Jenn gave me a patient look. “Truth is the point. Someone’s trying to share real-world data with us.”

“You don’t think we get enough reality out picking every night?”

“Only our limited version.” She jabbed a finger at the screen. “When was the last time you tried to walk through a checkpoint?”

Well, never, at least not in present memory. “If it’s real. I mean, if they have all the right papers, why would there be a problem?”

Jenn shrugged and hit a key. We watched the couple get turned away again.

“Asshole!” Across the loft, the enforcer gang whooped and jeered at whatever they had up on the big screen.

“Morons! Shoulda thoughta that before ya left the Island!”

I turned to peer through the forest of waving, muscled arms at a video of a crowd pushing and shoving in front of a tall metal gate. “What are they on about?”

“Oh, old footage, I think, from after Felix. Food riots at some processing center. The Mainland put stuff like that on auto-loop to discourage refugees. I’m surprised it’s still up and running.”

It made sense that the Mainland feed was intended less for a small population of den rats than it was to calm panic uptown and along the coasts, to convince people to stay where Abel had left them until order was restored. But would it ever be?

I turned back to our screen. “You’re taking this so calmly.”

“How should I take it?”

“Well, you’re as keen as anyone to get off the Island.” I recalled Grace’s earlier rumor report, about the Inwood coup. Was that what the video was telling us, that the rules were changing . . . again?

“I am! We are! But to do it, we need to know how things really stand, right? It’s fab that someone’s out there trying to tell us.” She patted the keyboard fondly. “My news gal.”

I started. I’d just been thinking of my own ninja girl. “How do you know it’s a woman?”

“Just a feeling I have.”

Burned into my brain: an image of the couple’s fists clutching papers. I hiked up my belly pack and rose. “I gotta crash.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“See ya.” I reached for my grab bag.

Jenn followed it with her eyes. “Hear you had good picking tonight.”

“Damn, word sure gets around!”

“Rubio, bragging in the Mess.”

“Shoulda known. You do a guy a favor and look what happens.”

“So? Show!”

Wary of the wallet swell rounding my gut, I pulled out the girl’s backpack to be admired.

Jenn petted it and slung it over her shoulder, preening like a media model.

“Nice, with your new outfit.”