Alternate Timeline: Follow Sal

No time to think. Mask on, you get moving. This is not difficult. You’re in full cosplay, so you won’t be recognized… but you can still be noticed if you stick out too much. So you just get out your phone and stroll along behind Sal, scrolling Twitter and trying not to bump into people.

It works.

Sal leaves the hall straight away; it’s clear that she just came here to meet with Athena. That was a quick meeting. What could this be about?

She pauses out on the sidewalk in the sun, looking at her phone like every other person. You lean against a pillar in the shadows and do the same, keeping your eye on her. You love her outfit and wonder where she got those cute sneakers.

Then she puts her phone in her pocket and takes something else out. She’s not carrying much; no purse or anything, so maybe this is what Athena gave her. It’s an envelope filled with something, but you can’t see from here.

She swaps the envelope for the phone and makes a call. It’s now or never. There are still a lot of people out here. It’s not as good as inside the con, but what’s the worst that can happen? You nervously move in to listen as she looks both ways, then starts into the parking lot.

“Where are you?” she’s asking. “Are you kidding me? I needed five minutes.”

You aren’t sure what’s going on with only half of the conversation. Is she looking for her ride?

“Where did you park it?” she asks.

Definitely her ride. She must have come here with someone else. They were probably supposed to just wait for her to come right back out, but you can’t do that at the main entrance of the con; there’s too much traffic. The con people will **** you to move.

“You better bring me one,” Sal grumbles. Sounds like her friend went for Starbucks. Maybe she thought that she had more time to wait. “All right, I see it.” There’s a big, white, Acura SUV that she seems to be heading for. It’s a pretty nice car.

Athena handed this girl an envelope. That is suspicious as hell. You want to know what’s in it, but you can’t ask. Your thoughts bounce around like a pinball: now Athena’s strange behavior seems even more alarming. What’s going on here? Is Sal blackmailing her or something? What is there, other than money, that she could’ve been handing over? CGH and CCL don’t collaborate on anything. Ever. And if they were going to start, Athena wouldn’t look so stressed about it. She’d be thrilled. No. This is all wrong.

This started with you being worried about Athena. Now you’re worried about CCL. This is a sorority, not like… a country at war, but you a traitorous leader is still a problem.

It’s your duty to CCL to get to the bottom of it. You are sure of that. You just aren’t sure how.

Sal is climbing into the SUV.

Stow away?

Or go back and confront Athena?