Andre pulled a wounded face. “Hilarious. I just need a good luck charm for this one. And I know just the thing.” Leaving the mission rather than waiting for the retry counter, he abandoned the husband and wife. Danny quickly left as well, so he wouldn’t get stuck doing the mission without him.
“Hey, what’s the deal? You know we’ll get like two twelve-year-olds next time for leaving a quality team like that.”
“Yeah, yeah, hang on…VaughnDammeneeds a makeover.”
Danny rolled his eyes as dramatically as he could. Grabbing his paper plate while he waited, he realized he’d already eaten everything. “I need seconds. You?”
“Top me off, good sir,” Andre said, handing over his plastic cup for more soda. “Otherwise I’m good. Not all of us are bottomless pits.”
“And you have no idea how lucky you are,” Danny said as he traipsed out of the room. He considered getting a whole other four pack of Doritos from the kitchen but settled on just two for now.
With careful precision, Danny balanced both his and Andre’s cups and his plate of food on the way back to the main room. He felt good. Really good. Lighter, even. His talk with Stella had left him anxious, the case for Virgil Labs even more so, but utter and complete goofing around time with Andre pushed all of that to his periphery.
Until he returned to discover that Andre wasn’t merely changing his outfit. He was making a whole new character. One that looked suspiciously like Malcolm Cho.
“What are you doing?” Danny asked stiffly.
“Who better for a prison break, am I right?” Andre beamed proudly as Danny handed him his cup and sat back down. “Did I do justice to Prometheus’s stupid face or what?”
“Too good. I might run you to the police myself instead of helping you avoid them.”
Andre laughed.
Danny didn’t share the humor. Andre was already finished with the character creation and was outfitting Cho with gear. He even gave him a sleeveless duster that almost looked like the real thing.
The bile in Danny’s stomach surged up. Seeing the Cho look-a-like made him think of all the things he wanted to forget. Made him think of all the reasons he had gone to Cho in the first place. This was supposed to be his time away from all that, away from being Zeus and all the burdens that came with it.
“Seriously, can you not?” Danny said.
“What? Why?” Andre didn’t even turn to look at him.
“Because I don’t feel like partnering with someone who looks like a guy Ihate.”
“You don’t hate Cho. You should. I should too. Guy’s a grade-A asshat.”
“Yeah. He is. People are terrified of him in this city. And helikesthat.”
“Dude, you don’t have to tell me. But you still don’t hate him. It’s Prometheus. He’s a bad guy, sure, but he’s not a badguy. Not as easy on the eyes as his sister…”
The ever-simmering anger in Danny fueled like a slow-burning fire. He stood from his chair. “You’re defending Cho now?”
Finally, Andre paused in his outfitting of the avatar and looked up at Danny. “I thought you were usually the one defending him.”
“And I waswrong.”
Pulling his hands away from his mouse and keyboard finally, Andre focused fully on Danny. “Really? Coz I know he’s acriminal and that he let you down, but he’s never actually done anything—”
“Except lie to me and stand by while other people got hurt? While theydied?”
“And you have every right to be angry about that. I’m just saying that if any of the Elementals you’ve faced might be worth saving—”
“It wouldn’t be Cho! He doesn’t just stand by and do nothing, Andre, he’s killed people.”
“Yeah, serious hardened criminals,” Andre huffed in disbelief, “so sorry if I’m not losing any sleep over that. And killing is where you draw the line suddenly? Isn’t that a little hypocritical?”
What remained of Danny’s knotted stomach fell to his toes, as a cold, empty sensation washed through him. They weren’t supposed to talk about it. They’d agreed to nevertalk about it.
Andre’s expression twisted as he registered what he’d said. “I didn’t mean—”
