Under the Rose

She undid several locks on the door and stepped inside, but I was too busy trying to make sense of it to follow right away. “How can I possibly trust you?” I asked. “You’ve lied, you’ve spied, you’ve been throwing pseudonyms and fifty-dollar bills around for who knows how long, and to top it off, I don’t think you like me very much.”

“I know,” said Je

“I’ve been making a lot of allowances lately,” I said. “I was even nice to Poe.”

“I bet I’ll be a cinch after him.” She hung up her raincoat. “Welcome to my humble abode.”

Humble was right. There was a lot of space, to be sure, and a lovely hardwood floor, but not much else. Wall-to-wall computers, a coffee machine, and a mattress in the corner. No new paint, no curtains, no decorations of any kind, and the only furniture was purely utilitarian: folding tables for the computers and a big ergonomic chair.

“I’d offer you something to drink but I think you may have had enough caffeine today, and everything I’ve got falls into the Jolt category.”

“Je

“You don’t think they’ll have me back?” She shot me a rueful smile.

Frankly, no. But aside from that…“I was going to say, it doesn’t seem like you put a lot of faith in what we do.”

“And you do?”

“I—”

“It won’t matter pretty soon anyway. Take a look.” She sat in front of one of the consoles and brought the screen to life. “Remember back at the begi

“The rhyming ones?”

“That you guys made non-stop fun of? Yes, that one.” She pulled up a few windows. “Well, I sent it. And in an unprecedented display of disinterest, you promptly ignored it.”

“No, we just didn’t understand it.”

“I was trying to spark a little investigation, Amy. Thought if the Diggirls were worried about what was happening, they’d look into it.”

Well, we’d tried to look into it. Even tried to get Je

“Your society is being pulled out from under you and you don’t even know it.”

“What? Why didn’t you just tell us, then?”

“Hi, remember, secret agent bent on destruction? I couldn’t really help you outright.”

I rolled my eyes. “Like we’d run and tattle on you to your boyfriend? Je

“I’m trying to do that right now. Look.” She pointed at the screen and I leaned in. “Certain members of the club have, since the begi

Cut through the web in which you’re caught. “Wait, you’ve been what?”

She shrugged. “It was an easy hack. Phimalarlico security is designed to keep outsiders out, not to keep insiders from snooping around.” Kind of like the doors on Old Campus. “I can read anyone’s e-mails if I want.”

“I’ll sleep better knowing that. Now, what are these guys doing?”

“Systematically disenfranchising you.” She handed me a stack of printouts. “They meet in secret to discuss the details of their society, and have slowly been siphoning off money from the trust.”

“They’ve been stealing our cash?”

“Through the help of interested parties on the TTA board. The unfriendly patriarchs? They aren’t gone, they’ve just transferred their ‘allegiance’ to Elysion. If Elysion gets enough support, enough money, your society will be a joke.”

I skimmed through the e-mails, all of which were addressed to people called things like Theseus-X1 and Hector-X1. Some of the conversations were little more than chatter, or harsh rundowns of what had happened at Rose & Grave meetings and how to avoid such “embarrassments” once the switch took place. They’d increased in frequency ever since the Straggler Initiation Night, and mentioned losing Howard as a catalyst to gain support. Many spoke of money, or how the movement within the patriarchy was gaining ground. “Elysion, huh?” I said. “Like the Elysian Fields, the heaven of the Greek underworld, reserved for heroes?”

“Exactly.”

“So who are they?”

“I’ve been slowly putting together a key to their identities, based on timing and content of the messages. It would usually be easy, given ISP addresses, but the Eli wireless system makes that tough.” Je

ELYSION MEMBERS

Hades = Kurt Gehry

Hector = Nikolos Kandes

Theseus = George Harrison Prescott

Ajax = Benjamin Edwards

Orion = Omar Mathabane

Orpheus = Kevin Lee

Nestor = James Orcutt

I swallowed hard and leaned back against my seat. Stay cool. You don’t have enough energy left to indulge in rage. Deal with it. “Who started this?” I choked out.

“I’m not sure. It hasn’t been discussed on e-mail. But I bet it happened this summer. Nikolos appears to have been one of the first organizers.”

No surprise there. Learn of the thief who can be bought. It was a reference to Graverobber. I was right again. Go, me. “And there are five of them. Every man in the club except—”

“Josh, Greg, and Harun.”

George was on the list. And Poe. How could I not have known this? Of course, Poe was no big shock, though it did make my little street performance ring with a sudden truth. But George! How the hell had he made time for Elysion with all of our other activities? If he was involved in both societies, he definitely wasn’t seeing anyone else. It wasn’t a matter of desire, it was a matter of scheduling.

She picked up another sheet. “I’ve been trying to track the other patriarchs involved as well, but it’s much harder to learn their identities. They don’t send e-mails. Here’s what I’ve got so far….”

But I never got a chance to look. Someone started pounding on the door. “Je

We both froze, but Je

“What?” I said. “What if that’s the police?”

Je

“I think they know exactly what it is we know,” I said. “Why else would they be here?” Had Poe called them? Had he figured out that I’d ditched him because I’d found Je

The pounding on the door gave way to a much more insidious sound—that of locks giving way. Apparently, some pockets ran even deeper than Je

“Got it covered. Let’s go now.” Je