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"What else is there to watch at 3am?"
Calvin can't help but laugh when Nikko says that. He's got a better answer, but he's not about to say it where anyone else can hear.
Cal still doesn't understand what it is about Nikko that fascinates him. What threatens him, he understands that. Solomon's son is everything that Cal isn't — charming, wild, able to effortlessly walk into the centre of his father's attention. Cal works hard for his place at Veritas, for the chance to work with the man who had inspired him so much, and the praise Solomon gives him for a job well done is more precious to him than he can find the words for. Having to contend with Nikko for that praise, and usually losing, it hurts. Add to that the boy's smarts and good looks, and let's not forget the complete monopoly he has on Juliet's time, and it's a wonder that Cal hasn't been plotting Nikko's murder ever since he arrived.
But the faithful son's supposed to rejoice when the prodigal returns, isn't he?
Cal knows he isn't a people person. He tries to keep the image of cool, wearing the earring and goatee, but he's never been any good at the reality. Give him an ancient find to puzzle over, or a nice straightforward piece of cosmodynamics to chew on, and he's happy. Give him someone to talk with and he doesn't really know what to do. He has managed to find himself a girlfriend before now, but eventually even the sex palled when she didn't care about anything that matters.
Nikko really is that bad boy that Cal sometimes pretends to be. He's been thrown out of more boarding schools than Cal had heard of, never mind been to. He throws tantrums when Solomon threatens to leave him behind. He's rude, arrogant and egotistical if he doesn't want something out of you there and then. He's more self-centred than any teenager has a right to be.
And yet...
And yet in Antarctica, after all the put-downs Cal endured on the flight, Nikko was the one to bust a gut saving Cal's life. Cal is still a bit fuzzy on the details, but he remembers Nikko hanging upside down in his face, pleading and cajoling until he clipped onto the line properly. He remembers Nikko refusing to let go, refusing to let him drift away until they were all basking in the pyramid's warmth.
He's a mass of contradictions, this Nikko Zond. And maybe that's it, maybe it's just that Cal has never been able to resist puzzles, and Nikko is the biggest puzzle he's ever come across. He hopes that's it, but he's very much afraid that it isn't.
He's afraid that instead it's got something to do with noticing how buff Nikko is. Or how scared he was when Nikko fell off the climbing wall, even knowing it was safe. Or the funny feeling he gets when Nikko flirts with Juliet, even though Juliet brushes him off every time.
Those are thoughts, Cal knows, that will get him into more trouble with Solomon than he really wants to think about. He thought that he wanted to work for Solomon more than he wanted anything else in the world. He's not so sure now.
Now, the only thing he is certain of is who he'd rather be watching at 3am.