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revolution the streets
     would not be empty now.
    “As if I would trust your insight,” Hannox says. “May I please finish my job, sir?”
    “It’s a necessary evil,” Cormac says to me, waving Hannox off to finish his work.
    “Everything with you is a necessary evil,” I say angrily.
    “I’m not interested in continuing this petty fight.”
    I’m too furious to find the words to tell him that my being angry that he killed an
     innocent man is not a petty misunderstanding. Instead my hands ball into fists, but
     I force them to stay at my sides.
    “That’s better,” Cormac says, grinning at my attempt to control myself. “I’m glad
     you’ve finally learned your place.”
    A wall of guards surrounds us, and Cormac paces the small space until the all-clear
     is given. Somehow I manage to bite back the told-you-so trying to escape my lips.
     A group of ministers wait as we enter. Circles ring their eyes and their suits are
     wrinkled. Cormac strides past most of them without even a glance. He only stops to
     shake hands with the man at the head of the line.
    “Grady, what happened?” he says as the man falls into step beside him.
    “The reconditioning program failed, Cormac,” Grady responds in a what-can-you-do voice.
    “But how did it come to this? My reports say there’s been a full blackout for over
     five hours,” Cormac says. The chumminess is gone from his voice.
    Five hours. It’s been less than an hour since we reached the loophole, but a considerable
     amount of time must have passed in Arras before the news reached us on Earth. Days
     go by in Arras before the people on Earth blink, thanks to the difference in the speed
     of time in each world. When the Guild created Arras, it forced time to pass twelve
     times faster there than on Earth in an effort to quickly establish supremacy over
     the world they had left behind. But the divergent timelines have prevented Cormac
     from receiving the initial reports in a timely way. Three days have already passed.
     No wonder everyone is tense.
    “It’s complicated. I didn’t expect you to come,” Grady admits. He tugs at the tie
     around his neck. It probably feels like a noose.
    “You hoped I wouldn’t come,” Cormac corrects him.
    “No, but I don’t think it’s necessary for you to be here,” Grady says.
    “Because you have the situation under control?” Cormac asks. “You don’t, Grady. Your
     city is shut down. Arras relies on your sector to provide seafood as well as paper
     supplies. Of course I had to come. When a sector minister loses control of his entire
     population, his boss has to step in.”
    “And he’s your boss,” I say in a mocking tone. If Cormac could have prevented this
     by stepping in, why hadn’t he done it before?
    “Stay out of this, Adelice,” Cormac warns me.
    “No,” I say, wiggling between the men. “You don’t get to come in here and act like
     this is all his fault. How long have I heard you whispering about problems in the
     Eastern Sector? If you want us to fix this, we need to address the real problem here.”
    Beside Cormac, Grady turns away but I spy a smile tugging at his lips.
    “She thinks she’s cute,” Cormac tells him. “Adelice, do I need to give you another
     reminder of my attitude toward traitors?”
    I shrink back a bit and glower at him, wondering who he views as a traitor in this
     scenario.
    “The reconditioning didn’t work, Grady?” Cormac asks, bringing the conversation back
     to its original topic.
    “No, sir,” Grady says, and the tension between them thickens. Cormac is asserting
     his authority over the man by reminding him how he failed.
    Grady ushers us into his office and offers drinks, but even Cormac refuses as we take
     our seats. Cormac sits behind the desk, and Grady is forced to sit next to me. He
     doesn’t relax into his seat, and from my vantage point I can see his feet are tapping
     nervously on the floor.
    “How did this start?” Cormac