Undivided

The medic unlocks the control panel and makes the needed adjustments. Then, when the unwinding chamber door opens, Divan physically pushes Starkey’s body inside, not waiting for the conveyor belt to do it for him.

The door on the unit closes, the process begins, and the two relax.

“Too bad,” says the medic. “It’s almost like he died to spite you.”

“If it was intentional,” says Divan, “then he had help.” Divan raises his gaze to look at the Unwinds in the drum all around him.

Co

“Get back to the control room. I want you to check the telemetry on every Unwind here,” Co

•  •  •

They come for him ten minutes later. Three of them: the medic, some random crewman who looks nervous to even be there, and a silent chisel-faced boeuf who looks born to intimidate. Co

Then he dodges the grasp of the others, ru

The medic tries to lure him out with poorly delivered lies like, “Divan just wants to talk to you—there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Co

In the end, Co

They cinch his hands together with a cable tie—tight enough to do the job, but not tight enough to cut into his skin—and they take him out, stepping over the body of the tranq’d crewman, who, in a state of slumber, doesn’t look nervous at all.

He’s brought to a large, fancy room toward the rear of the jet, where Divan waits. There is a troubling collection of faces on the wall behind him, somehow adding a dark gravity to Divan’s presence.

“Hello, Co

“I know who you are,” Co

“Divan Umarov,” he continues, ignoring Co

“His IV must have blown,” says the medic, his eye almost swollen shut from Co

Behind Divan, Argent fumbles to clean a dining table, clearly too terrified for his own life to even make eye contact with Co

“Wait a second,” says Co

“You shut up!” Argent says, playing into Co

Divan apparently knows their unpleasant history together—as Co

Divan looks Co

Co

Divan never breaks eye contact. “Indeed they are. Cervelt. New Zealand deer fiber, a bargain at a thousand dollars a pair.” He returns Co

“Ski

Argent, dusting a piano keyboard flinches and hits a few of the keys. On the wall behind him three adjacent faces open their mouths and voice a dissonant chord. Co

“I’ll confess,” says Divan, “I was hoping to spend perhaps a week to build hype among my customers for your auction . . . but now, in light of your interference with Mr. Starkey, I just want to be rid of you.”

He gestures to the boeuf and the medic to take him away, and they step forward, grabbing him. “Where’s Risa?” demands Co

“Unwise,” he says. “No need to compound her grief.”

Argent brings the lemonade but is literally blindsided by a chair. Bumping into it, he drops the glass on the floor, which calls forth a long-suffering sigh from Divan.

“I’m sorry, sir! I’m sorry!”

“Apologize to Co

“I’m sorry, Co

“It’s all good, Argent,” Co

Divan orders that Co

“Should we now to tranq him?” asks the boeuf in something resembling English, with an accent much stronger than Divan’s.

“No,” Divan tells him, “I can think of no greater punishment than leaving him alone with his own thoughts.”

48 • Argent

In his twenty years on this earth, Argent Ski

It was more than two years after almost finishing high school that Co

Then Co