“Yes, your precious Klementina,” Eve said dryly. “We’ve heard.”
“Unaccountable power is the bane of human existence,” Gavrikov said. “I watched my father isolate me and my sister, and then torture us at his every whim. If he felt in a cruel mood, he was free to be as cruel as he wanted. He trampled all over us. This girl—” he pointed at the door “—she is like that. Unsocial. Powerful beyond the ability of men to control. Working quietly in the background, nothing bold or flashy, that would bring condemnation from the world of men. She is the very definition of unaccountable power. Like any petty tyrant in a fiefdom in which they have full control and no detractors with any, she has a left a trail of victims to correspond with that power.”
“She has detractors,” Graham said, and there was a faint howl in the distance, outside the house, almost like the wind. “But they are…I suppose ‘powerless’ would be the word. Compared to her. In this place…” He bowed his head and shook it. “She’s a goddess, and we’re the worshippers.”
“And I’m agnostic,” Gavrikov said.
“Then I suspect you will end up believing in her before long,” Eve said, “because she doesn’t strike me as the type who’s going to go light on the wrath. That will be enough to convince you sooner or later, since you’re just waiting for a display to give you faith.”
“I don’t think she’s going to show us anything,” Harmon said. “We’re mushrooms down here, unable to even see out the nearest window.”
“Yeah, we’re a long way from the Lido deck on this ship,” Bastian said. “It’s like one of those troop transports where you don’t even get a porthole to see out.”
Harmon showed a flash of irritation at the military metaphor. “Yes, like that, only not stupid. She’s surely used her powers by now—”
“She has,” Graham said. “She’s using them constantly, all the time.”
Harmon honed in on him. “You can see? See out through her eyes?”
“Aye,” Graham said. “You might too, given enough time to learn your way around her head. But I’ll warn you—it’s not going to be pretty when you do. It’s sort of like…drowning beneath the waves.” He got a far-off look in his brown eyes. “And just as you think you’ll never taste air again, you break the surface…and find yourself in the middle of flaming wreckage, like a ship exploded around you or something.”
“I’ve had that happen,” Gavrikov said.
“How do we do that?” Harmon asked. “I need to see, to feel in order to be able to…push my way out.” He seemed desperate, his pacing continuing unabated. If he could have worn holes in the floor of Alistair McKinney’s foyer, he would have, Zack was sure. “In order to get us out,” he said quickly, but Zack caught the implication.
“I get the feeling,” Zack said softly, “that when it comes time to jump ship…none of the rest of us are going to get a life preserver, or a boat of our own.”
Harmon’s eyes flashed, cagily. “You know how to keep crabs in a bucket? It’s easier than you think. You just put them in there. Every time one is close to climbing out, the others will pull him back down. It’s a strange animal instinct, one I always thought was more appropriate for humans; it’s like the very embodiment of envy. ‘Oh, you can get out of this prison—let me stop you right there.’” He turned away, seething, his control slipping. “If I can get out with all of us, I will. If I can get out by myself, in an instant—” He turned back around, and anger and determination split his face. “Can any of you blame me for seizing that kind of opportunity?”
“I always expect a rat to escape a sinking ship if given a chance,” Gavrikov said with a faint smile.
“You’re such a worthless turd, Harmon,” Zack said, his own anger rising in him, blinding him. “I’m still sorry I voted for you.”
“Well, the campaign is over, my friend,” Harmon said. “No takebacks. Which is a rule that extends to life, and ours has ended. Now we’re here, trapped together, and—be assured, I hate you all as much as you hate me right now.”
“You’d sell her out in an instant, wouldn’t you?” Zack just shook his head.
“Rose?” Harmon frowned. “Of course I would. I have no loyalty to her and neither do y— Oh. You didn’t mean Rose.”
“I meant you’d sell Sienna out to Rose in an instant, if you thought there was an advantage in it,” Zack said quietly. “You’d use those telepathic powers of yours to her benefit without thinking twice.”
Harmon blinked. “We’re stuck in her head, genius. She can compel me to help her through pain, and unlike you, perhaps, you brave soul, I’m not used to being tortured. I would almost certainly fold given about five seconds. I know myself; I know this to be true. So why would I put myself through prolonged agony when I could just give up and spare myself the trouble?”
The image of Sienna flashed through Zack’s mind, and a cold truth fell over him as he stared at each of those trapped with him in turn. “You wouldn’t, I guess,” he said, hollowly. “You have no reason to.”
“Just like Wolfe in that regard,” Harmon said, turning away again. “And speaking of…where is he?” He turned back again, to Graham this time. “With her? Is he her new favorite?”
“Aye,” Graham said. “He’ll be with her all the time now. Top of mind, because of what he can do. She’s got others like that.” He stared at Harmon. “Given what you can do…she’ll probably come for you, next. She’s got plans right now, though. Hasn’t slept in a couple days, but…when she gets a breather…she’ll be on you, I expect.”
“Oh, goodie,” Harmon said, but it rang hollow, sarcasm like an ineffectual shield for the small dose of dread that leaked out.
“She’s got thousands of us in here,” Zack said, looking right at Graham. “Why are you the only one that’s talking to us?”
“I’m the only one that cares, I guess,” Graham said. “Most of the new ones…you wouldn’t believe the state they arrive in. They come in ones and twos, no connection to each other, hardly. Those that do know each other before she absorbs them—families and whatnot—they’re huddled together like you lot, unless she splits them off. Which she does sometimes. Isolates them.” He folded his arms uncomfortably. “I guess what I’m saying is…not many know their way around like I do, being here since the beginning. It’s a big place now, not like it was when we started. Every soul she absorbed…it’s like they added a little space to the world. Now it’s so big, a new person would get lost without a guide.”
“Are you our guide?” Zack asked.
Graham looked right at him. “Maybe. I’m a bit caught between worlds, you see. She doesn’t want me with the others from the village—for obvious reasons, I suppose.” He looked away, and the regret was almost a tangible thing, the roads not taken plain to Zack—for he had a few of those of his own. “So I wander. Most people are shuddering fools when they get here. Hardly a will of their own, being newly minted metas when they’re absorbed. She cows them quick, breaks them down if she needs them. They become servile little slaves to her mind. And that’s that.” He stared at each of them in turn. “You’re the first ones she’s brought in in a long while that had minds of your own still. Which is funny—” he smiled “—because you haven’t had bodies of your own in a long while, too. You should be just about dissolved to your succubus’s will, I would have thought.”