Enemies(94)

“Yeah,” I whispered. “That’s the sense I get from them, too. Like Weissman will be working for years just to make sure he doesn’t miss a single one of us.”

“I wish I could say I admire their thoroughness,” Breandan said, “but I really just hate them. I’m hoping that you’ll find us a way to stake that bastard Weissman through the face. It’d be richly deserved, I think, and personally satisfying.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m hoping I can pull that off too.” I paused. “But I have my doubts,” I conceded.

“Who wouldn’t?” Breandan said. “Fella like that, able to stop time itself, reposition himself mid-battle? Kind of hard to beat someone who knows what you’re going to do before you do it.”

My eyes grew unfocused for just a moment as I thought about that. “Yes. Yes it is, isn’t it?”

He peered at me in the dark. “You’ve just thought of something, haven’t you?”

He broke me out of my reverie, and I looked back at him. “Maybe. Give me a few minutes?” I waved the box at him. “Get Reed and Karthik together, along with whoever else we need to meet with. I’ll be out in …” I looked at the box and then back at him. “However long this takes, I guess.”

“Three should do it,” he said, turning to head back toward the door. “But I’ll tell them ten, just in case you decide to take a few after.” He gave me a light grin and opened the door, flooding the room, and him, with light. I could see the redness in his eyes, the places where they looked a little puffy, and I said nothing as he closed the door and left me alone again in the dark.





Chapter 34




I held the little stick in my hand, the little white wand that would tell me the course of the next few months and years of my life. I stared at it, the simple, unassuming thing, as white as the tile that covered the entire bathroom. There was nothing to do now but wait.

I sat on the toilet, the seat down and putting pressure on the base of my thighs. I took a long breath, in and out, and watched the stick like it was going to sprout arms and slap me if I looked away for even a moment. I was having a hard time breathing. Each breath I took was coming in gasps.

Worried, Little Doll?

“Damned right I’m worried,” I said, almost hyperventilating.

This is hardly the end of the world, Wolfe said with a Cheshire smile that I could see in my head. Ironic bastard.

It’ll be okay, Zack whispered. Whatever happens, I’m with you.

“It’s not you I’m worried about.”

What is it? Zack asked.

This kid is being born into a tactically unsound situation, Bastian intoned.

“He’s being born as a member of an endangered species,” I spat.

Bjorn was oddly quiet as he spoke into my mind. You are running Omega now. You sit in a seat once held by Zeus himself.

I looked down at the porcelain seat I was resting on. “I’m on the toilet. I kind of doubt Zeus held this particular seat.”

Fear is for lesser people, Bjorn went on.

“Easy enough to say when you’re dead.”

It’s gonna be okay, Zack said again. I’m with you. The others … you’ve got a good team. If anyone can beat back Weissman and these Century clowns, it’s you.

“I couldn’t even stop Winter, Zack,” I said. “I couldn’t fight him off, and these guys scare the shit out of him.”

You didn’t know Winter was your enemy, Zack said. You know Century is. You know they’re coming.

“I don’t even know why I’m fighting them,” I said, waving the pregnancy test around like it could speed up the results.

Because they stand for everything you don’t.

I felt my mouth go dry, and I looked down at the white testing strip again. As it began to take shape, there was a cacophony in my skull, everyone speaking at once.

—We can kill anyone, Wolfe said, I can show you how—

—the Primus of Omega must never be afraid, Bjorn said.

—all comes down to tactics and strategy, Bastian threw in. Absolutely a winnable war—

—Klementina—

I’m with you, Zack whispered.

—whatever. Kill some more people, see if I care, Eve Kappler said.

The pain in my head was overwhelming, surging so hard I almost passed out. I fell to my knees, and nausea ran through me. “EVERYBODY JUST SHUT UP!” I screamed, never wanting anything more in my life. I took control of my breathing the way Mother had taught me, slowly in through the nose, slowly out through the mouth, and the voices stopped. I eased a shaking hand up on the edge of the sink and pulled myself up, continuing my breathing exercise as the nausea began to fade. My other hand clung tightly to the pregnancy test, and I didn’t look at it, afraid of what I’d find.