Smoked - Mari Mancusi Page 0,28
mean, right now they’re probably just sitting back and waiting until it gets quiet again, so they can swoop in and take Emmy away without worrying about any public outcry.”
Trinity watched in dismay as Team Dragon all nodded their heads in assent. She was losing them, she realized. Stupid Rashida. Her mind scrambled for something reassuring to say. Which wasn’t easy, considering she wasn’t entirely sure they were wrong. But still! What alternatives did they have?
“Come on, people,” Connor broke in to her relief. “What do you want Trin to do? Sign Emmy up to play Carnegie Hall? You do remember the last time she showed her face in public, don’t you? At the Vista football stadium?” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Face it. The world is not ready for dragons.”
“Maybe not real-life dragons,” Luke said slowly. “But what about online?”
Trinity shot him a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”
The Dracken kid rose from his seat and turned to face the crowd. “Look, it’s clear from our FreeEmmy.com website numbers that our girl has a large fan base. Sure, some people think she’s some kind of threat, but a lot more think she’s pretty cool. Why not exploit that? Work to build her brand? Make her the most famous endangered species in the world?” His eyes glowed with excitement. “We could take photos, make music videos, live stream Q and As…”
Trinity stared at him, incredulous. “You want my dragon to have her own YouTube channel?”
Luke shrugged. “YouTube would be just the beginning. I’m talking about a full-on social media campaign here—Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook.” He grinned. “Hell, we can even launch a Kickstarter to help pay for her food.”
“But—”
“Trust me,” his partner-in-website-crime, Natasha, broke in, also rising from her seat. “We’ve been online from the start. We’ve seen people’s reactions. They want to love her. I mean, of course they do. People think dragons are awesome—even the made-up kind. And now, the idea that’s there’s a real-life one out there, just like they always fantasied about when they were kids? It’s going to blow their freaking minds.”
Trinity somehow found her voice. “But wouldn’t we get caught?” she asked. “I mean all the stuff we upload, couldn’t it be traced back to where we’re hiding out?”
“Please,” Natasha’s brother, Nate, interjected. “Do not even think of insulting me like that. I can jump through a thousand international proxies to hide our web trail. For all anyone will be able to tell, we’re broadcasting live from Singapore.” He beamed. “It’ll be like hiding in plain sight.”
Now everyone was talking at once, all seeming completely excited about the idea. Even Trinity had to admit, it was growing on her. “But then what?” she asked. “I mean, that all sounds good and all, but what’s our endgame here?”
“Easy,” Luke pronounced. “Once we’ve gotten everyone to fall in love with Emmy, there’s no way the government can just swoop in and take her away. Her profile will be too high—they’d take too much heat. And once everyone sees how sweet and gentle she is and all the things she can do to help us as a species, they’ll want to protect her. I’m not saying we should be aiming for a presidential pardon or anything. But maybe we could get legislation passed to put her on the endangered species list somehow? So no one can harm her?”
“And she’ll finally get to fly free!” Rashida pronounced. “No more hiding.”
Connor frowned. “Bengal tigers are protected. That doesn’t mean they get to hang out in villages as house cats. I’m sorry, but I can’t imagine a world where people are cool with a fire-breathing dragon roaming around their master-planned community.”
“Okay, fine. Maybe flying free is stretching it,” Luke amended. “But maybe they’d allow her to live on some game preserve? The kind where Hunters are forbidden? Or maybe some billionaire would actually give us that island or ranch we’re looking for.”
“Look, you said it yourself,” Natasha added. “We’re basically on borrowed time here. We can’t just waste it. Otherwise we’ll be no better than when we started out.”
“It may not work,” Rashida added. “But I think Emmy deserves for us to try.”
Everyone broke out into conversations among themselves. Trinity banged the gavel. It took a while this time for everyone to quiet. She looked out over the crowd at the faces that, for the first time, shone with a small light of hope. She let out a resigned sigh.
“Okay,” she said. “If you’re all in agreement, let’s try