Gameboard of the Gods (Age of X, #1)(119)

EVERYONE’S SO BLOND





Exerzol and caffeine had let Justin put on a good face for Mae, but by the time he arrived home, his skull felt like it was going to explode out of his head. At least no one was around. He wasn’t ready for Cynthia’s chastisement or noise of any kind. Hoping they’d all stay gone for a very long time, he staggered to his bedroom and dug out a bottle of potent painkillers. At first, he automatically emptied out as many pills as he could take without putting himself into a coma. Several seconds later, he reconsidered and only kept the number of pills actually needed to dull the hangover’s legacy. The memory of Windsor still weighed heavily upon him.

Great restraint, said Horatio. Of course, with as much tolerance as you’ve built up, they probably won’t do anything.

Quiet, Justin told him. Voices inside my head are just as grating as ones outside.

His clothes were already a lost cause, so he just left them on and collapsed into the bed. It felt like he’d closed his eyes for only a few seconds, but when his ego woke him with a call, he saw he’d been out for two straight hours. Cornelia’s name was on the display, and he almost considered ignoring her until a hopeful part of him said maybe she was calling to tell him they’d found the murderer and the case was closed. He answered in voice only.

“Do you realize,” she said coldly, “that you are down to a week until the next full moon?”

“I’m very aware of that,” he told her.

“Then why do I have nothing more to show from your work than massive receipts? Your food bills alone are ridiculous. There’s no way you and Pr?torian Koskinen eat that much, so I’m guessing SCI is paying for an extended cocktail hour.”

“Pr?torians need a lot of food,” he countered.

“Well, I don’t need an extra servitor, so you should think a bit more seriously about earning your keep.” Mae had told him about Lucian’s findings in servitor hiring, and Justin nearly considered pointing out that Cornelia apparently needed lots of extra servitors. “You’re only here by Director Kyle’s good graces, and if your incompetence lets another murder slip by, you’d better hope your Panamanian friends will take you back. Now. Tell me you have something.”

Justin hesitated. Although he had gathered a fair amount of information, he hated to share it now because a lot of it didn’t make sense. He hadn’t found the pattern yet, and it was hard to admit to others that he didn’t know something.

But if she was talking about Panama, it might be worth sharing his good-faith efforts. So, he told her as much as he could, starting with all the theories about a geneticist going after his creations and then expanding to how the many plebeian deaths might also have been part of some larger sacrifice. He made sure not to mention Callista but hinted at “connections” that might help him to track down the guilty group if they could only make a positive ID.

Cornelia sounded more impressed than she wanted to be but still couldn’t deny the obvious: “You have no idea how this all ties together.”

“No,” he said in agreement.

“And your tech friend hasn’t found any tampering with the video.”

“No.”

She gave a melodramatic sigh. “Which brings us back to your having one week left and no results.”

“We’re visiting the last land grant tomorrow. The Nordics. It may very well hold the key, especially if Mae’s connections can get us in deeper.” That last part was complete bullshit, but he hoped it sounded convincing.

“Let’s hope so,” said Cornelia. “Stay in touch.” She disconnected.

Justin stared at the ego in dismay and then dragged himself out of bed to become human again. The others had come home from whatever outing they’d been on, and he ended up spending the rest of the day in with them. It earned him a lot of points with Cynthia, though not so many with Tessa when he told her she was the butt of a pr?torian joke. She’d apparently spent the day skulking in terror that the authorities were coming for her at any moment, and rather than provide relief, this new information only seemed to enrage her.

Still, the day passed in a relatively ordinary way, and he welcomed this eye in the recent hurricane of his life. When he got up the next morning, however, another phone call made it clear the universe was done cutting him breaks. As soon as the call ended, he headed into the kitchen, where the normal breakfast routine was going on. Mae had just shown up and was accepting Cynthia’s offer of food. She gave Justin a cordial greeting and in no way acted as though she thought he was a deranged religious freak.

“Take the uniform off,” he told Tessa. “You aren’t going to school today.”

She looked up from her eggs. “Why not?”

“Because young budding terrorists apparently get suspended for crimes against the country.”

Her mouth opened, but nothing came out at first. “You said it was a joke! That I wasn’t in any trouble!”

“You aren’t,” he said. “But your principal doesn’t feel it’s right to have a girl who’s been carted off by pr?torians back in school right away. Sets a bad example, violates the school’s code of conduct…something like that. You’re off for a week.”

Once she accepted she wasn’t being deported, Tessa was okay with it. Cynthia was the outraged one. “What? That’s absurd! They can’t suspend her for personal activities. They’re a public institution, obligated to provide her education.”