I leave Amber to her preparations and head over to the situation room. I figure I can wait around there with a coffee and a muffin until the meeting begins. But Peggy’s already in there too. We hug and she pours us both something hot to drink.
“How are you feeling, Jessie?” she asks.
“Oh, you know,” I reply, brushing off her concern. “I’m used to this.”
“Meaning?” she asks.
“Meaning, I’ve done it so many times that I’ve become accustomed to it.”
“Ah,” Peggy shoots back. “Thank you for clarifying the literal meaning of ‘I’m used to this.’”
She throws me a look and I glance away from her, ashamed of my sarcasm.
“What I meant was, this is what we do, as Athena agents,” I say, figuring that it won’t kill me to make an effort to talk to Peggy. Day after day, she makes herself available to us, whether for wise counsel or just a kind hug.
“We fight, we go through stuff,” I continue. “We win some, we lose some.” My voice falters a bit right at the end. Sensitively, Peggy looks down, giving me space to say more, but I’m done.
“Do you think the time off helped you?” she asks.
I shrug and clear my throat. “Maybe it would have been better to stay busy.”
“Why?”
Peggy’s eyes are compassionate but evaluating. I guess this is where I’m supposed to break down and admit that thinking about Riya causes me pain. That I hate that she’s dead, cheated out of the rest of her life.
“Do you feel guilty about what happened in Mumbai?” Peggy persists, in the face of my silence. “That it was in any way your fault?”
I feel my leg moving up and down, nervously. It’s not a difficult question, and I’ve certainly thought about little else recently. But forming it into spoken words requires a different kind of courage that I’m not sure I have right now. Peggy waits, though, not really letting me off the hook.
“Some days—most days—I know it was Riya’s choice,” I say, my voice barely louder than a whisper. “But a lot of the time I blame myself.”
Peggy reaches out a hand to cover my own. “That’s normal,” she assures me. “It will take time. Give yourself that time.”
I look away and take a sip of coffee. Time heals all wounds. This too shall pass. Nothing lasts forever. How desperately I want to believe these platitudes. But I’m spared from any more emotional excavation by Thomas arriving. Close on his heels is Hala. Thomas leaps up to hold open the door for her, and she actually parks her habitual scowl long enough to smile at him. Then, even more incredibly, she hands him the takeout cup that she’s carrying in one hand.
“Cappuccino, extra dry,” she says. Exactly the way Thomas likes to enjoy his excuse for a coffee.
It’s like she’s offered him a winning lottery ticket. Thomas is surprised, happy, and ridiculously grateful in quick succession.
“I made sure they only put in half a shot of espresso,” Hala tells him.
“That’s just . . . perfect,” Thomas says, gazing at her.
“You mean the cappuccino, right?” I comment.
Hala scowls at me but I’m sure I see Peggy stifle a smile.
“What?” asks Hala, picking up our little interaction.
“Nothing,” Peggy says. “Perhaps we’ll talk later.”
Now Kit arrives, followed by Li and Caitlin. More chatter and talk bubbles up, rising and falling through the room, bringing it fully to life. I look around the table, at my mother and the cofounders of Athena. At my teammates, who always have my back. And at Amber, who is last to arrive, but first to get herself set up, laptops open, notebook at the ready. These people are more than colleagues and friends. They are my family. My mind suddenly goes to Jake Graham, the reporter, for the first time in many days. We’re a family who have chosen to work outside the law. When I think about what could happen to us if we are discovered, it makes me feel sick.
Li brings the meeting to order.
“Amber, bring us up to speed on the situation in Mumbai, please,” she instructs.
“Well,” Amber begins, “you know the girls have received the antiviral. They continue to be monitored but it is clear that the virus has been neutralized entirely. They are safe from harm on that front.”
“And Family First?” I ask.
Amber pauses and looks at Li.
“We thought we’d play you a video. It’ll give you a thorough update on them,” Li tells us enigmatically. She flicks on the wide screen that takes up the wall at the end of the room.
“This is a preview of a special report coming out on Global News tonight,” she says.
The video plays. Establishing footage of Mumbai, then of Pakistan—then shots of women and girls. Jake Graham’s voice talks over it, outlining the program to come.
“In the next sixty minutes,” Jake intones, “I’ll be uncovering government complicity; deep corruption that leads all the way to the top of the police forces of two countries; and a far right movement called Family First, who used terror, violence, and election tampering to further their mission. And the main purpose of that mission? To subjugate women.”
Opening credits roll, and when they end, Jake is walking through the school that was bombed, side by side with none other than Sunil Patel, talking about where the story began. We watch as Jake creates the background to the story step-by-step, and then goes on to link in the Cypriot Private Bank, Imran, and Jingo Jain.
“It’s a web of unchecked power that leads right to these men,” Jake continues. “Pakistani general Mohsin Khan, and Indian billionaire Sunny Mehta.”
Well, this is new. We turn to look at Amber and the Athena founders. Li pauses the tape and Amber chips in, practically bouncing out of her seat.
“We got to the heads of Family First,” she says, excited.
“How?”
“Remember when Sunil tapped Jingo’s home phone? The call he taped, that you uploaded to me, was between Jingo and an unknown man. But coming right before the attack, with the
