Page 108 of The Commons

“Maybe he’s not. Maybe he’ll just talk and it will all go well⁠—”

“Wow, what wishful thinking.”

Swin resigns and looks to Levon to convince me.

Levon turns to me and holds my arms. “Shantavia, how about this? If you see something off from the cameras and you think he’s in danger, then you can go help him. For now, let’s just watch and see how he’s doing, okay?” Levon pleads with me.

Reluctantly, I concede.

I look at the computer near Swin to see a view of Patron De Londe’s mansion.

Patron De Londe sits on a glass chair in a circular-domed room with glass windows and silver-floor coverings. The transparent elevator doors open, and Pesh walks in. In the corner, Beatrice watches like a bodyguard.

“Hello, Son. I’ve been waiting for you. Have a seat.”

Pesh looks at Londe with a controlled and unrelenting gaze as he sits down. He grits his teeth to hold back his irritation. Their eyes collide. The atmosphere seems heated.

Patron De Londe watches Pesh with a direct gaze. He begins to speak, “What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue. Talk.”

“I didn’t come here to talk. I came to give you this.” He gives him the decoy Begon we created last night.

Puzzled, Patron De Londe takes it, then looks at Pesh, suspicious. “Mmm, okay. Thank you. But I want something else. I want my son back.”

“You have no son.”

“That’s an awfully ungrateful way to talk to the man who raised you.”

Pesh scoffs.

“Tell me about Shantavia.”

“She has nothing to do with this.”

“But she does, doesn’t she? She’s come between us and created this mess; you do remember what happened last time such a tragedy occurred?”

“You will not threaten me with the death of my good mother by your heartless hands.”

“Hands don’t have hearts. You never really were good at anatomy, were you? Really, what are you thinking, Pesh? You do know if I go down, you go down as well.”

Pesh’s eyes dart up, clearly sick of De Londe’s constant derailment and disparagement. So, he tries to re-focus the conversation. “The Begon I stole from you is right there in front of you. Isn’t that all you wanted? Now you don’t need to self-destruct it.”

“Let’s say I don’t believe this really is The Begon, what then?”

“Check it. Do a quick scan,” Pesh states.

Beatrice takes the fake Begon and runs the scan. “It looks real,” she responds.

“Looks can be deceiving. Begin to check every file on it right now!” Londe commands.

“Yes, Londe.” Beatrice takes the fake Begon and leaves the room.

“He’s still talking to him, so that’s good,” Levon says. “He won’t self-identify this hour, so we have one hour of extra time. Hopefully Pesh can buy us another one!”

“Let’s say you really are surrendering, and that really is The Begon, what about the files you’ve been collecting on me?” Patron De Londe says.

“What files?” Pesh responds, confused at Londe’s knowledge.

“If you’ve been freeing students, I’m sure you’re taking them somewhere, and if you’ve been taking them somewhere, I’m sure you’ve recorded their experiences. It’s just logical, right? To have back up files?” Londe presumes.