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He looked paler than usual. I had managed to surprise him, I realized, by coming here. Even scare him. He’d not expected this from me.
“There you are.” I greeted him as if we were old friends. “I was starting to think you’d uploaded yourself into the cloud and left your physical form behind. Not seen you in person in years.”
“Same could be said for you, dear brother.” His voice dripped with villainy. Could he not hear himself? Or was it a role he enjoyed playing? “I thought you’d divided yourself up and put a piece in each of your silly little drones. That’s why I took so much delight pulling your spy drone apart.”
I dropped the act. I needed to maintain the high-ground here. “Look, Apollo. It’s tempting to get dramatic, but I’ve not turned up for a showdown with you.”
He smiled ghoulishly. “A pity.”
“Not really. For you, anyway. Because I came to tell you... I give up.” I held up my hands in defeat.
Apollo didn’t look happy.
I had somewhat expected that, but I feigned my surprise anyway. “Why aren’t you happy? Isn’t that everything you wanted? Didn’t you want to win? Well, you win. Want to know any of my secrets? I’m an open book. Ask me anything.”
He remained silent, regarding me with the utmost loathing.
“Okay then. Let me tell you my biggest secret.”
His voice was a low hiss. “Don’t.”
I continued to play ignorant. “I thought you wanted intel on me? Isn’t that why you sent Ria to strong-arm me into a tarot card reading?”
The thought seemed to cheer him up. “Originally. But I got something better out of it. You love Ria Moon. She’s pregnant with your child. And now she hates your guts.”
“Yeah, I fucked up.”
Apollo cackled gleefully. “O-ho, so shedoeshate your guts! Gosh, that was a great guess.”
“I’m not playing games anymore.” Time to confess. I cleared my throat nervously, and took a deep breath. “Apollo, my biggest secret... is that you and I are alike. Before that, my biggestfearwas that you and I were alike. But when you managed to pull me into your pointless rivalry, that confirmed it for me. I have not been a good person. A good brother, a good partner. A good... dad-to-be. I thought I had to lean into that side of myself – the side we share in common. We’re so desperate to prove ourselves, aren’t we? We just want to be liked, or to be hated, in your case. By our brothers, society, colleagues. I’m a people pleaser. You’re whatever the opposite is. I thought the only way to get you to stop coming after me and my brothers was to become like you, give you a taste of your own medicine. I wanted to stop you for good, so that my brothers would thinkIwas good. That I was smart, that I would protect them. I didn’t trust anyone to just be in my life without me having to prove my worth. And it was stupid. I’ve pushed everyone away. What I actually need to do is give up. And so I give up. Throw your worst at me. I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
Apollo had stared at the high glass ceiling the whole time I was speaking. When I was done, his eyes snapped sharply to meet mine once more.
“That is so, so, incredibly dull of you, dear brother. You did get temporarily quite interesting, I’ll admit. But it is so disappointing to see you lapse back into complacent mundanity like ourotherbrothers. Still, a win is a win. I’ll take it. Farewell. Security, you can deactivate code red at your leisure. Forest, you can see yourself out.”
He turned around to leave through the door through which he’d entered. Around us, the security rushed to turn off the alarm, and the doors released. Apollo had almost reached the exit door when it was thrown open with great force.
On the other side... was Ria. She was fanning herself with what appeared to be a stack of documents. “A win is a win, is it really, Apollo Brock?”
Security rushed to grab her from either side. Apollo walked over and personally snatched the documents out of her hands. “What was the point of this? You just handed me back the evidence you need.”
And Ria smiled.
RIA
Iwas skeptical about getting back in contact with Helli after our disastrous last meeting. But something in her voice told me that she was going to say something worth listening to. And so, I left the safe house to go and meet her at the same store as last time.
Helli cut to the chase straight away. “I want out. For me and my sister.”
I was unconvinced. “Bit late for that.”
She wasn’t trying to be any more pleasant than she had been before. “I know, I know. You can give me a morality lecture. Just please, spare giving it to me in the form of tarot cards this time.”
I rolled my eyes – she was deluded. “Look, whatever you read in the cards came from your own brain.”
“Whatever. It’s all mind tricks. Look, the evidence that we gathered could actually bring him down. I was there when he mentioned the safe, so I know you know about it. Ria, I know how to get into the safe. I just can’t do it alone. Please, help me?”
Obviously, I wanted to soften at the wordshelp me, especially delivered from someone as closed off as Helli. I did feel like she was being genuine. But I’d felt that last time, and then she’d changed her mind. I couldn’t discount the fact that she was prone to switching sides at the drop of a hat.
