Page 22 of The Dazzling Heights

“Last time you seduced and drugged me!”

She smiled. “That was fun, wasn’t it? Well, Watt”—she reached up to tuck a stray hair behind his ear and he yanked his head angrily away; he was starting to feel very confused—“if you must know, I need you to monitor some people for me.”

“Forget it, Leda. I told you, I’m done with all that.”

“That’s too bad, because I’m not done withyou.” She’d dropped the playful tone, her voice cold with the veiled threat. She had him cornered, and they both knew it.

“Who do you want me to monitor?” Watt asked warily.

“Avery and Rylin, for starters,” Leda said. There was a new energy to her voice, as if bossing Watt around somehow lent her strength. “I want to make sure they stay in line, that neither of them is talking to anyone about what happened that night.”

He realized she was wearing the same pearl studs that she’d had on the last time she came over here, and the memory caused his anger to bubble up even hotter. “You want me to spy on both of them and report anything unusual?” Watt asked. “Two full-time monitoring tasks. That’ll cost you.”

Leda burst out laughing. “Watt! Of course I won’t be paying you! Your payment is my silence.”

Watt didn’t need Nadia to tell him he’d better not respond to that. Anything he said would only dig him in deeper. He just nodded once, jerkily, hating her.

“You see, Rylin started at my school today,” Leda mused aloud. She’d started circling through his room like a predator, opening various drawers and glancing at the contents, then shutting them again. “It really caught me off guard. I hate that feeling. The whole reason I pay you is to never feel that way,everagain.”

“I believe we just established that you don’t pay me,” he replied evenly.

Leda slammed another drawer shut and lifted her eyes to look directly at Watt. “Where is it?” she demanded. “Your computer.”

Nadia. Can you pretend to be an external?he thought, and made a show of pushing a useless button on his monitor. “Right here. Look, I’m turning it on,” he said. “And now it’s starting up.”

“I don’t need a running commentary.” Leda took a seat on Watt’s bed without being invited. Some strange part of Watt realized that was the first time a girl had ever been on his bed. He’d hooked up with plenty of girls before, of course, but he always went back to their places. He shook his head, a little irritated; why was he thinking about sex right now?

“Let’s start with Avery,” Leda began.

“What? Right now?”

“No time like the present,” she said with false cheerfulness. “Come on, pull up her room comp.”

“No,” Watt said automatically.

“Too painful a memory?” Leda laughed, but it rang hollow to Watt’s ears. He wondered what had happened tonight, to send her down here. “Fine, then. Her flickers.”

“Still no.”

“Oh my god, moveover,” she snapped, pushing him impatiently from his chair. Their legs brushed, sending a strange row of sparks up Watt’s body. He quickly edged away from her.

“How do you input commands?” She leaned forward and gazed expectantly at the monitor.

“Nadia, say hello to Leda,” Watt instructed, very loudly and slowly.Use the speakers, Watt thought, but Nadia was already doing so—using every speaker in the room, including the ones on his old VR gear.

“Hello to Leda,” Nadia boomed. Watt barely choked back a laugh. She was using a robotic, monotonous voice, like in old science fiction movies.

Leda practically jumped. “Nice to meet you,” she said cautiously.

“Wish I could say the same,” Nadia replied.

“What isthatsupposed to mean?” Leda smiled.

Great, go ahead and antagonize her, Watt thought, rolling his eyes.

I’m just following your lead.“You think you can blackmail Watt because you’ve got something on him? Do you even know what I have onyou? I see everything you do,” Nadia warned, as ominously as she could.

Leda shoved back the chair in a show of anger, but Watt could tell Nadia’s proclamation had shaken her.