“What do you mean?”
“I mean, would you like me to return the favour?” Holberton sat up, with some difficulty. “It’s not often I have hot guys in my bed who’ve had a rough few days and might need some tender, loving care.”Holberton felt bad for him. Maybe even pitied him. How had Javier not seen that, earlier? It was about him, about making him feel better. And yes, he was milking this moment for all it was worth, but he was being good. Kind. Not pushy. Asking him at every step. He was so smooth Javier hadn’t even noticed it. Maybe it was some sort of theme park thing, some sort of customer care philosophy, internalized and manifested in every aspect of Holberton’s personality. Or maybe he was just a man who had once been a boy, and that boy had once been Jonah LeMarque’s son. Maybe he knew a thing or two about asking, first.
“Are you crying?” Holberton inched closer. “Can you do that?”
Javier wiped his eyes. “No. I mean, yes. We can. I just don’t. I don’t even think I have the plugin for that. There was a rights issue with it. Development hell. So I’m not even sure if–”
Holberton’s lips closed over his. “It’s OK. You don’t have to, if you don’t want to.”
When Holberton’s breathing grew deep and even, Javier pulled back the smart cover and swung his legs over the side of the bed. The coverlet obediently snuggled back up to Holberton. Javier put on his clothes carefully. He might need to run, by the time this was all over. It wouldn’t do to be naked for that.
Exiting the bedroom, he found the living room alight with snow. Real snow this time, not like in the Winter Wonderland. Outside, the sky was a mauve pink, and the snowflakes looked like the shavings off quartz chips. It accumulated steadily on the patio furniture and the cacti and the sagebrush. The snow made the house seem quieter than it really was. Javier decided he liked it. He liked that quiet stillness. He was glad there were still places in the world that could still experience it, if only very briefly. Belatedly, he realized that the house had no Christmas tree. Though given Holberton’s history with religion, it made sense not to celebrate.
The tour hadn’t included an office, but Javier guessed it was downstairs. Track lighting illuminated his progress as soon as he set foot on the first step. The first door was another bathroom. It stocked extra towels, probably for the pool outside. The second door led to a room full of light.
The light was rich and golden and antique. It took Javier’s eyes a moment to adjust; the colours kept dithering and he actually couldn’t be sure if certain things were blue or black or grey. The room was lit entirely by lamps and sconces with old-fashioned filament bulbs. He had never seen so many of them in one place. Not even in Las Vegas.
Posters for various Frankenstein films hung on the walls. He recognized The Curse of Frankenstein, having attempted to watch it while on the ship. The other posters looked like they belonged to the same set. The shade of red used in the fonts was the exact same on each.
Holberton’s homescreen was an overexposed shot of a girl at a party. She was dark and slender and wearing too much eye makeup. She’d hiked the skirt of her school uniform up to levels that were probably against regulation. As he watched, she straightened up and appeared to put something down. She walked out of the frame and into the room. He could see through her, but just barely. She wrapped her weightless arms around him for a minute before sitting down on a stool that, Javier now understood, was probably put there for this exact purpose.
“Hi, Dad,” she said.
“Hi, sweetheart,” Javier said. “I need your help.”
“Sure thing,” she said. “What can I help you with?”
It couldn’t possibly be this easy. “I need to know where your uncle Dan’s cache is. There’s something in his files that I’m looking for, and it’s really important.”
She looked deeply apologetic. She bit her lower lip like she was confessing a minor infraction: a broken vase, a broken condom. “Sorry, Dad. I have no idea.”
Javier nodded. He was right. It couldn’t possibly be that easy, after all. “Do you have any idea where I might have put it? Have there been any big files floating around that I’ve missed?”
She shook her head. “None that I’ve seen.” She brightened. “I did find all that stuff on Mitch Powell that you’ve been looking for, though! I wrote up a whole report, and everything!”
Javier smiled. “That’s my girl.”