“What about Sovereign?” Zollers said. “Are we just going to let him stew in his own juices in the dormitory?”
“You left him in the dormitory?” Ariadne said with a frown. “All alone?”
“Yeah,” I said. “He’s probably going through my unmentionables right now, but otherwise it’d be hard for him to do any damage over there. We’ll keep him there until we figure out what to do with him, or …” I let my voice trail off for a moment as I pondered that lone possibility, “… until we get crazy enough or desperate enough to ask him for help taking out whatever else Century is getting ready to lob at us.”
Chapter 36
I clicked the door to my quarters shut behind me to find Sovereign still sitting in the chair in the corner, shrouded in shadow. “This still looks like a damned dreamwalk,” I muttered.
“Should you be here talking to me?” I could see enough of his face to tell he had a wan smile. Light from the impending sunset was coming through the cracks in the shutters in thin shafts, and the whole place had a dusky red quality.
I thought about flipping a light switch but decided against it. “If I don’t do it, who will? I’m supposed to be your jailer, after all.”
“Good point.” He leaned back in the chair, a freestanding recliner with a footstool that I had thought was tasteful when I ordered it online in the five minutes per day I had back when we were getting the dorms up and running. It was white leather, and I’d fallen asleep in it more than a few times while reading briefings. “So what should we talk about?”
“You’re supposed to be playing solitaire, I think.”
He held up the cuffs. “Makes it tough to deal.”
I walked toward the kitchenette. “Like those could hold you.”
“I admit I’m surprised,” he said. “There are restraints that actually could hold me, but you don’t seem like you’re even trying.”
“They could hold you for a little while,” I admitted as I made my way to the fridge. I opened it and found it completely empty save for a bottle of ketchup in the door and I couldn’t even vouch for that. How long had it been since I’d been grocery shopping? I couldn’t even remember. We’d ordered a lot of takeout and delivery since the cafeteria staff had been furloughed. “But then you’d just jack some poor bastard’s mind and have him get you out if you wanted to escape, so why put people in harm’s way?”
“Is that why you left me over here by myself?” he asked. “You don’t want anyone to get hurt in case I decide to make a break for it?”
“You’re the mind reader,” I said, shutting the refrigerator door. “You tell me.”
“I don’t read your mind,” he said quietly. “It’s a respect thing. For the same reason I haven’t gone through your unmentionables.” I looked back and caught a slight smile.
“But you don’t respect other peoples’ minds,” I said.
“I have no particular compunction about rummaging through one that’s steered by someone who’s suggested that you kill an unarmed prisoner without a trial,” he said, sounding only a hint defensive in his explanation.
“I’m sure Reed will love hearing that you were going through his thoughts,” I said.
“He already wants me dead,” Sovereign said with a shrug. “I’m not exactly going to trip over myself trying to change his mind when it’s already so dead set against me.”
“But you’re out to change my mind,” I said. “About you.”
“I’m not exactly hiding that fact, either,” he said. “Unless you’re a real slow thinker, like your brother.” He paused. “No offense.”
“Yeah, you insult my brother, but no offense to me,” I said, under my breath. I leaned back on the counter behind me. “I’d have to be a real slow thinker not to believe you might be playing a game on multiple levels here.”
“You would,” he agreed smoothly. “I hope you’re considering all the possibilities. You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t have a suspicious mind that’s always on the lookout for the backstab. You’ve been betrayed a few too many times to trust lightly, and I understand that. Which is why I came here in good faith. Which is why I’m not resisting. Which is why I’m not doing anything untoward, and why I’m willing to help you however I can.” He held up his chained hands again. “You and I are going to live a long time, and I don’t think I’ve made any secret of the fact that you are the reason I was undertaking what I was.” He settled his head a little lower. “I realize now that I was wrong. I was affiliated with the wrong people, my aims were just wrong … and I need to make amends for that.” He looked up and still I said nothing. “I recognize that it’s unlikely you’re going to be willing to think of me as anything other than a criminal and murderer for a lifetime.”