Page 157 of Coldwire
“What, working for Medaluo?” Kieren leans against the counter, his hands settling on the heavy granite behind him. I find myself pinning my eyes there. His index finger traces a pattern along its rock face. “I promised as much, didn’t I? I’ll turn traitor against Atahua if it means bringing down NileCorp. Medaluo is offering their resources to me.”
Nik Grant as an entity has proven his hatred for NileCorp sufficiently enough. Medaluo is making a promising bet.
I shuffle closer, coming around the corner of the kitchen island.My Kieren has changed dramatically since I last saw him. He kills in cold blood now. He wreaks a line of devastation only to make a point.
But Nik fills in the blanks. I have come to understand Nik. And so the two merge easily in my head, even if I was the one who was separated.
“You haven’t answered them yet,” Kieren states.
“No. I’m… still thinking about it.”
I must pause too long. Kieren tilts his head, lets my words linger in the air to indicate that he noticed my tone. But he doesn’t remark on it.
“I’m new, you know?” I say. It doesn’t matter so much if Kieren notices my pause, but I don’t want Medaluo’s eavesdropping devices around the house catching it too. “In my head, I only lost valedictorian yesterday. It really meant something to me at one point.” I consider my words. “To us. It meant something to us.”
“It was the one path we thought we could actually dictate,” Kieren agrees. He pulls his hands off the counter, lacing his fingers together. “I’m sorry we were pitted against each other.”
I huff a laugh. “Who got it?”
“They canceled graduation, actually.” Kieren pushes off the counter, opting to come and stand beside me instead. Our sleeves brush together. “There’s no coverage that mentions us by name, but there were rumors about an operation that went wrong because of NileCorp entering Kunlun. As far as our classmates are aware, valedictorian was still assigned, just not announced. The academy didn’t gather everyone afterward. Graduates were given their positions, and everyone dispersed.”
No one would even know that Kieren and I are fugitives. They may think we’re both having a swell time working somewhere within NileCorp, only mildly bitter that an international incident took away our opportunity to walk the stage in our formal uniforms.
“Do you think any of them have put two and two together?” I ask. I knock my shoulder into his. “You used to read those Nik Grant comic books all the time. I’m annoyed thatIdidn’t figure it out sooner.”
He knocks my shoulder back. “Those comic books are a hundred years old. I’d be shocked if anyone recognized Nik Grant for an obviously fictional name. The only reason NileCorp didn’t come right out and expose me is because they don’t want to open a media storm on me. On my family. My identity as a formerly upstanding cadet would legitimize me as a threat and make them look bad.”
I grow still. Kieren does too. In the quiet, I lean into him properly, offering solace. I see it all replaying in my mind, cast anew. Kieren, slinking out of the chaos in that nightclub. Kieren, interrogating me up in the abandoned hallway. He had gone in for revenge and emerged with the intention to take me. I remember what he said on his earpiece:Change of plans. I have something interesting here.
“How did you know it was me?” I ask.
Kieren pulls back a fraction so he can look at me. My different face, my different voice.
“I actually wasn’t sure for a while,” he replies. “I had a gut feeling on the first encounter. I almost got distracted when I spotted you, and it didn’t make any sense because by all appearances you were a stranger.”
The first capture mission took place in east Button City, by the waterfront. It failed spectacularly—he had a Jet Ski waiting to take him away.
“The second time, we fought. You remember that?” Kieren asks.
“Of course.” It was brief. Unlike the encounter at the nightclub, we didn’t have a chance to speak. I almost got him, and he almost relinquished, but the bomb blew and the ripples shoved me off-balance.
“I got suspicious there. Miz and I spent a year preparing to go after your hidden memory files. I had every contingency plan prepared, which meant I’d done my research into you, your dad, your family. It was mentioned only once, in a newspaper: Eirale Sullivan. Your dad’s birth daughter.”
I shiver. My mind drifts back to Dad, to the life he had before me. The moment my thoughts float to Mallory, I shut everything out quickly. I have to.
“And then,” I say, “after that fight, you looked me up.”
“It was far too big of a coincidence,” Kieren says. “The typical work of someone who thinks themselves too smart to be caught, which is classic NileCorp. They marked your final posting as Kunlun. They put you as a graduate of Nile Military Academy our year when I knew for a fact you hadn’t been there. Other cadets might have waved it off, figured they hadn’t paid attention, butIknew.”
I frown. “Rude.”
Kieren blinks rapidly. “Why?”
“I was your biggest competition. No need to go memorizing the rest of the class lists.”
His alarm fades. “Are you jealous, Ward?”
“Exceedingly. Your attention belongs to me.”
