He touched my hand with the tips of his fingers before he pressed my sunglasses against my palm, saying, ?You?ve been out for about ten hours. I?ve tried Mahir three times, but there?s been no response. Becks says she spoke to him after we did, when she had to request a delete and re-upload of some of her journal files, but that?s the last time stamp anybody has.?
Becks?? Oh, Rebecca Atherton, the Newsie he stole from me after things went wrong in Eakly. I slipped my sunglasses on and opened my eyes, taking a moment to orient myself before sitting up. Getting my eyes to focus took a little longer. Shaun put a hand on my knee, steadying me, and I covered it with my own, turning my still blurry eyes toward the distant glow of the computers against the far wall. There was a patch of blobby darkness there that looked out of place against the green, and I nodded to it, saying, ?Hey, Rick.?
?Hey, Georgia,? the blob replied. ?Feeling any better??
?I?m half-blind, and it feels like a flock of seagulls crapped inside my head, but it doesn?t hurt, so I guess I?ll live.? I squeezed Shaun?s hand. ?How was the DAR meeting??
?Boring.?
?Good. At least something in this world can be counted on to stay dull.? My eyes were starting to work. The blob had a head now. ?You planning on sticking around, or do we need to post your job opening, too??
Rick paused. ?Shaun said you?d already discussed it.?
?The two of us, yes. The three of us? Not so much.? I shrugged. ?I figured you should get a say. You plan to stick around? We?re not doing so well on the survival figures, I?m afraid. One out of four sort of sucks.?
?I?d rather take my chances with you than anyplace else I can think of, if it?s all the same.?
I raised my eyebrows high enough that they crested above the tops of my sunglasses. ?Oh? What?s the logic behind that??
?I know I haven?t known you or your brother for long, and you don?t have much reason to trust me; what I?m about to say probably won?t help with that. But Buffy was a friend of mine for years. She was a good person, and she never meant to hurt anyone, but if I don?t stay with this team long enough to make sure you remember that, one day the news is going to get out, and she?s going to be remembered not as a great writer and a good friend, but as the cause of the Eakly Massacre and the cat?s paw behind the death of Rebecca Ryman. The best she?ll be able to hope for is ?traitor.? And I won?t have that.? I could hear the frown in his voice. ?I?m staying because I have to. You can try to make me leave if you want to, but it?s not going to be fun for any of us.?
?I wouldn?t dream of it.? Giving Shaun?s hand a final squeeze, I stood and walked over to sit down at my computer. This close up, my screen was a little fuzzy, but it was nothing I couldn?t handle. ?If you feel that strongly about staying, you stay. We?re glad to have you.? My screen blinked at me, prompting for a password. I entered it. Shaun could get me online, but that didn?t mean he could access my files. Starting to type, I asked, ?What?s our general status??
?Buffy?s death hit the newswires five minutes after it happened,? said Shaun, moving back to his own machine. ?But that?s not the fun part.? He paused, portentously, until I glared at him. He?s good at detecting glares, even through dark glasses. ?You want the fun part??
?Yes, Shaun,? I said. ?I?ve been asleep for ten hours, and I want the fun part.?
?Fine. Here?s the fun part: Our deaths hit the wires at the same time.?
My eyes widened. ?What??
?We were all reported dead,? Shaun said. ?Half the news sites had the story before anyone could contradict it, and half of them are still listing you as deceased.?
I looked to Rick, who nodded.
?Whoever called the CDC made sure the call was ?accidentally? made on a channel that several local news sites monitor for gossip,? he said. ?We all got listed as dead before we even made it to Memphis. They printed a retraction about Shaun when he posted to complain about the CDC coffee, and about half the sites did the same for me when I threw up the DAR blurb.? He quirked a smile. ?I?m not interesting enough to spread as quickly as a Mason.?
?And me?? I asked, too annoyed not to.
?Still dead,? said Rick. ?They?ve got some great conspiracy theories going, too, about Shaun and me concealing your death until we can prove you weren?t doing something forbidden by your licensing.?
?Thus invalidating my life insurance,? I said, putting a hand over my face. ?Is there any more good news??
?Only Buffy made it to the Wall,? Shaun said. ?She?s the only one whose death has actually appeared in the public CDC database.?
I bit back a groan. ?How many people think we faked our own deaths to up ratings??
?A lot,? Shaun said, voice going grim. ?On the plus side, if we?d really been doing that, it would?ve worked. We gained another three points of market share while people waited for the grisly details to pop up.?
?And have they??