Though I probably wouldn’t have to wait as long.
When the knock came a few minutes later, I didn’t even bother to act surprised. “Come in,” I said, still leaning back in my chair with my boots up on the desk. Director of a federal agency, and I wear boots every day. Well, when you have to kick as much ass as I do, it’s a necessity.
“Hey,” Reed said as he eased in.
“Hey, yourself,” I replied with all my wit. Well, half my wit. Whatever, I don’t deal in percentages. I gave what I had. “What’s up?”
“Came to talk to you, of course.”
“About my mother?” I asked. “Because I’m still not ready to have that conversation just yet.”
“No,” he said. “I don’t know that I have anything to add in relation to Sierra. Getting to know her these last few months has been a … different …” He looked like he’d taken a bite of something he didn’t care for, “… experience.” He eased over to my desk and sat down on the edge. “No, I’m here because there’s something you need to hear.”
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Oh, really?”
“Yes,” he said and paused, as if he were drawing a deep breath before bringing the pain. “You’re not a mad dog in danger of slipping the chain.”
I frowned at him. “What the …? Is there a ‘bitch’ joke coming at my expense? Because I’d look dimly on that.”
“No,” he said. “I wanted to tell you that you’re like … a sheepdog.”
Now both my eyes were wide and fixed on him. “I have no idea where you’re going with this.”
“You’re aloof and jaded and have a mile-high fence around you, Sienna,” he said. “But you can’t hide the fact that you care about people and society. You always talk about the things you’ve done—killing M-Squad or the Primus of Omega—like it’s the start of your psychopath career. But you were willing to die going out against Wolfe back when this whole thing started in order to protect people you’d never even met.” He gave me his serious look. “It’s why you’re doing what you’re doing now. This whole ‘bomb’ idea … I don’t want you to feel guilty about it, like it’s some reversion to the darker instincts in your soul. You’re not a ‘kill for a thrill’ psycho. You’re a woman with a lot of power who’s made mistakes. You’re a guardian. You’re a protector. You’re a—”
“Dark knight?” I deadpanned.
“I was going to say sheepdog.”
I sighed. “And we’re back to bitches again.”
“Fine,” Reed said. “You’re a shield. You stand between the people and harm. It’s what you’ve always done, when you weren’t caught up in personal anguish and other …” he harrumphed, “… issues. This bomb idea? It’s … it’s a good one.” He shrugged. “It wouldn’t be my first choice because that’s not how I’d prefer to fight, but when you’re this outnumbered …” He sighed. “You have to do what you have to do.”
I looked him in the eyes. “Thank you. I think.”
“You’re welcome,” he snarked. “I think.”
I watched him as he left and thought about it. Was it bad that I hadn’t even considered wiping out Century with a bomb to be anything less than a moral option? I mean, if they were having a meeting on the fifth floor of one of the big towers downtown, I’d cancel the plan in a heartbeat, but if they did what I suspected they were going to do and held the meet somewhere secluded, like that warehouse?
Boom. I’d have no qualms about reducing them all to cinders. It wasn’t like they’d seemed to have any about doing the same to me. They’d started out as a hundred of the most powerful people on the planet, and now they’d revealed themselves to be scheming to take the power away from everyone else and concentrate it in their own hands.
Did it say something bad about me that I was totally fine with just knocking them off and being done with it?
Or maybe it just said that I knew something that Reed didn’t.
Remember.
It’s all right, Little Doll, Wolfe said. Nothing wrong with crushing your enemies however you can.
“Thanks, Wolfe,” I said, this time only mildly sarcastic. It didn’t worry me until later that I actually did find it reassuring.
Chapter 41
Rome
281 A.D.
Marius sat on his haunches on the stone floor, head aching and throbbing, both in concert. He felt as though something full grown was about to spring forth from his skull, a spirit ready to break out of his head and take flight.