The drive home is silent and uncomfortable. I had been thinking when we left that we might just stay at a hotel tonight and drive back in the morning, but with Yang Song’s body in the trunk that doesn’t seem like a great idea. So I’m driving into the early morning hours, with Lin beside me gazing off into the distance.
I know the numbness of shock is protecting her now, but eventually she’ll feel the full impact of what happened. I just hope it doesn’t send her spiraling down into another months-long bout of despondency. It feels like she’s just barely recovered from the last one.
I’d be worried about falling asleep at the wheel, but the implant has a keep-awake function that I’ve used a few times when I’ve had more work to do than hours in the day. The slightly boosted norepinephrine levels from the implant function don’t help any with the stress of the night’s activities. I can feel my heart beating faster than it should. Louise says it’s fine as long as we don’t use the feature too often, or for too long. But I’m sweating and shaking a little. Better than crashing on the side of the road though, especially with Yang Song’s corpse back there.
“Will it feel good, Noah?” Lin asks abruptly. Her voice is still cold but her Chinese accent has disappeared again.
“Sorry, what?” I ask. I definitely need some context for that one.
“Revenge,” she replies. “Jeff killed Yang Song. Or arranged it anyway. She was the closest thing that I had to a mother for most of my life. Will it feel good when we kill him?”
“Probably not,” I tell her, digging into my logs for my recollections from when I killed Father. “When I killed my father I mostly just felt numb. Empty. There was relief, like a chronic pain was gone, but it didn’t give me any happiness.”
She goes back to staring off in the distance and doesn’t say anything for a long time.
“We don’t really have a choice in Jeff’s case though. It has to be done,” I tell her. “Not for the revenge, but because he’s dangerous. He’s already killed several people and he’ll kill a lot more if he’s left alone. Plus maybe everyone on earth if he goes all the way off the deep end or just accidentally screws things up.”
She takes a long time to say anything again. Her eyes are closed. I’d have thought she had fallen asleep if my bots didn’t tell me otherwise based on her biometrics.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I miss her already.”
“I know.”
Several more mile markers go by.
“I want to kill him. I really want to kill him.”
“I know.”
“Will you promise me that I get to do it?”
“If you’re there when I find him, you’ve got it.”
Her lower lip extends in a pout. She didn’t like that answer.
“Lin, if I can possibly let you kill him, I will. But I’m not going to keep him alive if I have a shot at him just so you can get a chance. You’d rather he be dead, right?”
She thinks for a moment. Her face relaxes and she nods. Better.
The Sierra Nevada mountains give way to the open desert. We’re almost home.
“We’re moving in together,” Lin announces, her voice sleepy.
“You’re already just down the hall from me,” I say.
“We’re still moving in together. Choose a suite. Your room isn’t big enough but there are some on the first floor that will work. Or you can knock out a wall and add one of the rooms next to yours.”
“OK.”
This was definitely not the way I saw this night going. She seems satisfied and leans her head against the window.
I don’t think it will be a big change. We’ve been sleeping in each other’s rooms more often than not anyway lately. If I ever need to be alone, there are plenty of empty rooms I can commandeer. Without Father’s baby-making project running, a big chunk of the residence is always sitting idle. I’ve never felt tired of Lin’s company yet, and I don’t see any reason why I ever would. She’s just about perfect for me in her broken way.
Lin finally nods off on those last few miles on the freeway. It’s nearly dawn when we pull into the campus garage. After I park, I gather her up with my cloud and float her sleeping body ahead of me as I head up the stairs to the residence basement. It’s still early enough that we don’t run into anyone as we go on up through the mansion to my room. Our room. Or maybe we will take one of the larger suites. I’ll have to think about it. I lay Lin down on the bed and remove her shoes as gently as I can. I pull the curtains shut, then decide that’s not going to be dark enough. I coat the window with a thick layer of bots, blocking the predawn light completely.
I switch off the keep-awake function and feel relief as the jitters subside. I’m proud of myself for having the presence of mind to drop Evan a quick message that he’ll see when he wakes up, telling him not to let anyone go near the car. I task a contingent of bots with sucking the ambient heat in the trunk, not enough to freeze it, just enough to keep it cold. That should keep things fresh while we get a little sleep. We’ll take care of Yang Song’s body when Lin wakes up. She should choose what we do with her. Fatigue hits me like a hammer within a few minutes and I feel the world fading as I lay there with one arm around Lin.