“It’s good,” James said, when he finished going over the story. “I just cleaned up your spelling. Sending your way, Devin.” He turned to me. “Really good, actually. And you can keep my holoset. I’m not much into gaming.”
“Why, thank you, on both counts,” I said, surprised—and at the same time, not—by the gesture.
Maddy was practically bouncing again. “Did you see the looks on their faces when they ran out of that building?” She giggled. And it wasn’t even the first time she’d said it.
“You should have seen the head of security’s face when Lois ‘accidentally’ smashed her toy,” Devin said.
“I wish,” Maddy said. “You do it for me. A historical reenactment.”
To my surprise, Devin made an affronted gasp, his eyes going wide and his hand clasping at his chest.
We were laughing together, then. James rolled his chair over to watch as Devin formatted the story to send it live. Maddy came and sat on the corner of my desk. Anavi was in a chair beside it, where she’d been quietly observing the flurry of activity. She didn’t seem to be in a hurry to go home.
“Headline request?” Devin asked. “‘Queen of the Elves Clears Out Commandos.’”
“Hilarious,” I said. “I don’t care what it says as long as it starts with the word ‘Exclusive’.”
“Done,” he said.
Anavi tapped her fingers on the top of the desk.
“Spit it out, Anavi. You’re making me nervous,” I said as gently as I could.
“I feel I must . . . Lois, I don’t know how I could ever repay you. There’s no adequate compensation.”
“I can think of a couple ways,” I said. “And I should never have let them get you in the first place.”
“Is there any other crazy mad science going on that you haven’t told us about?” Maddy asked.
“Way number one,” I said, leaving Maddy’s question aside for a second, “if you could put in writing that your retraction request was garbage—or however you’d say it—”
“Spurious,” Anavi said. “My greatest pleasure. May I use your computer?”
I got up and took Maddy’s arm. “You should be in a band, you know. If you want to.”
Maddy’s smile was shy. “And leave all this? Maybe someday. Mostly, I like daydreaming about it. Is that weird?”
I smiled back at her. “Yes, but only in the good way.”
Maddy’s gaze found its way back to James, like it always did.
I didn’t tell Maddy that he wasn’t worthy of her, though I still felt like he was an idiot for not noticing that she was into him. It wasn’t my place to butt in, not between them. So I said, “Boys,” low so only Maddy heard. “Sometimes they are so clueless.”
“I know, right?” Maddy agreed enthusiastically.
Even if he was clueless, the truth was James wasn’t that bad.
“We’re live,” Devin said, spinning his chair so he and James could high-five.
I reached over and set the receiver back on the antique phone on my desk. Which immediately vibrated, then sounded an uber-loud ring.
We all exchanged a look, and the others pointed at me.
“You answer,” Devin said. So I did.
“Get up here right now. All of you,” Perry barked into my ear.
*
All Perry had said was “Newsroom,” with another bark that he assumed I could find it. We piled off the elevator onto a bustling upper floor.
A floor that was overcome by a rolling hush as we made our way along the open area packed with desks.
“Perry White?” I asked.
“Second office from the corner,” a man in a brown suit said. “You must be the prodigies.”
We kept walking.
“Prodigy’s a good thing, right?” I asked Anavi, who’d insisted on tagging along in case the retraction came up.
“Usually,” Anavi agreed.
“Is that them? Get in here!” Perry, from somewhere nearby. We followed the shout to an open office door.
He had an open bottle. “It’s sparkling apple juice, not champagne, because A, this is a newspaper and we don’t have money for that and B, contributing to the delinquency of minors is not on today’s agenda. Now, I have one question for you to answer, Lane.”
He called me Lane. That was a promising sign.
“Did you give the company a chance to respond?”
I lifted my chin. “I told the CEO’s assistant personally that he could email me if he wanted to go on the record.”
Perry burst out laughing. The rest of us exchanged looks of the “has he gone insane?” variety.
“Was that before or after you filmed the stand-off in the lobby and broadcast it live on our streaming channel?” He shook his head, picked up the bottle, and started to pour. “Don’t tell me. I don’t really want to know. I’m proud of you guys. You might turn into real newshounds yet.”
We accepted the praise and the sweet, fizzy drinks, and I went over to have a look out Perry’s window.
The view wasn’t exactly what I’d imagined, but in some ways it was better. That was the real city of tomorrow out there.
And it was my city now.
“You heard from your dad?” Perry asked from behind me.
“I turned off my phone,” I said, “so not yet. But I should get going.”