“A fallible one. It only works against the workborn and the occasional lowborn.”
“And if you had your way, you’d bomb everyone into seeing your viewpoint.”
“Talking is masturbation.”
“Is writing?” she asked.
“Yes, if you don’t back up your words with actions.”
“And damn the casualties?”
Tristan shrugged.
“Change comes slowly. You can’t do it at the point of a sword, Tristan. That’s not a revolution. It’s assault, coercion—”
“Maybe some people need to be coerced.”
“Is that why you’ve been prodding the workborn to protest? I counted four last month on the news.”
“I wouldn’t waste my time.”
Lila studied his face, the way his eyes did not run from her. Perhaps he hadn’t started the protests after all.
“People like your mother will never end up in a holding cell, no matter what they do,” he said. “How is that—”
“Leave my mother out of this. She’d never dream of breaking the law.”
“No, she just dreams of ways to bend it.”
“Of course. All laws bow before a competent chairwoman.”
“Spoken like a highborn. How many times did she make you write out that proverb as a child?”
“Enough times for it to stick. Few highborn break the law, whether you want to believe it or not.”
“And you say I’m naïve.”
“You are. For a highborn, breaking the law is cheating. It’s not sporting, and it’s an admission that you are inept. The highborn have more self-respect than that. So if you have a problem with the laws or how the highborn treat the workborn, change the laws so the matrons can’t bend them. Complain to your senator, and stop buying that family’s products.”
“Yes, because that always works,” Tristan muttered. “By the way, the hacker is a he.”
“A he? How do you know it’s a he?”
“I don’t, but how do you know it’s a she? Must it always be a she?”
“He. She. Who cares?”
“I do. It gets annoying. And I think it’s ridiculous that instead of going after the highborn criminals, you’re going after the one bribing them. That’s part of the—”
“My father is dealing with the highborn and their crimes,” she said, trying to cut him off before he launched into another lecture. “I’m just working the other end.”
“So you compromised BullNet to draw the hacker’s attention?”
“No.” Lila had thought she’d be smarter than that, opting to retrace the guilty highborn’s steps, to dig around in the system and figure out how Zephyr worked. She had only called in Tristan in case things turned bad.
Bad was an understatement.
It might get worse. If Zephyr found her first and leaked her activities to the press, then Shaw would be forced to arrest her. If the senate voted to execute her or tried to take her mark, then Shaw and her father would come forward and explain their part in it. Not only would they lose their careers for allowing a highborn heir to gain access to BullNet, but they might very well be hanged for the scandal. Her life would be exchanged for two, and her actions would cloud the Randolph family’s reputation. She’d not dodge a slave’s term, and even if she did, her militia career would be ruined.