The Gender End by Bella Forrest (the giving tree read aloud TXT) 📕

and dangerous accusations, but you’re prepared. Very prepared.” She looked away, her mouth tightening. “Poor Rina.”

“Poor Rina?” Morgan asked, and Alyssa looked over at her, her eyes sad.

“I tried to reach out to her after… well, after you were hospitalized, my dear. She was cold, aloof, isolated. I hadn’t realized what she was going through. What she had brought upon you and herself. She reminded me so much of her grandmother—now there was a strong woman. Confident in command, downright intractable. I was young back then, and she thought I was amusing. The joke was on her when she had to make me one of her advisors.”

She let out a chuckle and then sighed heavily, leaning back into her chair. “This is all so much to take in,” she admitted. “I am ashamed to say that I almost don’t want to believe you. Then again, I’ve met Elena. It doesn’t take much for anyone to realize that ice runs through her veins.”

“So you’ll help us?” asked Violet, moving forward in her chair a few inches. “Please. We are running out of options, and the people over there are dying.”

Alyssa stared at Violet, her mouth twisting into a grimace. “Look, I have some friends I could get this to who could verify the contents of the data chip within the next few hours. If it is legitimate, then I can make sure it goes out with the nine a.m. ticker blast. Of course, I’ll have to paraphrase a lot of it—I’m pretty sure the public isn’t going to want every detail, although they will have to be made aware of them.”

I blinked in surprise. “You have that much sway with the ticker teams?” I asked. “We actually brought a program that would allow us to override every handheld in Matrus and give out the information that way. We… We figured it would be safer.”

“Hmm. It might, but it also might undermine your credibility. I don’t know. To be honest, I’m still in a bit of shock here. You have to understand, no queen has ever been deposed before, and I’m not entirely certain how best to proceed. I think—”

“Viggo.” Thomas’ voice cut me off, and I looked over at him, surprised to see him on his hands and knees, digging around underneath Violet’s armchair. Violet started, pulling her legs out of the way as Thomas put his whole head under the chair. There was a ripping noise, and he began pulling out stuffing, muttering to himself.

“What on earth—” Alyssa began, rising to her feet, but she wasn’t able to finish her sentence before Thomas said, “There it is!”

The next moment he was standing, a tiny silver bead clutched between his fingers. Thomas looked at me with serious eyes, and then dropped it into a teacup with a plop, splashing some of the brown liquid onto the table, before putting one of the saucers over it.

“What is it?” I asked, feeling my blood starting to rush.

“It’s a bug,” he announced grimly. “Someone has been listening to us.”

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27

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Violet

Everyone scrambled. Owen and Morgan immediately moved out of the room, heading for the front doors to get to the cars. Alyssa followed them, but turned to go up the stairs from the front hall instead, and I could hear her footsteps creaking around upstairs. Ms. Dale already had her gun in her hand, and she was peering out the windows.

“We’ve been here for an hour,” she said in a low voice.

“I’m sorry,” Thomas replied, his eyes flicking over the screen. “It doesn’t emit much of an RF signature. I was just looking through my programs, checking to see if anything had changed, and realized that I was picking up a new signal in this room. I should have thought to check for something like this. I haven’t seen any of this design for years—I assume it’s very old.”

“Old? Then how do we know—”

“It’s still transmitting,” Thomas said, cutting me off. “If a bug is working, it’s better to keep the bug there than risk getting caught replacing it. Ms. Dawes must’ve been bugged by Rina some years ago, and Elena gained access to it afterward. It’s probably voice activated—as soon as she starts talking in close enough proximity, it turns on and alerts someone on the other line.”

“Thomas,” I asked, “is there a chance that… that nobody was listening? If it was an old bug, how would Elena even know to pay attention to this feed?”

Thomas looked at me, his eyes sharp and nervous. “There’s a good chance, in fact,” he said. “But we can’t afford the consequences if someone has been listening in and we choose to ignore it. As far as strategy is concerned, we have to assume we’ve been compromised.”

We all took a moment—but only a very short moment—to let that sink in.

“Someone should be watching Alyssa,” Solomon said, gingerly pulling a curtain aside so he could peer out the window. “Maybe she’s working with the queen.”

“I don’t think she is,” Viggo said. “We talked in the kitchen, and I’m convinced she is an honorable person. She wouldn’t let what Elena’s doing go unchallenged.”

“This changes things,” Ms. Dale said. “We have to go now.”

“If there are people listening in, why aren’t they here yet?” Amber asked. “They’ve had plenty of time. They…”

“She would have held them off.” Alyssa entered the room wearing heavy black slacks, a sweater, and a puffy snow vest around her chest. A scarf wrapped around her neck, and she had a beanie on her head, her white hair tucked in underneath. The fabric seemed like it was swallowing her up, distracting the eye from the shotgun she was once again cradling in her hands.

It occurred to me that I had never seen where she’d put it away after brandishing it at us earlier. She gave us all a look and then nodded toward the door. “She held them off so she could know what the plan was—she knew she had time to hear what you’re doing