I stared back at her. “Because you’d be my bitch,” I said with a smirk. I saw her eyes widen and hastened to add, “Kidding, kidding.” I looked around the table and my eyes settled on Zollers. “There’s only one duty left to fulfill. I’m going to go to Sovereign and figure out what the next step is. The rest of you need to get scarce.” I lowered my voice. “If any of you end up taking a fall for this after I dragged you in, well …” I swallowed. “… I don’t need any more guilt on my conscience, okay? Leave. For me.”
In the empty silence of the conference room, Kat was the first to move. She came over to me and brushed my shoulder. “You’re always so brave, Sienna. No one else could have done this.” She pulled me in for a hug and I let her. She smelled faintly sweet, and I started to say something about how I wished all along I could have been more like her, but I stopped myself.
She would never have believed it coming from me.
Janus was next. “If you change your mind,” he said. He kept his distance but offered his hand. I shook it quickly. “Please, change your mind.”
“I can’t,” I said, and I smiled faintly. “One last duty to attend to.”
He nodded, paused, and then leaned toward me. “What are you going to do to Sov … Marius?”
“I don’t know yet,” I said. “Whatever I have to in order to make sure the world is safe.”
Janus looked faintly stricken. “I feel responsible at least in part for this, and I have tried to make amends all along. I apologize for not doing more to aid you in your fight.”
“You did all you could, didn’t you?” I asked.
He looked down. “I could have told you things sooner. Things I was forbidden to mention by others. Things I should have let go of long before I did—”
“It’s all right,” I said and made a faint gesture with my hand. “I absolve you.”
He stared at me, and his eyes were full. “You truly were the bravest. After Adelaide …” He stopped. “I never wanted any of these things to happen because you … and she before you … you reminded me so much of my own—” He stopped abruptly then pulled me in for a hug that nearly strained my ribs. When he broke from it a moment later, he could not meet my gaze. “Fare well, Sienna Nealon.” He left with Kat on his arm.
“This is not goodbye,” Quinton Zollers said, making his way over to me, “this is merely ’til we meet again, as surely we shall.”
“Don’t get elaborate with me now, Doc,” I said. “I’ve got a job to do.”
“And you’ll do it well, whatever you decide it is,” Zollers said. “Be assured that whatever happens, I will always support you.”
“I know,” I said, nodding and drew him in for a hug as well. His arms were warm and heavy, wrapped around me. I felt a glistening in my eyes and held it back. “Be careful.”
He pulled back from me. “You know I will.” With a last smile, he too headed for the door, leaving me alone with Scott, Reed and Ariadne.
Ariadne looked at us, hesitated, and then shuffled forward. “I guess I’m next, then.”
“I hope you’re going to Bora Bora,” I said, staring her down.
“Or somewhere,” she agreed. “I don’t really fancy the thought of being your bitch in jail, assuming they even housed you with the normal inmates.”
“Fair enough.” I hesitated. “I know I’ve said it before, but—”
“I know,” she said, dismissing me. She hugged me lightly. “I know.” She pulled back and I saw in her eyes that she meant it, but there was still pain there, though not as fresh as it once was. “Safe journey, Sienna.” She paused at the door and drew back. “You’ve come a long way from the girl I first met in the Directorate interrogation room.”
I stared at the four walls of the conference room around me. “Not so far some days, I think. Pretty soon I suppose I’ll be just as confined as I was then.”
“You’re still different,” Ariadne said. “The environs may not be all that different, but you’re worlds apart from who you used to be. Nothing can take that away.” She said it, and she was gone. I watched her red hair retreat slowly outside the window.
“Reed—” I started to say, turning back. I ran into some resistance when he enfolded me in a hug that lifted me off the ground. I felt it, which is to say he was really damned strong.
“You don’t have to do this, dammit,” Reed said, and he set me down. “We go in there, we get Sovereign to turn around, we put a bullet in his head, boom. Job done. Then we exit, stage right, and head for wherever Janus calls rendezvous.”