Tandem

Aurora. And if she had known the truth, had Granddad also known? Was this the mysterious reason why he’d always disliked my father?

“I understand. I should go now. I’m not supposed to be in the Castle, and if somebody sees me …”

“Yes, of course,” I said. “Thank you, Dr. Moss. For … for telling me, I guess.”

“You’re welcome,” he said. “Please take care of yourself, Ms. Lawson.”

“I will.” He gave me a sad smile, then left the way we’d come, vanishing into the crowds in the ballroom.

I brushed the tears from my eyes. I didn’t think I could face the queen or Callum in my condition, and didn’t want to. I have to get out of here, I thought. I couldn’t go back into the party—I was a mess. I didn’t want to go to Juliana’s bedroom, just in case someone came looking for me.

I could only think of one place no one would find me.

The king’s room was dark and cold. The only sounds were the occasional mechanical beeps from the machines that measured his vitals and his own raspy breathing. For whatever reason—perhaps it was my state of mind, or the fact that I now had bigger things to be afraid of than the king’s oddities—I felt safer in this room than ever before.

I took a seat and closed my eyes, relishing the silent company of Juliana’s father. I wondered what he would make of me. It was obvious from the fact that one of the Operation Looking Glass files had been in his possession that he’d been aware of the existence of parallel universes, specifically of Earth, and that he had been party to my own father’s assignment. But had he known about me? Was he aware I wasn’t his daughter? A few days ago, I would’ve said no, but now I couldn’t be sure. He’d led me to the Angel Eyes file, even if I hadn’t understood. But perhaps I’d been wrong all along. Maybe his mutterings were random after all. Had I been so desperate for meaning that I’d manufactured a pattern that didn’t exist?

“I found it,” I told him, squeezing his hand. “I found the map. Except I don’t understand. What is it?” But he didn’t answer. He never did, and he never would.

I switched on a lamp and picked up The Odyssey. I began to read, to tell the king of Odysseus’s reunion with his long-lost son.

“ ‘Telemachus,’ Odysseus, man of exploits, urged his son, ‘it’s wrong to marvel, carried away in wonder so to see your father here before your eyes. No other Odysseus will ever return to you. That man and I are one, the man you see … here after many hardships, endless wanderings, after twenty years I have come home to native ground at last …’ ”

THIRTY-THREE

I stayed in the king’s room until I was sure the last of the gala guests would be gone. It was almost three in the morning by the time I got back to Juliana’s room, but I didn’t find it empty.

“Hello, Miss Lawson.” The General looked relaxed, sitting on the sofa near the window as if it was completely natural for him to be there. “I was wondering when you were going to show up.”

“Where’s Thomas?” I demanded. If something had happened to him, surely the General had been the one behind it.

The General’s face contorted with thinly veiled anger. “That’s none of your concern.”

“Then why are you here? If you’re going to yell at me about leaving the gala without telling anybody, believe me, you wouldn’t have wanted me there,” I said. I was too exhausted to argue. He had me, he had Thomas, he even had my father, in a way. There was nothing I could do to fight him. I just wanted him to say whatever it was he’d come to say and then leave.

“That’s not why I’ve come. The queen will be furious, I expect, but it doesn’t matter—you’re going home.”

“What? Are you serious? You’re sending me home?” No, I thought desperately. I couldn’t leave without seeing Thomas at least one more time and being sure that he was safe. But I doubted the General was going to allow me that.

“I told you six days, Miss Lawson, and tomorrow is the last day. I would have thought you would be elated.”

“What about Juliana?” I demanded. “You haven’t found her yet.”

“Do you really think I don’t know where Juliana is?” the General asked. I said nothing.

“They think they’re so clever, my boys,” the General said. “They forget who trained them. To whom they owe all their skills—even Lucas. I know he turned her over to Libertas when I told him to get rid of her. I don’t even mind. She can’t tell them anything. She doesn’t know anything, and if she thinks they’re going to help her then she’s mistaken. They’ll hold her for leverage or ransom as long as they think she’s useful, and then they’ll find their own way to dispose of her.” He brushed his hands together. “Win-win.”

So the General didn’t know that Juliana had given Libertas the Angel Eyes map. I’d seen the look on the Shepherd’s face, and he, at least, seemed to think it was worth the price.

“Where’s Thomas?” I asked again.

The General’s face grew cloudy. “I told him not to get involved with you. I explicitly warned him against becoming emotionally attached. Thomas is a very brave young man, very smart, very skilled, but his heart’s soft.”

“Then why did you give him the mission?”

“I think that’s fairly obvious,” the General said. “We have no other agents whose analogs are in your life. Why do you think I adopted Thomas in the first place?”

“Because he’s Grant’s analog?” That was a risky gamble.

“One of the reasons, yes,” the General said. “It was an insurance policy, just in case we ever needed you. You have no idea how thrilling it was to find an Aurora-analog of someone in your life who could actually be molded into a KES agent.”

“I barely knew Grant back then,” I said. “Even now I don’t know him. He could’ve moved away at any time, and then what?”

“Then I would still have an exemplary soldier who was entirely indebted to me. Besides, it was very unlikely that you and Grant wouldn’t grow up together. You’d just lost your parents; your grandfather needed a job, and the university offered him one. And Grant’s mother was tenured. Of all of them, he was the best bet, and Thomas has proven to be a very good investment. Until recently, that is.”

“What have you done to him?”

“Don’t be so melodramatic. Thomas is far too important an asset for me to do anything to him. But I couldn’t risk keeping him on Operation Starling knowing how he felt about you. He was starting to compromise the mission.” He handed me a sheaf of photographs.

“Where did you get these?” The pictures showed Thomas and me, kissing on my bed at Asthall Cottage, taken through the curtains with a long zoom lens.

“I was having you surveilled.” He shook his head. “I have to say, I’m disappointed in you. I thought you would be more excited to go home.”

“I don’t think I can be too excited until I see the strings,” I told him. “What do I have to do? Go through with the wedding?”

“There’s not going to be a wedding,” the General said. “Not if I can help it. I never intended for Juliana and Callum to actually get married, although I couldn’t share that with her at the time.”

“What do you mean, there’s not going to be a wedding?”

“Prince Callum is going to have a medical emergency,” the General said. “Tonight.”

“How could you possibly know that?”

“Because you’re going to make it happen,” the General said. He reached into the inside breast pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out a small vial filled with an ounce of clear liquid. “He’s still awake. He’s looking for you, and when we’re finished here I’ll make sure he finds you. He’s worried. He wants to talk. I’ll have the kitchen send up a tea tray and you’ll pour him a cup. Then, when he’s not looking, you’re going to slip this into his drink and hand it