Persona by Genevieve Valentine

politeness on their side not to put the bullet in your head first and then read you the evidence;
    â€¢Â how to make you realize, before they ever level with you, that you were going to do whatever they told you to do.
    There was a knock on the door an hour later; it had felt like longer, like night would be over before anyone came to find them.
    Daniel started and dropped the magazine he was reading (the annual International Assembly Gala feature—Suyana wore a gown patterned with huge palm leaves, rated C+).
    â€œI have her things,” Onca said when Daniel answered.
    â€œBut she’s sleeping.” He frowned; what on earth did he sound like?
    From behind him, Suyana said, “I’m ready.”
    When he looked over, she was already sitting at the edge of the bed, smoothing her hair with her good hand. She sounded younger when she was tired. It was awful, somehow.
    Daniel stepped aside to let Onca in, feeling like a bouncer, and moved for the hallway so Suyana could change.
    Nattereri looked him over as he passed.
    â€œI’m not changing,” Daniel said. “I look fine.”
    Nattereri flexed his knife hand, the fingers spreading out over the blade and back around the handle. “How’d you say you ran into her?”
    â€œBlind date.”
    Nattereri raised his eyebrows, shifted toward the edge of his chair, and rested his forearms on his knees.
    Daniel winked at him, leaned against the wall, and wished the bedroom door would open again already.
    When Onca finally came out (sparing Daniel one circumspect look he didn’t like), he slid in without waiting for an invitation. Too late, he hoped she was fully dressed. He closed his eyes and put up an open hand. “Sorry for the bad manners, but if I stand in the hallway any longer he’ll stab me.”
    â€œServes you right,” Suyana said, and then, “Everything’s decent.”
    After all that subterfuge, he’d expected her to come out looking like an IA charity gala, long gown and gloves and swinging earrings. He’d have wanted to see that.
    Instead, she was barefaced, wearing her stolen boots and black pants and a black button-down, and had a square black scarf in her hand, and it was all so plain he thought she might as well have stayed stolen.
    â€œPlease tell me I don’t have to wear this too.”
    Suyana shot him a look. “It’s what I asked for.” Then she turned to Onca in the doorway. “If we don’t make contact in three hours, close the route.”
    Onca nodded, her face grim, and vanished.
    Daniel turned to Suyana. “Where did you tell her we were going?”
    â€œTo try to make contact with Magnus off the grid, and see what the word is within the IA about my shooting, and what can be done.”
    He had an unsettling moment, a quiet click in the back of his mind as he heard the words hidden under the words.
    â€œWhere are we really going?”
    She looked startled. After a moment, she grinned.
    Ã—  ×  ×  ×  ×  ×  ×
    â€œI’m sorry,” Daniel said. “I can’t help you. I didn’t get anything good. You hear gunshots from somewhere, you get the fuck out of there, you know?”
    â€œAnd where are you now, having gotten the fuck out?”
    Damn, that voice would pry off your fingernails without you ever noticing.
    â€œNowhere.”
    â€œMr. Park, you’re not the best liar we’ve come across. Here or on your forged papers.”
    She was not doing a good job convincing him she wasn’t government. She was, however, doing a bang-up job of painting Daniel into a nasty corner.
    His uncle had forged his papers. If she followed that trail with any intent, it wouldn’t go well back home. She had to know that’s what he was thinking, and which way he’d fall.
    â€œThen why don’t you just quit the show and tell me how you think this