According to Enyo, Ryodan had mysteriously leveraged the leaders of the black market to provide free food and supplies to all the Guardians and armed guards throughout multiple countries, as well as taken over WeCare’s meeting houses, turning them into free soup kitchens, feeding anyone who came in hungry, turning no one away.
“He did not,” Jada snapped, sitting up straighter. “Sorry, Enyo, I was willing to go along with you right up until that one. Ryodan doesn’t give a bloody damn about the fate of the human race, and he would never divert his resources to feeding them.”
“It sure looks like he cares to me,” Enyo said hotly. “I’ve seen him out there in action, personally keeping tabs on every inch of this city and all its operations. I’m beginning to think the man never sleeps.”
I could assure Jada he didn’t. But I wasn’t about to.
She screwed up her face in a look of such utter disgust that for a moment all I could see was young Dani again, and I had to bite my lip to keep from smiling.
“Oh, why don’t you just bloody saint the man, then?” she growled. “Ryodan this, Ryodan that. Ryodan’s World News, my ass. Doesn’t he know you need a catchy title? A little alliteration, a lilt to roll along the lips?”
“Either that or just the latest news,” I said without thinking, then absorbed the look on Jada’s face and added hastily, “Not that yours wasn’t. It was. I loved your papers. They were endlessly entertaining and informative. The Dani Daily rocked, and that one Jada Journal I saw—”
“Oh, stow it, Mac,” she snapped. “His idiotic paper is…” She glanced down at it irritably, where it lay smoothed out on her lap. “Good,” she allowed tightly. “He reports the news in a calm, objective manner that instills confidence that someone knows what’s going on, and inspires hope. He has his finger on world events—not just what’s happening in Dublin like I did—and his frigging bullet points at the end of it, with lists of things for people to do each day, focuses them on tasks that keep them too busy to panic.” She sighed and muttered, “Fucker.”
That was it. I laughed. It felt like forever since I’d seen her looking like a disgruntled porcupine. Her passion and temper were rising to the surface again.
I agreed. His bulleted lists were a terrific idea, as was posting the paper early each morning before people woke up. No one greeted the day at a loss for what to do, which meant fewer people sitting around bitching, working themselves into a panic, spreading the mood, then the next thing you knew you had a riot forming. He kept them pointed at tasks, moving from one “to do” to the next, and as I’d learned myself a little over a year ago, lists were a damned effective way to manage messy emotions.
After a moment, Enyo continued, and I narrowed my eyes as I listened, beginning to wonder if this tough, battle-hardened sidhe-seer might not just have a bit of a crush on Ryodan. I glanced at Jada and knew by her expression that she was wondering the same thing.
Ryodan had divided the city into numbered districts, Enyo told us, with admiration blazing in her eyes, and each district’s paper had a different bulleted list at the end containing tasks specific to that small enclave of people. Once they arrived on the job, they were assigned to teams, where they began the day with a discussion of what they were going to accomplish and how it served their long-term goals and needs, were fed three squares while on the job, and finished the day with an inspiring wrap-up talk. Each site was run by a foreman who’d been hand-selected by Ryodan for his motivational and leadership skills.
“Okay,” Jada said acidly, kicking her legs over the back of the shattered Chesterfield she’d been perching on and stalking over the paint-stained floor to the door. “That’s all the rah-rah Ryodan crap I can take in one sitting. I need to get out there and see what’s going on with my own eyes.”
I was surprised she was just leaving without waiting for Enyo to take off so she could say, “Wow, Mac, you’re the Seelie Queen now, what’s up with that?” or something similar. But no one had seemed to want to stick around once we returned to Dublin. Cruce had instantly sifted out without a word, Barrons had tersely asked me to “please go to the bookstore and wait there until I get back, and yes, I did just say please, and no, not because you’re the bloody queen of the Faery but because I want you to do it and not argue,” before stalking off with Lor and Fade to find Ryodan. I’d tossed a mild “Okay” at his back, deciding he needed a breather. Finally being free of the evil clutches of the Sinsar Dubh was breather enough for me. I was ready to get invested in the next thing and forget about the last until I went back to destroy the Book for good.