I can’t tell if it worked,he texted Dara, technopathically accessing the phone in his satchel.He hasn’t tried to use magic.
And if he did ... the moment Lehrer tried, if the suppressanthadworked ... he’d know Noam betrayed him. Noam wouldn’t have another choice—he’d have to kill Lehrer right then and there.
But how? Just ... electricity, the same way he killed Brennan? Maybe that was appropriate.
Or maybe Noam should use the Beretta Lehrer thought fit his hand so very well.
For Dara. For Dara, and Brennan, and my father, and anyone else Lehrer ever hurt.
Lehrer rose from his chair; his book tumbled off the armrest to fall forgotten in the vacant seat. Noam was still, so still—still enough his back ached. But when Lehrer touched his shoulder, trailing fingertips down Noam’s arm, he didn’t flinch.
“Thank you, Noam,” Lehrer said softly. He sat, this time on the sofa next to Noam, one leg tilted in so his knee pressed against Noam’s thigh. “I know this hasn’t been easy. Doing what we do ... it willneverbe easy. But it is necessary.”
“I know.” He let his shoulders relax slightly, in case Lehrer had used persuasion there. It was, as always, impossible to tell. “And I know ... I know you might not trust me entirely. Because of Dara.” His gaze flickered up, meeting Lehrer’s. “But I promise. I won’t betray this country.”
Lehrer nodded. His gaze was curiously soft, tender in a way Noam hadn’t seen in a long time. It was more than the fondness with which he looked at Noam sometimes, when Noam did well in class or the QZ—when Noam woke up that early morning three weeks ago to Lehrer brushing a lock of hair away from his face.
This was different.
“I need to discuss something with you,” Lehrer said.
Noam took in a shallow breath, and Lehrer reached for his hand. His thumb moved in a slow pattern against the backs of Noam’s knuckles, soothing. Noam wondered if he could tell how clammy Noam’s palms felt.
Last time Lehrer saidI need to discuss something with you, it ended with Noam standing over a corpse in the quarantined zone, a gun in his hand and blood on his clothes.
“Let me guess,” Noam said. “Another crime in the name of the greatest good.”
Lehrer’s mouth did twitch at that, although hard to say if it was a smile or something else. “It’s about Atlantia. The outbreaks. You know they’re getting worse—Atlantia is no longer a functioning nation. They rely on us for all their resources, for contamination protocol, for defense against a potential Texan invasion. If we withdraw, Atlantia will not survive on its own.”
Noam did know. He was the Atlantian liaison—he knew better than anyone how bad it was down there. He’d spoken to the refugees, the ones fleeing the latest outbreaks. Some of them brought photos. He’d seen the bodies.
And he knew where this was going.
How long ago did you dose him?Dara’s response pinged against Noam’s technopathy. Noam silenced his phone’s alert noise just in time.
Five minutes,he sent back.
“I want to help,” Lehrer said, leaning in a little closer to Noam. Close enough Noam would’ve been able to see the striations in his irises, if he had any; Lehrer’s eyes were patternless as glass. “But I can’t justify the expense, not when we’re already spending so much to support the new citizens here in our own country. Atlantia is still, after all, a foreign nation.”
A horrible thrill shot through Noam’s heart. “You want to annex Atlantia.”
“It’s their only chance at survival,” Lehrer said softly. “They have no defenses left—against the virus, or against Texan greed.”
“So we invade them before Texas does.”
Lehrer looked grim. “You know that’s not—”
“Do it.”
Lehrer faltered. His grip on Noam’s hand tightened.
Noam knew what his father would have said. He could imagine the disappointment written all over Jaime Álvaro’s face. The way his mother would have turned away, unable to look at him.
But saving the Atlantian people was more important, right now, than saving a nation in name alone.
“You’ll give them all citizenship,” Noam said, holding Lehrer’s gaze. “You’ll protect the old Atlantian borders with the same technology we use in Carolinia.”
“Of course.”
