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Marianella slipped into the garden. She’d rather harbor this heavy guilt than know she had invited the aid of a terrorist.
“It was easier that way,” she finally said, and settled into a place on the cleanest bench. “To just run. I’m sorry, I am, but—”
“You don’t need to apologize, for God’s sake.” Alejo sank down beside her. “I’m just glad you’re not hurt.” He paused, tilted his head, looked up at the trees. “This is a problem.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Marianella glared at him. “I don’t think he’ll even let me pay him off at this point, do you? If he wants me dead so badly?”
Alejo rubbed his hands over his forehead. “The man’s primary focus is money,” he said. “It always has been. I take it you didn’t try to negotiate with him last night?”
“Negotiate!” Marianella cried. “I didn’t even see him! Negotiation was the farthest thing from my mind. I was just trying to get Eliana and myself out of there alive.” Her voice hitched. She remembered the sting in her knuckles as she slammed her fist into Diego’s forehead, knocking him unconscious. It had been necessary, a necessary evil, the only way to escape—at least, that’s what she had thought last night. In the sallow light of morning, Alejo’s suggestion of a negotiation seemed almost reasonable.
“I did what I thought I had to do,” she whispered. It was more to herself, but Alejo drew his arm around her shoulder and gave her a quick, brotherly squeeze.
“You were scared,” he said. “We can figure some other way out of this.”
“There is no other way.” Marianella stared straight ahead. “He won’t take my money.”
Alejo was silent for a moment. In the distance Marianella heard the clicking whir of one of the performance robots, sneaking its way through the park’s path, avoiding her and Alejo.
“My associates,” Alejo said slowly. “You know they’d be willing to—take care of him for you.”
Marianella’s breath lodged in her throat. She felt dizzy. “Kill him, you mean. Just say it.”
“Fine, yes, kill him. He certainly wouldn’t be the worst person they’ve targeted.”
“Wouldn’t it go against the cause?” Marianella’s question was more mocking than she’d intended, and she squeezed the bridge of her nose. “You’re the one always saying that they aren’t mercenaries for hire.”
“I say that, but they really kind of are.”
She could feel Alejo staring at her. Waiting for an answer. She didn’t tell him that Sofia had offered the same thing, that it had given her a sick feeling in her stomach like the world was falling apart.
“No,” she said. “I don’t want to kill him. I don’t want to—be like him.”
“You already beat up one of his men.”
Shame rose fast in Marianella’s cheeks. She stood up in a rush of anger. “That was self-defense.”
“So is this, for God’s sake!”
“And I didn’t kill him. I could have, but I didn’t.” She turned to face Alejo, found him gazing up at her with a calm expression that only u
“We have to do something,” Alejo said. “It’s not just about you—and don’t take that the wrong way. I certainly don’t want to see you dead. But he’s going to try to find you. He’s going to investigate you. And once he does that, he’s going to find out about the dome, and he’s going to want to destroy it.”
Marianella took a deep breath. She slumped back down onto the bench beside Alejo. She was no longer angry, only defeated. And Ignacio had defeated her.
“The dome,” she said weakly.
“Yes, the dome.” Alejo leaned in, pitched his voice low. “Let the AFF handle it. One assassination, and he’ll be gone.”
Marianella pushed her distaste aside. She had to try another approach. “He’ll be gone, but what about the rest of his organization?”
Alejo didn’t answer.
“Are you going to kill all the rest of them too? The men loyal to him? Surely he’s grooming someone to take his place, and they’re going to want to know why the AFF took him out. What if they trace it back to me? The threat of my identity is always there. Always.” Marianella shook her head. “And you can’t just keep killing people to get your way. You can’t.”
“Then what do you suggest we do?”
“You go to him,” Marianella said. “You pay him off. I can send you the money. We should have done that from the begi
Alejo leaned back on the bench and crossed his arms over his chest. “That puts my career on the line.”
“So send one of your AFF friends to do it!” Marianella threw up her hands. “Tell him I’m part of the AFF, that they want to protect their own. I can send the money to you.” She hated that, hated the idea of aligning herself with terrorists. But it was better than letting herself become a murderer.
“You’re willing to let Cabrera think you’re part of the AFF?” Alejo laughed. “Not what I expected.”
“These are desperate times,” Marianella said.
For a moment, Alejo let his politician’s mask slip, and he looked sad.
“This is my act of desperation,” Marianella said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
SOFIA
“What do you want?” Sofia let the door slam shut behind her. Cabrera was writing something with a ballpoint pen and didn’t look up at her when she walked into the room.
“Hello, Sofia. It’s nice to see you, too.” His pen continued to scratch across his paper. Sofia didn’t sit down. She knew this wasn’t about reprogramming more icebreakers, because if that had been the case, he wouldn’t have told her to come alone, and they would be meeting on the docks, at night—not in his office, during the middle of the afternoon, the day after Marianella had stupidly slipped out of the amusement park to attend a fund-raiser gala for her damned agricultural domes.
“Please, have a seat.” Cabrera finally looked up, his face pleasantly expressionless. He set his pen aside. “I have a proposition to discuss with you.”
Sofia stared at him. The record player was still set up behind the desk. A disc of vinyl gleamed in the office lights, but the turntable was still.
“I don’t need anything else from you,” Sofia said.
Cabrera studied her. “Odd. I thought you were still waiting on something.”
The programming key. Sofia could picture it, the little sphere of burnished metal filled with interlocking numbers. With it Araceli could unlock all the secrets of her code—without it, her plan was much more difficult.
Sofia didn’t say anything.
“Sit, sit,” he said, waving at the chair. “It won’t take long.”
Sofia considered her options. There weren’t many.
She glided forward, sank down into the chair.
Cabrera gri
“Is that so?”
“I don’t feel like you’ve been entirely—honest with me.”
Sofia thought about Marianella walking through the gates of the park, a panicking Eliana at her side. He tried.
Sofia didn’t move. “Excuse me?”
“About your”—Cabrera wriggled his fingers, as though conjuring up the right words—“associates. Your less-than-human associates.”
“Less than human?”
“Oh, don’t take it personally, my dear. You know what I mean. I was under the impression that we were partners. That you would keep me abreast of any unusual situations related to the denizens of the park.”
Sofia wrapped her fingers around the armchair and squeezed. “That was never part of our arrangement. I was under the impression that I was to be your reprogrammer,” Sofia said. “Which I’ve done. Unfailingly.”
Cabrera stared at her. “You aren’t human, so I can forgive you for not understanding, but a partnership with me is a partnership all the way through. You reprogram my robots, and you warn me of any potential problems from your kind.” He flashed her a grin. “I’ve certainly been keeping up my end of the bargain. Getting those items you requested, yes, but also keeping the park safe from city cullings—”