“But without the compound. . .” Eva couldn’t say it.
He half-shrugged, not important in his scheme of things.
“Like I said, absolute genius. Every other agencies’ pipes let the agent through, Every Drop’s locked it away. The water they supplied stayed safe. That’s why they should never have pulled the pipes down in Tirupudur. They were saving their lives.”
“But why? Why would you do that, risk all those people?”
“It’s obvious.” He shook his head at her lack of intellect. “Stuart’s been laying the foundations that everyone should pay for water, Every Drop’s supply will become the gold standard and they’ll pay handsomely for access to it. My royalties will give me financial freedom.”
His calculation was perhaps the hardest thing to bear until he hammered a final nail into their relationship. “It’s been a long time coming, to get to this point.” He checked his watch again.
“If that’s the agent in the flask,” Eva tried to distract, “where’s the compound here?” She could read him easily enough then. “So now you’re committing genocide?”
“You’re being overdramatic.”
“What about Lily? What if she drinks it?”
“I’ll tell you where she is and you can make sure she doesn’t.” He couldn’t be bargaining with her life.
“Where is she? It’s not safe for her to be here on her own.”
He looked at the flask.
“Charles, please, don’t.”
“Carson has to pay.”
“Jed Carson,” Eva concentrated on looking confused, “what’s he got to do with this?”
“It’s his fault they’re dead, Tony, Hunter, Nancy.” The way he said her name hurt. “We helped him out a long time ago, did things we shouldn’t have for him because he was our friend. He’s overlooked that in his rush to clean house.”
He checked the time again, half-nodded.
Eva placed Luke’s phone on the polished concrete floor, the starburst still spinning, her video proof going nowhere.
Charles picked up the flask.
Eva retrieved the security guard’s baton from beside the machinery where she’d been hiding from him, hoping he wouldn’t arrive, hoping she’d completely misunderstood everything.
He unscrewed the top of the flask.
She hit the safety railing with the baton. The metallic clang rang loud in the space, even over the rushing water.
Charles jerked round to her. “What’re you doing?”
She charged him, grabbing for the flask, aiming to knock him off balance. Smooth, slippery, he twisted up and away from her, steadying the container, keeping it upright.
“Careful, don’t know what will happen if you get any on you.”
“But you’re prepared for a city to drink it!” She could hardly get the words out, her anger exploded in a red rage. She lunged at him, hitting out with the baton but an agony on her forehead made her drop it. Charles leaning close enough to kiss her in a mockery of the position they’d been in hundreds of times. But this time, his free hand pressed against her stitches, making her eyes stream.
She twisted away from him, her hands cupping around the pain radiating out from her forehead. The baton clanged on the metallic gangway until Charles stamped on it, ending its chattering.
“Do it again and you’ll never know where Lily is.”
“You’re not, you can’t be abandoning her.”
“That’s your choice.”
How could he have reconciled himself to leaving Lily alone in a strange place where she didn’t speak the language, understand the culture? “She’s eleven, you can’t, you’re her father, fathers don’t do that.”
“Her or Carson, Eva. Choose wisely.”
He could have just tipped it in, far crueller to throw this non-choice at her. Worse, he handed it to her almost flippantly, the same decision her father had made. Her or a stranger, knowing his Evie was safe thousands of miles away, knowing the stranger in front of him would die if he saved himself.
Daddy, did it feel like this for you? Like your heart had shattered, like you couldn’t breathe. Like there was no choice at all?
54
“Well?” Charles sounded almost triumphant. He thought he knew Eva, was at least bargaining on her doing what every mother would.
She pressed the twin of the bracelet her father had held on to when he made his choice against her wrist. Daddy, I understand.
“You don’t need to tell me where Lily is so you can’t put that in the water.” Her voice was amazingly steady.
He did a double-take. “You’re choosing Carson over Lily?”
“You underestimate me, Charles, you always have.” And she’d let him. Her fingers worked the knots in her bracelet round and round. “I’m not choosing anyone over her, but I am choosing for you to not poison the water supply.”
“But you’ll never find her without my help, and there’s a, a reason you need to, right now.”
‘You have resources,’ Eva used Nora’s reminder to quash the bolt of panicked dread that hammered through her. If the water wasn’t poisoned, Lily would have longer.
“What reason, Charles?” She tried to keep her tone even, to not let him know what his decision was doing to her.
“You need to pick her, Eva, you need to choose Lily.”
“You need my permission to do this? I don’t give it. The water, I choose safe water.” Always you, Lily, I always choose you. This way you won’t be poisoned and I’ll still find you. I promise, I’m coming, sweetheart.
“You don’t get to take this away from me.”
Eva was moving before he was. The knee brace he’d bought her, his last act of kindness to her, helping her limp towards him, a handful of steps, a mile in slow motion.
He turned away from her, lifting the flask, moving it over the opening.
Eva lunged.
She grabbed for him, reaching for his outstretched arm. In taking a jab at her, he was unbalanced. Charles dropped onto his side, holding the container upright, keeping its contents inside.
“Stop, you could get us both killed.”
She leant over him, hands outstretched. “Give it to me, it’s over.”
He shook his head. “I didn’t underestimate you, it was your choice to stay small. You could be so much more,
