I slammed the door on him, prompting a howl that faded quickly. It took me a few moments to get my annoyance under control after that, some more breathing exercises. In that time, I realized that I was at least fortunate in one minor way. If I’d had Gavrikov’s sister’s flat, skinny ass, I reflected as I shifted in my chair for the thousandth time, my backside would be even more sore than it already was.
I stared at my reflection in the mirror and wondered how long I would have to wait. The mirror seemed so big and I so small now, with the others gone from it. Still, I sat there, watching my empty expression, my dull, disinterested eyes, staring at the girl sitting in the middle of the holding cell, all alone.
Chapter 3
The sound of the lock shifting open caught my attention about an hour and a half later. My eyes diverted to it from my reflection, which I had been wordlessly focused on for the intervening time. The room’s air was warm and stuffy enough that I was beginning to notice how ripe I was from the flight; how toxic my breath had gotten from not having a chance to brush my teeth in twelve hours at least. I was tempted to blow a big breath right in Li’s face if it was him coming in.
It wasn’t. Another man stood in the door, a taller one, powerfully built, African-American with greying hair at the temples and just a little scattered throughout the rest of his short-cropped cut. He wore a suit, which, unlike Li’s, wasn’t cheap, and his tie was a little crooked. The door shut behind him and he waved at me where I sat on the chair, hands cuffed in my lap. “Don’t get up,” he said with a hint of a southern accent. I stared back at him and started to say something but he cut me off. “Or uppity, for that matter, at least not until I’ve had a chance to introduce myself.”
I gave him the cool glare, trying to pretend I was uninterested. Facing five murder raps and the threat of no trial, I was actually very interested in what he had to say, which was counterintuitive. After all, Agent Li had essentially painted a hopeless picture for me. Not necessarily the smartest move, putting someone like me into desperation mode. My questions got the better of me, though, even as I started to formulate a plan that involved using my guest as a human shield to help facilitate my escape. “Go on,” I said without emotion.
“I’m Robb Foreman,” he said, taking a step toward my chair. If he was concerned about me being a threat, he hid it well. “Does my name sound familiar to you?”
I shrugged. “Are you the junior senator from Tennessee?” I didn’t follow politics closely, but I knew the names of some of the notables, and he was definitely one of them. His name kept getting mentioned as a contender for the next presidential election.
“The very one,” Foreman said, nodding his head. “I’ve come a long way to speak to you, Ms. Nealon.”
“Question,” I said, stopping him before he could get going. “What’s to stop me from taking you hostage and using you as a human shield to walk out the front door?”
He grinned with a certain warmth. “You could always try it and find out, though I don’t think you’ll find the consequences agreeable or to your liking.” I didn’t love the sound of that, but I didn’t say anything to it. After a moment, he went on. “Like I said, I’ve come a long way to see you.”
“You could have ‘seen’ me from the other side of the glass,” I said, nodding my head at the one-way mirror. “According to your Agent Li, this will be a common view of me pretty soon. He seemed to indicate I was heading toward—what do they call it nowadays? Oh, right—indefinite detention.”
Foreman gave me a slow nod, his lips pursed. “That is a possibility. Murdering Parks, Clary, Kappler and Bastian?” He let a low whistle. “Cold-blooded. Premeditated. You can’t even argue crime of passion on those because you planned it all out.”
“Maybe I could argue self-defense,” I said, keeping myself from showing emotion.
He gave me a slight shake of the head. “Never hold up in court, not with the evidence of the poison still in Parks’s system or the elaborate means you used in that construction site to take out Clary.” His face twisted, and I could see the discomfort exuding off him. “These are not the acts of a person who could argue self-defense.”
“You didn’t say Zack’s name.” I said it quietly, so quietly it was almost inaudible.
“No, I didn’t,” Foreman said, not taking his eyes off me. Mine came up and caught his, though, and I saw him smile in acknowledgment. No one could have heard me to be able to respond to it. No one human, anyway. “Yeah, I’m a meta,” Foreman said, still smiling, but it was a tight one. “My wife is meta. My daughters are metas.”