"Then what do we do?"
The question hung in the air.
I thought about Vivian's face in the golden light of the Crimson Lotus. The way her hand trembled when she talked about the ninety-one days. The raw edge in her voice when she described the laboratory and the testing and the way our father had looked at her like she was a problem to be solved rather than a daughter to be protected.
I thought about the photograph on the tablet. Her face in profile. Talking to Marcus Wei three days before she warned me about anything.
Both things could be true.
Both things probably were true.
"The meeting happens." My voice surprised me with its steadiness. "Noel goes in. Mera shadows through the portal. Cheon monitors remotely. But we change the parameters."
"How?"
"We assume everything Vivian told me was deliberately designed to make me trust her. We assume she's feeding information to our father. We assume the meeting is a setup." I met Cheon's eyes. "And we use that."
