“The government on our side feels differently,” Amy said.

“You seem… very intent on charging forward with this. Is it to provide a proof of concept? A demonstration of strength? Assuming the giants were safe and totally out of control, pretending for the moment that the Dauntless Titan wasn’t on the approach, and assuming a hypothetical where the Machine Army was an immediate and present threat, an equal power relationship would involve discussion and compromise.”

“Not equal,” Amy said. “Fair.”

On her side of the call, no doubt harder to make out than Narwhal had been for them to make out, I could hear a male voice. I imagined Luis, the smartly-dressed black man with the umbrella who had been in Goddess’s company, who had kind of fucked us over with the Shin prison thing. Him or the other guy.

“Luis says ‘Just’,” Amy translated.

Fuck you.

“Can you elaborate on your stance?” Narwhal asked.

“If you’ll give me a second, I’ll translate,” my father said.

“Thank you.”

I had a bad feeling. It was hard to put my finger on.

If I had to, if I was challenged to, I kind of felt like the way Amy had said ‘just’ was the kind of way the old me would have said it. The old me who had faced down a human trafficker that had coerced and sold teenage girls into prostitution and knocked his literal teeth out.

‘Just’ was only a good word if the person leaning on them felt like they were making the concession. I want to see her die burning, but I have to grudgingly admit that would be wrong and barbaric. Ten years in prison and a course toward rehabilitation is ‘just’. Justice.

But if it came from the top, from a place of paramount power, from a place of satisfaction, then ‘just’ changed from ‘justice’ to ‘justification’. Justification for revenge. Justification for wrongs.

My dad explained, “Luis says he speaks for the rest of this world with this. The Wardens, Megalopolis, and Megalopolis government have had years now to demonstrate how to act when holding the reins of power. Now they intend to use this as a model. This is their justice. We have four giants, and any one of those giants could be a match for one of your teams. We have six more on the way right now, they’ll be done in a matter of four hours. By this time tomorrow we can have ten. By the end of the week, it will be fifteen.”

He sounded a little awed by what he was relaying. No doubt he had Amy beside him, looking confident.

Was it only now sinking in?

What are you doing, Dad?

What are you thinking?

Narwhal strode over to another desk, leaning over to talk to a tech.

“Are you there?” Amy asked.

“Yes,” Narwhal’s voice came over our speakers, as she spoke through a microphone at the other desk.