she was starting to regain control of her body, but it was too little, too late. Mosely had already fastened restraints on both her wrists and was now moving down to her ankles. She breathed as deeply as she could and mined her psyche for every drop of anger she could find. She had never before hated anyone like she hated Dirk Mosely, and she tapped into that hatred to help her chase away the fear even as Mosely fastened the restraints around her ankles.
The rush of hatred was indeed helping Nadia control her terror, and she finally absorbed what Mosely was saying: Nate was coming for her. And Mosely
Mosely tugged on the ankle restraints to make sure they were secure, then came back up to the head of the table. His left hand came down on her throat, fingers digging into her jaw as he used the pressure from his palm to hold her down.
“Thank you for confirming my suspicion that Nathaniel was with you last night. And that you did indeed encounter Mr. Bishop.”
The pressure of Mosely’s fingers forced her jaws open, and Mosely crammed a foul-tasting rubber mouthpiece in. The ends of the mouthpiece went far enough back that Nadia gagged, but Mosely didn’t relent. He lifted her head and wrapped some kind of strap around the back, securing the mouthpiece in place. Tears of misery trickled down the sides of her face and into her ears as she realized she’d lost her last chance of talking her way out of this. Though she was puzzled as to how Mosely was going to get the information he wanted out of her if she couldn’t talk.
Mosely stepped back from the table and admired his handiwork. Then he shook his head. “Who knew a little girl and her playboy boyfriend would be so much damn trouble?”
The door to the interrogation room slammed open. Nadia craned to see what was happening, but Mosely was blocking her view of the door.
“Please do come in, Nathaniel,” Mosely said without turning around. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
Nadia tried to shout a warning around the mouthpiece, but of course all that came out was an unintelligible grunt. Not that she thought Nate would run even if he knew he was walking into a trap. Her heart ached at the knowledge that she was at least partially responsible for the sequence of events that was leading up to Nate’s second murder.
“Let her go!” Nate said in a voice rich with authority. As if he expected Mosely to obey.
Mosely smiled, finally turning around to face Nate. As he did so, he moved to the side just enough that Nadia could see Nate, standing a few feet inside the room. She could also see that a pair of security officers were flanking the door behind him. And that both had drawn their weapons. Nadia couldn’t shout a warning, but when she caught Nate’s eye, she jerked her chin and rolled her eyes toward the guards. He glanced over his shoulder and saw them.
He looked surprisingly unalarmed when he turned back. “Let Nadia go,” he said again. “You’ve already ruined her life. You can let her go, and no one will believe her—or even care—if she starts spreading stories about you. Like that you killed me with your own hand.”
Mosely chuckled, sounding genuinely amused. “It’s amazing to me that you can make such a big show of being worldly and dissolute, and yet you remain so charmingly naive. Why should I take that chance?”
“Because I know where Bishop is. I don’t suppose you’d have Nadia strapped to that table if you’d gotten the answers to all your questions. Let her go, and I’ll tell you everything.”
Nadia made a choking sound of protest, though in truth she didn’t believe Nate was going to follow through on his promise. He would do everything he could to save her, but he wouldn’t give up Bishop. His emotions about Bishop might be pretty jumbled right now, but Nate was loyal to a fault. He just didn’t have it in him to betray
Mosely shook his head. “You’re operating on the assumption that I won’t be able to extract those answers from Miss Lake anyway.”
“Maybe you would, but she’s a lot tougher than you’ve given her credit for. Getting answers from her would take time. And you have to know that answers given under duress aren’t reliable. By the time you get what you need out of her, Bishop will have moved on.”
“You might as well save your breath, Nathaniel,” Mosely said, glancing at his watch for some reason. “You think you know so much, but you have no idea what’s going on.”
“Are you late for a meeting? Because I wouldn’t want to keep you or anything.”
Mosely smiled. “Just trying to calculate how much longer we have before your father arrives.”
“My father’s coming?”
“Yes. He insists on being here in person for … what comes next.”
Nate’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he couldn’t hide his horror. “When you kill me, you mean. Like you did on the night of the reception.”
“Your father is a great man. He’s willing to make whatever sacrifices are necessary for the greater good of his state. If it makes you feel any better, ordering your death tore him up inside, even knowing he would have you back. And he wouldn’t have insisted I wait for him if he didn’t regret what we’ll be forced to do.”
Nadia’s heart leapt as she realized that Mosely had finally said something that could get him in trouble. He had as much as admitted to killing Nate. And he’d incriminated the Chairman, too! It was a little tenuous, the admission not as clear as she’d like. But it might give her some leverage—if only she could speak to let him know his words had been captured for posterity. She pushed on the mouthpiece with her tongue, moving her head around in an attempt to loosen the strap that held it in place. But the damned thing wasn’t budging.
“Perhaps when you’re older and more mature,” Mosely went on, “your father will trust you with Thea’s secrets. But everything you’ve done since your Replica was animated proves that you can’t be trusted with them yet. You will tilt at windmills without once considering the cost.”
“And what about the cost we pay for Thea?” Nate asked. “Have you ever considered that?”
Nadia lay still. She wasn’t having any success ridding herself of the mouthpiece, and she didn’t want to risk drawing Mosely’s attention. Nate was fishing, trying to get Mosely to explain whatever the big secret about Thea was. And since Mosely thought Bishop had overheard everything and by now shared it with Nate, he didn’t know he had anything to hide.
“Only a starry-eyed idealist like you would consider a handful of hardened criminals and Basement-dwellers here and there a significant cost. Not for what Thea gives us in return.”
“Yeah, she made it possible for my dad to murder me without losing his heir. I can see how that’s a big benefit to society.”
“Do you know how much of our gross national product comes from the technology that Thea makes possible? We might not have produced many actual Replicas, but the revenue from providing backup services alone provides power and food and shelter to keep our state thriving. If we stopped feeding her, she’d refuse to make the backups and we’d be bankrupt in a matter of weeks. But of course you don’t care about that as long as we do what you think is the ‘right thing.’”
Mosely must have noticed the pallor of Nate’s face and made the correct assumption as to what it meant. He muttered something under his breath that Nadia felt sure was a curse of some kind.
“You didn’t know, did you?” he said aloud, shaking his head at Nate.
“No,” Nate admitted, his face still pale even as he tried to look triumphant. “Bishop didn’t hear anything you and the Chairman were talking about, except the name Thea.” He composed himself a little more, shaking off the horror. “So you’re actually
Mosely looked at his watch again with impatience.
“Your plan is to kill me and Nadia both, isn’t it?” Nate asked, then continued without waiting for an answer. “If that’s the case, then what’s the harm of explaining while you wait for my dad to come give you the official order?”
Mosely eyed him. “Fine. Yes, Thea is a machine, and we aren’t literally feeding her. She was developed as a research tool.” Mosely turned his back on Nate and walked over to the table on which Nadia lay. He reached above
