Taunts Bakuda to throw her off

Suddenly, DeeCee started to chuckle.

“What?” Bakuda snapped. “What’s so funny?”

“You really are small-minded, Bakuda,” DeeCee scoffed. “All of this, just for reputation? To…what? Impress Skidmark and all of the other rejects? Everyone else already thinks of you as the little girl who threw a tantrum just because she didn’t get an A in math class.”

I bit my lip and hoped that Lisa’s plan didn’t blow up — and in this case, it could even be literally — in my face. I also hoped that my decoy’s acting skills were sufficient enough to hit all of the points Lisa and I had talked about, earlier today.

The plan didn’t necessarily rest on what DeeCee was doing now. It probably could have worked without it. However, the more distracted Bakuda was, the easier it would be to deal with her and the less chance she’d have to react or think up a counter. If she had a plan for me — or someone else, for that matter — coming through the warehouse windows and roof, then I needed her to not have a chance to enact it.

Perhaps a little ironically, DeeCee would be channeling Emma to do her part.

“Shut up!” said Bakuda. “You have no idea — ”

“Did you think you could erase that, if you blew up enough stuff?” DeeCee cut across her. “Like everyone would just forget, if you blew up city hall or did something big enough? Maybe once you made a name for yourself, no one would even remember that the whole thing started when you flunked out of Cornell?”

Bakuda took a step forward, stomping one foot down. “Bitch!” she howled. “I said, SHUT UP!”

“That’s what it’s really about, isn’t it?” DeeCee goaded. “You made a stupid decision, and now you’re making a whole bunch of stupid decisions, each dumber than the last, all so that you don’t have to face up to the fact you’re not as smart as you thought you were. Tell me, Bakuda, is there even a grade lower than an F?”

Bakuda was trembling, I could see it through my decoy’s borrowed vision. I thought I could see her jaw working, but she wasn’t talking at all.

“How petty,” said DeeCee. Her lips curled into a sneer I had been seeing almost every day for the past two years. “Here I am, trying to make a difference, trying to help pick this city back up off of its knees, and all you’re concerned about is making yourself feel better, like it’ll change anything? Really?”

DeeCee shook her head. A throaty sound of disgust passed between her lips.

“You’re the speedbump, Bakuda,” she spat. “All you’re doing is getting in my way. I don’t have time to waste playing your games or repairing your inflated ego. I have real problems to deal with.”

Bakuda swung her rocket launcher up and aimed it at my decoy, anger written into every line and angle of her body.

“You really need to learn when to shut the fuck up!” she snarled.

“Funny,” DeeCee said casually, “I was about to tell you the same thing.”

“Now,” I whispered into the night, and all of the rest of me moved.