“You’re an Elysian. You’re my niece and I care about you.”
“All you need to do is share the letter with me, and together we will make this world a better place.”
“Be a part of this family.”
“I’m offering you a choice.”
A repeating playlist of everything her uncle ever said to her plays in Lynell’s mind. Eric ended the life she knew, forced her through unimaginable pain, and left her with blood on her hands and an empire of death to rule. All because he wanted the information she had so he could become more powerful.
Now she’s in Eric’s position. She has the power of the Elysian heir. She owns the Registration. She is the Registration.
And there might be information out there she needs for more control and power.
Lynell has a front row seat to history repeating itself.
“It might not exist,” Daniel says. They’re in the living room, Daniel sitting in an armchair and Lynell lying on her back, stretched out on the couch.
“If it does . . .”
“Lyn, don’t let this send you into a spiral. Searching for this might get the attention of the oligarchs and Anna’s kidnappers. We can’t aggravate them into hurting her.”
“Danny, this is what we’ve been needing to safely use the code and rewrite the Registration our way.”
Daniel leans forward, kicking Lynell’s foot to get her to look at him. “Before you go storming into peoples’ offices, let’s think this through. What did Zach say about the code?”
“That when Gideon first created it, he split it up into parts and gave those parts to several people,” Lynell says. She’s gone over every detail of her conversations with Zach about the Registration and the code since leaving the Meadows’ office two hours ago. “Maybe this one is the same. Maybe it’s in parts. Or, maybe one of the people Gideon gave a part of the master key to used it to create the CCC.”
“Exactly. So, let’s make a list.” Daniel stands and retrieves his journal and a pen, flipping through pages until he finds an empty one. “Who do we know or think had a key?”
“Most of them would be dead.”
“But they would have passed it on, right?” Daniel returns. “The way your dad did.”
Lynell nods and sits up, cradling her injured fingers close so the splints don’t bump against anything. “Robin Jacobs, she’s been on the committee the longest. Although her dad died in the war, so maybe not . . .” She closes her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose as she thinks. “All of the legacy oligarchs,” she says, “the ones whose family members knew and worked with Gideon.”
“Which ones are legacies?”
“Sutton, Roman Mills, Zane Long, Oswald Vanderberg, and Bruce Macgill.”
“Macgill,” Daniel repeats. “Didn’t Sutton say he was involved with kidnapping Anna?”
Lynell nods, opening her eyes. Daniel is gripping the pen with a vibrating fist. “She’s going to be okay,” she whispers.
Instead of responding, Daniel asks, “Are there committee member legacies?”
“Verity McGowan, Izrael Holmes, and Junior Booker.”
He writes down each name as she says them with so much pressure that the pen nearly tears the page. They continue building the list of people who might know of a CCC until Ramsey arrives, holding two bags of takeout food.
“I hope you two like pho,” he says.
“Love it,” Lynell answers, following Ramsey to help unload the containers. She notices bandages on his knuckles but doesn’t ask where they came from. She has the feeling she doesn’t need to know. “What’s the occasion?”
Ramsey leans against the kitchen island and gives them both a rare, dazzling smile. “I have a lead on Anna.”
Lynell drops a packet of chopsticks.
Daniel hurries to the kitchen. “What? How?”
“I met an old contact who has a unique insight into the committee. She’s certain that at least two chairs have used blackmail and threats in the past to further their agendas.”
“Who?” Daniel asks.
“Which chairs?” Lynell asks.
“Finnegan Reese and Tamara Nelson,” Ramsey says.
She’s both unsurprised and surprised. Since meeting him, she expects Finnegan knows more than he’s letting on. The man is way too charming not to be a devil in disguise. But Tamara? She’s perfected the act of innocence.
“My contact received an intercepted message between those two in which they discussed the transportation of the bargaining chip. I’m certain Anna is the bargaining chip.”
Daniel grabs the counter with one hand, leaning his weight on the arm. “They’re moving her? Why?”
“Probably to keep us from finding her,” Lynell answers.
“Which means they’re worried we will,” Ramsey says. “And moved, past tense. The message was from a few days ago.”
