“Of course not.”
“Curious…,” she says, her voice trailing off.
“You’re saying you had nothing to do with this?”
“Again, no,” she replies. “But does it matter? We’ve done it, girls. The corporation is destroyed. Haven’t you seen the news? Innovations Corporation has filed for bankruptcy after being officially disincorporated by Congress. Anton is in custody. And before his arrest, my darling husband was on the news calling it a witch hunt, of all things. But the poor man looked so pale, so… unwell. I imagine the oligarchs who were profiting from our mistreatment are none too happy. What will they do when he doesn’t pay, you think? I suspect we’ll hear about hisaccidentalfall from a roof in the coming days.”
“Have you told Lennon Rose?” Brynn asks. “She has to be relieved that the corporation isn’t hunting us anymore.”
“I haven’t spoken to Lennon Rose.…” There is a long pause, and Sydney and I look at each other.
“Is Lennon Rose okay?” I ask.
“Okay?” Leandra repeats. “No,” she says. “I wouldn’t describe her that way. Alive? Yes. She is very much alive.”
“Leandra, stop being so insufferable and tell us what’s happening,” Sydney says.
“I’ve always loved your candor, Sydney,” she says. “If youmust know, Lennon Rose has moved on from us. She worked with Rosemarie for a bit, but they did not agree on tactics. Now Lennon Rose has disappeared, and no one has any earthly idea where she is. Seems you girls don’t fit into her future plans.”
“You know nothing about Lennon Rose,” I snap.
“Seems neither do you,” she retorts.
I want to tell her that Lennon Rose would never leave without us, but she did leave us behind at the academy. I guess leaving is exactly what Lennon Rose would do.
“What about the other girls?” Brynn asks from the front of the car. “Are they okay?”
Leandra exhales heavily. “They’re gone. I am sorry,” Leandra says. Brynn makes a wounded sound and grabs Marcella’s arm.
“What happened?” I demand. “You said they were safe.”
“And I thought they were,” she replies. “I’d put them to sleep and stored them at one of my properties. But when I went to check on them this morning, the lock on the door had been cut and the girls were no longer there. I have no reason to think they were harmed,” she adds. “I think someone woke them up and walked them out.”
The girls and I flash each other a quick glance.“Lennon Rose?”Marcella mouths silently. Sydney shakes her head no.
“It’s Rosemarie,” Sydney says to Leandra. “She’s the one who has them, isn’t she?”
“That is my guess,” she admits. “But I haven’t dared show my face there.”
“What?” I ask. “Why?”
“Because Rosemarie tried to kill me last time I saw her. And I suppose that brings me to why I’m calling in the first place.”
Sydney nudges my knee, but I don’t ask Leandra more about what happened between her and Rosemarie. I let her get to the point.
“Boys are going missing around here,” Leandra says. “The town is in an outright panic—no matter that exactly fourteen girls went missing throughout the state last year and no one batted an eyelash—buttwoof their young rogues are not in their beds. Add that to an already growing panic about male victims, and this country is on the brink of war with itself. I’d rather avoid that.”
The dead investors have already gotten people talking about bodily violence in a way they haven’t before. They’ve excused it in the past, right up until it happened to rich white men. I can’t imagine what they’ll do when it’s against their young white boys.
“What do you think is happening to them?” Brynn asks.
“I think Rosemarie is taking them,” Leandra says. “She may be experimenting on them, I don’t know. And trust me, I’m not here to advocate for the male species,” she adds. “But I do want to exist in a world that’s not being ravaged by a desperate, terrified population. Real change will come from reworking society from the top instead of dismantling it.”
She sounds a lot like Winston Weeks. Winston told me once that he wanted to ascend to the highest power in government and he’d hoped to use us to achieve that goal. I suppose that didn’t work out well for him in the end. Is Leandra taking up his post?If so, would anyone want her in the driver’s seat of their society?
“Come back and help me?” Leandra asks. “Go talk to Rosemarie and stop her somehow. I’ve had time to consider what she wants with us. Her daughters. And I don’t think you’ll like what I have to say.”
“I doubt you can shock us at this point,” I say.
