But Liliana said Farooq-Lane only needed enough time to draw Jordan Hennessy’s sword.

“I’m trusting you,” Farooq-Lane told Liliana.

One sword draw, one second, one death. When it came to it, she could kill someone, she thought. To save the world. She had stood by and helped the Moderators kill many others, after all. She couldn’t erase that, just try to make it matter. One person, one Zed. One sword. She could do it.

It wasn’t twenty-three people. It was one.

“It will turn out all right,” Liliana said gently.

“What happened in the vision?” Farooq-Lane said. “What did I do? Where was it?”

“It will turn out all right,” Liliana repeated.

Five minutes after Farooq-Lane got to the James P. Kelleher Rose Garden, the Moderators found her.

“Did you think we weren’t having you followed, Carmen?” Lock rumbled with disappointment. It was hard to tell if he was disappointed in her working without them or not covering her tracks. He held a take-out coffee from the café she’d met Declan at, and Farooq-Lane couldn’t stop staring at it. She’d been careful. She was sure she’d been careful. “You’re a lot easier to track than a Zed in an invisible car. You know why? You obey the law.”

“I have a plan here,” Farooq-Lane said. “We want the same thing.”

Lock cast a heavy glance at Hennessy’s sword. It was hooded safely away in its shoulder scabbard but its identity was clear, the hilt shouting from chaos. “And it’s a plan you think you could execute better cowboy style? I respect what you did here, Carmen, but we can’t risk you taking point on this. We’ll take it from here. The team’s all here. Thanks for the good work.”

“I made a promise that I’d only take down Bryde,” Farooq-Lane said desperately. “I intend to keep that promise.”

“You’d risk the world on that?”

Farooq-Lane repeated, “I intend to keep that promise. Let me do this. Please.”

“How about this,” Lock offered. “How about you let us help you keep that promise? Like you said. We want the same thing, and you need our eyes anyway.”

It wasn’t as if she had a choice. There was no time. She was outnumbered.

We want the same thing. But it was only past Farooq-Lane who truly believed this now. Present Farooq-Lane wasn’t sure. And future Farooq-Lane—unclear.

“Okay,” Farooq-Lane said.

She explained the plan. It was a hasty thing, constructed with very few data points. Declan’s address and time. Liliana’s description of her vision. Farooq-Lane’s understanding of what Hennessy’s sword could do if wielded without hesitation.