Lora Carterpom's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Lora woke before the alarm, her chest tight with the same question that had kept her up half the night. She pulled on her jacket and walked barefoot across the cold kitchen floor. Through the window, dawn was just starting to soften the sky above the trees. But when she reached the edge of the garden, she froze. Someone was already sitting at the wooden cafe table near the path fork — the spot where she'd planned to move the chocolate box this morning as the second signal. The person wore a dark coat, hands folded on the table between the pink cushioned chairs. They were early. Too early. The chocolate box still sat on the bench where Lora had left it yesterday, untouched and pointing left. Whoever this was had come before the signal was moved, which meant they either didn't understand the code or they were desperate enough not to wait for it. Behind her, she heard footsteps on the porch. Chloe. Lora turned and saw her daughter standing in the doorway, already dressed, eyes locked on the figure at the table. Chloe's face showed nothing, but her stillness told Lora everything. Her daughter had been watching too. Lora couldn't send Chloe back inside without making it worse. She couldn't walk out to the stranger with Chloe standing there seeing it all. The plan had been to meet alone, to verify the ally before anyone else knew they existed. Now that choice was gone. Lora met Chloe's eyes and made the only decision left. She nodded once toward the kitchen. Chloe didn't move. Then Lora said quietly, "Stay on the porch. Don't come closer." Chloe's jaw tightened, but she stayed. Lora walked down the path alone, her heartbeat loud in her ears. The figure at the table looked up as she approached. It was a woman, younger than Lora expected, with tired eyes and a canvas bag at her feet. She didn't smile. She didn't apologize for coming early. She just reached into the bag and pulled out a small iridescent crystal, flat on one side like it had been broken off something larger, and set it on the table between them. "This was supposed to be on the bench," the woman said. "The marker you'd recognize. But I couldn't wait anymore. Marcus knows someone's been asking questions." Lora felt the air leave her lungs. The crystal caught the early light, throwing colors across the pink vase of flowers. She'd seen one like it before — mounted on the mixing board in the studio eight years ago, the day the masters disappeared. The woman leaned forward. "I took it the day he had me clear out your session files. I kept it because I knew he'd lied. I just didn't know how to prove it until now." Lora looked back at the porch where Chloe stood watching, then at the chocolate box still waiting on the bench, the signal that no longer mattered. The ally was real. But so was the danger, and now it was sitting twenty feet from her daughter in broad daylight. Lora sat down in the chair across from the woman and said, "Tell me everything Marcus doesn't know you saw."