The door opened before Merit could knock. Mom stood there looking over him quickly, then stepped aside.
"—That's not what I said and you know exactly what you're doing right now—"
Slug and Melissa were at it.
"I know what I'm doing. I'm telling you what happened—"
"You're telling me a version of—"
"Calderon's going to Ascension," Merit blurted out.
Melissa looked away from Slug. "What?"
"The Ladder. Tara Venn's doing something after the Austin show. My table tonight at the Brimjob was talking about it. Calderon's on the guest list for whatever reason. They mentioned extra security."
Slug moved to an old map from the 60s that still hung on the wall. One finger found Ascension, the other landed on Austin.
"Say that again."
"Tara Venn. Ascension. Calderon's on the guest list. That's all I was able to get."
"That's impossible. Edgar said he went dark days ago." Melissa looked ready to take off now. She pulled a small data shard out of her pocket and tossed it onto the table. It slid over an inch, clinking against Mom's ceramic tea mug. "We'll find out if he's the real Calderon."
Mom picked up her mug. "Tara Venn has been doing a full media run for the past two weeks. Documentary access, NLT production, the whole thing." She took a sip. "She has a supporting show in Ascension the weekend after. She posted about it herself. A looping GIF with a countdown." Another sip. "She's quite excited to be eternal." Mom rolled her eyes at that last comment.
Slug was at the map, tracking the distance between the two points. "We need to get out of the SPNS if we don't want to be tracked. That means going through the Graveyard. Once we get past that, it's easier to catch automated delivery trains out of the city. That should get us basically there. Merit stays in Austin to provide direction and guidance via drone. He can serve as the bridge between us and the e6c."
Slug picked up the data shard and handed it back to Melissa. "Get your shit together," Slug said. "We leave next week. That gives us three days to stake out the Austin show. Mom, gather as much information as you can."
Mom didn't look up from her mug. The steam curled around her face, obscuring her eyes for a moment. "I'll find what there is to find."
Merit looked at the others. At the map. He remembered the countdown that had been ticking above Tara Venn's face on every screen in Austin.
Seven days. Six hours. Twenty-two minutes.
Give or take.