“Please speak and inquire in complete sentences. I know who your stepfather is, I know who your teachers have been. Your judge remarked on your privileged background, but you were the last file he looked at after an overworked day. He hadn’t had a vacation in five years and his retirement was imminent. He was lazy and he didn’t see you.”

Jean felt a thrill similar to the fear that had run through her earlier. This time, however, it was at the realization that maybe this man sitting in front of her saw her, like the judge hadn’t.

“A lawyer will take and appeal your cases. Lindsay will change her mind about who attacked her, and your other cases will be addressed. You will be out shortly. You’ll get and accept a scholarship for a private school in Boston and then you will rise to the top of the class. You will make no fewer than five friends of standing and class, and you will attend private tutoring classes after school that will round out your education in other things.”

Her head spun with the paradigm shift.

“This will be far more difficult than juvenile prison, and even more difficult than being a newly minted eighteen years old in an adult’s prison, Jean Brown. You will want to do as I instruct, regardless of this difficulty.”

She wanted to ask why, and her instincts told her that she couldn’t and shouldn’t.

Failure wasn’t an option.

“You get one chance, Ms. Brown.”

⊙

“Ms. Kiley’s polls are down,” Kurt said.

“The spike was because of how closely New Brockton is affiliated with industry and construction. It was always going to be short lived. I think she knew it, when she walked away today. Mr. Nieves is gone, Kiley is out. Russel isn’t really trying.”

“Leaving only Mrs. Songmin.”

“She hasn’t attended any of the meetings or discussions. She’s campaigning, but that’s all there is.”

“She is a politician. She knows how these things work.”

“She’s a contender, but not a concern,” Jeanne said. “I’ve never run for any seat or position, but I’m more of a politician than she is.”

Kurt laughed, head going back. The laugh echoed through the empty room.

“You know it’s true.”

“Oh, I do know. I like how succinctly you put it.”

“Being succinct was essential to surviving among the Ambassadors,” Jeanne said.

“I did like Accord,” Kurt said. “Peculiar, but he was an asset.”

Two hours had passed, and neither of them had left the hall or their seats at the table, except to bring a cup of coffee to the table or to use the facilities. The laptop screens glowed and the light from overhead was more mood than office lighting. The rain poured.