“Probably a guy serving a long prison term and kind of pissed off about it,” I said, my eyes narrowing at him. “But you aren’t a prisoner. You’re a free-range, genocidal psychopath—”
“Not anymore,” he said, and he turned toward me and extended his hands, wrists out. “I hereby surrender to you for the judgment due under the U.S. justice system.” He smiled, though it was faint. “You got me. I give up.”
I stared at him for a second, regarding him warily, like he was going to spring at me and say, “Fooled ya!” before punching me right in the nose. But a few seconds passed and he didn’t, he just stood there with his hands extended like he was waiting for me to cuff him.
“Well, shit,” I said.
Chapter 34
“I don’t like it,” Reed said, staring over my shoulder at where Sovereign sat, in handcuffs, on a chair in the corner of my room.
“What’s not to like?” Scott asked, keeping his head down, like not meeting Sovereign’s eyes would somehow keep him from reading Scott’s mind. “Our number one enemy just broke into our headquarters to surrender. He’s only the most powerful meta on the planet, supposedly, and we probably have no way of containing him, or breaking into his mind to figure out for sure it’s a trap—”
“It’s a trap,” Reed and I chorused simultaneously.
“It’s a traaaaaaaaap!” Sovereign offered mockingly from his seat by the window. I didn’t even bother stationing human guards to watch over him, because what was the point? He could kill them in two seconds flat, even cuffed and shackled as he was. He sighed longingly. “I know it gets a lot of hate among the fanboys, but I still like Return of the Jedi.”
“Just another reason I have to despise you,” Reed said.
“You know, I can hear your entire conversation,” Sovereign said, smiling. “You could just have it over here, make me feel welcome.”
“People who start the wheel turning on mass genocide don’t get to sit at the dinner table with civilized people,” Reed said, turning to offer him a nasty look. “Usually, they have the good grace to kill themselves rather than surrender.”
“I never killed anyone,” Sovereign said, and his smirk was gone, replaced by seriousness. “I don’t even know if you could call what I did aiding and abetting, since you’d be hard pressed to find evidence of me helping anyone other than Sienna—you know, with some of her Omega problems.”
“Please,” Reed said, and turned to face him. “You’re going to tell us you didn’t have a hand in this atrocity—”
“My hands aren’t exactly clean,” Sovereign said, his face darkening, “but neither are yours.”
Reed looked slightly apoplectic, but he didn’t say anything. “Fine,” Scott said, and he looked like he was making more than his fair effort at keeping himself under control. His words came out slow and measured. “So you’re here to surrender to us. Why? And why now?”
Sovereign moved his head slightly, and he looked a little … upset. “Isn’t it obvious?”
I said nothing. Reed, thankfully, kept his mouth shut, still. “No,” Scott said at last. “Other than the idea that it’s a trap, no, your motives are not obvious.”
“I’ve lost whatever control of Century I might have had,” he said, and he seemed just a hint resentful, like things were boiling under the surface that he was keeping a tight lid on. “I thought I was partnering with Weissman on this, that we were going to build a better world together, but it turns out he was playing me the whole time. And now that he’s gone, his kids are running amok, trying to kill Sienna.”
“Again,” I said quietly. “Let’s not forget that this isn’t the first time Century operatives have tried to kill me.
His weariness returned at that moment, and Sovereign looked like an old man once more. “Yeah. Again. I thought I’d made it clear to the world that you were off limits, but apparently all along I’ve been fooling myself about who was in charge of this thing.”
“‘Thing’? This murderous, genocidal operation, you mean,” Reed said, regaining his power of speech. “So now you’re turning yourself in because this insane, bloody Leviathan you turned loose—with the best of intentions—has decided to disobey you, and thus you’re giving up your murderous plans for a better world through the scourging fires of mass killings in order to save the life of one woman.”
He looked at me, and I glanced away. “It’s a good woman I’m doing it for, but yes. And I was never involved in the killings. That was Weissman’s play. I believed in the vision he sold me of a better world, but I was an idiot.” I looked back up at him and he was staring into my eyes. “All flip comments aside, I was wrong. You were right. That’s why I haven’t wanted to argue with you. I may be slow coming to the right conclusion, but I get there eventually. Weissman was a monster. Whatever aid I gave him was a crime of incredible magnitude, and I have to answer for it.” He looked from me to Scott to Reed. “And I will, in whatever manner you want me to. If it’s prison, I’ll go and serve whatever sentence I’m ordered.” He straightened in his chair. “If it’s death, I’ll take the bullet in the back of the head without protest. Maybe I deserve it for whatever help I gave him, I don’t know.” His lips pulled tight together for a moment. “But if you want help taking them down, I’m willing to do that, too, before I have to pay for my crimes.” He held up his hands, the cuffs clinking as he raised them as far as the chains would allow—which was about mid-chest. “I am at your mercy.”