Chapter 88 (2/2)

”Who knows?” Dan replied with a shrug. He leaned backwards, sinking into the cushions of his living room couch. Abby sat beside him, tucked into his side, gnawing worriedly at her lip.

”The timing certainly matches,” Dan mused aloud, rubbing his brow tiredly. ”The emergency power should only keep the lights on for a day or two. After that, it's down to basic life support.” Meaning further trips to the station would be incredibly inconvenient, if not outright dangerous. Dan couldn't be sure how long the power would really last. ”He took damn near everything, too. Even his old newspapers.” And his test subjects, and all the food. Merrill's little lab buddies were long gone.

Abby stiffened beside him. ”You think— is he maybe coming here? To Earth?”

”I don't know,” Dan admitted, shaking his head. ”There's nothing here for him, though. At least, that's the feeling I always got. The man carried a lot of regrets, but not much he could do with them. Not a lot of unfinished business around here. Pretty much everyone he knows is dead by now.”

”Only grandma is left,” Abby murmured to herself.

Dan gave another sigh, briefly indulging in a moment of self-pity. He was a little disappointed by how unaffected he felt. Marcus had been a major figure in his life, despite their short acquaintance. The man had taught him how to be better. He was, in every sense, a beloved mentor. He was also a bitter old asshole, with a shady past and inscrutable motives. Dan trusted him more than Anastasia, but that wasn't saying a whole lot.

”So plan A is out,” Dan announced, clapping his hands together. The sharp noised cleared away the cobwebs in his mind. His goal still remained. He needed some kind of ace in the hole against Anastasia. Something he could pull out in case of her trying to blackmail him. His origins, his lack of an identity, hung over him like the sword of Damocles. Anastasia Summers was no Matilda Fairbanks. If she wanted to draw attention to Dan, that attention would stick. She had the money and the influence for something that simple. Should the blade fall, he needed a plan. Simply leaving was always an option, but he refused to uproot the life he had built in a fit of pique. He had worked too hard for that. He had hoped Marcus could help him come up with a plan, but that was clearly not going to happen.

Which left plan B. What the hell was plan B?

Abby sucked in a slow breath, and let it out with a shaky rattle. ”I can call my brother, ask him to get you a more solid background. He's got... people. Jason basically only has as much power as grandma gives him, but if he gets involved I doubt she'll act against you. She wouldn't risk it getting out. It might embarrass the company. He'd help me, if I owe him a favor.”

That favor would likely manifest as something deeply unpleasant for Abby. A public appearance, most likely. She hadn't made many of those. Her face was a relative unknown, despite being essentially a billionaire heiress to a Fortune 500 company. Jason Summers had come off as a man who was overworked, in over his head, and a little callous. Dan wouldn't put it past the man to use his little sister as a PR tool, whether he needed the good press or not.

”No,” Dan decided. ”Don't do that.”

It was, more than anything, a matter of pride. He didn't want to put Abby in an awkward position regarding Anastasia. Not for him. He wouldn't force Abby into a situation where she had to betray the trust of her grandmother. The old woman, crazy as she was, had practically raised Dan's girlfriend. This was, he realized with some amusement, essentially like dealing with a cranky mother-in-law. Maybe it was better to treat it like that. To assume that, rather than outright hating him, the old woman simply thought Dan unsuitable for her golden child.

She didn't suspect him of anything nefarious anymore, that much was obvious. Dan would currently be splattered across his living room if that wasn't the case. There was simply no chance that vicious, overprotective, helicopter-grandma Anastasia Summers would ever leave her precious granddaughter alone with someone who would intentionally bring the girl harm. It was a revelation that brought no small amount of relief to him.

What then, was this nonsense about Matilda? Why did she want him, of all people, interfering in this mess? A test? That couldn't be right. The hatred with which she spoke of the People was entirely real. She wouldn't leave it to bumbling, stumbling Daniel Newman to root out an old enemy. There had to be something else at play.

Didn't there?

He didn't have enough information. It was frustrating, trying to pick apart motives that he couldn't begin to even decipher. An exercise in futility. Dan breathed in deep and slow, keeping a steady rhythm.

Focus. A new plan. How could he do this?

His impulsive agreement to Anastasia's demands seemed insane, now. He could barely comprehend what had been going through his mind. It had felt as if the responsibility of the entire situation was solely on his shoulders. The knowledge of what could happen had weighed on him, like an invisible weight wrapped around his heart. It had been on him to act, him alone, and that pressure had made him agree to something profoundly stup—

Oh.

Ohhh.

That bitch.

Was a coerced agreement really an agreement? Dan doubted Anastasia would see things his way. The woman seemed to favor aggressive negotiations. It clarified some things for him, though. He had agreed to keep seeing Matilda, to cooperate with her, until such time that she was forced to bring him to her shady backer. And he had agreed to not inform any member of the APD about Matilda's situation. That was all. There was a lot of unspoken stuff hidden in the agreement, but in light of this new revelation, Dan had elected to ignore that.

Dan blinked, then grinned. He found Abby's eyes, and laughed.

”Let's hang out with some friends, tonight,” he said, reaching down to squeeze her hand. ”You call Freya, I'll call Graham.”

The thing about blackmail, is you only get to use it once. Would Anastasia really give up her best leverage on him for this? Dan doubted it. He wouldn't tell his friends everything, he didn't know them well enough or long enough for that, but he could lay out some suspicions about Matilda. Talk it over, get an opinion from people close to law enforcement. It would be enough to guide him forward.

Worst case scenario, Anastasia returns in a huff. Hell, Connor had wanted to meet the old lady anyway. Maybe some honest groveling would soften her up.