“As long as I have you,” I say, “he’s vulnerable.”
“You’re going to use me to blackmail him?” She looks horrified. “For what? To get your charges dropped? To get immunity?”
“Something like that,” I lie.
I can’t tell her the truth. I can’t tell her that I need leverage to protect myself from her father.
If the Judge knows I have her, he has to negotiate. He can’t risk a kinetic assault on the compound if his daughter is in the line of fire.
“You’re disgusting,” she spits.
“I’m alive,” I counter. “In my world, that’s the only metric that counts.”
I pocket the license.
“You’re not a prisoner, Iris,” I say, my voice flat. “You’re an insurance policy. A bargaining chip. And until I get what I want, you stay in the box.”
“You can’t keep me here forever.”
“I don’t need forever,” I say. “I just need until the deal is done.”
“What deal?”
“The one I’m going to make with your father.”
I turn to leave. I’ve given her enough. I’ve given her a narrative she can understand—a simple kidnapping for leverage. It’s a lie she will swallow because it fits her worldview of criminals and victims.
“Wait!” she calls out.
I stop at the door, my hand on the handle.
“Does he know?” she asks. Her voice is small, fragile. “Does he know you have me?”
I hesitate.
Does he?
The secure line is silent. If he knew, it would be ringing.
“Not yet,” I say.
“When he finds out,” she says, her voice gaining a sudden, fierce strength, “he’ll come for me. And when he does, he won’t negotiate. He’ll destroy you.”
I look back at her over my shoulder.
She stands in the center of the room, bathed in the harsh light. My shirt hangs off her shoulders, swallowing her frame, but she doesn’t look small. She looks entrenched. She looks like a daughter who refuses to see the truth.
It hurts to look at her.
“I’m counting on it,” I say.
I open the door, step out into the hallway, and pull the massive slab shut. The magnetic locks engage with a solid, final clank.
I stand there for a moment in the silence.
My hand is throbbing. The bandage is already soaked through, the blood dark and sticky against my skin.
She thinks I’m the monster.
