‘How did you get in here?’ Grim’s humour and easy posture had vanished. He was up and taking slow steps backwards, hands bunching into fists as Kowalski and the organization she represented came deeper into the room.
Kowalski began undoing her scarf. ‘The Rubix alerted me to a medical emergency. Standard protocol.’
‘Thanks a lot,’ I growled.
‘Oh, you’re quite welcome,’ the rabbit said.
Grim folded his arms. ‘You should have let me shut it down.’
‘I heard that,’ the rabbit sniffed.
Kowalski poured herself a steaming mug of coffee. ‘Come on, then, Fukasawa. The full story: out with it.’
‘This isn’t the best moment.’ There was an audible squelching, like squeezing raw mince paste. I sank into a full-body spasm.
‘Hey, it’s not a great time for me either. That’s the job. Talk.’
‘It wasn’t anything serious,’ I rasped. Then stopped as the medskin expelled two silvery objects as if it was spitting out watermelon seeds. They hit the floorboards with a distinct tap, one after the other.
The bloody, armour-piercing bullets gleamed up at us like two little lies.
The room was very, very quiet. I opened my mouth to speak and closed it again.
‘So I see.’ Anger rippled over her face, before rapidly dissolving into exasperation. ‘I’m going to hazard a guess and say you didn’t forget our conversation, the one where we agreed to work as allies and share information. You just chose to ignore it and risked compromising this whole investigation before it even began.’
The medskin permitted movement now and I rolled to a sitting position, my body still on fire. ‘Compromise it how, exactly? This organisation is too smart, too well organised not to know Harmony’s looking into them. They’ve been provoking you by taking out Reapers. You’re the ones firing blind in the dark here, with no idea what who you’re hitting or what dealing with.’
Kowalski folded her hands. ‘Then, please. Enlighten me.’
I did. Horror slowly grew on her and Grim’s faces as I described the way I’d been tied down and tortured by an interrogation AI that enjoyed inflicting pain on people.
‘Are you sure you’re okay?’ Kowalski asked finally. ‘Do you … do you need anything?’
‘I survived the Reaper War. I’ll pull through.’
I knew Kowalski wasn’t fooled, but I wasn’t prepared to share how badly I’d been rattled. We Reapers learn to wear our armour like a second skin, trusting it, depending on all its functions. Keeping us alive in battle, keeping us in a stimuli-managed environment that helps control our bodies. Being wrapped in our armour is one of the few places we feel safe. When that same space is reconfigured to hurt you with its full, brutal capacity, it turns your place of refuge into a nightmarish torture chamber. Stripping away your trust. I already felt my flesh itching with the unease of being subjected to the interior fabric sandpapering against me, the tendrils clawing hard at my skin as if trying to puncture through.
‘You still haven’t told me why you were there to begin with,’ she said. Grim was dealing with my traumatic revelations by helping himself to a generous serving of my cereal and perching on the end of my bedframe, waiting to hear how much I’d reveal.
‘It’s complicated,’ I said.
‘Nothing we didn’t know from the start.’
‘It’s a different kind of complicated.’
‘Work with me, Vakov. Don’t make me find out the hard way later on.’ She planted herself next to me on the bed. ‘Please.’
The memory of Artyom’s relaxed grin as he joined that man for drinks twisted in my guts like a katana blade. That same boy who would walk through the markets with me as a kid, looking for music tracks for us to listen to. Grinning sheepishly one night as he confessed he’d screwed up his first kiss with a girl.
Growing up to betray everything I stood for.
But that was his path. There were other people that needed protecting, other lives at stake.
Kowalski didn’t say a word as I spilled my guts. She let the information sink in. Making sure she hadn’t missed anything or jumped to any false conclusions. ‘You’re sure he was delivering our canisters?’
‘Without a doubt.’ Each word was razorwire on my tongue. The stormtech had climbed up to my throat again, as if my body didn’t want me to talk about my brother either. ‘It was a regular delivery. Artyom knew exactly what he was doing.’
Kowalski’s fingers turned white around her coffee mug until she carefully set it aside. ‘So. He’s not being blackmailed after all.’
I glanced up at her. ‘You knew from the start, didn’t you?’
‘I suspected. But I didn’t want to tip our hand without being sure. I’ve been wrong before. I wish I was wrong now. I’ll have to report all this to Kindosh.’
I felt a disagreeable expression pass over my face. Katherine shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, Vakov. But if we get a Sub Zero shockteam to storm that compound, we can end this today.’
‘Sub Zero Division?’ My skin prickled with unexpected fear. ‘I thought those guys were just a myth. Standard SSC gossip.’
‘No more than Reapers are,’ Kowalski murmured, looking away as if she didn’t want to admit that one of the nastiest rumours about Harmony was true. ‘Nor are their methods.’
Grim looked perplexed, his curiosity overtaking the fact that he disliked Harmony more than I did.
‘They’re the worst in Harmony’s ranks,’ I explained to him. ‘Born out of necessity for the Reaper War. They do whatever Harmony needs done, but can’t be implicated in. Suicide missions, assassinations, political sabotage in far-flung corners of the galaxy. They’ll get the job done.’
Kowalski nodded and turned to Grim. ‘You know those rumours about going to underprivileged families, usually in isolated areas of the Common, with offers of training their kids to be Reapers? Kidnapping them if they didn’t agree? That was Sub Zero.’
It’s rare that Harmony admits its darker truths, let alone this one. But Kowalski had. Even though Kindosh could have her head for it. Had to respect that.
Kowalski’s face smoothed over into a tight smile as she