Lynell digs her nails into the palms of her hands. “And we didn’t know until now? We’re running out of time. Fast.”
“And we still have no idea where she is,” Daniel says.
“Actually, I put one of my best men on Macgill after your conversation with Sutton—don’t worry, he wasn’t seen. He’s a professional,” Ramsey adds, seeing Daniel’s incredulous look. “Macgill hasn’t gone anywhere suspicious, but he did meet with Finnegan Reese yesterday, so I added a tail on him. Earlier today, Reese called an unknown number, and my guy managed to patch into the network to hear the last part of the call.”
He sets an old model smartphone on the counter, taps the screen, then clicks a red play button. Lynell immediately recognizes the voice coming from the speaker as Finnegan Reese.
“Your relief will be there in an hour. He just left Golden’s. And don’t kill the woman. If she tries escaping again, lock her and the kid in the basement. There are enough provisions down there to keep them alive until Friday.”
Ramsey stops the recording. Lynell’s eyes stay glued to the phone until she hears a choking sound from Daniel. He covers his mouth, his eyes squeezed shut like it’ll block out reality.
“Golden,” Lynell mutters, turning back to Ramsey. “Not Warner? Can’t be him.”
He nods. “No, he’s not working with Reese.”
“But—”
“They’re having Warner followed,” Ramsey says. “They don’t trust him.”
“How do you know?” Lynell asks, trying not to wince at the sound of Daniel’s broken breathing by her side.
“He’s my contact’s informant on the committee. He knows he’s being followed, which is likely why he hasn’t spoken to you directly about any of this. But he has a pre-arranged way to get private messages to my contact.”
“You keep saying ‘my contact,’” Lynell says. “Who are they?”
Ramsey’s satisfied grin falters. “That’s not important.”
“Yes, it is.” She glares at him, the silence stretching uncomfortably. When he doesn’t show signs of answering, Lynell says, “You don’t keep secrets from me, Ramsey. Not now. Not about this. Who is your informant?”
He feels like a different person as he holds her gaze uncertainly. Finally, his chest falls with a sigh, and he says, “It’s Harlow Graham.”
Both Lynell and Daniel gasp. She knows the name because she studied the files on the committee members so deeply. “Warner’s daughter,” she says.
“And Zach’s mom,” Daniel adds.
Ramsey nods. “She came back to town a few months ago and has been working with the Resurrection.”
Lynell reaches out for a stool and sinks onto it. Names bounce against her skull at an agonizing pace. Harlow’s name repeats over and over. She doesn’t know much about the woman, only that she spent most of her childhood summers with Warner, and that’s how she met Eric Elysian. She disappeared not long after giving birth to Zach, and no one knew where she was or even if she was alive.
Until Zach found her five years ago, of course. Lynell remembers Zach telling her about finding his mother, then losing her to Eric’s threats all over again. That conversation with her cousin was the first time Lynell truly understood Zach. Even trusted him.
While Lynell muses, Daniel’s attention has snapped back to the most pressing matter.
“So, where is Anna?”
“I’m not positive, but I’m working on it. Knowing the house she’s at has a basement and is an hour from Golden’s narrows the search considerably. I’m looking into any place that might have a connection to Reese, Nelson, or Macgill.”
“What if more oligarchs and committee chairs are working with them?” Lynell asks.
“It’s likely, but these three we at least know for sure. I’m personally checking any house with suspicious activity. But we know something else from Reese’s call. It seems they plan to honor their word to return Anna and Catherine on Friday.”
“After the vote passes and the entire country is under their thumb,” Lynell mumbles.
“Even the best chess player has to make sacrifices,” Ramsey says. He pockets the phone again and finishes unloading the food.
Though the conversation is over, Lynell doesn’t feel free from its clutches. Most everything Ramsey told her was good news, or at least helpful news, but it did nothing to make her feel better.
Both Ramsey and Sutton have told her to sacrifice the country for Anna’s safety. To play the game and her daughter will be okay. But the other side continues to cheat, and they haven’t made a single sacrifice.
Lynell is sick and tired of obeying the rules. She’ll never make real change if she plays their game.
She has to invent a new one.