The mattress dipped, and Rito turned to see Milli pushing herself off the bed.

“Where d’you think you’re going?” she reached out to tug at Milli’s wrist. “It’s not polite to leave your guests alone, didn’t you know that?”

Eri rubbed her head against Rito’s thigh and meowed in agreement. “See? Your cat agrees with me.” Rito pushed herself up on an elbow and gathered Eri up in one arm, holding her close. “You should listen to cats. They’re smart.”

“Not this one. She almost drowned in her own milk bowl just last week,” Milli chuckled, buttoning her nightshirt. “And anyway, I was just going to get you the coffee I promised when I invited you inside. Wouldn’t want you to feel cheated, after all.”

“I think we can both agree I got more than I’d bargained for on this deal,” Rito smiled, without letting go of Milli’s hand. “Come back here. The coffee can wait. Eri thinks coffee is for losers, anyway.” She tapped the cat on the nose and giggled as it let out a startled squawk.

“Fine. I’ll serve you cat food for breakfast.” Milli rolled her eyes. “Be careful with her hind legs. She broke them as a kitten. They never quite healed right.”

“Both her legs?” Rito’s eyes widened as she put Eri gently down on the bed. “How?”

Milli shrugged, looking away. “Some people threw stones at her, when she was a kitten. They thought she was bad luck. ‘Cause she’s, you know, a black cat. By the time we found Eri, they’d already killed her mother. And she was horribly wounded; so weak the vet was sure she wouldn’t survive.”

After a beat, she tipped her head back and grinned. “But what do you know? Eri’s a fighter.” She leaned forward and rubbed the cat’s ears affectionately. “No stupid, superstitious assholes were gonna keep her down.”

“But who’d attack a kitten?” Rito frowned. “What could she possibly have done to anyone?”

Milli shrugged. “They say if you see a black cat, death is close by. It’s stupid. But then, people are stupid.” She smiled. “And cruel and murderous. What can you do?”

Rito said nothing for a moment. Then, she pulled Milli forward and looked her steadily in the eyes. “Why did those people attack you at the hotel? Or I guess they wanted to attack your mother.” She shook her head. “But why?”

Milli sighed, then looked away from Rito, staring fixedly at the far wall. “Grigori. Uh, I mean, President Maganti. He’s my half-brother, you know?”

Rito nodded, idly massaging the back of Milli’s hand with her thumb. “Is he...”

“This isn’t the first time he’s tried something like this. Ever since our father died...” she bit her lip, then rolled over on the bed to lie face to face with Rito. “He had me kidnapped, back when I was in school, to blackmail my mother.”

“What?” Rito could feel the blood draining from her face. She clutched at Milli’s hand. What kind of a brother would do something like that?

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Milli nodded. “Fucked up, I know. After our father died, he wanted total control of the party. My mother refused to give him that, and eventually there was a split. One faction broke away, formed a new alliance with my mother at the helm, including some of the older and more influential party members.

“Grigori didn’t like that. Ever since he was elected president, he’s been doing everything in his power to undermine all opposition. To position himself as–”

“A dictator,” Rito finished. “That’s what he wants, right? To turn Maralana into a dictatorship.”

“He does. And if not for Mamma and her party, he would’ve managed it too. Right now, she’s the biggest political opponent he has in this country. And this isn’t the first time he’s tried to have her killed.

“And it’s not just her, either. Journalists, judges, activists, bureaucrats...people who oppose him have a tendency to end up dead. Or at least they did, until he got wind of Amven. Once he gets a hold of that, he can wreak havoc without getting any blood on his hands. Might even be an improvement, depending on how you look at it.”

“Wait, what?” Rito pushed herself into a sitting position, causing a startled Eri to dive under the quilt, meowing plaintively. “Amven as in...the Amven drug? The one Jehan made?”

Milli frowned. “Is there another one? I wouldn’t know. I only know what Mamma tells me. And she doesn’t always tell me everything–”

“No,” Rito cut her off. “No, that’s not what I meant. But why does President Maganti want the Amven drug?”

“Because it’s the easiest way to bring the Opposition to heel, without setting off any international alarm bells.” She shrugged. “Murders are messy. And he doesn’t want to make any more enemies internationally than he must.

“When domestic terrorists attacked those metro stations in Qayit, Grigori had hoped Naijan would use Amven on the arrested suspects. If that went well – and he’d have made sure it did – there’d be a precedent for using the drug on criminals, or for national security.”

Rito nodded with dawning comprehension. “Then, it would just be a matter of normalizing the use of the drug on criminals. Once that was widely accepted, all he’d have to do is to have his opponents arrested on false charges and inject them with Amven until they agreed with everything he said. You don’t need to kill your enemies if you can just enslave them.”

“All for the sake of national security, of course,” Milli smiled. “Corpses aren’t nearly as useful as an army of obedient yes-men.”

“And what? The people of Naijan were supposed to be the guinea pigs for his twisted little schemes?” The thought of it made her skin crawl. She could feel a nascent fury building in her gut. “That’s why he paid off half the old Cabinet, isn’t it?”

“Oh, he did more than that,” Milli chuckled, shaking her head. “You don’t know dear Grigori well enough if you think he’d be satisfied with such indirect meddling as that, and for something this crucial too. Still, Prime Minister Fasih’s intervention sure as hell threw a spanner in his works, at least for a while.”

Rito frowned, lying back down with a groan. “You think he knew about all this when he did it? You think that’s why Jehan forced Papa to resign?”

“I’ve no idea. But whatever his reasons, it worked. Naijan didn’t use Amven on those terrorists. And here I am, talking to you, perfectly lucid and not yet drugged into singing Grigori’s praises.” She shrugged. “Mamma says she likes him...Jehan, I mean. And quite frankly, I can see why.”

“He can be charming when he wants to be. I don’t hate him myself, or at least not as much as I thought I would.” Rito smirked. “I have to say, though, that might change very quickly if I find out he’s out to steal my girl.”

Milli scuttled closer until her forehead was inches from Rito’s. “Oh, he isn’t quite cute enough for that.”

Laughing, Rito wrapped an arm around Milli, even as she reached under her pillow to retrieve her phone with the other hand. The device pinged, and Rinisa’s number flashed on the screen.

Rito’s heart leapt to her throat.

She’d forgotten all about the drug samples she was supposed to have stolen from Jehan, which Rinisa expected to get back from her before the New Year’s gala.

God, she was as good as dead.

Eri meowed from somewhere under the covers, as if in agreement.