Omega The Girl in the Box - By Robert J. Crane Page 0,85

Madigan. Other doors slid open, too, the one to Bjorn’s cell, and Madigan’s, and behind Janus, so did Fries’. My eyes weren’t on any of them.

My eyes were on Kat Forrest, who strode out of the watchroom in a dark blue jumpsuit, her hair pulled back, and wearing an impish smile that didn’t fit the demure, quiet girl I had known for almost the entire time I’d been at the Directorate. “You?” I asked. “You betrayed us, Kat?”

“I’m not Kat,” she said with a sour smile, one that truly reminded me of a cheerleader, all sneer and no sweetness. “I’m Klementina—or as near to it as you’ll get.”

I felt the stir of Aleksandr Gavrikov in the back of my head and ignored him. “You still had a human personality when I saw you a couple days ago,” I said, drawing a bead on her as she took position at Janus’s side.

“Oh, Sienna,” she said with a slight laugh, “don’t act so wounded. I don’t remember you coming to visit me in the medical unit after you brought me in; unless I missed it, being absent as I was the last day or so. I still remember the things Kat remembered, the things that weren’t lost while I was trying to save your life, Reed’s life...” she let her voice drop precipitously, “...Scott’s life.”

I felt a sour taste in my mouth, a bitterness. “We were friends.”

“Don’t friggin’ kid yourself,” she said, and there was none of Kat’s sweetness there. “We were never friends.”

“Klementina, dear,” Janus said as she rubbed up against him in a manner that 1) I was sure was meant to make me vomit and 2) would have been really appropriate for ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE, EVER, “would you kindly let James, Bjorn and Eleanor out of their cages?”

“Leave them right where they are, Kat,” I said, pulling tighter on the trigger, “or I will spread your treacherous, forgetting brain all over the wall behind you.”

“Mmm,” Janus said, pondering me. “I think not. You have a gentle heart, and are as yet unsullied by the cruelties of the world. I don’t think you’ll be killing anyone. We haven’t threatened you, we mean you no harm, nor any of your fellows.”

“You’re destroying the Directorate,” I said, “and you’ve been planning to kill Old Man Winter.”

“I could not care less about Erich,” Janus said with a wave. “I’m sure he’ll continue to live a long and bitter life even after you’ve joined us.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I said, as Kat started to move. “Don’t push me, Klementina. It’s been kind of a rough day.”

“It’s been a succession of rough days,” Janus said, gesturing for her to move on, “but let us not cloud the issue. You are not going to kill anyone.”

“I killed Wolfe,” I said, almost snarling, trying to reassure myself. “I killed her brother. And your pet vampires.”

“Yes, but you didn’t know what you were doing when you killed Wolfe,” Janus said, “and you killed Aleksandr to save a city. Laudable, I would say. Noble, even. And let us not fool ourselves...those vampires were nothing approaching human, not really, and had not been human for a thousand years or more. You are not a murderer, Sienna.” I saw the tilt of his eyes to something approaching sadness. “When it comes down to it...we are not threatening you. We mean you no harm. And you are not willing to do what would be necessary to keep us all here.”

“And that is?” I said, my voice cracking as Kat emerged from the cell behind Janus, Fries in tow, his hands freed.

“Kill us all,” Janus said as Bjorn emerged from the cell to his left and Kat unlocked the handcuffs that bound his wrists. Then she disappeared into Madigan’s cell.

“Nice to see you again, Sienna,” Fries said, still a little bruised from his encounter with Eve. “I’m sure we’ll meet again.”

I felt a cold anger cut through me as Madigan emerged from the cell, freed, leaving wet footprints on the tile with every step she took. I waved the gun at them impotently as Janus took the first steps toward me. “Excuse us,” he said gently brushing past me. Bjorn went by next, a glare from on high, his flat face contorted with anger. His arm had returned, though it looked a little smaller than the other. Madigan came next, then Kat, giving me a cool look as she passed, and I knew by looking in her eyes that Kat was gone,