Zhukov's Dogs (13 page)

Despite his efforts at nonchalance, I could tell the conversation was still making him uncomfortable. I smiled a little to try and assure him his sexuality didn’t trouble me. “So, pompous pricks like Tristan are your type?”

“No. He was just the first and… Yeah, you know how they are.”

“Yeah. I mean with girls, yes,” I said, not so subtly hinting at my own preference. “My first was kind of a bitch. Second and third were, too.”

Val rubbed his hands together with a small, humming noise of thought. There was that silence between us again, only now, it was the kind which left me wondering what I’d said wrong. I heard the train coming down the tracks and started to gather my things when Val said, “Don’t forget your purse.”

“It’s… Oh forget it.” I was too cold and tired to argue. All I wanted was to shower the stench of the canal off and fall into the crappy bed waiting for me back at base. I threw the bag over my shoulder and folded my coat under my arm. As we approached the platform, I noticed Val’s fingers drumming behind his back.

“What?” I asked.

Val’s brow scrunched. “Huh?”

“You do that.” I gestured to his tapping fingers and then mimicked them with my own. “This. You always do this when you’re thinking about something. What’s on your mind?”

From the slight scowl on Val’s face, it was clear he didn’t appreciate the way I analyzed him. I had a ticked off quite a few people by pointing out their nervous habits. Aiden had punched me for it once or twice. Fortunately, Val just sighed. “I’m sorry for dragging you into that back there.”

The way he said it made me feel like I’d be the big bad guy of the night if I didn’t forgive him right there. He seemed to have enough problems without adding my scorn to the list. “It’s fine. Just try to fill me in on the entire plan next time,” I said.

“I will, I will.” Val laughed tiredly as the monorail pulled into the station. The doors slid open, and he emptied a pocketful of change into the toll box so we could board. The worn, plastic chairs might not have seemed welcoming when I rode this train earlier, but this time, they looked as nice as a luxury recliner upholstered in warm corduroy. I collapsed into one with a content smile. Val sat across from me, his fingers drumming quietly against the plastic to warn me he wasn’t finished.

“Hey, Nik,” he said right on cue. “Other than you, Anya’s the only one in the house who knows… I’d prefer to keep it that way for now.”

“Your secret is safe with me.”

Val smiled, unaware of how none of his secrets were actually safe with me. They were all going to be written in a report and sent to D.C., where Aiden would review and share them with Governor Granne, The Council, and anyone else he chose to. In the back of my mind, I couldn’t help wonder how Val would react if he ever learned that, like Tristan, I was only there to spy on them.

Interrogation Block 02, Eisenhower Building—Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, November 25th, 2076—10:55 a.m.

hen the doctor’s stylus stopped moving, I knew she was eager to say something. Every time I paused my story so she could ask her questions, my fingers tapped. Val’s habit had rubbed off on me, and I was way too restless to sit still. Replaying all the memories made me anxious. I wanted to break out as quickly as possible. I wanted to find Val. I wanted to get him far, far away from this place.

“Tell me, Mr. Zhukov, was that when you first started developing feelings for Val Grey?”

My fingers stopped tapping. Out of all the questions I knew she was going to ask, this was the one I’d been dreading the most. I stared at her like she was the crazy one, not me. My eyebrows knit, and I donned my most convincing tone of confusion as I asked, “What?”

“Don’t play coy with me. I make a living off seeing through faces like yours,” Dr. Halliburton sounded insulted that I’d even tried to deny the truth.

I wasn’t willing to admit anything so easily, especially not with how many people were probably watching the feed from the camera in the corner. “Look, you’ve got it all wrong,” I told her.

“Have I?”

“Yes. Val and I were just friends.”

“
Val, come on. Up,” I said, giving the bed a kick as I walked into the room with a cup of coffee in each hand. The lump under the mass of blankets growled and rolled toward me. Of all the things I’d ever assumed about Val, I never guessed he’d be so
grumpy in the morning. A hand extended from under the blanket to hang off the side of the bed. I laughed and set one of the mugs in it. Val’s head poked out a second later, blond hair sticking out in all directions. He smiled up at me groggily and made a soft hum I recognized by now as one of appreciation.

“We had a mutual respect for each other and a strong friendship. It never developed into anything more,” I insisted.

Shadows slanted over long stretches of scarred, beautifully pale skin slick with sweat. There was a perfect curve to his spine as he arced against me, and my fingers dug bruises into his hips; I’d admire them in the morning. His hands tangled in the sheets while my name was sinfully slurred out on broken breaths.

