Chapter 212: 213 | Asset or Liability
"Is this about what I think it’s about?"
"This is about a mysterious message I received from someone claiming to be your sister, offering to tell me secrets about you that would change everything I thought I knew." Noel’s violet hair was escaping its ponytail. Her jaw was tight with barely controlled fury. "Imagine my surprise when I realized I already knew most of those secrets because you told me last night. Right before you drained yourself almost to death saving a complete stranger."
"Oh."
"Yes. Oh." Her grey eyes flashed. "So now you’re going to explain who exactly your sister is, what she wants, and why she’s sending cryptic messages to your teammates like some kind of corporate spy thriller villain."
Mera’s tail tightened around my waist. A question without words.
I sighed.
"Conference room C is probably empty this time of day."
"Lead the way." Noel fell into step beside me. Glanced at Mera. "You too. I want witnesses in case I decide to strangle him."
"I’m always happy to witness Rome getting strangled." Mera grinned. "It’s one of my favorite hobbies."
The conference room was indeed empty. We sat around the table like executives preparing for a hostile negotiation. Which, given Noel’s expression, wasn’t far from the truth.
"Start talking." Noel crossed her arms. "Everything. From the beginning. No more secrets."
So I talked.
About Vivian. About my father. About the laboratory and the blood samples and the surveillance teams. About the wedding and the board seats and the trust clause. About everything my sister had told me the night before, wrapped in warnings and offers of alliance.
Noel listened without interrupting. Her face cycled through various expressions. Anger. Disbelief. Understanding. Something that looked almost like sympathy.
When I finished, she was quiet for a long moment.
"Your father is worse than I thought."
"Most people underestimate him."
"I’m not most people." Noel stood. Walked to the window. Stared out at the campus grounds. "I grew up around corporate predators. My mother made three strategic marriages before I turned fifteen. I learned to read manipulation the way most kids learn to read books."
"And what do you read in this situation?"
"Your father is consolidating control. The investigation. The surveillance. The weapon he sent after you." Noel turned to face me. "He’s not trying to understand you, Rome. He’s trying to determine whether you’re an asset or a liability."
"And if he decides liability?"
"Then you disappear. Maybe into a facility like your sister described. Maybe permanently." Her voice was flat. "Corporate families don’t handle problems through legal channels. They handle them through accidents. Medical complications. Tragic circumstances that everyone agrees are nobody’s fault."
Mera’s tail lashed against the table. "If he tries to hurt Rome—"
"He won’t try. He’ll succeed." Noel cut her off. "Unless we make the cost of moving against Rome higher than the benefit of eliminating him."
"That’s what Laurana was talking about."
"Your professor is smart. I hate that about her." Noel walked back to the table. Sat down across from me. "She’s right about the public relations angle. Right about building support structures. Right about making you too visible to disappear quietly."
"But?"
"But she’s thinking like a hero. Your father doesn’t think like a hero. He thinks like a businessman." Noel leaned forward. "Heroes worry about public opinion and legal consequences and moral obligations. Businessmen worry about profit margins and stock prices and shareholder value."
"What’s your point?"
"My point is that making you famous only protects you if your father cares about fame. If he cares more about control..." She shrugged. "Then all the public support in the world won’t matter when you drink something at a family dinner and don’t wake up."
The room was quiet.
Then Mera laughed.
Not a happy laugh. A sharp one. Dangerous.
"So we don’t wait for him to move. We move first."
Noel’s eyes narrowed. "What are you suggesting?"
"I’m suggesting that Rome has something his father wants. Those blood samples. That research. The secret of how drain-type abilities actually work." Mera’s tail twitched. "What if we offered him something better than trying to take it by force?"
"Negotiate?"
"Negotiate." Mera grinned. "Rome’s father is a businessman, right? Businessmen understand deals. Transactions. Mutual benefit."
"You want to make a deal with the man who kidnapped a teenager and turned him into a weapon."
"I want to buy time." Mera’s grin faded. "Rome needs to win the exhibition match. Secure the Vanguard contract. Build the support structure Laurana talked about. Right now his father holds all the cards because Rome has nothing to lose that matters."
"I have plenty to lose."
"You have people you care about. That’s not the same as leverage." Mera looked at me. "What does your father actually want? Not what you think he wants. What does he want more than anything else in the world?"
I thought about it. About eighteen years of watching from a distance. About every interaction I’d observed between the original Rome and his father.
"Control." The answer came slowly. "He wants to control everything around him. The company. The family. The narrative. He can’t stand the idea of something existing outside his influence."
"Then we offer him controlled access." Mera’s eyes gleamed. "Not everything. Not the drain. Just enough to make him think he’s getting what he wants while we build what we need."
"That’s dangerous."
"Everything is dangerous." Mera stood. Walked around the table. Stopped behind my chair the way Laurana had earlier. But where Laurana’s touch had been clinical, Mera’s was possessive. Her hands on my shoulders. Her tail coiled around the chair back. "The question is which danger gives us the best chance of winning."
Noel watched this display with an expression I couldn’t read.
"She’s not wrong."
"I know."
"You hate that."
"I hate most things about this situation." I reached up. Covered Mera’s hand with mine. "But hating it doesn’t change it. And right now I’ll take any advantage we can get."
