He smiled benignly. “You’re flattering me.”
Now it was Sadie’s turn to be apologetic. “I didn’t mean about the brains. I meant because everyone at Mind Corps is a Minder, so I couldn’t have been in their heads. Everyone but you. You’re just a chippy.”
For a moment his composure slipped, and he snapped, “Don’t use that word.”
“That’s why you’d never been in Syncopy,” she went on, stepping toward him. “Claustrophobia is just an excuse.”
He leveled the gun at her, motioning her back toward the column. He was in control again, calm and understanding. “What a busy mind you have. Unfortunately you can only tell what you witnessed. Did I mention it’s the law? Now make the call.”
“You’d really kill me?” Sadie asked.
He nodded. “I would. Revolution requires sacrifice.”
Sadie hadn’t expected that. “Revolution? What kind of revolution?”
“The end of crime and corruption.”
“Wouldn’t that be putting yourself out of business?” Sadie asked.
He gave her a wry smile. “The Pharmacist isn’t only a money making scheme. He’s a pilot program. A boogey.”
“A boogeyman? Like Bricolage deals with?”
“Exactly.” Curtis was suave now. He slid the gun into a hip holster and used his hands while he talked. “With the Pharmacist we created the ultimate boogeyman, a mysterious figure who’s powerful and vindictive and has the magical ability to read thoughts. By using information obtained through Syncopy we were able to radically increase the speed at which he gained power, until he was at the center of nearly all the criminal activity in City Center.” He paused, his eyes alight with excitement. “We’re now poised to turn City Center into a criminal nexus where researchers of every stripe can run experiments in a real-world setting on subjects who don’t even know they are being studied.” He was watching her and her reaction, closely. “We don’t have to stop at knowing what gets subjects’ attention, we can learn their intentions. This is the beginning of a new era in social research and aggressive philanthropy: the living laboratory.”
“A living laboratory,” Sadie repeated, trying to mirror his enthusiasm. If she could get him to think she was an ally, she might be able to get close enough to get the gun from its holster. “That’s why MRP bought so many buildings.” She remembered the guys unloading the truck that night in the alley behind Plum’s club. “You were setting up discreet research facilities in City Center.”
“Exactly.” His face lit up and he stepped closer to her. “You understand now, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Sadie told him. Three more steps, that was all she needed. “It’s an amazing vision. I can see why you couldn’t let peons like Willy or Ford interfere.”
He looked at her cautiously. “Do you mean that?”
She nodded. “This is bigger than individuals. I’d thought you killed James because he stole your treasure, but I now see it was because that kind of recklessness has to be contained.”
“And I’ll get the money back,” Curtis added.
Sadie was contrite. “By treasure I meant Plum. Your sister. How they were going to run away together.” She shook her head. “After everything you’ve done for her. To support her. You promised when you were children to give her everything, and you have kept your word.” She reached a comforting hand toward his arm, just out of reach. “It must have been upsetting when James threatened to steal her from you.”
Curtis smiled down at her, moving a little closer. “It was a betrayal. And it showed a worrisome lack of judgment on her part. But we dealt with it. It’s over.”
“You left James’s phone in her apartment so she would know what you’d done,” Sadie said, understanding it now. “What you were willing to do for her.” And what you’d do again, over and over, if she ever tried to leave, Sadie thought, remembering the look of fear on Plum’s face. “Is that why you kept Ford’s watch? To use the same way?”
“Exactly. I wanted her to know that I would do anything to take care of her.” Curtis said it simply, as if he were talking about taking out a loan, not murdering people.
Sadie sighed. “She’s lucky to have you.” She shifted, stepping slightly away from the column. She held his gaze, moving her hand toward the gun. Her fingertips brushed it—
“You’re pathetic.” The voice came from behind them, and they both swung around to see Catrina storming across the floor toward them.
Curtis seemed surprised and not entirely pleased. “What are you doing here?”
Sadie had the gun halfway out of its holster when Catrina batted her hand away.
“Cleaning up your mess,” Catrina said, and with one neat motion got Sadie by the back of her neck and began shoving her toward the edge of the roof.
She talked as she did it, squeezing Sadie’s throat for emphasis. “‘Trust me,’ you said, ‘I can control her. She likes me, she’ll do what we want. If he has the money, she’ll tell us. Think of it as protection, a way to guard our assets.’” Catrina was quoting Curtis, Sadie realized. The conversation she’d overheard had been about her, putting her into Ford’s mind. She was the protection.
Sadie was pushing back against Catrina, making their progress erratic, but they were unquestionably moving closer to the edge of the floor.
“It worked,” Curtis protested behind them. “We learned he knew more than we wanted him to. We learned he was a liability and had to be eliminated.”
Catrina twisted Sadie’s arm behind her back painfully. They were now a foot from the edge of the roof. “You said there was no chance the Committee would send her back, that as soon as she was gone we could kill him. But you didn’t get sent home, did you?” Catrina asked, jerking Sadie’s arm up and making her yelp. “So it was left to me to figure out how to fix it. Just like today.”
Sadie remembered being in the same building on her school trip. Remembered the wind. Remembered Pete shouting to her, “Hey, babe, come check this out,” and how he grabbed her and pulled her behind a column and started kissing her. How she’d kept her eyes open, staring at the space beyond the empty windows and thinking how easy it would be to just…
Let…
Go.
Not anymore. Now she wanted to fight. “If you kill me, it will all come out,” Sadie said as she struggled against Catrina’s strength.
“What will come out?” Catrina said, pressing forward, using Sadie’s arm as a lever. Her tone, her actions were chillingly deliberate.
They were less than a foot from the end of the floor. “The texts. From Curtis to you, ordering you to switch me in and out of his mind.” Catrina’s pressure let up slightly. “And the one you sent about how you couldn’t find Subject Nine and you were initiating emergency removal protocols.” Sadie nodded her head behind her to Curtis’s phone, which had fallen to the ground. “I forwarded them. If you kill me, someone will find them.”
“You idiot,” Catrina hissed at Curtis. She jerked Sadie’s arm up higher and pushed her right to the perimeter. “But it doesn’t matter. No one will believe it. You’ll be the girl who committed suicide. Too crazy to take seriously.”
The toes of Sadie’s shoes had air beneath them. Do not panic, she told herself as her heart began to pound and her throat closed. You’re not going to jump. You have to fight. Spots danced in front of her eyes and her knees rattled. “Bye-bye,” Catrina said.