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ONCE SHE ROUNDED THE CORNER, IMARA slowed to walk. A sense of dread surrounded her, threatening to draw her back to Abe’s door. Maybe this was the right thing but why did it have to hurt so much?
A moment later, Abe called out to her. “Imara, wait.”
She flinched and kept her back turned firmly away from him.
He sprinted down the hall until he was at her side. When she glanced at him, he said, “No, it’s not...” he shook his head, flustered. “All Egyptian citizens just got a message, and... you have to see this.” He shifted the hologram screen already projecting from his ring with the volume high enough for her to hear.
She turned to face the hologram screen completely once she realized what was on it. It showed a live video broadcasting the Egyptian Council chambers. Imara’s mouth dropped at the sight.
Standing in front of the Egyptian Council with her chin held high was Takara. Sef stood next to her rubbing his hands together while he eyed the members of the Egyptian Council.
“As I was saying,” Sef said. “You are all going to resign, and I will appoint new people in your places, including me. Does anyone have something to say against that?”
One of the council members stood and slapped his palms against the semi-circular table he sat behind. “You have no power here. Why would we resign?”
“I’m glad you asked,” Takara said, turning to grin at the camera recording her.
Sef nodded and tapped his ring. He synced it to the wall hologram, and Imara nearly jumped out of her shoes.
“The list!” she said. “He just synced to the wall hologram. If we can get to the council chambers, we can get the list.”
Abe nodded so fast, his hair shook, but soon they both froze with their eyes on the live video.
On the wall hologram of the council chambers, sixteen separate videos appeared. At the sight of them, each of the sixteen council members gasped.
Takara looked straight into the camera and narrowed her eyes. “I hope you all remember my drones and what they’re capable of. I had to build new ones, but I installed cameras in them this time. I wanted everyone to see what they see.”
She approached the wall hologram. Once there, she enlarged one of the sixteen videos so it covered the others. The video bobbed up and down slightly as the drone flew through the air. It closed in on a young woman walking down the street. “Now,” she said. “Who does this one belong to?”
Imara’s eyes flicked back to the Egyptian Council members. One man’s eyes widened, and every muscle in his face went slack.
With a smirk, Takara pointed at him. “This is your daughter, correct?”
The man gulped.
Takara tapped her personal hologram screen, and the drone recording the man’s daughter suddenly reached out its arms and zoomed toward the girl. Remembering the prison attack, Imara could picture the blue shock of electricity traveling through the drone’s arms. The girl would be dead in seconds.
“Stop!” the man said, clutching the edge of the table.
“Then resign.” Takara said simply.
The man brushed the sweat from his hairline. He gulped and hung his head. “Yes. I... I resign.”
Takara nodded and waved a hand toward one corner of the room. “Sef, draw up the paperwork. Now, who’s next?” She enlarged a video of two boys playing with a ball. She didn’t have to say another word before the next Egyptian Council member resigned.
Imara watched in horror while the next thirteen council members all resigned without a fight. The only Egyptian Council member left was the tiny woman with gray hair and buck teeth. Imara recognized the old woman immediately. She was the same one who was keeping the secret about Marco Santini’s location. Her video showed a man who looked as old as her.
The tiny woman rolled her shoulders back. “I will not resign. My Omari would never forgive me if I did anyway.”
Takara rolled her eyes, but simply tapped her hologram until the arms of the drone wrapped themselves around Omari. She glanced at the old woman as if to give her one last chance, but the woman held her chin high. A moment later, electricity sizzled through the arms and shocked the man to his death. The old woman’s eyes glistened as a tear fell away from her eye, but her chin never wavered.
“Now?” Takara asked.
“Never,” the woman replied.
Takara shrugged and went back to her hologram screen. Suddenly, a new video appeared recording another woman who looked very much like the tiny council woman. Maybe her sister. The old woman turned away from the wall hologram and sniffed. “I will still not resign.”
The drone electrocuted the second woman to death, but the council woman still would not budge. Exasperated, Takara tapped off her ring. She pulled a gun from her pocket and shot the council woman with no regard for the fact that she was being recorded. In fact, as soon as the woman slumped to the ground, Takara turned to the camera with a half smile. “You all saw that,” she said. “Now watch as nothing is done. We have complete control of Cairo, and soon we’ll have control of Egypt.”
The feed suddenly went black, and Imara could do nothing but stare at it with her mouth open wide. After several seconds, she shook her arms out to alleviate some of the tension inside.
Abe shoved a hand through his hair. “Takara must have hacked the feed. She must have messaged every Egyptian citizen to make sure they saw that video.”
Imara reached around for the hair on the back of her neck. As the hairs bristled across her thumb, she considered her options. She had to go home, but she couldn’t leave Egypt now. Not like this.
She couldn’t stand by and watch Egypt be destroyed. But after that, she wouldn’t come back. Even if all of Egypt’s problems were solved, Abe would always choose his business over her. So she’d help, and then she would leave.
They didn’t have much of a chance, but there was still one thing they had that Takara wanted. Maybe the time had come to use it.
Abe sighed and shook his head. “I know you just tried to break up with me—”
“I did break up with you.”
He waved his hand through the air. “We can talk about it later. And I know you have to go home. I respect that, but...”
“I’ll help,” she said before he could ask. “We have to get the real Egyptian Council members reinstated, and we have to get Sef’s list from that wall hologram in the council chambers. I think we might even be able to get Takara arrested since she just murdered someone on camera. But as soon as we stop them, I’m going home.”
Abe nodded, but his head tilted to the side. He rubbed his thumb along his chin, then shook his head again. “What can we do? We can’t just break into the council chambers with Takara there. She’s too powerful.”
“I know what we have to do,” Imara said. She took a deep breath and then let out a long sigh. It wasn’t ideal, but they had to do something. She nodded to herself and spit the words out before she could change her mind. “We have to give her what she wants.”
He scoffed. “She’s on the Egyptian Council. She’ll have control of Egypt by the end of the night. She just got everything she wants.”
“No, she didn’t. She only wanted to infiltrate the Egyptian Council to get information. And she just killed the person who had it.”
He turned to her with the sweetest look of hope. She had to look away from him to keep herself from being sucked into it. She bit her lip. “Tell everyone to meet at headquarters. I don’t have a plan yet, but I have the beginning of one.”
