“Interesting,” said Frey, his voice showing genuine surprise. “You aren’t concerned at all. You’re still missing the fucking point, aren’t you?”
“Not at all,” said Kira smoothly. “You had a man on Copernicus. You managed to capture David and Matt despite the promises made by your puppet, the colonel. And now you want to trade them for my longevity therapy.”
Frey’s eyes widened. “I’ll be damned,” he said. “You don’t care what happens to Desh. You’d prefer I didn’t kill Matt here, but it wouldn’t trouble you a bit. You may be colder even than I am. What a glorious bitch you are.”
Desh held his breath for several long seconds, waiting for Kira’s strenuous denial of Frey’s accusations. But none came. Which meant that what Frey said was true. Enhanced, he could not be deceived. Even if she was a split personality, she was telling the truth as that part of her personality knew it, or Frey would have called her on it.
Frey shot Desh a broad, cruel smile, knowing exactly what was going through his mind and that it was causing more pain than the two physical blows he had landed earlier.
Frey turned back to the monitor and to Kira Miller. “You were hoping I would contact you,” he continued, reading her like a book, his eyes still blazing with an inner fire. “Because you want to team up with me.” He paused. “You know I can read your body language with perfect accuracy, so when I ask a question, you already answer it. But for the benefit of Mr. Dutton and your boy toy,” he added, throwing Desh a self-satisfied smirk, “why don’t you spell it out? The pained, betrayed look on your beau’s face is priceless. Hearing about your betrayals in your own voice is like repeated daggers to his throat. Only he survives each time so the next one can have its full effect.”
“Nice thought picture,” said Kira dryly. “Okay, I’ll pretend you’re normal and spell it out. I was a split personality for many months while I grappled with myself. My enhanced personality and my normal personality waged quite a battle. In the end my enhanced personality won, assuming control even when I’m normal. So now I’m an integrated personality—with her personality traits. Thank fucking God,” she added passionately. “No more pathetic, misguided attempts at altruism. No more stubbornly ignoring my own best interests. Normal Kira’s personality is enough to make a saint vomit. Gods should act like Gods, not mice.”
Desh’s stomach clenched. His worst fears had been realized. He had been utterly betrayed by the women he loved. He had seen all the signs, but he hadn’t let himself believe. Not really. Part of him had clung to the hope that she’d have a good explanation for her actions. Somehow. His deep love for Kira had corrupted the logic centers of his brain. But he couldn’t fool himself anymore. Yes, the woman on the screen was no longer Kira Miller, but that didn’t matter. He couldn’t help but feel as if she had betrayed him nonetheless. That if her love for him was truly strong, she would have found a way to win the battle she had waged with herself.
“So here’s the deal,” continued Kira. “We work together. The world is big enough for the two of us. You get my longevity therapy and my organization. None of my recruits would have to know anything has changed. Think of them as a brain trust you can trust. They’ll keep on spitting out breakthroughs.” An amused smile crossed her face. “For the good of the world, of course. And you get me and my talents, the likes of which only come along once in a generation.”
“You forgot to mention Matt,” said Frey, delight in his voice. “I can see it in your face. He knows of your plan to join forces with me, and he’s eager to see it happen. In fact, you and he made sure to plant him on the Copernicus because you hoped this would draw me out. You hoped I would snatch him and Desh and call to make a trade, so you could propose an alliance. Matt could have prevented doomsday in his pajamas from home.”
Desh was numb. He had thought it strange that Kira had agreed to send Griffin to the Copernicus, but now it made an awful sense. His head was spinning from the shear enormity of Kira’s betrayal, but he seized on a thought that allowed him to keep his emotional perspective: twenty-four hours earlier, all life on earth had narrowly avoided extinction. Even if he didn’t see a tomorrow, eight billion others would. He clung to this thought as desperately as a man adrift at sea would cling to a floating bit of wreckage in a powerful storm.
Kira smiled. “Turns out Matt’s enhanced personality finally won the day and corrupted him as well. Good thing. You know what they say about sinners having more fun. You go to heaven for the air conditioning. You go to hell for the company.”
Dutton laughed, while Frey remained expressionless, having known what Kira would say long before she said it. “Matt is quite a sweetener to the deal. So what about Desh?”
Kira frowned.
“I see,” said Frey immediately. “He’s not immune from the personality corrupting effect of repeated IQ boosts, but his amped alter ego isn’t strong enough to take over. Too bad.” He paused. “But back to negotiations. In exchange for what you’re offering, you want me to call off the hunt. Restore you to anonymity. Partner with you. Use my influence with the government and black-ops to help catapult us to power on a global level.”
“Exactly,” said Kira. “But these are just the broad terms. We can hash out how we’ll work together later—when you return to normal.” A smile crept slowly over her face. “I don’t know much about negotiations, but I’m pretty sure negotiating with someone who’s a hundred times smarter than you is a bad idea.”
“Okay. We’ll sort it all out as equals,” agreed Frey.
“Good. As a show of good faith, why don’t you bring David and Matt to my headquarters. I’ll give you directions.”
Desh had spent so much energy implementing their headquarters operations, complete with decoys and multiple locations, that it shocked him that Kira would give out the address so casually. But it shouldn’t have. She could trust Frey implicitly now. He needed her to double his lifespan, ensuring he was around when immortality was finally solved.
But this was all insanity, Desh realized. Who cared? There would be no immortality. The aliens would be arriving in three short decades, and they would see to that.
Frey had been monitoring Desh from the corner of his eye and interpreted his body language in an instant. “Your boy David here is worried about the alien threat,” he explained to Kira. “He’s thinking we’re fiddling while Rome burns.”
“He always was a bit shortsighted,” noted Kira. “Would you like me to spell it out for him?” she asked.
“Please,” said Frey.
“The threat from the aliens is the primary reason Eric and I should join forces, David dear. Ironically, even though we’re doing it for purely selfish reasons, our alliance will probably end up saving the species. Not that I don’t already deserve the credit for saving us the first time, since I placed Matt on Copernicus and he used my therapy—but I do try to maintain my humility. If Eric and I work together, in just a few years we’ll either be on the world throne or the power behind it. Left to its own pathetic devices, and due to a lack of a cohesive, decisive worldwide governing authority, humanity has no chance of withstanding an alien attack. Politics and endless stupidity would do us in. What we need are competent dictators to take the reins.” She flashed an insincere smile. “Like me and Eric. And we’ll have no false sentimentality. We’ll be willing to do what needs to be done. Make the hard choices. Drive the species at the end of a whip to implement our strategies and inventions. With us at the helm, our chances of survival go up dramatically.”