Nagisa seemed to shrink where he was.
“Wait,” I said.“I’m accused of aiding and abetting Nagisa at least.Aren’t you going to listen to what happened next?Don’t you need an actual confession from my end?”
Brynholf sighed.
“I hardly see what good it would do,” he said.
“I do,” Abe said.“Each defendant has an oath-bound right to plead their case until they have exhausted the depths of their factual information.”
“A fair point,” Judge Volkheim said.“And Brynholf.The Prosecution has not provided sufficient evidence to hold the entire Council in contempt.At least, as of yet.I advise the Prosecution proceed extremely carefully going forward.”
“I suppose some more patience will only make the justice more effectual,” Brynholf said.
“Good,” I said.“Because there’s a lot to get to still.”
“And where are we at?Surely not the Arcade.”
“I’m circling back around to that in a minute,” I said.“No, it’s real important you find out what happened with Nagisa.”
“I don’t think there’s anything your human values can say to remove him from this predicament,” Brynholf said.
“You would be surprised,” I said.
Chapter10
Vic met us at the Arcade entrance when we were done at Feedworthy.
“I can’t leave my bike,” Eddie said.
“I don’t have a strap,” Vic said.
“Then I’ll ride along,” Eddie said.
Vic groused at this but saw sense in it.Especially once we drove through the city and found ourselves at the battlegrounds at Penn Square Mall.Vic had gathered a few corpses he had transmogriphied—one that looked like Eddie, and another that looked like Nagisa.The plan was supposed to be simple.I would ride with Eddie to the scene of Nagisa’s fall.As the undead Bruiser fell and the bus took off, delivering past-me to Hartshome Cathedral, Eddie and I would swap Nagisa’s realistic corpse in, deposit Eddie’s nearby, and then we would ride with Nagisa back to the Arcade and tend to his wounds.
It all pretty much went off without a hitch.Except that Vic had a bizarre request before everything began.
“I know this sounds stupid, but do you have the Tarot card that Grynfelda gave you?”he asked.
“What?”I asked.
“You know, the original,” he said.“I’m supposed to go in and meet past-you.I’ll just swap them back out.To make sure nothing else happens and we have an out.”
“Umm,” I said.“Okay.”
I passed it to him, and he booked it in and back before we could make it back with Nagisa.By the time we’d got back to the Cruiser, he was there already.He wanted to hand it to me—but I refused to take it.
“You hold onto it for now,” I said.
“But, Stacey?—”
“We’re on our victory lap,” I said.“Come on.I just have to cut a vein and get Nagisa up and going again.Then we head back to Le Bean Caffeine and have a stand-off.”
“Right,” Vic said.
“Why arewe talking about the Tarot card?”Brynholf asked.
“We’re circling around to it,” I said.
