“I’m not killing you,” Saladan said as he adjusted his grip. “I’m softening you up, then I’m going to sell you to a demon. Rumor is they’ll give a lot for a Kalamack. Your slaver past catching up to you. It might be enough. It might not. But either way, I’ll feel better.”
“No!” Kal screamed as another burning wave crashed over him, and with a resolve he never knew he had, he grappled with the pain, studying it until he found its pattern. Not knowing if it would work or simply kill him, Kal shifted his aura to match the incoming flow.
With a shocking suddenness that was almost a misery in itself, the energy poured into him cleanly. It was the resistance that was causing the burn, and with a gasp of relief, Kal opened his eyes, fixing them on Saladan.
“Get off me,” Kal intoned, shoving the energy right back at the distasteful man.
But Saladan had felt the shift of flow and had let go, pushing Kal and his rolling chair into the back of his circle as he stood up.
For three heartbeats, they faced each other. “Who taught you that?” Saladan said, nervously reaching for a cigarette.
“A little bird,” Kal said, but his voice was shaking, and he wasn’t sure he could stand yet. “If you’re through with your tantrum, I have a proposition for you. I can get it all back, and more. I only need some time.”
Saladan’s thin lips twisted, and he lit the new cigarette with a pop of magic. “If I had a dollar for every gambler in my father’s casino who said that,” he said. “No, wait, I do. Or did.”
“Stop,” Kal said, hand raised when Saladan reached to choke him again. “Just stop,” he added impatiently as he sat up, not liking the impression of cowering in a chair. “Hear me out, and then if you want to sell me to a demon, fine, but Dr. Cambri has in her head the holy grail of genetic fixes.”
Saladan growled something inaudible, and Kal added, “Why do you think I was at that lame excuse of a lab? To sign off on a tomato patent?” he said. “The enclave sent me to find out if it was real, and it is. Her universal donor virus can change the world.”
Saladan blew smoke at Orchid, the pixy still standing atop his circle. The tiny woman looked confused, and Kal frowned. True, his original intent had been to shut down Trisk’s research as dangerous, but the plague pretty much settled that. She’d never set foot in an elven lab again, and it left her donor virus curiously—and unexpectedly—vulnerable. It would be like cheating off her test. Easy, and if there were issues down the road, he could blame them on her.
Looking even more troubled, Orchid darted away as the gray smoke curled up and against the inside of the circle to show the limits of Saladan’s power. “Change the world?” Saladan said dryly. “More than killing a substantial portion of its population has?”
Kal straightened his tie, only now seeing how filthy it was. I need to do something about that. “Everything, Saladan. Not just for elves, but for whatever humans survive this. Witches. Weres. We all benefit. And they will pay whatever we ask because we will hold the keys to everything they want.”
Orchid was frowning at him, her slight figure looking even slimmer as she stood between two troll dolls, hands on her hips and shedding a bright silver dust. A spark of hope lit through him when Saladan’s eyes narrowed in thought. “You think getting rid of diabetes was significant?” Kal asked. “Give me a year in a lab with Trisk’s donor virus research, and we can stop heart disease, leukemia, sickle cell, Down syndrome, or any genetic disease there’s enough people afflicted with to show a profit. All I need to do now is make sure the blame for the plague lands on Dr. Plank.”
From the shelf, Orchid frowned at him, her dust turning into black sparkles.
Saladan’s eyebrows rose. “How does blaming a human for Dr. Cambri’s mistake give you control over her other work?”
Kal shrugged, not letting the man’s eyes go so he’d believe the lie that it was Trisk’s fault. Besides, most of it was true, and didn’t the world spin on what was mostly true? “Because even if everyone else thinks otherwise, the enclave will know it was her error, and trust me, they will want someone to take her other work to completion. We can both benefit, me with the product, you with the manufacture and distribution.”
“Kal, you said it was dangerous!” Orchid exclaimed, and he frowned. That had been before he realized the potential. The profit outweighed the risk, and he knew what he was doing.
Unfortunately, Saladan never let greed overrule his suspicions, and his thin lips pressed as he flicked his cigarette away. “I’d rather give you to a demon.”
Kal stood, lurching to put the rolling chair between them. “Damn it, Saladan. You’re not a fool!” he exclaimed. “There’s no risk here for you other than letting me live this side of the ley lines. It’s all on me. If it fails, you can sell me to a demon then.”