He sighs the way my high school teachers used to, and I know he plans to ignore me.
“How are you alive right now?” I lean on a crossbar, trying to figure out what he’s doing. “I had it on pretty good authority that you were dead.”
“That’s what they needed to think.”
“So… they escaped and you just changed your focus, until now? That doesn’t make any sense.”
He laughs… again, like most adults in my Earth life, dismissive and annoyed. “Do you really think they escaped me? What is the point of an experiment if you never actualize it? They are still my puppets. You may not be able to see the strings, but they are there and they are just as much under my control as they ever were when they were in those cages.”
He’s so sure of himself, but it’s my turn to sigh and speak to him like a child. “You’re wrong.”
It makes him hesitate before he dismisses me. “Believe that if it gives you comfort.”
“There’s very little in this place that would give me comfort, but thanks.”
He ignores that, so I ask, “Why have me kidnapped and then crash the ship I was on?”
“Forgive me if I don’t feel like explaining decades of work to you.”
I ignore the implied “shut up” in that comment.
“Okay, so you didn’t want the people you hired to be around to answer questions… Which is why you had them put me in an escape pod, pretending it was a holding cell and popped me out remotely when you could bet I’d be found by Arc. And then you had my medications changed… but I didn’t bond with Shock like you planned.”
His laugh is a breathy replacement for calling me an idiot.
Despite what he’s said, he couldn’t have known which of them would take me to town… “It didn’t matter which one of them bonded with me, did it?”
“It didn’t matter which one of them bonded to youfirst.” He might not want to tell me his plans, but I don’t think he can help himself when it comes to correcting me.
“So you’re a gambler.”
“I am anarchitect.”
Thatmakes me snort. “Pretty sure you’re actually a villain.”
The way he looks at me… hemightkill me if he didn’t need me. “Violent progress requires violent methods.”
“A villain who hasn’t changed his tag line in decades. Got it. At least you’re consistent in that.” Nothing else feels like he’s got a handle on reality.
“You are far too flippant for someone I could kill without the slightest remorse.”
I probably should be scared, but… Shock’s visions are never wrong. I’m supposed to be here right now, and—I definitelywouldn’t tell Atker this, but—Shock also told me I get all three of them at once.Thathasn’t happened yet.
I tip my head to the side, involuntarily, as I wonder how easily I’ve come to trust that.
The device on Atker’s belt catches my eye and I squint, trying to see it better. It’s like a remote control.
He notices. Without a word, he unclips it and places it on the console beside him, well out of my reach.
I almost tell him I wasn’t going to… but that sounds a little too little kid-esque, even in my head. But when he takes it off, a dozen monsters crowd around him, like dogs looking for pets and praise.
“Why do they attack the brotherhood, but not you?”
He glances at that remote, but I don’t think he meant to.
Then, he smiles down at them scritching this one’s ear, stroking that one’s side. “Because they’re well trained.”
Well controlled… “You hijacked their brains.” I remember enough about what Jessica told me.
