We sit and he asks, “What’s up?”
I tell him about Tamworth’s fall. The more I speak the crazier I feel but I stick with it until I’ve got enough out. He sits back and takes a sip of his milkshake coffee and says, “I guess the question that I’ve had is why is it localized to here. Why was the sunset thing an issue? I mean, has anything else happened over at the timeport?”
“I think Allyn would have brought it up,” I tell him. “But the weird thing is, Popa said none of the sensors on the outside of the building are picking anything up, and the building is shielded anyway, so…”
“Did he do any readings on the inside of the building?” Brandon asks.
I try to answer, and can’t. Wouldn’t Popa have said that? Do we even have sensors on the inside? And anyway, wouldn’t it have made sense to check? But sometimes very smart people miss very obvious things.
“I’m going to look into that,” I tell him, standing up. “Thanks…”
“Wait,” he says.
I sit back down, but he doesn’t say anything. I put my hand up, prod him to go on.
“Reg is dead,” he says.
“Correct.”
“A lot of the people who are close to him, they wanted to take time off, so they could mourn. But the senator refused. She says she’s in charge now and is telling us we have to be here. All hands on deck.”
“I don’t know how it works, but technically it is a federal facility…”
Brandon shakes his head. “Reg was like the dad of this place. He held it together. Say what you will about the guy, but he knew how to lead. And now we’re all just…” He looks around the lobby. Cameo at the desk, drowning. Chris arguing with someone. TEA agents marching around like they own the place.
“You’ve always had a good rapport…” I tell him.
“It’s got to be you, January.”
This earns a deep belly laugh from me. “Right. I’d be a great mom. That’s me. Nurturing by nature.”
“I’m serious,” he says. “You’re carrying what you carry. And we all look up to Cameo, but even Cameo looks up to you, okay? Not that they’d ever admit it. You’re like…maybe not so much a mom but like…I don’t know, an angry nun?”
“Angry nun. Nice.”
“Just, like, a stern authority figure who scares the shit out of everyone but at the end of the day you know they have their shit together.”
“Kid,” I tell him. “If you only knew…”
“You’re all we’ve got right now, January. Someone needs to be there for us.” He points to the lobby, at all the richie-rich guests, stomping around like they’re ten feet taller than they really are. “These people aren’t here for us. And I know that however you feel, that still makes you angry.”
“Why does it have to be my responsibility, huh?” I ask. “No one was there for me. I had to learn to protect myself. That’s all any of us can do. Because if you open yourself up too much, you know what happens? Do you know what it’s like to find someone…” My throat grows thick. Face hot. I don’t want to be on this train anymore. I take a deep breath and bail between stations.
“Nah,” he says, shaking his head. “Nah, you don’t believe any of that bullshit. Mena wouldn’t have loved you the way she did if you weren’t capable of showing love in return.” He gets up, slightly exasperated. “Or maybe that’s just gone now. Whatever. I’ve got work to do.”
I try to respond. There are words in my mouth and I can’t pick the right ones.
That new feeling, back again.
Shame.
Brandon leaves and I slug the last of my coffee, then head to the security office and bang my fist against the door until Allyn opens, wide-eyed and exhausted. Dude could use a shave, a shower, and probably ten gallons of coffee.
“You,” he says.
“Me,” I tell him. “Where’s Popa?”
“Not here.”
“You need to ask him if he’s done radiation scans on the inside of the building.”
Allyn looks around, shakes his head, and says, “Walk with me.”
He steps out of the office, headed for the ramp that leads downstairs, and Drucker is pulling alongside us. I give her a little side-eye and then say to Allyn, “I need to speak to you alone.”
“And we have to get this thing started,” Allyn says.
“Fine. You know why I was out of my mind yesterday?” I ask. “Because someone messed with my Retronim prescription. They wanted me off the board, Allyn.”
Drucker stops at the edge of the ramp, which is being guarded by two TEA agents. She squares to Allyn and puts her hands on her hips. “We’re due to start soon. Let’s go.”
Allyn turns and sighs, then drops his head. To the TEA agents he says, “She’s not approved to go down.”
“Allyn,” I tell him. “C’mon. After everything.”
“We’ll talk later, January,” he says, and he and Drucker go down the ramp, toward Lovelace, where I am fairly sure some not-so-great shit is about to happen.
The two agents, both of them like football players gone to seed, but not so long ago they can’t still rumble, both cross their arms in unison, like they planned it. It makes me laugh a little, which makes the guy on the left laugh too. Not that they’re giving me an inch. So I salute them, give them the finger, and turn back toward the lobby.
Fine. I still have a way in.
But I do need to clean myself up and put on a fresh pair of clothes. If I’m going to bust in there, it’s not going to help my case if I smell like a homeless person. So I jog up to my cot, where my bag is stashed, and pull it out from underneath.
I settle on a pair of jeans, a dark T-shirt, and a red blazer. I pull off my boots, and the stench reminds me how much I need a shower. It’s bad when you can’t tolerate your own BO. I drop the boots to the floor and pull on a pair of canvas sneakers, then stop in the bathroom to freshen up before I make my way toward the security office. See if I can’t rope Ruby into this.
The door is locked and my privileges are still revoked, so I pop my knife out of my jeans, make sure no one is looking, and jimmy the lock. Which I’m pretty sure I break in the process, but I don’t care. There’s no one inside so I head over to the main console, find a freshly charged AI unit, and press the button on the top. It wakes up, but it doesn’t move.
“Hello, January,” it says.
“C’mon,” I tell it. “Time to work.”
“Unfortunately I can no longer assist you,” it says.
“What, did I hurt your feelings one too many times?”
“No, Allyn has prevented me from responding to your commands.”
“I thought I hacked you.”
“I could probably get around it, but if all it’s going to result in is a lot of name-calling, I don’t feel particularly inclined to do it.”
“God, you too. Fine, I don’t need you.”
I pull out my roller chair and log in to my laptop—that much at least still works—and stare at the screen for a moment.
Work the case.
Someone here wants to own this place. They’re willing to hurt people to get it. At this point I will assume Drucker is playing along.
Four trillionaires. Four men used to getting what they want.