They don’t respond, and Lynell groans. She’s too tired to ease into it, so she stands and takes three long strides to face the guards. The bald one goes for his phone and the redhead his gun. Lynell reaches out and touches the bald guard’s arm to stop him from calling for backup.

“So trigger happy, the lot of you,” she says. The guards pause, watching her with narrowed eyes. “I just want to talk. Help keep each other awake, yeah?” She raises her eyebrows and looks up at the guard, whose frown has melted away, but his hand still hovers over the phone. “Promise you won’t call in my uncle?” Without waiting for an answer, she pulls her hand away and turns to the ginger. Upon seeing he’s holding his gun out, she huffs, steps forward, and touches the barrel with her finger.

When she got so bold, she’s not sure.

“Guns away, please? They make me nervous.”

He complies. “Thanks. So, I’m Lynell. You two have names?”

“Steven,” says the redhead.

“McFadden,” the other says.

“You seem new. How long have you been working for Eric?” Lynell asks. Her eyes are heavy, and her face feels like it’s clouded with spillover from her nightmare.

They don’t answer.

“I’m going to guess not long. McFadden,” she says, and he stiffens as if he’s just been addressed by a superior officer. Lynell hides her smirk. “Who do you answer to?”

“The leader of the Registration. Mr. Elysian.”

“Thought you’d say that,” Lynell sighs. “Unfortunately, he’s not the real thing.”

McFadden and Steven are alarmingly easy to convince. Eric must be scraping for guards. They stay until seven a.m. and take every opportunity to ask Lynell questions. They don’t seem to care about the code itself as much as the possibility of an end to the Registration.

It’s not often you come across someone who wants the Registration to end and openly admits it. She never would’ve thought she’d find critics working for Eric.

As McFadden explained, many guards are descendants of Gideon’s men, as if defending the Elysians is a family business as much as the Registration is. Steven’s here because he fought with the rebels a few years ago and was given the option of serving Eric or being Registered. She also learns that Steven has a daughter of his own. It’s when she explains the death of her mother and the loss of Anna that Lynell thinks she’s won him over completely.

“How’d you sleep?” Eric asks when he shows up just after a change of the guards.

Lynell is sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room, watching him pace. “Horribly, thanks for asking. You should really put mattresses on your beds.”

Eric chuckles. “Your dad had a wry sense of humor too, you know.” Lynell tilts her ear up as if it’ll help her listen more closely. “He was always cracking jokes. Making fun of me. Making fun of our father. Making fun of the Registration. Our father hated it. Tried to beat it out of him.” Eric laughs again, still pacing the small room. Lynell’s hand curls into a fist and she hides it behind her left arm, trying to take deep breaths.