“No kiss?” he asks, lightly mocking.
I don’t answer, because the only words in my mouth are those of pure violence.
“All right,” he says after a time. “That will do for now. Look at me.”
I raise my head and meet his piercing blue stare. In spite of the intelligence there, it’s cold. Soulless. So unlike the generous dark warmth of Connor’s, those beautiful eyes of his that always looked at me with so much—
No.
I force the thought of Connor from my head, but S?ren has already sniffed it out.
His look sharpens. Lightly caressing my cheek with his knuckles, he whispers, “You think you can hide from me? You think I don’t know how much you wish you could hate me…but don’t?”
I lower my eyes and bite my tongue. Silence is my friend now.
“Come,” he says, his voice warm. “I have something to show you.”
He turns and walks away. When I don’t move, his guards step in. One of them prods me with his rifle. I cut him a look so lethal, he blinks.
I rise unsteadily and follow S?ren to the spiral staircase. The guards walk closely behind, our footsteps echoing off the metal. I take in everything around me, memorizing the space, looking for exits. When we reach the top of the staircase, I stop dead.
A few feet ahead of me, S?ren says over his shoulder, “Like what I’ve done with the place?”
The platform we’re standing on juts out from the entrance of the mouth of another, smaller cave, with two tunnels at the rear that wind out of sight in different directions. The main space has been retrofitted with steel and glass to form a large, open work area, lit up in a wash of white light. There’s a bank of servers behind a wall of glass on one side. Video screens dominate the other wall. In the middle of the room is an enormous, horseshoe-shaped desk forested with buttons, a keyboard in the middle. Behind the desk sit two white captain’s chairs.
It has the look of the command room of a starship.
I feel a prod in the small of my back and stumble forward. The guards silently mount the stairs and move to flank me on either side. S?ren saunters into the center of the cave and turns a slow half-circle, his arms held out.
“My humble abode. It took a great deal of time and money to complete, as I’m sure you can imagine.” He chuckles. “Installing all the equipment was the least of the challenges. You have no idea how difficult the tribal council can be to negotiate with.”
“Tribal council?” I repeat, distracted by the wall of video screens. Each one depicts a different view. Dams. Reservoirs. Power plants. Electrical stations. Airports. Docks. Government complexes. Military bases. Manufacturing facilities. Bus depots.
Panic begins to churn in my stomach.
“Yes. These caves are on native Athabascan lands. I had to pay them an ungodly sum to buy the land and their cooperation.”
My body turns as cold as my blood. “Alaska.”
“Exactly. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Although thanks to the nearby hot springs, it doesn’t feel like Alaska. I enjoy going barefoot because the rock is so warm underfoot. It’s pleasant, don’t you agree?”
I don’t answer. It’s not required, he’s just making small talk. S?ren leisurely lowers himself to one of the captain’s chairs, presses a button on the desk, and all the screens go dark except one. On it is an aerial view of Outlier Studios.
I glance at him. S?ren crosses his legs, lowers his lashes, and sends me the most angelic of smiles.
It all comes together with the speed of two fingers snapping.
I say, “Miranda.”
“Bingo.”
“So you knew all along. Even the press conference was fake?”
He lifts a shoulder, and I close my eyes. That fucking ice-queen bitch.
S?ren asks, “Just out of curiosity, how did you guess?”
I open my eyes and stare at him, all that glittering perfection hiding such ugliness beneath. “She never asked how I knew you. When we were introduced and I said I’d known you before, I thought it was strange that she never asked when or how. Also, she quoted Machiavelli. The only other person I’ve ever known to quote him was you.”
S?ren’s smile is cool and composed. “Well, no matter. That loop has been closed.”
He turns to the desk and punches a series of keys. The screens blink to life. News anchors giving reports, video from helicopters, headlines shouting “Breaking Story!”
S?ren scans all the images, finds what he wants, and presses another button.
All the screens merge to show one enormous image of a fiery crash on a Los Angeles freeway. Three black SUVs are turned on their sides and engulfed in flames. Several more cars are scattered around the SUVs, spun around facing the wrong direction or flipped on their roofs. Traffic is stopped for miles on either side of the highway in both directions.