"Unfortunately," Ari said, "the Director wants to speak to you about yesterday."
Niko looked up from the pancakes she was consuming. After that first evening when they'd all eaten dinner together she hadn't seen much of the Director who seemed to spend most of the day holed on the top floor.
"That's not fair," Ben said, gesturing at Niko with a fork, "she didn't do anything wrong."
Ari nodded as if she agreed. "The Council doesn't see it that way. To them she publicly threatened an Official." She turned her attention to Niko. "It's probably the 'publicly threatened' part they're really pissed about. They're pressuring the Director to make a show of punishing you."
"Gods forbid the peons dare an uprising," Duc said dryly and a mirthless little chuckle went round.
"What about me?" Malik pointed out. "I fired off the crossbow."
Ari waved that statement away. "I got her to see it as more of an accidental discharge than something deliberate."
Malik's lips thinned, he obviously wasn't pleased that his small act of rebellion was being demoted to a harmless accident. Ari caught his expression and laid a hand on his knee, the powdered sugar dusting her fingers left small white smudges on his jeans. "We can't afford the attention right now, Malik. You know that."
Niko watched them as they spoke. She felt like a chess piece being moved from one strategic position to another.
"I supposed this isn't something I should put off."
"Whatever you do," Ari said steel in her big brown eyes, "don't apologize for trying to go after those Slithers."
She got to her feet. She didn't plan to.
After climbing twelve flights of stairs she was grateful when the Director offered her a seat but her mind started to drift as she spoke. As the Director lectured, sounding appalled by her behavior, Niko wondered if there was a tall building close enough to the wall. She could break into the top floor and from her perch shoot Slithers roaming Outside. She felt a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth and hurriedly suppressed it. For all intents and purposes she was there to be punished not plotting methods of subversion and grinning in a deranged manner. So she schooled her face into a blank mask as the Director told her that she was to spend two weeks working in a greenhouse, beginning the next morning.
"I realize," the Director said, "your upbringing as an Outsider might lead you to such wild and aggressive impulses." Niko felt an angry flush crawling across her cheeks but the Director didn't appear to notice and continued. "Hopefully, you'll take this incident as a lesson, Ms. Niko, and apply it prudently. You were made for better things than this."
It was an odd thing to say but she ignored it making her face blank and her voice bland as she shoved back her chair. "Can I go now?"
She made the long flight down to the breakfast room only to find that everyone had left it, leaving behind half-eaten plates of food, throw pillows scattered about and one hotel employee slowly cleaning it all.
She'd thought they would wait for her return that they would be curious about what had transpired between her and the Director. The empty room said she was wrong.
She trekked back upstairs to her room were she hoped to finish the book Malik had recommend (after several confusing attempts she'd discovered some novels were read in the exact reverse order of others).
She opened the door. Ari wasn't in the room but Snuggles was and he rubbed vigorously against her ankles mewing plaintively until she picked him up. She rubbed his head. “I guess this means I should take you somewhere,” she said scratching under his chin he purred madly kneading her arm with his paws. She pitched her voice high, how Ari often talked to the kitten. “Maybe we should see Ben. Let him do his tests. How does that sound?”
Snuggles didn’t seem to care one way or the other as long as he continued to get scratched he was perfectly content and she headed back down the stairs. Her bare feet hardly made a sound as she neared the lab and Niko could hear two voices pitched in low conversation but when she stepped inside the white expanse she saw no one.
The voices had gotten louder though and she recognized them as Duc and Ben.
“It’s come back.” Duc was saying. “I can feel it under my skin like it wants to rip its way out of me.”
There was a clink of something metallic and Ben spoke. “You know it doesn’t happen like that.” He sighed. “Did you try the---“
“Doesn’t work.” Duc interrupted flatly. “I know it was a pet project of yours and everything. It was fine for about a month, but now it’s back and I’m up at night hearing, feeling everyone’s heart beat and trying to find ways to convince myself to stay in the room. And if I’m like that can you imagine how it is for Malik?”
There was another door on the far end of the room situated on the side of the tank. Through it she could see the blurred figures of Ben and Duc standing around an unusually high table. The smell of sulfur also came from the room.
She skirted the tank.
“What I can’t figure, Ben, is how you never seem affected by all this.” Though he tried to mask it in a jest it wasn’t quite enough to hide the earnestness in his tone. “You got something we don’t?”
“Discipline.” Ben answered though a gesture must have accompanied it because Duc laughed drily.
Niko reached the open door just as Duc sobered up. “What about the new girl?” He asked. “What do you think?”
She watched Ben’s face as she tried to figure out if having three and a half weeks under her belt still labeled her as the new girl.
Ben was shaking his head a smile snaking across his face. “She won’t let---”
Snuggles chose that moment to wiggle out of her arms leaving scratches on her skin as he used her as a launching pad. He landed on the floor and immediately began smoothing down his ruffled fur.
