I could?—
“Matt. Matt! Dude, wake up!”
I shot out of bed breathing heavy and super dazed. I was in my apartment, a block from Violet’s. Eva was standing on the other side of bed, laughing her ass off.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“Good dream?” She was still laughing as her eyes drifted…
Oh thank god, I was just hard. The way she said that made me think I’d come in my pants like some prepubescent teenager. I grabbed a pillow and covered myself, putting on my best scowl.
“What are you doing here?” I asked again.
“We were supposed to meet the others twenty minutes ago. Since when do you sleep through three alarms?”
Since I was having a really nice dream.
“Give me a minute to get dressed.”
“They’re pissed, Matt. You better hurry up.”
I rolled my eyes, turning to the dresser behind me.
“I’ve never been late to a meeting before. Everyone else has missed at least two. Tell them to cool their jets. I know what’s at stake.”
“No, you don’t,” Eva said quietly.
“What?” I turned back; she was picking at her fingernails. She only did that when she was nervous. “Eva. What do you mean?”
“Get dressed. They’ll explain.”
Twenty minutes later,we were walking into the back of Eva’s shop. Three of the most elusive men in the city were huddled around the well in the centre of the room with their heads bent together whispering.
I was in full gear; just because we were working together on this, didn’t mean I was willing to share my real identity. Eva and Violet were the only ones who knew what I usually looked like and no one knew about my shadows.
Harold Jasper was the first to notice me. He was the lead scientist on the project that causedthe incident. He’d tried to blow the whistle on the whole thing but was nearly killed and decided to fake his own death. He was young for a lead scientist on a project like that—early thirties. Despite being so young, he was already starting to get hints of grey in his brown hair. Wrinkles were forming around his eyes and the crease between his eyebrows looked like it was becoming permanent.
Next was Vance Copperfield. He was the oldest of the three—late fifties to early sixties, I wasn’t exactly sure. Black skin, bald head, unforgiving eyes. He was next in line for chief of police until one of his old CIs came to him with a rumour about contaminated water. His investigation was shut down twice, then he was blamed for not figuring it out sooner. He lost everything.
Finally, there was Adam Chang. He was the only one who still had his job. He was a member of the Senate. When the news ofthe incidentbroke, he had led the charge for answers. Every question was deflected or outright avoided. There was an attempt on his life, so he stopped asking so openly. Instead, he turned his efforts toward secretly taking down everyone involved.
The only one missing was the benefactor. It was supposedly too dangerous for them to be spotted in the city.
“You’re late.”
“For the first time ever. How many times have you been late, Harold?” I strolled past them to lean on the wall by the furnace. “In fact, everyone but me has fully missed at least one of these meetings, so why don’t you enlighten me as to why I’m being scolded right now?”
“Our benefactor is…concerned about the volunteer,” Vance said. “That she’s been taking up too much of your focus. That she’s distracting you from your mission. And we’re starting to share those concerns.”
My eyes flickered over to Eva. She was standing by the door with a neutral expression, but I could tell from here that she was still picking at her nails.
“You haven’t gone after a single person on the list since the judge two and a half months ago. Nor have you dug up any additional information on the supposed missing criminals. But you’ve been parading around the hospitals in Milky Way, taking pictures with children and making ice sculptures.” Adam added.
“Literally none of that is true. I met one kid, one time. And I’ve always paraded around Milky Way, stopping to take pictures and make ice sculptures. Remember that wasyourplan? Because it was supposed to make me endearing to the public?”
When we first started on the list, they thought it was important thatthe peopleliked me. I was going after a lotof high-level government officials, as well as members of the police and military. It was important to my allies that everyday people were on my side of this little war. That was why I always wore this ridiculous costume and spent a stupid amount of my time just appearing around the city—whether I was going after someone or not.
“Look, Plowers was waiting for me and I barely got away. This volunteer tracked me down at an ideal time. She gave me a way to further endear myself to the general public and allowed me time to regroup. Not a single one of you is putting your life on the line like I am. I don’t appreciate you insinuating that I’m not committed, because I’ve been lying low. At least I haven’t been hiding like you. And ourbenefactor.”
