CHAPTER 30

Beyond the office window, the harsh disc of the sun crested the distant southern wall, forcing Mineko to squint as she looked at it. The campus had become entirely hushed. Even the birds observed the silence.

If she went through with this plan, she could never go back. Was it too late to change her mind? She could step away…

No. She couldn’t. This moment had been inevitable from the day she’d walked into her room to find Callie Roux waiting for her.

A girl like you deserves the world.

“Fellow students, this is Mineko Tamura. I speak to you at a moment of crisis. Enemies of the Code are among you. Disguised as agents of my father, they have come to abduct me.”

The Dean made a strangled sound and covered his mouth.

“These imposters intend to take me hostage and escape to the districts from which they came. But they didn’t count on our bravery. Some of us have fought them all the way to the Medicine building, where even now the counterfeit Codists press their threat against our harmonious lives.”

How easily the rhetoric flowed. Those grandiose lectures, the manipulative passages in her textbooks, they were all so simple to emulate.

“You know my father, Gaspar Tamura, the great man who ensures the stability of our society. You likewise know my mother, Kaori Tamura, the decorated general who keeps us safe from wasteland savages. I am their daughter, and today I will make them proud. Join me and earn their favor. Prove that no insurgent can stand against Codified brothers and sisters. March with me to the Medicine building. We are the boldest generation yet, and when our time comes to be custodians of this planet, we will be fearless. This is your true exam.”

Mineko set down the microphone and nodded to the Dean, who disabled the speaker system with shaking fingers. “Find somewhere safe to hide,” she said. “You’re too old for this.”

Before Mineko could make it more than halfway down the hall, Riva caught her by the arm. “Min, what are you doing? If you send these students to fight against agents, they’ll be hurt, even killed.”

“Don’t preach at me.” Mineko glared at Riva. Who was this woman, to emerge from nowhere and try to impede a realization of purpose? “For my entire life, I’ve been forced to suppress all that’s true about myself and inhabit a sickening lie. Believe me, in my position, you’d do the same.”

“I’d do a lot of things. But not this.”

“How could you even know? Besides, anyone who believes what I said is already a lost cause. The clever ones will stay hiding in their rooms.”

“You’re lying to yourself. The bravest will be the ones who follow you.”

Idiot. Cowardly idiot. “Callie and Kade will be wiped if we don’t act. Are you telling me these stupid students are more important?”

“It’s wrong to have innocent people fight our battles.”

How absurd and galling this was, given the patient self-sacrifice Mineko had adhered to until now. But it was futile to take out her temper on some well-meaning—albeit utterly infuriating—stranger. “Tomorrow, we’ll consider what we might have done better,” Mineko said with as much patience as she could. “But today, we must fight to protect what we have. Please trust me.”

“Do you really think Callie would be comfortable with this?”

Now that crossed the line. “Emotional blackmail is something I’m very used to, Latour. Don’t waste your breath trying it on me again.”

Riva flinched. “I didn’t—”

“If it helps your conscience, rest assured that Lachlan won’t hurt any of the students. It’d be the end of his career.”

“The agents I saw yesterday seemed brutal enough.”

“Those were different circumstances. Are you following me or not?”

Riva averted her eyes. “Yes. I’m sorry.”

Presumably she hoped for some gentle word, some sign of forgiveness, but Mineko wasn’t in the mood. Instead, she nodded and continued on her way. After a second of hesitation, Riva fell into step behind her.

Mineko descended the stairs in a state of brooding uncertainty. It seemed she had become a hypocrite—she had relished seeing others submit to her authority: Jasmine, the Dean, this Riva woman. It had been pleasurable to overwhelm their weaker resolves. Did that speak to some dark strain in her own nature?

Well, if so, she would be prudent in her use of that power. And Lachlan Reed would be the first to feel it.