“But you really are one.”
“You got us out of there.”
“Because I knew about the tunnels.” She laughed bitterly. “We should’ve met Miners down there.”
He gave her a hard stare. “Was that the real plan to kill all of us?”
“No. But it could’ve worked out that way.” She smiled distantly. “I don’t like being a fraud.”
“Really, Da-ra, Din-ton?”
Mooshie glowered. “I had to do that.”
“And now you have to do this. We owe it.”
“To who?”
“To the bodies being pulled out of the fucking stadium.”
“There’s always gonna be bodies pulled out of somewhere.”
“Maybe eventually we’ll get tired of it.”
“You are hopeless.”
“Yeah. Otherwise it makes no sense.”
“Who said it’s supposed to, Puppy? Grandma? God? The voice in your naïve little head?
You’re taking this hero crap too seriously. I was a hero to someone my whole life. And here I am trying to figure out what dress to wear to a farce.”
They passed the third checkpoint at the entrance to the House, where a trio of BTs triangulated them up a long, winding staircase and into a tiny elevator; Mooshie inspected her hair in the mirror.
“Do I look good, boys?” she asked the guards, who grunted. “I’ll take that as a yes, as always.”
Mooshie buried her hand into Puppy’s and followed the BTs into Grandma’s Living Room. A pot of tea and cookies waited on the coffee table.
“Are you nervous?” Puppy whispered.
Mooshie nodded at their script, tucked beneath the saucers. “This is pretty clear.”
An honor to be part of our future. We showed we can come together.
Grandma bustled in with an apologetic smile. The lines in her face had deepened and her voice was thin; she hugged them briefly and with little warmth. She doesn’t want to do this either.
“Thank you for coming.” Grandma stared at Mooshie, who squirmed slightly. “A good thing you didn’t kill me. I’ve still got so much to do.”
Puppy and Mooshie exchanged shocked looks. Cheng entered from a side door with a slight, almost sneering bow, and silently took a seat around the table. Grandma poured tea.
“Albert, I was just mentioning how grateful I was that Mooshie didn’t kill me.”
“I never meant to…” Mooshie’s voice faltered.
“I know. But you would’ve if Puppy weren’t in the way. Why do you still hate me, Mooshie? I was a great admirer of yours. Even when you criticized me. But you weren’t that important, certainly not important enough to murder. Your friends did. They thought people listened to people like you.” Grandma laughed harshly. “Even I didn’t realize they were behind your murder until Derek Singh, or was it Easy Sun Yen, admitted it?”
“Singh,” Cheng said, grunting.
“Thank you, Albert. Their suicide was a cover, apologies, but how else should we have handled that? With a public trial? Public execution? That only would’ve upset people. That’s the problem with the past. Letting go. Which today is all about.” Grandma neatly folded her hands. “Isn’t that right, Albert?”
“Going forward,” he said with a testy bite.
“Exactly. I want to thank both of you for coming. You’re the face of hope. If we let this latest tragedy destroy hope, what do we have? There’s been so much confusion the past couple days.” She paused to gather her jumbled thoughts, forgetting they were there.
Albert shot them an embarrassed look. “Lenora, save your energy for the speech.”
Grandma shook herself back into the room. “The speech, yes. We’ve bickered a little about that, haven’t we, Albert?”
“A little.”
“But I won.”
“As always,” he said sourly.
Grandma pulled aside a purple lace curtain to show waiting children miles deep. “Albert thought the city should be evacuated. That would’ve entailed enormous security concerns, what with the devils still around. We haven’t caught them all, have we, Albert? All those billboards preaching Forgiveness. Oh, we worked so hard, didn’t we? And no one listened.”
“Now they will,” Albert said gruffly.
“Yes.” Grandma laid her hand on his shoulder. “Except it’s such an odd thing, being the leader. You speak to many people and, after a while, realize that you can’t persuade all of them. Some will simply never accept what needs to be done yet fascinatingly, they always have so many different reasons, right, Albert?”
Grandma sighed and refilled their cups, passing around the plate of cookies. “It’s much simpler to lie. We’ve lied about the extent of the peace or rather, the quality of the peace. All of you,” she gestured toward the lace curtain as if it were about to take a seat, “now know that it’s worse than we admitted. Someone wanted to get that information out. They did a wonderful job, didn’t they, Albert? So dramatic. But you covered up nicely. As always, my dear friend.”
Grandma insisted Albert take a cookie; he bit warily.
“Now we need another little cover-up, which has actually gone quite well. The video with Abdullah and I. Do you children think it was a fake?”
Puppy and Mooshie exchanged vague looks. He slowly shook his head; Grandma gasped in mock surprise.
“My goodness, dear Puppy. Do you believe I’d jeopardize our Family?”
“No. I think you’d make a deal that would help everyone.”
“Isn’t that lovely. And Mooshie?”
“I don’t know what to think.”
“Honesty, please. Honesty.”
“Lenora, we don’t have time for this,” Albert interrupted.
“Yeah, I think’s it’s real,” Mooshie said.
“Good. Isn’t that what our society is built upon? Honesty. Yet even I can’t be fully honest. Even I have to cut some corners.” She inhaled as if needing all the oxygen in the room. “Not anymore. Yes, the video is real. And I’m going to tell the world just that.” Grandma tore up her speech. “It was a good try, Albert dear. But I can’t let you have your way.”
“I think you should reconsider, Lenora,” he said very quietly.
“I can’t.” Her eyes watered. “You were my oldest friend along with Tomas. He’s dead. You’re a traitor. Those weren’t Miners at the stadium. Maybe a few for cover, like Singh and Sun Yen. The rest were all Black Tops. Acting on your orders. I trusted you with my life, Albert.”
“Everyone makes at least one big mistake
