Chapter 158: Is she your friend Adam?

"You tried to crush me," Leon said.

"I did not try. If I had tried, there would be nothing left of that jacket." Batnac lifted the claw and flicked the dust off it, and the smile returned, a little smaller than before. "But you flinched too late. Do you know what that tells me?"

"That I am slow?"

"That you are thinking about it."

He drifted closer. Now Leon could see the small details of the face above the machine, the thin lines at the corners of the eyes and the gray under them.

The man did not look like a monster. He looked like someone who had not slept properly in a very long time.

"Let us talk like adults," Batnac said. "I do not care how you did it. I care only that you did it. So tell me, how did you change your face?"

"Is it a talent? An item? A potion from some black market stall in the south? Whatever it is, it is very good, and I would like to know where I can buy one."

"I haven’t changed anything," Leon said.

"You are going to make me ask again?"

"I would like to, if it makes you feel better."

A few of the neighbors gasped at that. Leon heard it, and he winced inside, because it was not the sort of answer a frightened stranger would give. But the giant only laughed again, a short and delighted bark.

"Oh, that is wonderful. You have courage. I like that." He raised a claw. "Drone eleven, drone twelve. A closer look, please."

Two of the silver discs dropped out of the ring above the street. They slid down through the air without a sound and stopped in front of Leon’s face, so close that he could see his own reflection in their lenses.

A thin blue light swept across his forehead, then his eyes, then his jaw. He did not move.

"What do they say?" Batnac asked cheerfully.

A flat voice crackled from the giant’s wrist. "Facial structure does not match the file, master. Eye color does not match. Skin tone does not match."

"And the signature?"

"Ninety-eight percent, master."

"Ninety-eight!" Batnac spread all eight of his arms in delight. "It is going up! Do you see it, little Leon? The more I look at you, the more certain I become. The face lies to me, but the DNA cannot."

The drones floated away. Leon felt the cold light leave his skin, and he kept his eyes on the giant and said nothing.

Down the road, a man in a brown coat tried to slip away between two houses.

A silver disc dropped in front of his face and hovered there with its lens glowing red, and the man raised both hands and walked slowly back to where he had been standing. Nobody else tried to leave after that.

"Quiet now?" Batnac asked, once the road had settled. "You have been so talkative until now."

"I have nothing to say."

"Then I will say it for you." The claw rose. "You are Leon Allistar. You killed Teon Allistar. And you are standing on this street right now because you thought a country at the other end of the world was far enough to hide in."

"He isn’t."

The voice came from behind Leon.

It was not a loud voice. It shook so badly that the word almost fell apart, but it carried across the road all the same, and it made Batnac stop in the middle of his speech.

Iris stepped in front of Leon, standing between him and Batnac’s robotic body.

Her face was still pale, and her hands were clenched at her sides so tightly that the knuckles were white.

"Iris," Leon said quietly. "Go back."

"No." She did not look at him. "He is not Leon Allistar."

"Hm?" Batnac turned his head. "Little girl, I am talking to this gentleman."

"And you are wrong," Iris said. "His name is Adam. He has been in my house twice, and he is the most harmless man I have ever met. He apologizes to my books when he drops them."

’Harmless,’ Medusa repeated. ’How adorable.’

’Be quiet,’ Leon thought.

"A man who murdered his own father does not do all of that."

Leon stared at the back of her head.

He had known Iris for only a few days. He had lied to her in every sentence he had spoken, and she was standing in front of a steel monster and defending him with her whole body. It felt like a stone dropping slowly through his chest.

"I know that name," Iris said. "Everyone knows it. They put his face on every screen in the country. Adam does not look like that, and he does not talk like that, and he is not him."

For a moment, Batnac only looked at her.

"That was a good speech," he said finally.

"Then you will leave."

"No." He smiled again. "But I will remember you."

The smile did something to the air, and Leon felt his skin tighten under the Mask from one creepy it was.

Batnac was not angry. He was thinking.

"Miss," the giant said politely, "forgive me. Let us suppose you are correct. Let us suppose that this man really is called Adam, and that he is the kindest man you’ve ever seen."

"In that case, you have nothing to worry about, and I will happily apologize to him in front of the whole street."

"Good," Iris said.

"But suppose I am correct." Batnac’s voice dropped to something almost gentle.

"Suppose he is Leon Allistar, and you have been sitting on your floor with a murderer. What would you say then, miss?"

"Would you tell me you were his friend? Would you tell me you knew nothing? I do not think the Association would care very much about the difference."

Iris’s mouth opened, and nothing came out.

"You see how this works?" Batnac said. "Either way, you are standing very close to him. And I think he knows it."

He lifted his eyes over her shoulder and looked straight at Leon.

"Is this your friend, Adam?" he asked.