"What are you talking about?"
"Everything you rebelled against when you were younger, that's what you've become. You've become your father."
"Don't be foolish. Juliana: I am nothing like my father."
She laughed bitterly. "For someone so clever, Arcturus, you can be so blind. I listened to all the things you'd tell me over the years, the grand plans for the future and your ambitions for greatness, and I believed them. I think on some level I still believe you will do great things, but you won't be doing it alone anymore. You have a son, and he needs his father."
"And I'm doing what a father needs to, Juliana. I'm giving him the benefit of my experience to turn him into a man."
"He's only seven—let him be a child," pleaded Juliana. "Does he need to grow up just yet?"
Arcturus was about to deliver a withering reply when the door opened and one of Ailin Pasteur's servants entered. Immediately, Arcturus could sense the man's urgency.
"What is it?" asked Juliana, turning and snapping at the man.
"A communication for Mr. Mengsk," said the servant.
"A message?" said Arcturus. "And you had to interrupt us for that? I'll open it later."
"No, sir," said the man. "It's not a message. It's a real-time communication from Korhal."
Arcturus frowned. To communicate in real time between worlds was incredibly expensive and could only be done by those with access to the most powerful and advanced equipment.
"From Korhal? Is it my mother?" he asked.
"No, sir, it's a Mr. Feld," said the man. "And I'm afraid he says he has some bad news."
Arcturus cradled the brandy bottle in his lap, knowing that draining the last of its contents was the wrong thing to do, but not caring for right and wrong anymore. His tears had long since dried, but the grief still tore his heart with cold steel claws. The words Feld had spoken echoed within his skull.
They 're dead... all of them...
They were etched into his memory with a permanency that could never be erased. It was impossible, surely.
No one could have penetrated the security around them.
No one could have defeated the manifold security systems that protected them from harm.
It was impossible.
They killed them. Oh, God, Arcturus... I'm so sorry...
He'd known something was wrong the minute he'd seen Achton Feld's face. His image on the vidsys had been grainy and static-washed, the signal degraded after so immense a distance piggybacking along myriad relays, boosters, and carrier waves.
A communication like this was the equivalent of your fone ringing in the middle of the night and jerking you from sleep with a deep, gnawing fear in your belly. No one foned with good news in the dark: no one went to the expense and trouble of a real-time communication with good news.
"What is it, Feld?" Arcturus had said, sitting in from of the vidsys unit he'd used to send the news of Valerian's birth to Korhal.
"I'm sorry, Arcturus. I'm so sorry...." said Feld, tears running down his cheeks.
"Sorry...? For what? Listen, Feld, spit it out. What's wrong?" said Arcturus, a lead weight of cold fear settling in his stomach.
"They're dead...all of them...." wept Achton Feld.
"Who?" said Arcturus when Feld didn't continue.
"All of them..." sobbed Feld, struggling to form the words. "Angus... your mother. Even... even Dorothy."
Arcturus felt as though a great black void had opened up inside him. His hands began to shake and he felt cold. His mouth was dry and his mind stopped functioning, unable to process the reality of what Feld had just said.
"No," he said at last. "No, you're wrong. This can't be right. You've made a mistake. You must have made a mistake, Feld! They can't be dead! No, I won't allow it!"
"I'm so sorry, Arcturus. I don't know how it happened. Everything was normal...All the security systems were functional. They're still functional... I just don't know."
Arcturus felt his limbs go numb, as though they were no longer his to control. A rushing sound, like the sea crashing against the cliffs below the summer villa, roared in his head. Feld's mouth moved on the screen, but Arcturus no longer heard the words. His hands pressed against his temples and tears of grief, anger, and sucking, awesome loss flowed with them.
As if he'd taken an emotional emetic, his humanity flowed from him in his tears, and every petty feeling he'd ever harbored toward his family, every feeling of compassion, and every shred of restraint was washed away in a tide of hot tears.
The sheer, unimaginable scale of what had happened settled upon him. It was too much. No one could suffer such a crippling loss and remain whole. The power of his grief tore through him like a hurricane, breaking chains of restraint, honor, and mercy, scouring away all thoughts except one shining beacon that offered a ray of hope, a slender branch of survival to which he could cling.
Revenge.
The people that had caused him this hurt were going to die. All of them.
Arcturus knew that killings like this could only be the work of the Confederacy.
Only they had agents with the skill and gall to perpetrate something so heinous.
Only they had the temerity to think they could get away with it.
Well, Arcturus Mengsk was going to disabuse the Confederacy of that notion.
What was it his father had said?
When all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail...
The diamond clarity of the thought swept away the drag of his grief and he took a great draft of air, feeling himself fill with righteous purpose as he did so. His tears ceased and his back straightened.
"Tell me what happened," said Arcturus, his voice icy and controlled.
"I...They're dead. Isn't that enough?" said Feld. "You need to come back to Korhal."
"Oh, I'll be coming back soon enough," promised Arcturus. "But tell me what happened."
Feld saw the urgent need in his eyes and nodded, wiping a hand across his face. Arcturus was impressed. Say what you liked about Achton Feld, he was a professional.
"I came up in the morning with the daily security brief, jusl like I always do," said Feld, shoring up his own walls against the grief with commendable discipline. "I passed through the biometric identifiers, swiped my card, and went through into the penthouse. Angus is usually waiting for me, but he wasn't there this morning, which immediately made me suspicious. Katherine... I mean, your mother normally has a pot of java on, but I didn't smell it. That's normally the first thing I notice, you know? The smell of fresh java. But not this morning. I knew something was wrong, so I made a sweep of the apartment."
"What did you find?"
Feld took a deep breath. "I couldn't see anyone. There was no sign of forced entry—I mean nothing. But the door to the balcony was open."
"And?" said Arcturus, when Feld didn't go on. He could see it was taking all of Feld’s self-control to keep speaking, and Arcturus prepared himself for the worst. His jaw tightened. He'd already had the worst... what else could there be?
Feld nodded. "I went out on the balcony. And that's where I found them. The damn force field had shorted out and they were just lying there... like they were asleep. Your mother, Dorothy, and your father. Dead."
"How did they die?"
"Does it matter?" snapped Feld. "Why the hell do you need to know something like that?"
"I need to know," said Arcturus. "I don't know why. I Just do..."