Page 52 of The Fallen Man

“That’s dumb,” said Dominque, casting herself into an armchair. “You should ignore her.”

“That’s what I told him,” said Evan, taking the opposite armchair. Aiden was still sitting on the table and frowning at the subpoenas.

“I’m going to have to call some people,” said Aiden. “These are odd. And I’m not sure we can’t just fight them on the grounds of being… bullshit. We were never witnesses in the Absolexhearings. Calling us in smacks of overreach.”

“Well, Granger…” began Dominique.

“Yeah, I was there,” said Aiden. “J.P. Granger tried to have us killed or whatever to cover up the fact that he’d falsified research and that his drug was killing people. But I’m not sure what the attacks on us have to do with the senate hearings on the drugs themselves. One caused the other, but the attacks are a criminal case that’s basically moot now that Granger has offed himself. I don’t know why they want us to testify before the Committee. I’m tempted to file to have these blocked just because someone shouldn’t get away with practicing such messy law.”

“I’d rather you didn’t,” said Jackson. “Or at least… I want to be in the room. I want to see who turns up to threaten us. I think that will tell me something. But if you think that will expose us to danger, we can do it your way.”

“I think it will expose us to being annoyed,” said Aiden. “I think they’re going to play a giant game of gotcha and try to get us to say something embarrassing. If we just stick to what we’ve already said in our previous statements, it should be fine, but I’m warning you now we’re all going to be pissed off and grumpy. The Deveraux temperament is not suited to answering questions from a bunch of pompous windbags.”

Jackson laughed. “I’m sure you’re right, but I will buy everyone dinner if you all come and play along.”

“Well, when do we have to go?” asked Dominique. “It’s not like I can just walk out of work whenever. I’ve got deadlines and people to manage. Do you know how much graphic designers wanker off if you leave them alone?”

“No clue,” said Evan. “But I’m assuming it’s a lot.”

“Date is unspecified,” said Aiden. “Basically, it’s whenever they call it. Sorry. But hey, at least we all get to go to DC together. That could be fun.”

“He’s going to make us go to the spy museum,” predictedDominique gloomily.

Jackson sat up. “They have a spy museum?”

“Yeah! It looks awesome,” said Aiden.

“We’ll go to the National Gallery of Art,” said Evan, turning to Dominique.

“Deal!” agreed Dominique.

“Hey,” said Evan, “how’s it going with therapy?”

“Uh,” said Aiden looking panicked. “Are we… uh…”

Dominique frowned up at him and then looked back at Evan and Jackson. “Why is he being weird?”

“He’s Aiden,” said Evan. “I thought weird was an inherent part of his genetic makeup.”

“I didn’t know we were talking about it!” snapped Aiden.

“We talk about mine,” said Evan. “Why wouldn’t we talk about Dominique’s therapy?”

“We don’t talk about it,” said Aiden firmly.

“Well, I do,” said Evan. “I’m not asking for deep dark secrets or anything. I just want to know if she’s going to find her own therapist, if it’s been helpful, or if she got there and thought it was a waste of time.”

“Oh,” said Aiden. “Well, I mean, I want to know those things too.”

“Um,” said Dominique. “I don’t… Uh… Helpful, I think. Actually, it’s been really nice seeing your therapist because I don’t have to explain us to her. Pretty sure she thinks we’re peculiar, but, like, in a super not judgmental way.”

“I know,” said Evan. “Isn’t that nice?”

“It really is!” She fell silent again and chewed her lip briefly, which was a sign of nerves for Dominique.

“You don’t have to say anything else,” said Jackson. “We just want to know if you’re OK.”

“No,” said Dominique. “I’m not. I mean, mostly I’m fine. And Evan was right. She gave me some good immediate strategiesfor coping with anxiety. And I’ve only been a few times, but basically, she thinks I’m kind of… off-balance, and I’m being triggered by current events over past stuff. You know, probably because we never talked about anything for our entire lives, and apparently, we bottle stuff up until it’s a problem.”