The Better to See

Chapter 34

Esperanza didn't look like much, as far as Vermeille was concerned. She was just an old woman. But it was clear that her power of suggestion had been holding Sarah's friend Pearl in thrall. She had done terrible things to Lucas' family, and to countless others. Rachel and Francis and Toby ended up on the Curie because this little old woman couldn't stomach the thought of someday dying.

"They're pirates," Sarah was saying to Pearl. "Let me introduce—" She cut herself off, glancing at Esperanza. "Captain Sang, whose able crew captured our blimp, and her daughter Red, who we found on a boat."

"Your damsel in distress," Pearl said, fixing Vermeille with a sharper eye.

"You were just my damsel in distress," Sarah retorted.

Vermeille ignored them in favor of leaning over to whisper in Esperanza's ear.

"Esperanza du Bois," she said, fingers twitching around her gearling, "I want to test a theory of mine, just like one of your Cloaks. Tome Chapeau, let's call me. Your doctors work with silver. I thought that was odd, since when I barely scratched one of your Frenchmen with a tiny silver knife, he died." She paused.

Esperanza's jaw worked. She would get the glove crammed in her mouth out at any moment like that.

Vermeille put her unhurt hand over the woman's lips and continued. "Then I came to be on the Curie, where your doctors cut me and poked me and made me angry. I should have the same reaction to silver as any of the others, shouldn't I? But look!" She showed Esperanza the bloody lace on her other hand, the one that held the gearling. "It hurt, but I still walk. Shouldn't I have died?"

Esperanza didn't take her eyes off the gearling.

Vermeille smiled. "I'm going to take the glove out of your mouth now, and we're going to have a discussion. Pay careful attention to my silver scalpel! We will talk quietly, and you will not speak to Sarah or Pearl. Or my mother."

Esperanza nodded.

Vermeille removed the glove.

Esperanza stretched her mouth and tongue. "You are intelligent, Vermeille Edwards," she said in a low voice.

Vermeille laughed.

The sound caught Sarah's attention, and she stopped her explanations to Pearl to round on Vermeille. "What are you doing? She'll—"

"No she won't," said Vermeille. She shifted her gearling, watching the old woman's eyes follow it. "Will you, Esperanza? Go ahead and try it on me, though, please. I'd be fascinated to see how your persuasion gets along with my rage. In the name of science, of course."

Esperanza said nothing.

"Very good," said Vermeille. "I'll tell you what I think, shall I? I think your first tests gave you many of the results you wanted. Strength, an extended lifespan. Oh, perhaps there was increased aggression, but was that really a bad thing? Aggression is just another word for power, after all. And you do like power. This must also have been when you got your marvelous talent for speech."

Still Esperanza said nothing.

"Sarah," Vermeille said, "is there a place near here where you can make an announcement to the compound? Somewhere everyone can hear you?"

Sarah blinked at her.

Pearl answered instead. "The commander has a PA system in his office. The microphone is on his desk." When Vermeille didn't respond, she elaborated. "Public address: it goes to speakers all over headquarters."

Vermeille nodded. "Let's go back to Father's office, then. Come, Esperanza. We're still talking."

She took the old woman's elbow and helped her along the short corridor. "Those first tests also resulted in an unexpected sensitivity to silver, didn't they, Esperanza? I don't know why, but they did. So why am I all right? Not a rash on me."