“Come on, doll. You didn’t think those scientists would try to validate where that information was coming from?”
“Do not take that tone with me.” Jo scowled, her attention returning to Wayne. “Do not speak down to me.” She felt her blood boiling. “Where were you and your flipping coin while I worked all night?”
“You told me you didn’t need—how did you put it? Me and my nickel?” he fired back with rapier-speed and accuracy. It was that thing between them again, a natural escalation that kept them feeding easily off of one another. Unfortunately, this time it wasn’t directed at a common enemy, but each other. “You chose the job and took it on for the team. Don’t pawn off responsibility.”
He had a point.The bastard had a point. Jo ran a hand through her hair, snagging on tangles. “I’ll fix it. I’ll fix it,” she muttered.
“How?” Wayne asked. “You have more answers in that magic hacker bag of tricks?”
Her brain was on overdrive. It was running through everything she’d done the night prior, looking for a way to improve, looking for a fix. Simultaneously, Jo was looking forward. Even with the post-hack-a-thon exhaustion making her brain fuzzy, she desperately sifted through direction, information, viable courses of action.
And she was coming up empty.
Minus her little hiccup at the beginning (and, even then, everything had worked out just fine in the end), every other wish she’d touched had been a series of successes. Now, she was failing at the moment it mattered most. Jo dropped her hands to her sides and sighed. Her pride had gotten her in this mess. She’d been a fool for thinking she could do it all on her own. So she couldn’t assume more pride would get her out.
“I don’t know. . .” Jo confessed to them all. “IthoughtI did everything right. I was so sure I could do it.” Her eyes fell on Takako. Shame and guilt filled her stomach, pushing two words up past her throat and out of her mouth. “I’m sorry.”
She looked back to the TV. Jo heard it for the first time again, but the words remained washed out. They were all repeats from before.
“I don’t think this is a total failure,” Takako said, finally.
“How?” Eslar stole everyone’s question from their halfway open mouths.
“They say scientists are looking for any foundation to the emergency being called.” Takako’s words were careful, clearly trying to draw the line between optimism and pragmatism. “We just have to make sure that they’re given a reason to find what they’re looking for. We need to prove to them that the emergency needs to be taken seriously.”
A ray of hope sparked in Jo’s chest. Perhaps there was a way yet to salvage the situation. On reflex, her mind immediately went to how she could hack and code her way to a solution.
But she pushed it aside.
“Let’s get everyone together in the briefing room.” She couldn’t do this alone. None of them could. Wayne had been right; she just had to learn it the hard way. “We need a new plan, team.”
Chapter 14
The Craftsman’s Plan
“ALL RIGHT.” JO started the moment everyone had situated themselves in their usual seats in the briefing room.
It probably looked a little presumptuous for her to be standing at the head of the table, but Snow was (as usual) nowhere to be found, and she simply couldn’t help herself. She needed to prove not only that she could offer the necessary support for this wish, but that she recognized the benefits of the other members of the team in accomplishing it. Her failure had settled thick and heavy in the pit of her stomach, and she wanted to do everything she could to remedy the weight.
“Some of you, most of you, know. . . But the attempt at forcing an evacuation using the bio bands was a failure,” Jo spoke directly to Samson as he was the only one missing from the common room earlier.
Samson nodded, sinking slightly into his chair under her stare. Jo quickly averted her eyes, as not to put so much unintentional pressure on the shy man.
“The government has labeled it a terror attack and the evacuation has ended before it could even really begin. So, we need to re-evaluate our next steps. . .” She let her voice trail off, hoping that someone would offer the solution she didn’t have.
For a second, the Society simply looked among themselves before settling as a unit back on her. It was Nico, in his usual kind tone, who finally spoke up, “Well, we still need to get people to evacuate.”
“Exactly,” Jo said, pacing a bit like a teacher trying to get her students to come to their own solutions on a project. Really, she was just hoping she’d find her own exceptional solution somewhere in the three feet of space she was traversing. “And how do we do that now that the evacuation has been discredited?”
“If we knew that, doll, we would have figured out a plan of action already,” Wayne interjected. “Or perhaps you would’ve done it.” Despite the way it made Jo bristle, she ignored the smart remark. If he was trying to be playful, he was grossly misreading the room. Instead of letting herself be egged on, however, Jo merely threw him a distinctly unimpressed look before waiting for someone else to offer a more helpful opinion.
Thankfully, Takako seemed to have no problem offering support. “We need to show them proof of why evacuation is still the right course of action. There’s attention being paid to it now, so it may not take much to validate the concerns you planted. We merely need to give it credit that can’t be ignored.”
Before Jo could pick up on that, Wayne leaned heavily back into his chair with a bitter sounding laugh. “Oh damn. I forgot to record all the terrible broadcasts coming up so we can just play them on repeat for those who don’t have the luxury of time travel.”
“Wayne,” Eslar scolded this time, earning if not a chastised look from the man, then at least a moment of silence. A silence which Jo wasted no time filling.
“Scientists are already looking for proof of the unidentified claims, the news said as much. Even if they don’t know how the records that triggered the evacuation notices got there, it’s been enough to peak their interest,” she continued, leaning against the table and doing her best interpretation of Snow, trying to look each person in the eyes, one at a time. “So why haven’t they offered up any of their findings?”
