Galilee Rising(81)

Something else nags at me during my sleepless nights. That video call. It was too…on point, time wise. Jordan could have a tracker on Jem or someone watching the ocean exit from a boat and knew when he arrived here. Possible but not probable. Jem would have considered those possibilities and taken the necessary precautions. Five days and nights of working all the angles with nothing to show. I'm missing something important, something Jordan said or did when he was here that will blow the confusion away. It hasn't happened yet. But I do have a Hail Mary pass up my sleeve. After all I did promise to call him, and my word is my bond no matter how much that promise turns my stomach.

I've only allotted twenty minutes for this torture. Memorial to get to and all. I've been to far too many in the past year. One expects to attend five funerals in a year when in your eighties, not at thirty-three. I wasn't officially invited but decided to fly to Independence anyway. Even if Lexie turns me away at the church door at least she'll know I put forth the effort.

I sit at the new and improved Doris to wait for the call. I'm not as nervous as last time. Guess there's a new monster under my bed to fill my nightmares. He won't like that. I must make sure to tell him.

The video chat music begins tinkling, and I accept. Ryder sits on the other end looking exactly the same as last week: cheerful and handsome despite his pasty skin and need of a shave. His smile drops a little when he sees me.

"Oh, my. You look dreadful."

"You're one to talk, vampire Grizzly Adams."

"I was expressing genuine concern, Joanna," he says snidely. If he were capable of feelings, I'd think I just bruised his. "You're obviously under considerable stress. Not sleeping? You haven't become a wino again, have you?"

"No." Came close a few times, but my sponsor talked me down. "Things have gotten a lot more heated with Cain, that's all."

"Was my information useful?"

"Yeah, but then he attacked me and…got the upper hand."

Ryder's face falls. "I'm sorry, Joanna." He pauses. "He didn't violate you, did he?"

"No, he's not a rapist, unlike some," I say with venom I can't contain.

"Excuse me, I've only committed the act once, and it had to do with principals, not sexual deviance."

"And that makes it okay?"

His mouth remains shut for a few seconds. "I don't like where this conversation is headed. You're growing angry. Let's try and keep this as pleasant as possible, alright? Despite what you may think, I don't want to add to your apparently mountainous troubles."

"Forgive me if I find that a little difficult to believe."

"Understandable. But you're a smart girl. Consider my motives for speaking to you. Boredom. Access to Grace. If I piss you off, they won't be serviced. Besides, I never had anything against you. As with Dr. Thornton and her progeny, you were a means to an end. In fact I hold you in quite high regard. I truly do. I know you hate me, and not without cause, and I blackmailed you into these calls, but I don't want this to be torturous for you. I'll remain on my best behavior if you will. Agreed?"

I roll my eyes. "Fine."

He settles into his yellow plastic chair. "So. If the Emperor didn't molest you, and you seem intact otherwise, what exactly occurred during your time together?"

"We talked. He made me show him the command center. He knocked me out and installed a few computer viruses."

"That's all?" Ryder asks, surprised.

"As far as we can tell. Why?"

He shrugs. "Just seems a little…light, is all."

"Like I got off easy."

"Exactly. I mean, did he even interrogate you? Attempt to gain the true identities of his sworn enemies? Not to mention the fact he made you privy to the fact he was using your computer. Doesn't that strike you as odd?"

"Of course it does. I mean, I'm not that big a threat, but I am…friendly with them. They would care if I died. In that respect, I'm worth more to him dead than alive. So why the fuck am I alive?"

He considers this for a moment. Who knows what a cockroach is thinking better than his brethren? "From what I know of him, nothing this man does or says is on the fly. It's been planned, rehearsed, then planned and rehearsed again for every contingency. I'm the same, all of the legends are," he says with a smile. I roll my eyes again. "Everything done has an endgame. For example, why do you think I killed Dr. Thornton first?"

"Shock value? Easier prey? She and Daisy were the most important to Justin?"

"Are you a poker player, Joanna?"

"No."

"I am. A good poker player works the odds. He knows the cards and often uses simple addition and subtraction to determine what the most likely outcome is. A great poker player more or less ignores the cards. He plays the players."