Legacy(34)

Scott almost gulped. “Like, a hundred years—”

“I know that, you dunce,” Judy said, and I almost thought she was going to reach across the table to take a swipe at him. “Why did he name his group Century?”

Scott looked at me, I looked back at him. “We don’t know,” I answered.

She frowned at me. “Might be something you ought to look into.”

“I’ll add it to the list of things to discuss when I meet him,” I said, trying not to let my voice carry too much sarcasm.

“So why are you here?” Judy asked, looking at me now. “Really. Because you didn’t know I knew Sovereign from before, did you?” She leaned in closer. “You know why he calls himself that? Sovereign, I mean?”

“Because he’s a man unto himself,” I said. “Like an island all on his own. Says he doesn’t need anything, or anybody.”

She gave me a curt, perfunctory and satisfied nod. “That’s what he always said.”

I watched her carefully. “You don’t believe him?”

She shrugged again. “Everybody needs something.”

I looked at her, she looked back. “Do you know what he wants? Or what he needs?”

She breathed in and out, thinking about it. “He needs food and water, I know that. Needs to sleep from time to time, because they say he’d find shelter in an inn for the night sometimes, and woe betide anyone who was dumb enough to wake him in the night for any reason. Just like the rest of us in that regard. But other than that ... no, I don’t suppose I know of anything else he needed or wanted. He never really talked to anyone, never visited a whorehouse while around here or showed any interest in any of the women in the area.” She got a glint of amusement in her eyes. “And I recall one even threw herself at him, stupid trollop.”

“What did he do?” I asked.

“Not a damned thing,” Judy said. “Just walked right around her like she was nothing more than a stone in the road he was stepping out of the way to keep from tripping on.”

I filed that away for later. If he wasn’t interested in women, maybe men were more his cup of tea. I was desperate for a vulnerability. After all, what could make a man as long-lived as that apparently not interested in anything or anyone? “You asked us why we’re here,” I said.

Judy didn’t blink, just gave me the flint-hard look back. “Yes?”

“We’re here to check up on the kids that fled the Directorate, for one,” I said. “But the other reason we’re here is because I’m trying to organize a fight against Sovereign. Against Century.”

Judy leaned back in her chair. “Well, that’ll be an interesting sort of slaughter, I suppose.”

I hesitated. “You don’t think there’s a way to beat him?”

She laughed but it sounded more like a cackle, completely bereft of any amusement. “Sweetie,” she said, but there was nothing sweet about her pronunciation of the word, “if he’s got a hundred metas at his disposal and they’ve already rolled through the cloisters of Europe, he will not have any trouble making you and anyone dumb enough to line up with you into a flat smear on the pavement wherever you’re standing when you meet him.” She turned to Scott. “You too, numbnuts. Might want to think this one through with your head, for once, instead of your crotch.”

Scott bristled. “You think I’m going into this fight because I’m running on testosterone? Like I’ve got some need to prove the size of my manhood?”

Judy didn’t back down, but now she was amused. “Oh, no, I’m sure that’s still as insubstantial as it was when you were a kid taking baths with your cousins.” She waved a hand in my direction. “No, I mean that you’re going into a battle that’s going to get you killed to impress your girlfriend here.”

“Oh, me?” I said after a moment’s pause allowed that to sink in. “I’m not his girlfriend. His girlfriend—well, ex, now—she’s ...” I looked down at myself. “She’s blond and leggy, and I’m ... so not.” She looked at me like I was an idiot. “No, really,” I said. “We’re not! I can’t even—” I halted myself and saw a flicker on her face. “Well, anyway, we’re not, in spite of whatever you might think. I mean, we couldn’t, even, because ... well, anyway.” I stopped myself short of explaining how my last boyfriend had died only a couple weeks earlier.

She had an even more suspicious look now and glanced down at my hands, my leather gloves tight around them. “It’s kinda warm in here, isn’t it?”