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The door popped open.
All the lights were off. Marianella stepped into the doorway and turned her head back and forth, listening. Eliana followed and pulled the door shut.
“I don’t hear anything,” Marianella said in a normal voice. “No breathing. There’s no one here.”
Eliana let out a sigh of relief. “Move quickly,” she said. “We don’t want to be here when he gets back.”
Marianella nodded. “Anything suspicious, yes?”
“Anything that can explain what the hell Ortiz is up to, yeah.” Eliana and Marianella split up, Marianella disappearing into a short hallway leading, Eliana assumed, into the bedroom, and Eliana heading toward the kitchen. The living room was sparse, just a sofa and a television set, nothing hanging on the walls. The kitchen was even emptier. One of the cupboards contained two each of a plate, a bowl, a knife, a spoon, and a fork, and in the refrigerator Eliana found only a mostly empty package of wintertime coffee. She opened up each of the drawers in turn. Empty, empty, empty.
And then one wasn’t.
It was the drawer closest to the telephone, which sat haphazardly on the counter like it had been forgotten. Inside the drawer, Eliana found a blank notepad, an assortment of pens, some paper clips, old receipts, and a business card. Eliana pulled it out. It belonged to a city man, the familiar dome logo stamped on the front.
Above the dome logo was the name Pablo Sala.
Eliana stared at the business card for a long time. Costa had Sala’s business card.
“Marianella!” she shouted.
She flipped the card over. There was a message scrawled on the back: Give him the information. Best way to be rid of her.
“What is it? Did you find something?” Marianella appeared in the kitchen. “I didn’t see much in the first bedroom. The second bedroom’s locked, but—” She stopped. Her shoulders slumped. “What’s wrong?”
Eliana held up the card. “I found this. It’s Pablo Sala’s card. He was the one who stole your documents.”
Marianella walked over to her side and plucked the card out of Eliana’s hand. She stared down at it, her face hard.
“There’s a message on the back.”
Marianella read it. She was quiet for a long time. Then she set the card down on the counter.
“That’s Alejo’s handwriting,” she said.
Eliana hesitated. She wanted to choose her words carefully. “Are you sure? It can be hard to tell—”
“I’ve read enough of his memos to know.” Marianella turned away, her face a cold mask. “He knew he had to ensure he wasn’t co
“Sala had access to the new drone types,” Eliana said. “That’s probably why Ortiz chose him. Someone who could break in easily.”
“Well, at least Sala was stupid. Stupid enough to take the information to Ignacio instead of the police.”
Marianella marched out of the kitchen, her heels clicking against the tile.
“Marianella, wait!” Eliana snatched the card off the counter, reconsidered, dropped it back into the drawer. Then she ran into the living room. Marianella disappeared around the bend in the hallway, back into the open bedroom. There wasn’t much there, just an unmade bed, a chest of drawers, a pile of dirty clothes. Marianella stood next to the window with her arms crossed over her chest. At least the curtains were drawn.
“I’m sorry about Alejo,” Eliana said.
Marianella reached up and wiped at her eyes. “It’s not your fault.” She looked over at her. “It’s mine. I was so wrapped up in trying to prove I was human, I didn’t see that he was using me.” Another tear dripped down her cheek. She let it fall, and it left a trail of mascara behind. “I guess I was using him, too. But that he would have me destroyed—that’s too much. Too much.” She shook her head.
Eliana walked over to her. Marianella kept her head held high despite her tears, and she still looked regal and sophisticated, more so than Eliana could ever hope to be.
“My mother used to say this city was a prison,” Eliana said. “She said everything was different here, the way people treat each other—”
“No,” Marianella said. “It’s not. The mainland’s just as cruel.” She turned around, and the curtain rippled with her movement and let in a beam of white dome light. “But this place fools ambitious people. People like Alejo Ortiz. It makes them think they have more power than they do.” A smile flickered. “And people like Alejo think people like me are easy to control.”
She strode out of the room.
Eliana stood in the silence of the apartment, listening to her pulse echoing in her ears. And then—
A crash, wood breaking, splintering, falling into pieces.
“What the fuck!” Eliana charged out into the hallway. Marianella had pulled the door to the second bedroom from its hinges. Bits of wood scattered all across the carpet. She looked over her shoulder at Eliana and shrugged.
“It was locked,” she said.
“I could have picked it!”
Marianella tossed the door aside. Eliana’s heart raced. This was bad. This showed they’d been here. This meant the police, meant Eliana losing her license—
“Oh my God,” Marianella said.
Her voice trembled. Whatever ferocity had driven her to rip a door from its hinges was gone. Eliana squeezed into the doorway beside her. Looked into the room.
Froze.
There was no bed, only a worktable spread with fragments of metal. At first Eliana thought she was just staring at robot parts. But then Marianella covered her mouth with her hand and let out a low, keening sound.
“That monster,” she whispered. Tears shimmered on her eyelashes. “That monster.”
And that’s when Eliana saw it. The wires, the empty canisters. Not robot parts.
Explosives.
Eliana couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think.
She had to think.
“Don’t touch anything!” she said. “I mean, I know you touched the door, but the explosives, don’t—”
“That son of a bitch,” Marianella said.
Eliana wavered.
“That filthy, traitorous son of a whore.” Her cheeks were flushed. “Do you know what this means?”
“Not really.” Eliana was dizzy at the thought of standing in an apartment full of explosives. She couldn’t think straight.
“Alejo did it. When Sala fell through, he found another way to betray me.” Her hands curled into fists. Eliana took a step back.
“Maybe Costa is just part of some faction. Maybe Alejo doesn’t know.” But Eliana didn’t believe that either.
“Look what happened when the dome burned down,” Marianella said. Her voice hummed with quiet rage. “He removed me from the project and he got the support of the people.” She was trembling. “Maybe he was pla
Eliana placed one hand on Marianella’s arm. Marianella closed her eyes. A tear streaked down her cheek.
“We should go to the police,” Eliana said. “Call it in as an anonymous tip—”
“No!” Marianella’s voice was stronger than Eliana had expected. “Absolutely not.”
“Oh. Jesus.” Of course, the stalemate. “Then what do we do?” Eliana asked.
Marianella opened her eyes. Took a deep breath. She looked at the explosives like she could ignite them herself.
“I’ll take care of it,” she said, and her voice made Eliana shiver.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
MARIANELLA
Marianella sat in Alejo’s office, staring at his secretary typing over at her desk. She hadn’t told Eliana she was coming here—hadn’t told Eliana anything. They’d sped away from Andres’s apartment in that hulking old-fashioned car, and Marianella had gripped the steering wheel tightly enough that her fingers ached. But she’d taken Eliana back to her apartment in the smokestack district. “Stay here,” she’d said. “Don’t answer the door.”