My mind indulged in the memories I’d never say out loud, but I didn’t let them trip up my lies. If anything, thinking about the private moments I spent with Val compelled me to be even more cautious.

The doctor stared at me for a moment. My poker face had fooled people more skilled and persuasive than her. She tilted her had to one side as though studying me from a different angle would make a difference. “Really?”

“Really.”

Dr. Halliburton hummed a single note and reached for the purse at her feet. She took her phone out, clicked through the screens, and brought it to her ear. A horrible dread nestled in the pit of my stomach and pulled all the muscles in my body taught. Instinct told me something was very wrong.

“Hello again, Howard,” purred the doctor.

Every single nerve surged to life, burning with electricity in anticipation of fight-or-flight. I clenched my fists under the table and stared her straight in the eye. She wanted to get a rise out of me, something to confirm her suspicion Val was more than a friend. I was doing a good job of keeping a blank face until she smiled, batted her eyes at me, and said, “Kill him.”

Something snapped.

My hands hooked under the table, and I jumped to my feet. The table flipped over with a piercing screech of metal as everything laid on it flew into the air. Dr. Halliburton screamed. Folders and paperwork rained down, but all I saw was the magenta phone slipping from her grip.

The Grey Man charged toward me. I grabbed the back of the chair I’d been sitting in and swung it up, one of the legs tearing across the giant’s face. He staggered away with a beastly groan. I tossed the chair aside and spun back around. The phone. I needed to get to the doctor’s phone. I spotted it, half hidden by the mess on the floor, and I dove for it with both hands.

My knees slid through paperwork as my fingers closed around the device. The magenta home screen taunted me. She must have hung up. I jabbed at the display, hands shaking as I tried to call Howard back before it was too late. Christ, what could I even do from here? I couldn’t stop Howard from five floors away, but I had to do something.

That was when I saw the phone’s call history. Dr. Halliburton hadn’t phoned Howard. It had all been a trick.

Behind me, the door burst open. Shouts of dogs, clicks of guns, and the quiet tsking of Dr. Halliburton’s tongue were muffled by the pounding in my head. My shoulders were too heavy to keep back. I hunched forward over my knees, head hung and face burning. The phone slipped from my hands right before someone grabbed me by the hair on the back of my head and threw me to the ground. I shut my eyes, resigning myself to whatever happened next.

Somewhere, time was happening. Probably. I couldn’t tell anymore, and I didn’t care one bit whether or not it left me behind.

“We’re not through, gentlemen,” Dr. Halliburton said as faceless dogs started to drag me out of the room. They stopped in their tracks and exchanged uncertain murmurs over my head. I opened my eyes and saw the Grey Man setting the table and chairs back in order. The giant didn’t even stop to attend to the bleeding gash on his face; he just cleaned up the room like the doctor told him to.

I shook my head. “Forget it.”

“Should I place a call to Howard for real, then?” She picked up her phone and held it out to me. “Maybe hearing him scream again will change your mind about cooperating.”

Thinking about the pain Dr. Halliburton could cause Val, and how callously she held it over my head, made me furious. All at once, the depression weighing me down gave way to a gut wrenching rage. “I’ve been telling you everything!” I shouted.

She stepped closer, closing all her fingers around the phone except for one, which she pointed less than an inch from my face. Her mouth twisted into a sneer. “Then tell me this, and tell me truthfully, or I will make you
listen
to him die! What is Val Grey to you, Zhukov?”

I didn’t take kindly to threats. I especially didn’t take kindly to threats involving people I cared about. Bound, injured, and greatly outnumbered, though, there wasn’t much I could do other than give the doctor my most honest answer.

“He’s the person I’m going to kill all of you to get to.”

Dr. Halliburton’s face fell. One of the dogs holding me back faltered, and the other tensed up. Bound, injured, and greatly outnumbered, I was still a force to be reckoned with. Traitor or not, my reputation was a promise that nobody in the room would be able to keep Val from me.

My lips drew back into a smile befitting someone gone mad. The pain in my fractured ribs seemed suspended far away by the adrenaline coursing through my veins. I lunged at the doctor. She gasped and took a quick half step away. The dogs holding me back tightened their restraints.

“Take him to solitary and have him sedated,” Dr. Halliburton ordered one of the dogs behind me, a small hitch in her breath. “Let him cool down for a few hours before we try this again.”