I can tell from his face that he’s still thinking I’m some kind of bardia bigot, but I don’t know what to say that will clear up my mess, especially with his cousin sitting here looking like Billie Eilish’s angry little sister. I settle for, “Yeah. That’d be great. Thanks.”

He leaves, and now it’s just me and Liv. Continuing to ignore me, she fiddles with another cord, plugging one end into her hub and draping the other behind the back of my desk. She pulls her headphones down around her neck and asks, “Do you mind?”

She doesn’t look like she’s about to dive under the desk again, so I’m not sure what she wants me to do.

“Mind?” I venture.

“Plug it into one of the USBs in the back of Siaka’s tower.” She has this uncanny ability to speak without showing any hint of emotion. Like, none.

I obey and duck under the desk. When I come back up, she’s typing again on her keyboard, but has left her headphones down.

“Smurf?” she asks and nudges the candy bag a millimeter in my direction.

The last thing I want to put in my mouth is blue gelatin, but I’m so afraid of pissing her off that I pluck one from the bag. I chew quickly and swallow before I can taste it.

Liv’s earphones are still around her neck, so I take that as an invitation. I mean, this has to be hacker code for, Now you may speak to me.

“So, Livia,” I begin.

“Liv,” she says, still staring at her screen.

“Oh yeah, sorry. Siaka always calls you Livia, so I—”

“Just Liv.” This time she glances over at me and the right corner of her lip might be quirking up just a fraction of an inch. Or maybe not. It’s too hard to call. In any case, she says, “Thanks.”

Now we’re getting somewhere, I think. Encouraged, I say, “I’m Louis.”

“Yeah, I remember.” Liv shoves another Smurf in her mouth and chases it with a gulp of Red Bull. The way her fingers race over the keyboard, it’s like she’s a part of the machine. Her hands pause, and she asks, “How many?”

“How many what?”

“How many of your kind? Or as you put it before, your ‘group.’”

“Well...” I hesitate, unsure of how much she’s supposed to know. Gaspard and Bran made it clear that I was working with Siaka. They didn’t say anything about his cousin. Although, I suppose that since Siaka’s mother was a Flame-finger, and she was Liv’s aunt, Liv knows a lot already.