“This is for you, Adam,” she whispered. “It’s all in your honor, what I’m doing here today. These Arrival people, okay, they’re not the nicest bunch I’ve ever worked with, but what they’re doing, it’s going to change the future. It’s going to be a safer world for our kids, so what happened to you”—and at this point, she felt a lump in her throat—“so what happened to you could never happen to them. I miss you, babe. You give me strength. You’re still my guy.”

She opened her eyes, let out a long breath. “Okay,” Sandra said to herself, “let’s do this.”

She went back into the gymnasium, worked the crowd, made sure everyone had what they needed.

A woman from Motor Trend quietly asked Sandra whether she had an extra Arrival toy car. She had twin boys at home and . . . if she could have two? Sandra smiled understandingly. She’d been anticipating such a request. She slipped into a room off the gym, took an extra toy from a box of extras, and delivered it within a minute.

Just bought ourselves some goodwill from Motor Trend, she thought.

The man sitting at the mini-workstation beside the Motor Trend journalist raised a finger to catch Sandra’s attention. She stepped over, flashed a smile, and glanced at the lanyard hanging around his neck. It read:

ben stapleton: wheel base trends.

“Hey, Ben, nice to meet you,” Sandra said. “It’s been all emails up to now.”

The man nodded. “Nice to meet you, too.”

“Nice ferry ride over?” she asked.

“Oh, yes, lovely,” he said. “Listen, I heard you being asked for an extra model car.” He reached into his bag and pulled out the one he’d been given. “If anyone else wants a second one, they can have mine.”

“Oh,” she said, raising a palm. “I’ve got loads of extras, but that’s very kind of you. If you don’t want to take it, just leave it on the desk. Someone will grab it.”

“Okay,” he said. “Quite a buzz in the room.”

Sandra raised two crossed fingers—a “wish me luck” gesture—before moving on.

Brandon Kyle waggled his fingers at the public relations lady. Nice enough. Maybe even competent enough to bring off a standard news conference. But he wondered if she’d ever dealt with a real public relations crisis.

We’ll know soon enough.

Kyle had already inserted an Arrival-shaped stick into his laptop, and the screen of his open laptop was consumed with a dazzling display about the new car before settling down into various drop-down categories.

As if he cared.