

  “I doubt that Dragon Lady feels the same.” Patrick laughed, knowingly.

  “Do tell,” Lena said, unaffected.

  “Let’s just say that when she gets a new plaything, she doesn’t let them go easily.”

  Normally, what he just said would have bowled her over. But at this point, she not only doubted the validity of his confidence, but his supposed narrative in-and-of itself. Too much had happened at this point…she had too much experience to be cowed this easily with a threat that contained that little of substance.

  “I’m sure that she doesn’t.” Lena said, “But I know you both work for Grandfather. So, it doesn’t matter what she wants, really.”

  “You seem to put a lot of faith in the honorable nature of psychopaths.”

  “I know a thing or two about them.” Lena sneered. “I’ve worked with you for this long.”

  “Oh, I’m hardly of her ilk, but I understand you might think that. The truth is that I care very much what happens to you and Vivika—you are both my ticket out of here, if I play my cards right. Dragon Lady is my insurance against Vivika.”

  “You seem to put a lot of faith in the honorable nature of psychopaths.”

  “Fair enough.” Patrick conceded, before moving into a threat, “But remember, I don’t need either one of you alive. All that I need is to get the hell out of the GDR. I’m out of the GDR now.”

  “Then why the hell are you meeting with Matt?” Lena growled, sensing another lie.

  “Because I have a score to settle.”

  “Then why the hell am I alive?”

  “Because you are part of that score.”

  Something about the situation just didn’t add up. Patrick wouldn’t have been here unless he had been told to be. Vivika only mattered to Lena and Matt—and for very different reasons. She wouldn’t have been that much of a bargaining chip against anyone else. Yet if Grandfather truly was the man Lena knew he was, well, then Vivika wasn’t all that important at all. Maybe she truly was some sort of insurance…but a bargaining chip?

  “You know what I think?” Lena said, “I think that you are trying to play both sides. I think that you are here, doing exactly what Grandfather is telling you to do. I think that you think you are smarter than you are, and you are trying to make it look like you are playing a separate game all of your own. But I think the only people you are really playing against right now is Matt and me.”

  “Playing against you?!” Patrick scoffed.

  “I don’t think I matter in the least to any of these plans, and I don’t know anything that Grandfather doesn’t already know. I think instead of being your bargaining chip, I’m Grandfather’s act of good faith.”

  “What makes you so sure?”

  “And you know what else?” Lena ignoring him, “I think that you are trying to play a different game that you haven’t really thought through…and I think it’s a really stupid idea.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Because things don’t really seem to work out for you when you do that.”

  “Oh, really? And why...”

  “Because you’ve been trying for some time, and it hasn’t worked out thus far.”

  “How do you...”

  “I think that you raping my friend was less about you settling a score with her or Matt, and more about you and your fucking ego. You didn’t gain anything by raping her; all you did was take someone that probably already hated you and made them hate you more. But now I’d wager that a lot more people than you counted on hate you because of that. No, you didn’t do that for any reason other than something made you feel like less of a man, and you had to prove how big and bad you were by taking it out on the only person that you were able to.”

  “Oh, she’s not the only one.” Patrick menaced.

  “Stop it!” Lena spat. “Quit while you are behind, you moron!”

  “Who the hell do you...”

  “Stop it, Patrick! Just stop!” She was shouting louder as a few distant heads began to turn, “You kept trying to play a game you were never going to win. Instead of finding a game you could win, you tried to force things into place. Well, now you’ve gone too far. So far that admitting it won’t do a damn thing. Once Grandfather finds out what you did—if he doesn’t know already—you’re a dead man!”

  “Fuck you!” Patrick screamed.

  There it was: all the proof she needed. Lena didn’t know precisely how she knew it, but the fact that Patrick hadn’t offered anything in response other than a tired insult told her everything she needed to know about how correct her assumptions were. Patrick was already in deep trouble, and there was nothing he could do to get out of it. Moreover, she wagered that the only thing he could do to ensure a worse outcome for himself was to hurt her. It was time to take a page out of everyone else’s’ book and hammer it home.

  “Right. ‘Fuck me’” Lena taunted, “I knew I was right. I knew you were weak and powerless. Look at you…weak, powerless little Patrick, with your weak little problems…raping a girl? What a piece of worthless shit you are.”

  “I-I’m not worthless,” Patrick protested with his eyes beginning to glisten, “I’m not!”

  “You are worthless, you idiot.” Lena stood tall, squaring her shoulders, “You aren’t going to do shit to Vivika ever again, and you aren’t going to do shit to me! I’m Grandfather’s asset…not yours. You are absolutely powerless.”

  A bright flash of r
ed and a sharp piercing whine filled what was left of Lena’s vision, and for a brief second, she forgot her name. She didn’t feel anything, aside from the sense that she was completely trapped inside of a head—a head that wobbled around freely on top of a body that was somewhat disconnected. Seconds later, her vision switched back on to inform her that she was still standing, punctuated with a bright pink pain on her left cheek that echoed throughout her jaw.

  Instead of recoiling, however, she simply looked at that spot right between his legs and buried her foot in it, as if she was trying to split the earth in half with the sheer force of her hatred. She felt something shift out of the way before hitting what felt like a soft, thinly-packed seat cushion. Immediately, he hit the floor and curled up in the fetal position, clutching something Lena genuinely hoped was broken beyond repair.

  “Fuck you, Patrick,” she said, before breaking out in a dead sprint towards the venue.

  “Why are you going to hurt me?” Vivika asked the Dragon Lady.

  It seemed a plain enough question—a perfectly reasonable response to a rather unreasonable statement. Vivika didn’t know the Dragon Lady by anything other than reputation, yet that reputation was more than enough to know she was fully capable of hurting anyone she wished. Yet Vivika attempted a rather dispassionate approach. Regardless of how this situation was going to turn out, at the very least, Vivika was resolved to deny her as much satisfaction as possible.

  “Because I don’t like you,” the Dragon Lady responded plainly, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

  “Why don’t you like me?”

  “Mostly because Patrick likes you, and I don’t like Patrick. Also, because Matt likes you, and I don’t like who Matt works for. I also don’t like you because I don’t like anyone, but I mostly don’t like you because I utterly hate Lena. I think the both of you are bad assets that can’t be trusted, and I think that the both of you have done enough damage to the HVA to simply let you die comfortably.”