She looked up; both boys were staring at her, Duc while nervously tugging at his lip ring and Ben with one eyebrow raised. Situated between them and the source of the sulfuric smell lay a dead Slither.
“Well,” Ben said finally breaking the silence, “I would say look what the cat dragged in, but that might be a bit much.” He placed his gloved hands on the creature that was being sliced open. “So Silent Sally on assassin’s feet, what brings you way over here this morning? You must want something, hopefully me but as I’m covered in all this Slither gack I have a feeling that’s not likely.” Unless ...” With his fingers he touched both cheeks leaving a line of black blood on each of them. He tilted his head giving her a winsome smile. “You like?”
“Not particularly.” She answered and Duc sucked in his bottom lip to keep back a laugh.
She scooped up Snuggles, this time keeping a firm hold on him. She took a step back. “I thought we could do the tests today, get it over with. But ... Never mind.” She made a quick gesture toward the two of them and the eviscerated Slither that lay between. “You’re busy.”
“No, no, no.” He entreated as she began to back away. “Stay. I’ll be there in a moment. It’s not like this thing’s going to tell me anything new anyway. Duc,” Ben gave him a pointed stare. “Whatever it takes, keep her here.”
“You act like you want me to tie her down with rope or something.” He slid off the stool and headed toward her. He threw an arm around her shoulders. “Ben can get a bit high-strung sometimes.” He whispered conspiratorially as they went around the tank again.
He led her to the other end of the room where there was a short row of beds much like the one she had first woken up in. Duc hopped up on one and she tentatively sat across from him.
“So, putting aside your current eavesdropping escapades," he said, "how did it go with the Director?”
She ran her fingers down Snuggles back and the cat arched his back in pleasure. "I'm supposed to work in the greenhouses for two weeks."
"Cleaning or gardening?" He leaned back on his elbows drumming his fingers on the bed as he played with his lip ring catching it between his teeth before releasin
g it again.
She jerked her shoulders in a shrug. She had no idea, to her greenhouses meant growing food. She'd never thought of them being cleaned.
Ben came over. He had quickly changed and cleaned up, the black blood gone from his cheeks. He seemed happy to find her still there.
Duc slid off the bed. He crossed the small space that divided the two of them and pulled the cat out of her hands and Snuggles began to wail in protest. He was cut off mid-cry when Duc gave him one firm shake. His ears flattened and the cat settled for grumbling under his breath. “Don’t tell Ari,” Duc said, “but I can’t stand this thing. I’m not a walking bowl of pet food. It needs to stop trying to bite me.”
As he passed Ben he said something too low for Niko to catch before aiming a tiny smile in her direction. He left the lab taking Snuggles with him.
She started to slide off the bed but Ben told her to stay where she was. He placed a stethoscope against her chest, a circle of cold above her heart. “You seemed interested in the helicopter. If you want,” He added almost hesitantly. “I can teach you how to fly it. Or Duc could if you prefer. It’s his and everything but I’m the better pilot so you’re less likely to die in a horrible crash.”
A blush crawled across her cheek, as she recalled the words spoken and the things done inside the helicopter. If he sensed a change in her heartbeat he didn't comment on it.
He moved behind her sliding a careful hand up the back of her shirt pressing the cold circle against her skin. He instructed her to take several deep breaths. “You’re a tough girl though.” He continued completely unaware of the inner chaos colliding in her head. “I think you’ll handle it.”
Ben came around front again producing a penlight from his pocket. He took her chin tilting her head back slightly. She was blinded as he flashed the light from one eye to the other. Beyond the colors floating in front of her vision she saw him frown. He passed the light over her eyes again and she jerked her chin out of his grip.
She rubbed her eyes. “What are you doing?”
“Your eyes don’t switch.” He said, surprised. “Interesting.”
He then launched into a brief explanation. “Almost everyone in the city gets tested, it’s how the Council learns who can kill Slithers without waiting eighteen years for them to manifest. It’s very simple. If your eyes switch,” He passed the penlight across his face and his eyes flickered briefly one eye turning green and the other an icy inhuman blue. “You’re special. If they don’t, gods help you if you’re out alone during a Slither attack.”
He took her chin, light brown eyes peering into her own darker ones. “Now that I think about it I don’t think I’ve ever seen them switch. Even when we fought those Slithers and usually with the adrenaline and the heightened emotions that happens...” He pulled back. “You’re a strange one Niko.”
Niko shrugged. She didn’t feel strange at all and if she was killing Slithers what did it matter?
“I’ve never seen Malik’s eyes flicker.” She pointed out. "Wouldn’t that make him strange as well?”
Ben uttered a surprisingly mirthless chuckle. “He’s probably the strangest of us all but like everyone else in this circle his eyes still switch.” Then under his breath he said. “That’s probably a good thing.”