Page 110 of Tony

I think Soshee gets offended at that. Maybe because her mom is a fortune-teller?

“I’m not talking about you, Soshee. Your name is… practically normal.” I wince at Vann and he makes a slicing motion across his throat, telling me to quit while I’m ahead.

But I feel behind. I need to justify this better. “My real point is that she was way too friendly.”

Vann rolls his eyes and laughs.

“Hey, if you dress anti-establishment, you’re anti-social. That’s just the law. And if you break the law, then all the rest of us real law-abiding anti-social people get to question your street cred, OK? That’s how it works.”

“I think we should stay away from the blue-haired girl,” Tony says, tuning me out.

“Agreed,” Vann says. “We’ve got enough going on. We don’t need tangents to distract us. What we need is a plan. A way to find proof that the Crappy Coffee people are really FBI.”

“Or Company,” I say.

“They’re not Company,” Vann says.

“How do you know?” Tony asks.

“Because if they were, and we got in their way, we’d already be dead.”

And just as that last word comes out of his mouth, there’s a knock on the door.

“Well, that’s not ominous,” Vann whispers.

“Who’s that?” Tony whispers.

We all look at Soshee. “I don’t know,” Soshee whispers back, then starts to go for the door. But Tony pulls her back and puts a finger up to his lips, telling us all to be quiet.

He walks over to the door and peeks through the spyhole. But he backs off quickly and turns to us.

“Who is it?” I whisper.

“It’s her,” he says. “The blue-haired chick!”

She knocks again.

“What’s Midnight doing here?” Soshee whispers.

“Don’t say her name out loud,” I protest. “That’s like… calling the Devil.”

Soshee huffs. “Who the fuck do you get your anti-establishment facts from?”

“Quiet!” Vann whisper-yells.

“I can hear you,” Midnight calls from the other side of the door.

“Shit,” Tony says. “Now what do we do?”

“Just be quiet,” Soshee says. “She’ll go away.”

“I can still hear you.”

“She cannot hear us,” Soshee protests. “That door is made of steel.”

“Hello? You crazy kids need to open the door now. We have a bug in there. We heard everything.”

“What?” I say, looking at Vann for help.