“Todd’s been added to the Apex debate roster,” Remy said.
I froze. “Are you kidding me?”
He shook his head. “Got the notification an hour ago.”
I wasn’t surprised Remy knew first. I’d wanted to sign up for the conference under another name to get the notifications, but even the lowest-tier package was over a thousand dollars. Remy had done it instead, which meant he was the recipient of all the notifications coming in from the conference.
I moved to sit on the sofa, but Bram pulled me onto his lap.
“I don’t believe it.” I stroked Ray’s silky head as he sat next to Bram and me. “It worked.”
Poe nodded. “We’ve been saying the same thing.”
“Now what?” I asked.
“Now we go to the conference, look for a chance to take him out,” Poe said.
They explained their thinking: lots of people, no way to know how the ideal moment might play out, knives not guns.
“We’ll try to get close,” Bram said. “Close enough to make him bleed.”
I could see it: a crowd of people, chaos and noise, everyone shouting for Ethan Todd’s attention, wanting selfies, autographs.
And then, a few quiet jabs, a low murmur as Todd realized what had happened, confusion as we exited the convention hall before anyone really knew what was happening.
“Getting close is risky,” I said. “The crowd will make it harder to get out fast.”
“Guns are riskier, for us and for the crowd,” Remy said. “It’ll take a minute for his security to realize he’s been hurt. There’ll be a scramble to sort it all out, to take care of Todd.”
“We’ll be gone by then,” Poe said.
I chewed my thumbnail as a knot of fear formed in my stomach.
“Is this still what you want?” Poe asked. “Because it’s okay to change your mind.”
I wasn’t surprised Poe knew what I was thinking. He had an almost psychic ability to tap my emotions before I even knew what he was thinking.
“I’m… I’m scared,” I admitted.
“What are you scared of?” Bram asked.
“I’m scared of losing you.” It was a relief to say it.
A relief for them to know it.
“Ethan won’t have a weapon. There’s nothing he can do to us.”
“What if you get caught?” There was more than one way to lose them.
“We won’t,” Remy said. “We’ll move fast.”
“What about the cameras?” I asked.
We lived in a surveillance state. Everybody did, all around the world.
“We might get lucky and end up in a place that doesn’t have cameras,” Poe said. “But even if there are cameras, it’s going to be hard to make out who did what in that kind of crowd.”
“It’s risky,” Maeve said.
