“They’re going to take that as a compliment,” Amira says, eyes still on her screen. “Oh, interesting. Looks like the sale of Elemental already went through.”
Clarke chokes on a bit of squash. “What?”
“The terms were just released. The deal doesn’t go into effectuntil the end of this season, but it’s already done. Signed, sealed, money transferred. As of two weeks ago. ‘Current owner says they have no intention of requesting that the sale be voided, says recent events only further confirm their desire to get out of business with Elemental.’ ”
Maki’s eyes are wide. “Can Anders and Yves run the team from prison?”
“They won’t go to prison.” Clarke folds her noninjured foot in toward her body, rearranging Julian’s jacket over her lap so she doesn’t flash the room with how high the rip in her dress is. What she wouldn’t give for a pair of sweatpants. “Most of what they did was only morally reprehensible or in violation of FIC regulations, not actually illegal.”
“Manipulating stock price so they wouldn’t have to pay as much in the sale is against the law,” Julian says. The medics have retreated to one corner of the room, commiserating over noncompliant patients. Julian scoots closer to Clarke across the floor, so their arms are pressed together. “But whether that’ll stick? Who knows. I wouldn’t be surprised if all that ends up happening is probation and a heavy fine.”
Clarke slumps and rests her head on Julian’s shoulder. “They’ll be back on the grid next season.”
“Think any of us will be?” Maki wonders aloud.
Clarke’s been avoiding the thought. She knew there would be repercussions for tonight, and she’s accepted the ones that impact her directly, but it’s harder not to feel guilty about the negative effects on the people who helped her.
She straightens up. “Maki, Amira—you weren’t as involved as Sara. I don’t think Yves knows you helped. You could probably keep your jobs.”
Maki groans. Amira holds out her arm and taps her cuff against his. “Pay up.”
Julian’s quiet laugh gently jostles Clarke as she looks back and forth between them. “You made abeton this?”
“On you trying to rationalize us being willing to keep working for Elemental? Sure did,” Amira says.
“Unbelievable,” Maki grumbles. “You’ve got no faith in us, Clarke? After all of this?”
“Of course I have faith in you,” Clarke says, because it’s true. She chose to trust these people when she asked them for help with tonight, and she was right to do so. “But be practical. Jobs don’t open up in Formula Zero every day, and you worked really hard to get here. If Yves will keep you, you—”
“—will tell him that I supplied three of the videos in Sara’s montage and have at least a dozen more, and he can stick his job offer up his ass?” Amira says.
“I’d probably just say no and then run away,” Maki says. “I don’t do well with confrontation.”
Clarke’s heart swells. If she gets emotional now, though, she’s not sure she’d be able to reel herself in, so she turns to Julian instead. “You’ll definitely still have a job. Val won’t get off easily, not with the attempted manslaughter, and you come across as a hero in the footage. There’s no way Chronicle’s going to let you go.”
Julian makes a noncommittal noise. “It’s not up to them.”
“What do you mean?”
“It wasn’t just Yves at Elemental. Naomi was involved. Your technical director, your chief engineer; they must’ve known how different your ship and Raff’s were. I’m suspicious of everyone in your management structure at this point, and everyone onRaff’s support crew besides. It could be the same at Chronicle. I’d like to think that Val was acting alone, that no one else knew what she was doing, but I can’t be sure. And until Iamsure, I don’t know if I can fly for them again.”
Clarke carefully chews and swallows, nodding, then says, “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Maki laughs. Amira snorts. Julian frowns.
“You could win this year, Julian,” Clarke says. “You could beat Delphine. BeatAtreus.”
Clarke knows how much it would mean to Julian to take home the individual championship, to stick it to the Provenance principal who looked down on him, but Julian’s shaking his head before she’s even done talking. “The FIC will probably void my last few wins because of what Val did. I’ll be too far behind Delphine going into the last three races.”
“It could happen!”
“The math says it’s not going to. The team championship still might be doable. Although we may not have a team principal anymore, so—”
“Oh, we have a team principal,” says a voice from the side of the room. The medics square up, getting in Graham’s way, but he just gives them a tired smile. “Hi. I’m Graham Grayson, acting team principal for Chronicle Racing. I understand that the title might not exactly confer a lot of confidence on me in light of recent events, but I promise I’m on that guy’s side.”
He points at Julian onthat guy, and Julian waves to the medics when they follow the gesture. “He’s cool. Let him in.”
The medics let Graham pass. He crosses the room quickly and drops to the floor between Julian and Maki, sprawling out onto his back and covering his face with his hands. “I hope you’re happy, Casperi.”
