Obscure

Chapter 17

Elias

It felt like days had passed by the time Elias followed Kirill out of the interrogation room. But according to Kirill, it had taken barely two hours for Elias to tell him everything he knew. And another half hour for Kirill to threaten him sufficiently that he was sure Elias wasn't holding anything back. Betrayal could take so short a time.

Kirill hadn't bothered sending a guard to escort him. Elias understood why. He was no threat, and not only because his hands were still cuffed. Every step forward felt as if his feet weighed a thousand pounds each. Every breath rattled out of his lungs like he was a thousand years old. He was emptied out, hollow inside after giving Kirill everything. There was nothing in him left to put up a fight.

He was ready to collapse into his grave. But as thanks for his cooperation, Kirill had granted him one final mercy. That was where they were headed now, down the wide and sterile hallway that looked clean enough to erase every trace of his presence almost before he had passed. They were on their way for him to receive the gift Kirill had deigned to offer him.

He hated that he was grateful for this. But he was. He could almost believe Kirill had made the offer out of genuine concern for him.

He knew better, of course. This was what was best for PERI. It allowed them to preserve one of their assets—and make Elias feel grateful for the chance to help them do it.

They passed through a set of double doors with a sign above that read MEDICAL. The air on the other side of the doors was several degrees cooler, making Elias shiver. A nurse in scrubs approached, wheeling a stretcher. She gave Elias, with his cuffed hands, a curious look.

Kirill shot her a look of his own—one that said, Move along and don't ask questions. She glanced away and quickened her steps until she and the stretcher had passed.

They stopped at one identical door among many. Kirill unlocked the door with the palm scanner. The door flashed green for his palmprint. That was confirmation enough for Elias that Kirill wasn't doing this for him, but for PERI. They would never have granted him access to the room if this had been his own idea.

Kirill motioned Elias in. "You should go in on your own," he said. "It will be easier that way."

"For him, or for you?" Elias's voice was dull. Dead.

"He'll have enough questions when he sees you. My presence would only complicate things further."

"And you'd have to see his memories," Elias said. "And mine."

Kirill tapped the door with his knuckles. "This isn't enough to stop my power. I'll see them anyway." His eyes looked haunted. No doubt he had already seen plenty of Elias's memories on the way down here. Elias had felt them bleeding out of him all through the hallway, thickly enough that he had glanced behind him a couple of times, half-expecting them to leave a physical trail.

Every memory was of defeat.

Petty defeats, like losing a chess game against Mama Charisse and realizing she had let him win every time before. Defeats that had felt momentous—coming back empty-handed after his first hunting trip. Making call after call after call, to hospitals and morgues and Sammy's school friends, only to collapse at one in the morning, exhausted and empty-handed.

Trying to persuade Kirill to stay with him and failing.

They all paled into insignificance compared to what Kirill had done to him today.

Elias hated Kirill just then, purely for that haunted look in his eyes. He had plenty of reason to hate Kirill already, of course. But that look... it was as if this pain was his pain, his bleeding wound. His defeat.