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“If I do, will you take me with you?”
Connor has already realized they have little choice but to take him, but he plays this hand close. “I’ll consider it.”
Cam is silent for a moment, holding emotionless eye contact with Connor. Then he says “P, S, M, H, Y, A, R, E, H, N, L, R, A.”
“What?”
“It’s a thirteen-character ID on the public nimbus. As for the password, it’s an anagram of Risa Ward. You’ll have to figure it out for yourself.”
“Why should I care what you have stored on the cloud?”
“You’ll care when you see what it is.”
Connor looks around the cluttered basement, finding a pen and a notepad among the debris on a table. He tosses them to Cam. “Write down the ID. Not all of us have photographic memories stitched into our heads. And I’m not guessing at passwords, so you’ll write that down too.”
Cam sneers at him, but obliges the request. When Cam is done, Connor takes the paper, putting it in his pocket for safekeeping, then locks Cam in the basement and returns to Una’s apartment.
“I’ve decided to take Cam with us,” he tells Lev and Grace, neither of whom seem surprised.
50 • Lev
He breaks the news to Connor in the morning—just a few hours before Pivane is due to take them to the car that’s waiting for them outside the north gate. He thinks Connor will be furious, but that’s not his reaction. Not at first. The look on Connor’s face is one of pity—which Lev finds even worse than anger.
“They don’t want you here, Lev. Whatever fantasy you’ve got in your head about staying here, you’ve gotta lose it. They don’t want you.”
It’s only half-true, but it hurts to hear all the same. “It doesn’t matter,” he tells Connor. “It’s what I want that matters, not what they want.”
“So you’re just going to disappear here? Pretend you’re a ChanceFolk kid, living the simple life on the rez?”
“I think I can make a difference here.”
“How? By going hunting with Pivane and reducing the rabbit population?” Now Connor’s voice starts to rise as his anger comes to the surface. Good. Anger is something Lev can deal with.
“They need to start listening to outside voices. I can be that voice!” he tells Connor.
“Listen to yourself! After all you’ve been through, how can you still be so naive?”
Now it’s Lev’s turn to get angry. “You’re the one who thinks talking to some old woman is going to change the world. If anyone is deluding themselves, it’s you!”
That leaves Connor with nothing to say, maybe because he knows Lev is right.
“How can you walk away,” Connor finally says, “when they’re about to overthrow the Cap-17 law?”
“Do you really think anything you or I can do will change that?”
“Yes!” Connor yells. “I do. And I will. Or I’ll die trying.”
“Then you don’t need my help. I’ll just be an anchor around your neck. Let me do something useful here instead of just tagging along.”
ooks to her, a little shocked, a little angry. He had told no one of his decision yet. No one. How did she know?
“Don’t look at me so funny. It’s obvious to anyone with half a brain. You keep talking about Connor going to Ohio and his mission to find Sonia. You’ve already cut yourself out of that picture in your head. Which is why I gotta go with him. So there’s two of us to keep Cam in line.”
“You’re relieved that I’m not coming, aren’t you?”
Grace looks away from him. “I never said that.” Then she adds, “It’s because I know you don’t like me!”
Lev grins. “No, actually, you’re the one who doesn’t like me.”
