Agent Miner’s eyes narrowed but she finally nodded. She and I both knew that putting Carter out on a stage when he wasn’t fully solid was a bad idea, and ultimately it fell on her to make that determination.
“Good, now we’ve got to get ourselves ready.”
“Ready?” Agent Miner asked, her dark brows furrowing as the rest of the guys started to gather their things.
Apparently, she hadn’t gotten the memo about the change of plans either.
“Yeah,” I told her dryly, “It seems like we’re going to be making a pitstop. We’ll have to meet up later at the event. Try to at least get him to shower and comb his hair before then.”
“As you know, polling location availability is very important to my mother,” Lennon was saying to the head of the omega center as what felt like a million camera flashes filled my vision.
We’d only been here for twenty minutes and had basically been given a speed run of the facility that stood like a monolith on the outskirts of downtown Atlanta.
According to Shirley Kirkland, the smartly dressed older woman who ran the facility, the Atlanta Omega Center, or AOC, was one of the newest facilities that boasted an entire community for the omegas living within its walls including a gym, grocery store, and a full-service shopping floor that included brand names making it basically a mall.
It didn’t seem like the omegas needed to leave for, well,anything.
“Yes, that was why I felt the need to reach out to you specifically after listening to your speech in Arizona,” Kirkland said, nodding excitedly. “We provide almost everything our omega residents need, but we struggle to provide them with the space to vote. As you know, crime on omegas has been on the rise in recent years and many of our residents fear going outside at all and being able to vote feels out of reach for many of them.”
“Which means that their voices aren’t being heard during election times,” Lennon filled in for the woman, her brows drawing together with concern. “That is worrying. While I may not be able to wave a magic wand and make polling stations appear here for you all during this election cycle, Icanpromisefor the upcoming election in November that there will be a bus shuttle to the nearest polling station with hired security for the day—paid for by my grandmother’s foundation.”
I blinked with surprise. That part was news to me.
“And,” Lennon continued, turning away from the woman to look into the cameras that were capturing every inch of her expression. “We are also offering the same to other omega centers across the United States. Everyone should feel safe to be able to go out and vote. One of my mother’s goals moving into a second term is to make voting safe and accessible toeveryone. I urge those of you who might still be on the fence about your vote to look at your congressmen and senators and see where they stand on that regardless of where they stand on party lines. Don’t forget, they work for you, not the other way around. I may be an omega standing up for my fellow omegas today, but my mother stands up for all of you, can your elected officials say the same?”
There was a groan in my ear.
“Flicker just pissed off a whole bunch of suits, Mav,” Dallas said and I caught his eye from where he was standing on the other side of the room.
I said nothing because I was standing directly behind Lennon and didn’t want to give the cameras any ammunition, but I sure as hell was thinking the same thing.
Didn’t she realize she was pouring gasoline on an already lit fire?
But no, she seemed oblivious to it all as she shook the overly-grateful center head’s hand before waving one last time to the cameras.
“Are you out of your mind?” I asked as we stepped into the makeshift green room that had been set up for Lennon’s use.
Dallas, Brooks, and Zeke were already there, their expressions a mixture of worry and anger as Lennon ignored my outburst in favor of popping open a can of Coke.
Finally, after taking one long sip, she finally answered my question. “And why, pray tell, are you angry at me this time, Agent Onassis?”
“Do you have any idea how many threats you get on any given day, Lennon?” I asked, my fists clenched at my side.
“Probably quite a few.” Lennon shrugged one shoulder as if it was nothing new. “What is your point?”
“My point,” I growled through my teeth, “is that you know you are actively getting threats and yet you still decided to go off script and piss off a whole bunch of people today. How do you think that’s going to go over?”
“So, let me get this straight, my helping omegas get to polling stations pissed a bunch of people off so Ishouldn’tdo it?” Lennon asked, crossing her arms over her chest and tilting her chin defiantly up at me.
“Don’t be purposefully obtuse, Lennon,” I shot back, fighting the urge to roll my eyes. “You and I both know that wasn’t the part I was talking about.”
In fact, that part had been surprisingly impressive and I knew the other guys felt the same way.
I didn’t like our schedule being fucked with like this, but even I could admit that Lennon had done some good today with the shuttle system for the election.
I’d never thought much about how omegas vote before—it wasn’t really something that I ever reallyneededto think about. I hadn’t gone to a polling station in years because we always voted via absentee ballot from abroad.
No, that wasn’t what I was angry about at all.
