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“I don’t focus on anything else anymore.”

Claire’s first public event was taking place inside a public library, though it didn’t look like any library I’d seen before in the pictures I was shown. First of all, there were almost no books. Ayanna explained that almost all the books were stored on a server, and they had a huge room with a ton of computer terminals where people read stuff. That room opened onto a big, sterile-looking space with machines I didn’t know the purpose of on one side, and a stage on the other where Claire would speak. In the middle, people would gather to watch. It featured a tapered glass roof that offered a view of the sky, which seemed incredibly stupid and impractical to me, but then again, most things at the Delta did.

“How do you know they’re not changing the info on those computers?” I asked, confused. “It’s a lot easier to edit a book on a computer than it is to physically edit it. No evidence.”

Ayanna gave me a smile that told me my question was dumb. “Exactly.”

The only books they had were on the second floor, in a space Ayanna called the stacks. Even the pictures of that place looked dusty, so my guess was that not many people visited it. There was a spiral staircase that led up to the stacks from the area where the machines were, which I took note of because if nobody went there, it may not be a bad place to hide out if needed.

I met Kimmy that morning at the tunnel entrance.

“Welcome to the Delta,” I said, offering her my hand and pulling her up. “It sucks here.”

She laughed and hugged me. “I missed you more than I thought I would.”

I scoffed as I hugged her back. “Gee, thanks. I’m glad to know that living with total strangers is only slightly worse than with me.”

She laughed again, but she looked genuinely happy to see me, and my heart warmed. I’d missed her more than I thought, too. A week shouldn’t have felt long, but it was longer than I’d been apart from her in years.

“How are you holding up?” she asked as we walked into the White Rose base.

“Fine, I guess,” I sighed. “Truth be told, I can’t wait to get today over with. I miss her.”

“Me too,” Kimmy answered sympathetically, touching my arm. “I’d help you today, but Ayanna’s surrounding me with a team of like five people. I don’t think I could slip away.”

“It’s okay,” I replied with a shrug. “As long as they draw Claire’s fucking escort away from her, I’ll get her out.”

“I know you will.” As she adjusted her rifle strap, she asked, “How’s Ayanna doing? Giving you trouble?”

“She put up a bit of a fight about trying to get Claire back today, but she backed down when I tried to quit.”

Kimmy rolled her eyes. “You had to threaten to quit to get her to agree?”

“Yep, my life is one big vacation at the moment. Say you’re jealous.”

“I’ll have to have a word with her,” she said, almost to herself, still playing with the rifle strap. “She shouldn’t talk to you like that.”

“Uh, thanks, Mom, but I got it.” I looked at her. “What’s wrong with that strap? Is it broken?”

She smiled half-heartedly and stopped messing with it. “Oh. No. Just digging into my shoulder a bit.”

“I can loosen it if you want,” I offered, moving to her back.

“It’s fine,” Kimmy said, sharper than I expected, and she spun around.

I stared at her. “Kim, why are you being weird?”

“I’m not.” This time, it was more of a snap. “We should get ready for this afternoon. I need to restock my kit.”

I cut her a look of confusion, but she ignored me, so I just followed her through the base to prep for the mission.

The plan, in theory, should’ve been simple.

Ayanna had a contact at the library that’d let us in via an emergency exit on the south and north sides of the building, into staff rooms that would be empty because the library was closed for the event. The Delta military would be formed in a circle around the crowd, keeping order and acting as security as Claire gave her speech and then talked to people one-on-one afterwards.

When Claire came to the podium, the two White Rose forces were supposed to come out and fire on the military from both sides. The targets were always soldiers; the White Rose didn’t fire on civilians. The idea was that the firefight would cause chaos, force the military to engage with the White Rose, and the civilians would scatter, trying to escape. Claire, with her bodyguard busy, would probably do the same, and that small window was my chance to reach her and get her out of there before anyone was looking for her.

Shortly before Claire’s speech, I found myself in the south staff room, hunkered down with the militia members. We all wore gas masks to hide our faces, along with black cloaks and the White Rose armbands, but otherwise we wore the same uniform as the Delta soldiers. I kind of hated it, but at least I finally knew I was close to getting Claire back.