Page 154 of Coldwire
“I did what I needed to do,” I say evenly. “I had no interest in providing anyone with my limitless services.”
“That’s very understandable. NileCorp already rules the world with the information it collects from StrangeLoom. Anarchists and protesters who understand its clutch are brushed off as conspiracy theorists and extremists. You can’t have NileCorp accessing even more.”
I narrow my eyes. “It’s not only NileCorp I’m worried about. I saidanyone.”
Poppy nods pleasantly. She’s still scrolling her glasses.
“You’re pretty smart.” She pauses. “You think NileCorp’s execs sent you after Nik Grant on purpose?”
They put my unit in charge of capturing him on purpose—that much is certain. Maybe they thought it would be some ironic form of punishment for the two of us. I doubt they imagined he would realize who I was, though. And I doubt they expected him to snatch me from under their noses.
But once he did, they sure did work with what they had.
“I think they wanted the Lia version of me deleted permanently,” I say. “And it was compelling enough, poetic enough, to send me out and bring that about myself. Take Nik Grant down and collect the file.” I lean back into the chair. My handcuffs rattle. “I don’t think they imagined he would perform a merge instead.”
They might have thought he would try to convince me that we once knew each other. But without the memories Kieren put back in, NileCorp would have won that one. The false life they embedded into mewasstronger than my faith in the imaginary Nik Grant. Painful as it would have been after our time together, I would have stayed loyal to my company.
“I’m sure they wanted your file deleted,” Poppy decides. “But they also really wanted to close in on Nik Grant. He’s stirring more dissent against NileCorp than they’ve ever seen. It’s dangerous. And the only way they were going to capture him was ifyoumade him let down his guard first.”
I narrow my eyes. This is not a line of questioning I would expect from Medaluo. It hardly sounds like a line of questioning at all—it sounds more like adebrief.
“How do you know that?” I ask.
“Why wouldn’t I know that?” Poppy returns.
“I’m sorry, I think I’m missing something,” I say. “What are you getting at here?”
Poppy takes her glasses off. She sets them on the table. For several seconds, she says nothing. She only waits.
Then the sharp white lights snap out around us and come back red, activating the rapid whir of the backup generator.
“I’m very disappointed,” Poppy says. “You and Mr. Murray were supposed to report to your contact at every stage of your final posting, and I didn’t hear a peep after Threto.”
I swing my hands up, confounded. The cuffs pinch into my wrists.
“Itisyou,” I exclaim. “Who are you? Who do you work for?”
“A year ago, I worked for NileCorp. Now I work for the Medans. But if what you’re really asking is who I’mloyalto, then that’s the only question where you’ll get a true answer.”
She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a card. There’s nothing on it except for a symbol: a full circle, four arrows converging in even sectors around the circumference.
“There are two options for you,” she says. “As a Medan official, I will offer you the same deal I offered Nik Grant: Work for us. You have asylum here.”
“I’m no use to you,” I interrupt.
“Sooner or later NileCorp is going to pick up this battle against you, so you’d do well to remember it will be fought downcountry. You should want an ally behind you.” Poppy pushes the card forward. “This”—she taps the symbol with her nail—“is your second option. We’re a stateless organization known as the Coalition. Our ultimate goal is destroying NileCorp.These are my true employers. They’re giving us five minutes with the power out so we can speak without the cameras recording.”
My eyes snap up. Poppy turns her palm over. When she reached into her pocket, she pulled out more than the business card. There’s also a small, round bit of metal sitting in her hand, and in the red light, it takes me a beat to recognize it as the tracker. The one Teryn gave me.
“As a member of the Coalition, I have a counteroffer to Medaluo’s path,” she goes on. “Pretend to accept. Settle into the safe house we’ll get you set up in. Your other two friends are already there. You tell them nothing. And before Teryn Moore evacuates the country tonight, you activate this tracker again and lead her to you. We’d shut it down the moment you stepped foot into Offron—but you only need to hold it over heat to turn it back on. When Teryn storms the safe house, you give her Nik. You are Eirale Ward, and you have no memory of anything else, despite Nik’s best attempts. You fulfilled your mission: you captured Nik Grant. You go home, NileCorp welcomes you back. And from the inside, you take them down.”
I feel the physical cold of the room seep deep into my bones, crystallize my veins. For several moments, I cannot summon the strength for a reply. Then:
“That is absurd.”
“Why?”
“I’m not giving up Kieren,” I exclaim. “Offer this to him instead. Ask him to use me as a bargaining chip.”
