“Like he doesn't already,” Daniel mutters under his breath.

Zach gives him a short look that Daniel ignores. Lynell can see the hours of friendship that built this easy rapport between the two men.

“It can get much worse, Danny,” Zach says.

“Only if he actually has the code,” Lynell says.

Daniel taps his fingers on the edge of the table, looking from Zach to Lynell. “Does someone want to explain the code to me?”

Lynell meets Zach’s eyes. “You do it. I barely understand.”

Zach agrees and starts explaining. Daniel asks many of the same questions Lynell did, and she does her best to help Zach answer them. By the time they’ve finished, all their bowls are empty.

“If it can end the Registration, let’s just figure it out now and do it before Eric finds us,” Daniel says.

Zach narrows his eyes. “Just,” he snaps his fingers, “end the very thing keeping our country together and fuck the consequences?”

“Zach, the Registration is not keeping our country together. It’s slowly killing us.” Daniel shakes his head, as if talking to an ignorant child.

“No, we were dying before this,” Zach responds calmly, but he rubs his brow as if to ward off a headache. Lynell shifts in her seat, watching as her cousin and husband toe the dangerous line between disagreeing and fighting. “Remember the civil war? And before that, citizens having no semblance of power?”

“And a system that turns half of our citizens into murderers and the other half into victims?” Daniel says, bitter mockery filling each word.

“At least we don’t have an immigrant problem anymore,” Zach says.

Daniel scoffs. “Because no one wants to live here.”

“Maybe we could make some changes to fix that. Maybe if people could get a Registration as an adult then—”

“Then people will move here just so they can kill whoever pisses them off,” Daniel says. “There are other ways to resolve conflict. And better ways to attract foreigners to come live and work here.”

“The majority of Registrations are not murder. They’re ending pregnancies, finding justice when the system fails, helping someone in constant pain leave this world on their own terms or even Registering yourself so your family can get your life insurance.”

“But what about the ones made for selfish, greedy, and vengeful reasons?” Daniel says, leaning forward.

“That’s each person’s right.”

“So it was your right to Register my wife?” Daniel says, each word clipped.

Zach freezes. Lynell feels a cold chill pass over them.

Lynell grabs Daniel’s good shoulder and pulls him back. “We’re not debating the moral ambiguity of the Registration right now,” she says. Daniel opens his mouth, but she cuts him off before he can say anything else. “We’re not. We don’t have to decide what to do with the code right now. All we have to decide is whether Eric should have it.”

“Absolutely not,” Daniel says without wasting a second.

Zach nods. “On that, we agree.”

“Right now, no one has it,” she says. “I know the letter by heart but have no idea what the code could be.”