Captivate (Manipulate, Book 2)

Chapter 44

Nat sat in the back of the ground car as Senator Fontley drove, with Sam directing him. Her thumb throbbed and her thoughts seemed to pulse in time with the pain. She couldn’t focus on what to do next, she could only think of Akemi, cut off and trapped in that box.

For a moment, when she’d fought the Rik, Nat had felt clear-headed and alert in a way that she hadn’t for a long time. But now she was back beneath the waves, that one brief breath of clarity and fresh air slowly seeping away.

On the edges of her abstraction, Nat was dimly aware that Fontley was still talking about the negotiation that had just ended, but she didn’t care what he had to say. All that mattered was Akemi. A small part of her mind whispered that Claire mattered too, that she also might be someone’s sister, someone’s friend, but Nat pushed that thought away. She would just find a way to save them both.

Nat was startled when Sam reached back and rubbed her knee. “It’ll be alright.” he said, squeezing her knee until she made eye contact with him. “It’s going to be a beautiful day.”

Nat stared at him. The words were an inside joke they’d shared with the other cadets during training. ‘It’s going to be a beautiful day,’ meant the weather was right for training outdoors, which usually made for the most grueling and unpleasant days of all.

Why would Sam bring that up now? She already knew it was a bad day. Sam held her gaze for a moment and then flicked his eyes once toward Fontley.

Sam turned back around in his seat.                                                                      

What was that about? she wondered.

Senator Fontley directed a suspicious glance at her, but so quickly that she almost doubted she’d seen it. He urged the car to a slightly faster speed. “It’s a pity you weren’t at the negotiation,” he told her. “You would have been as astounded at the Director’s wild accusations as I was myself. I, a Rik? It was insane.”

“It was.” Sam edged sideways in his seat, turning to face the Senator as much as possible.

“But then... we can’t allow those kinds of ridiculous claims to get back to Earth. They would make the people very uncomfortable.”

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about.” Sam gave him a reassuring, phony smile.

“That is more true than you know, young man. In fact, I have rarely felt more in sympathy with you than I do at this moment, which is odd. Or perhaps ironic.” He took the car even faster, and Nat saw his fingers jiggling manically as he turned on the autopilot. “I have nothing more to worry about. The computer is gone, the Rik treaty dissolved, and you are nearly out of my way. The Director was always a fool, even when I knew her, but she should have known that revealing me was useless. Did she think I’d survived for so many years on your paranoid planet without learning how to take care of myself? Foolish beyond permission.”

Nat was fully aware now. Her skin tightened with the probability of violence. “What are you saying? That you’re a Rik imposter?” She forced a laugh. “No one would believe that.” She grasped the safety handholds above her, rather like gymnastic rings, and tensed back against the seat.

“No one would believe I was Rik, would they?” he said with great affability. “I am truly a human now. I even have intuition.”

 “The intuition of what?” Sam still smiled slightly, as one might at a demented and confused man with a weapon.

“The timing! It’s perfect.” As Fontley reached in his jacket, Nat’s thoughts finally broke lose.

Her feet slammed into the back of the seat by Fontley’s head, but he still managed to get a gun out of his jacket.  Nat found herself contemplating the gun (a Glock, he must have brought it from Earth) as she hit the seat again.