Robert Crane - Family

The door opened and Ariadne came in with a tray, cafeteria food resting on it. I saw meatloaf, which I hate, but I was past the point of being picky. I stared at Ariadne when she came in; she stared back at me. “I brought you lunch,” she said at last, reluctant. Her heels clicked on the tile like a hammer hitting concrete, each step at odds with her manner, which was mousy and hesitant.

“I didn’t know we’d moved past breakfast yet, since I didn’t get any.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, and brought the tray over to me, extending it with one hand. It was light, I could tell, a styofoam plate on a brown tray, with a little plastic spork and a couple cartons of milk, like I was a kid. The meatloaf itself had some red ketchup on it, the only point of color on the tray, and it reminded me of my hands after my fight with the vampires. Or after Andromeda died.

“I asked Zack if you were going to ship me to Arizona,” I said, breaking the spork out of the little plastic bag that it was sealed in. I balanced the tray on my knees and Ariadne stood above me as I took my first bite, taking care to get plenty of ketchup to cover the taste of the meatloaf itself.

“No,” she said. “I wouldn’t even be holding you like this if not for the fact that finding the bug in your room is the last in a long line of circumstantial evidence—”

“My circumstances suck.” I took another bite and chewed as I thought about that.

“But it could all be wild coincidence,” she said, as she lowered herself to sit next to me. She didn’t look at me as she did so, and I cast her a sidelong glance that it was probably better she didn’t catch full-on. “I’m aware that nothing we’ve got is really proof; not the kind I’d like before accusing a long-standing trainee of betraying us—”

“Why?” I said with a shrug. “I think it’s obvious at this point that my mother is playing some sort of game here. If she was willing to keep me locked in a house for over a decade, is it really out of the realm of possibility that she’d try and stick me undercover here for six months to pull off whatever it is she’s up to?” I shrugged, balancing the tray. “I don’t think that’s farfetched.”

Ariadne looked over at me. “I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility for her. I think it would be completely out of character for you .”

I froze, spork halfway to my mouth, and just held it there. I didn’t want to look at her. I forced the bite into my mouth and chewed it slowly, swallowing it with extreme difficulty. “What are you going to do with me?”

She seemed to crumple under forces that were not visible to the eye. “I don’t know. Wait for the Director to return from Texas and make the decision for me.”

I could have made some crack about the pressure of leadership on her, or how she might not be up to it, but I couldn’t think of one, and I didn’t really want to anyway. “I don’t want to be in here anymore,” I said, and meant it. I sat the tray on the ground and looked at the walls, and the room seemed smaller than ten by ten by ten now, much smaller.

“I know,” she said.

“Know, but don’t care?” My voice was shot through with more than a little ‘don’t care’ as well.

“I wouldn’t say that.” She leaned forward, placed her hands on her knees and then stood up. “I’ve got J.J. in a cell, too, which isn’t making me feel any better. And Kurt.”

My eyebrow spiked in a raise. “Kurt?”

She cocked her head. “They left him alive when they ambushed you; that’s more than a little suspicious since they tried to kill the rest of you. I’d put your friend Reed in a cell too, but I can’t really afford to alienate Alpha since they seem to be the only allies we’ve got.”

Words broke through the wall around my head. “Why do you have J.J. in a cell?”

“Because he, you, Reed, Parks and the pilots were the only ones that knew about Reed’s little excursion home to call his bosses,” she said, looking down at me, her shock of red hair the only color in the room.

“But I thought your office was bugged,” I said with a shake of my head. Wasn’t that the reason I was here?

“It appeared to be,” she said. “But my office gets swept regularly for listening devices, and this one just happened to be there right after our conversation. It could have been placed by any number of people, but the timing is just strange. The last sweep of my office was at midday. I have a list of appointments during that time, a half-dozen people, and Mormont is interviewing every one of them, too.” She shrugged. “I’m following Mormont’s recommendations on this until the Director has a chance to weigh in. It’s clear that the chopper flight was betrayed to Omega to give them a chance to shoot it down and kill Reed, cutting off our only line of communication to Alpha.”

“Which would still have been cut off if I hadn’t fought off the vampires that attacked.” Honestly, I didn’t care; they’d either realize I hadn’t done anything wrong or they wouldn’t. Nothing I could say at this point was going to do anything to diminish the suspicion on me.

“True,” she said. “I don’t believe you’re the one I’m looking for. But forgive me if I don’t release you quite yet.”

“I’ll take it under consideration,” I said, and turned to stretch my legs out on my cot, laying back down. “After all, I’ve got plenty of time to consider here. Not much else to do, but plenty of that.”

She hesitated. “Would you like an e-reader? Something to help pass the time?”

“No,” I said. “I don’t really like to read anymore. I spent most of my childhood with nothing to do but read. And this is hardly the first time I’ve had to find something to do while locked in a metal enclosure for a few days.”

She blanched at that one, and turned away. She took a couple robotic steps toward the door, then turned back. I heard it unlock for her, then swing open. “If you change your mind, just say so.” She waited for me to respond, and when one wasn’t forthcoming, she walked out, and the door shut behind her.

“I won’t,” I said to the empty room.

The door opened again later that evening, and I thought maybe it was going to be dinner. I was wrong. I’d grown weary of the patterns of squares, of making different ones with my mind, of singing in my head (I was going to be damned if I gave them something to video behind the glass) and doing a few of the other things I did to pass time, and was ready for a visit again. Something, anything. When the door opened I hoped it would be Zack, oddly. Or Reed. It was neither.

“Come with me,” Parks said, his gray hair hanging loose around his shoulders as always. He reminded me of Kris Kristofferson. Gruff, to the point, and then he stepped aside and left the door open.

I was sitting on my cot, and I stared at the open door for a minute after he vanished out of sight. I took a breath, sighed, then stood and followed. What else was I going to do?

When I reached the hall I saw he had already walked down it quite a ways. He didn’t look back as he turned a corner, and I jogged to keep up with him. He moved pretty fast for an older guy, like the wolves he could so aptly channel gave him the ability to move faster as a man. I almost caught him by the time he reached the stairs, which were behind a heavy door. He didn’t even hold it open for me, but I drew even with him by the time he reached the second landing. By the time we reached the fourth floor, I realized he was using his meta speed to outpace at a walk what most humans could do at a run. It would have been rude, I thought, if I had been a human trying to keep up with him.