I dragged myself out of my memories and forced myself to pay attention to Lopez. He was detailing all the ways they were planning on disrupting the rally—rather than an overt attack, Lopez wanted to compromise the sewage systems and make the bathrooms inoperable. His theory was if he made those attending the rally miserable, their impressions of Mike would sour as well. I wasn’t so sure I agreed, but the image of a sewage pipe backing up into the kitchen and dining areas while his supporters were eating lunch was rather enjoyable.
Based on Max’s grin, the idea of ruining Mike’s lunch appealed to him as well. “What’s the other raid about?” he asked.
“Armstrong’s right-hand man, Langston Phillips, will be speaking in Portland,” Lopez replied. “Word is Armstrong is going to name Phillips as his running mate.”
“Really,” Max said, taking the second folder from Lopez and paging through it. “This is where we’re going.”
“You don’t think it would be better to mess with Mike?” I asked. “Isn’t he the big bad and all?”
“That he is,” Max affirmed. “However, I have a score to settle with Langston.”
“Score?” I repeated. I remembered the look on Max’s face when we’d seen Langston at the rally in Portland—Max had looked like he wanted to rip Langston’s throat out. “Exactly what did he do to you?”
Max’s brown eyes went cold. “The worst thing you could imagine.”
I stared at Max, simultaneously wishing he would elaborate and not wanting to press him to reveal things in front of Lopez and Aregonda. Yeah, they were resistance and therefore technically on our side, but something about Lopez rubbed me the wrong way. As for Aregonda, she remained an unknown entity.
“Great,” Lopez said, clapping his hands together. “Max and Sara can attend the raid against Langston, and the Inheritor will accompany us to Northeastern. We will have Corbeau support on both fronts.”
“No way,” Sadie said, shaking her head. “I don’t want to be separated from Max and Sara.”
“Think we can’t protect you?” Lopez growled.
“I can protect myself,” she snapped. “Since we came back to the Mundane world, we’ve been separated from our father. I refuse to be isolated from my siblings as well.”
Lopez’s face reddened, and he took in a deep breath as if he was about to call Sadie out. Beside me, Max clenched his fists, ready to go down fighting rather than let Lopez’s schemes split us up. Before either of them made a move, Aregonda placed her hand on Lopez’s arm.
“It’s all right, Jovanny,” Aregonda soothed. “With these three in Portland, we will have a strong presence. I and another of metal will accompany them, thus splitting our strongest fighters evenly between events.”
As the angry redness faded from Lopez’s face, I somehow knew that Aregonda had worked some sort of spell on him. I made a mental note to never let her touch me.
“Okay then,” I murmured, still eyeing Aregonda’s hand on Lopez’s forearm. “The three of us will go to Portland and cause some trouble. Max, do you think the static portal from the Promenade to the Whispering Dell is still operational?”
“Only one way to find out,” Max replied. “Even if it’s been shut down, I can probably get the supplies I need to make one right at the Promenade.”
“You can make portals?” Aregonda asked.
“I know a few tricks,” Max replied. “Sara, Sadie, you guys down with a bit of shopping?”
“Of course,” Sadie replied as I nodded, hoping beyond hope that the static portal was still there. If it was, I’d be home with Micah in a few short hours. If not… well, if it was shut down, we would just find another route to the Otherworld. I was going home to Micah, one way or another. If I could make that homecoming happen in a few hours, so much the better.
I looked at Aregonda and asked, “So, when do we leave?”
20
After the rest of the resistance had come to an agreement as to who was traveling where, Sadie and I went down to the stream to clean up as best we could. Aregonda had supplied us with a lump of soap and a few washcloths, yet no matter how hard I scrubbed my hands and neck, I still felt dirty. It wasn’t that I was covered in actual dirt, but after our three days in the cell and the three since we’d escaped, I was feeling pretty ripe. Of course, I could have just stripped down and bathed in the stream, but there was one rather big problem with that—Jerome. For reasons that Sadie and I could not fathom, Jerome had decided that he was our guard. Chivalrous, yes, but also decidedly unhelpful when you wanted to take a quick bath.