It was the time that all the cameras were turned off. The anniversary of the nightmare, or the beginning of the new chapter. Whatever it was, Rotti seemed to observe it with relish.
"You're early."
"I knew you'd call, I didn't see the point in waiting."
He had been tied to Rotti before Marni was even an issue, but before Marni it had been something normal. Who didn't like to play games with control, especially with their employer? Nathan had never felt like he was on the losing side. But now things had such a different feeling, such a sinister turn.
There was no struggle with a man that knew your greatest failing, your darkest secret.
"How many years has it been now?"
"Ten."
One year all Rotti had said was 'happy anniversary'. Another year there had been far more going on. This year it was just him and the king of ruin. No bodyguards to watch, no children to run underfoot. Nathan was somewhat intrigued by this year's beginning.
"Tell me what you saw in her."
"Saw?"
"Yes."
The thing about Rotti Largo was his stranglehold on control; maybe he'd been enticed by it when he was younger, there were so many things that Nathan could have been besides a surGEN. There were so many people he could have met, or lives he could have saved. Maybe he could have been nothing at all. If Marni weren't obviously a being from another world, another time, another place he would have been cursing her at this point.
"She was the calm."
Nathan had watched the slow degradation. It went from the slightly off-kilter wig that replaced Rotti's hair to the slither of a street Zydrate addict. He'd partaken in the decline, of course, and had asked for forgiveness as he kissed his daughter goodnight.
"Were you born a fool, or did you become a sap through conditioning?"
Nathan wasn't sure how to respond to that.
"Did you think that you could ever find understanding?"
There was the real cut. He'd been examined before, a cadaver of emotions. The problem was that part of him almost enjoyed it.
"I never asked for understanding."
"But you asked for everything."
He waited for a lashing that never came. Something was different this year, something hidden under the surface of self inflicted martyrdom. There was something tired in Rotti's eyes.
"I never understood how you could be such a victim when it was always your fault. You were the thief."
"You can't steal people. That implies... I don't know."
"Ownership? I figured by now you understood ownership, Nathan."
But the push of a button had opened doors, and his dismissal was clear. But Nathan was never gone for long.
ooo
He was again alone with the king of ruin, and the drip of human progress was making puddles under an opera poster.
"She used to hum to me, and tell me that I was special simply for existing. She loved because it was natural for her."
Whether or not Rotti believed him didn't matter; there were only two people that observed the day Marni Wallace died with any knowledge on the situation.
"She did like to collect things."
This year, Nathan submitted to the bitterness of fools.