Ryan began to head for the stairs, but Nishi and Abigail intercepted.

Speaking quickly, Lucy continued. “This is an approximation, but it’s enough to show it could be done. The why is easy. Money, power, prestige. But the motivation, something like this, well, the leader sets the tone.”

Lucy whispered, “Emma,” to Sadie, who logged back in to Pulse and pulled up Emma’s profile.

“Take Emma here,” Lucy said, turning toward her. “She tore up the scale at a rapid pace this summer. From a 5 to a 7, and then soon, she was Crushing It, and just as fast—”

“Faster,” Emma said.

“She was Comatose. Yet she never lost fans. All her likes and favorites on all the sites feeding Pulse remained at the same level as before.”

“Higher,” Emma said.

“The same happened to me. I was Crushing It just in time for my ValleyStart beta test.”

“Mine was in time to play at Pulse-a-palooza,” Emma said.

“Coincidence? None of us are naïve enough to think that.” Lucy pointed to the screen, now showing how the table Delia found would look with the 0s and 1s at the top, with Emma’s and Lucy’s names highlighted. “And yet the only thing Emma and I have in common is—”

“Enough!” Ryan shouted.

“Exactly,” Lucy said.

Sadie poked her head onto the stage. “It’s live!”

This wasn’t what they’d originally planned. How they intended to do this piece of it. But Ryan’s threat against Maddie and Delia changed things. Lucy suspected he was bluffing, but she’d misjudged Ryan before. She wouldn’t be surprised again.

“Put it up,” Lucy said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “If this interests you, if you’re concerned about businesses and business leaders taking advantage of their position, you can read all about it.” The banner for Teen Vogue filled the screen, and underneath, an essay with a joint byline by Emma Santos and Lucy Katz.

Abigail gasped as she read the headline.

PULSE FOUNDER RYAN THOMPSON GIVES NEW MEANING TO “PAY TO PLAY”

Everyone started talking at once. Heads bent over phones, searching for the article, someone yelled, “Link through Twitter,” and Ryan spat a string of expletives through clenched teeth.

But that was as much as Lucy saw, because then her mom had her by the elbow and was dragging her backstage.

Tears sprung into Lucy’s eyes, the exhaustion of the past few days mixing with the adrenaline of being onstage and all of it coated with the trepidation of what her mom would say about everything.

Yet Abigail Katz said nothing. Abigail Katz simply pulled her daughter into her arms and wept right along with her.

*   *   *