“Youput it out?” I made a mental note to go check on my room.
“The condition of the plant will tell us Li Na’s status,” Rosetta continued. “If it’s glowing in the ready status like it is now, Li Na is alive and in the dungeon. If the plant activates on its own, blooms appearing and spores spreading but no longer lit up, that means Na has physically left the game. She is outside the dungeon. If the spell fails suddenly and doesn’t activate and the cactus dissipates into dust, that means Na is dead and that she died inside the dungeon.”
“Interesting,” Prepotente said, leaning in to examine the small cactus. “You best keep this someplace safe. What if she ends up trapped inside the cleaner’s storage, never released?”
“That is another possibility that will be indicated. The glow will slowly fail over the course of several days. And finally, if she believes it’s safe for the others to proceed to the Pineapple Cabaret, she will be able to remotely make a single flower bloom on the top of the cactus. There will be a single flower, and the trap will still be glowing. If she’s still alive but she believes this is not a safe method for crawlers to come, she will make three flowers bloom.”
“I get it. Sort of,” Donut said. “If Suckira and Na make it to this Pineapple place and there’s a single flower on Carl’s cactus at the end of this next race, then we know it’s safe to send everyone else using Ezra Fitz.”
“Using what?” I asked.
“Keep up, Carl,” Donut said. “If we get the go-ahead from Li Na, we’ll have everyone we can get sucked up by Ezra Fitz the Second, and they’ll go there, too.”
“Wait, you named the cleaner bot ‘Ezra Fitz’? Why?”
“Because Ezra Fitz sucks, Carl.”
“Who the hell is that?”
And then I realized I didn’t actually care, and I returned my attention back to the important conversation.
“It’s not a perfect solution,” Mordecai said. “XL pet carriers are expensive, and there’s limited room in the other cleaner bot, especially after we had it clean up all the leftovers from Carl’s Naga inheritance. We can maybe send fifty more people with just one bot. We do have some leads on other bots but not many. We can’t have this Herot sell the cleaner bot back to us, either, unfortunately. All dungeon upgrades such as the bots have a timer. He won’t be able to re-list the bot for thirty days.”
“Shit,” I said. Fifty people? That wasn’t nearly enough. But surely we weren’t the only party with a cleaner bot. I started to compose a message to send out.
Prepotente made a noise that sounded like a bleat. “Very clever. This still seems like a surefire suicide method to me. Good luck, Li Na.” He turned and strode from the room, but he paused at the door. He stood there, running his hand along the wall near the couch. There was a table there containing the two wrapped Christmas presents. One for me, and one for Imani. “I do like this place, I must say. Maybe you can, you know, allow me to attach my personal space to the guild?”
Imani crossed her arms. “You said no the last time I offered.”
“That was before I knew about the pet stables. And the Bopca! This place is a delight.” He turned to look at Donut. “I have a karaoke kit in my space I can add to the main room. I bought it to practice for my performance that never happened.”
Donut gasped.
“I will see you and Carl in the factory,” Prepotente said, turning away. “I will send you my plan after I confer with Jurgen.”
“Can we continue, please?” Mordecai asked.
I spied Linus the tourist on the other side of the room. He was whispering something to Bautista, who did not look amused. Donut followed the path of my gaze.
“He keeps trying to get Daniel to make tea,” Donut said. “Apparently, Bautista tea is a trending thing right now. Daniel doesn’t even have an outreach manager, so he’s sure to get ripped off. The folks on my social media board are all jealous of him. Of Linus, I mean, not Daniel. Elle’s Snow Cones fan club did a raid on my server the other day, and they and the Posse were all fighting, but now they’re friends and working together.”
“Okay, we’re ready,” Mordecai said. “Uh, Suckira? Are you ready?”
Suckira let out a beep.
Zhang stepped forward, head lowered.
“I’m sorry it was your brother and not me,” he said, his voice a whisper. “If Jun is watching this now, I hope he isn’t angry with me for not watching over you like I promised.”
Li Na looked up at that, her one good eye opening. The other, mechanical eye twirled and zoomed.
“I am no child to protect. I never have been, and you have nothing to apologize for. You have been a good friend to me. Jun loved you like a brother. I will do this. I will clear the way for you and everyone else who is to come after this next race, and then I will make certain the war mages do not turn on us. Do not die,Zhang. I hope to see you again soon.” She paused. “Do not ever lose your smile. I used to smile at you so you would smile back at me, and I would pretend, in my mind, that you and I were married and that your smiles filled me in a way that I could only pray for. Thank you for always trying to protect me, even when I didn’t deserve it.”
She turned to Mordecai. “I am ready. I do not wish to speak to anyone else.”
“Uh, yeah. Sure, kid,” Mordecai said, handing the pet carrier to Zhang, who had to do it.
And then it was done. Zhang held out the pet carrier, pointed it at Li Na, who nodded. He pressed the button, and she disappeared within. The pet carrier started buzzing. The white cleaner bot Suckira picked it up. It disappeared without so much as a beep.