Daughter of Zeus ✔

6

Kressick searched his bag for his reading glasses. There was time to catch up on the latest news, but reading articles on the tiny interface screen was impossible without his glasses.

In the bathroom, the squeak of the shower tap sounded, followed by cascading water. Ada had asked to bathe first, and being a gentleman, Kressick had agreed.

He patted his waistcoat pockets. Still no glasses. They were most likely in the car.

In the hallway, Kressick noticed a young man. He resembled a statue, frozen in mid-stride, one leg bent back and one arm about to swing upward.

The meeting seemed inconsequential, until the man's overtly still nature became too hard to ignore. Kressick slowed but kept walking, too busy to give much thought to the human mannequin. It was probably a new interface challenge for young people.

On his return to the room, he took the same route. The young man remained frozen in the same spot, in the same position as before.

"Well, hello," Kressick couldn't help but say.

"Hello."

"What are you doing? Are you some sort of mime?" He had other suspicions but wanted to be sure.

"No, sir. I was talking. To a woman. I pissed her off. Then...I don't know. What happened after that." His words passed haltingly through barely moving lips.

"Some woman, huh?" Kressick shook his head. "Dark hair, blue eyes?"

When he didn't respond, Kressick worried the man's bodily functions had ceased.

Then he laughed in a self-deprecating way and explained, "Trying to nod. But...can't. Yes, the woman has. Dark hair and blue eyes. Flawless skin. Can you help me?"

Without promising anything, Kressick sauntered off. The man's ardent pleas grew distant, then disappeared. Kressick was too busy processing the exponential growth of Ada. She was demonstrating her abilities on a larger scale. At the rate she was going, he feared for her future, as he had feared for Adina's.

The day his daughter had confessed her darkest secret had been the day he decided to take care of her.

"He made me so angry, and I just couldn't help it. I turned something off inside of him, and I knew he was gone."

Adina explained what sounded like murder without a hint of feeling in her voice. It was the monotone that scared Kressick the most. She had hurt other people before, but never like this. Kressick had taken her far from their family, intent on training her to focus her abilities, as he'd been shown by his mother. The lessons weren't helping. The Purge rituals lessened her anger, but her impulsivity remained. Kressick reflected on all of this as Adina sat waiting for him to respond. He didn't know what to say.

Then she turned to him, and the lack of expression on her face gutted him. "Please, just end it."

Though it pained him, Kressick had done as she asked.

~*~

Kressick opened the door to the hotel suite.

"Ada!"

"Yes?" Her answer echoed from inside the bathroom.

The distinctive whoosh of the Clear and Clear sounded on and off before she stepped into view. She had a towel wrapped around her hair, but was fully clothed.

"Come with me, please." He held out his hand.

"Why? What's wrong?" She removed the towel to comb her fingers through her hair, fully ignoring his outstretched hand.

"Nothing's wrong. It's actually more funny than wrong."

Assured she would follow, he went back out into the hallway. The door closed behind him, and he rolled his eyes. Of course she would take more convincing, the stubborn chit.

Come with me. You'll want to see this, he sent.

A minute went by, and he added a second message: It's about the security of your trip, which we should maintain to keep your mother safe.

The door opened, and she joined him in the hallway, hand on her hip.

"Well?"

"I know just how to get through to young people. Pepper their device with missives."

She scoffed.

"Follow me, please."

He strode down the hallway. Just before they rounded the corner, he checked her reaction. Her face remained set at one notch above boredom. He kept his gaze on her as they reached the living mannequin. Ada's expression stayed the same—no surprise, no confusion, no guilt.

"You!" The mannequin elicited strained noises, fingers twitching slightly.

She ignored him. "What are we doing here, Kressick?"

"Help. Me?" The man's eyes moved back and forth in pinball style.

He looked every part the cartoon character, and Kressick struggled to maintain an air of seriousness.

"You did this to the poor man, Ada, now help---What's your name, sir?"

"Shylar."

Kressick waved a bottle of water. "Thirsty, Shylar?"

"God. Yes."

He held the water to Shylar's lips, and the slurping made everything more surreal.

I'm back in the motel room, fast asleep.

But his dreams hardly ever involved such comedic scenarios.

Ada held both hands in the air. "This creep followed me from the vending machines, and I told him to back off. That's all."

He considered her answer while hydrating her victim. The guy could barely swallow, and more water ran down his chin than down his throat.

"Is that what you told him—'back off'?"

"Why does that matter?" She shifted her weight, clearly already arriving at the same conclusion Kressick had.

"What were your exact words?" He spoke through clenched teeth.

"I told him to stay." Her tone implied she was impressed by the new facet of her abilities.

"Undo it." He wiped savagely at Shylar's chin with a handkerchief, apologizing briefly when the man cried out in pain. "Wouldn't do to leave him here forever."

"I'm not doing a thing. We're leaving in a few hours. Plus, the guy's an IT." She turned heel and left, her haughty stride speaking volumes.

Kressick stared after her, his jaw sagging to an embarrassing degree. Her ambiguity ran deeper than he realized.

"Tell me. She's joking." The man's eyeballs flickered like crazy. "She's gonna help...right?"

He patted the mannequin on the back. "Sorry, mate. Looks like a 'no' to me."

In Ada-fashion, he once again left the man without the promise of help.

"Can you at least. Activate my interface. So I can call somebody?" Shylar yelled in stilted sentences.

Kressick neither answered nor turned around. Then he overheard a very strained:

"Fuck."