Chapter 20

The clock was ticking down, only a couple minutes left before he got whisked away for whatever was next on his schedule. Some of the women had left already, worried about getting into a panel before it filled up. When Johnny asked what it was about, all he got was, “Ship wars,” before Pam, the college student who’d been parked at his side throughout the meal, cut them off and said to him, “Don’t ask for details. You don’t want to know.”

“You don’t want to go to this panel, too?” he asked after they left.

She shook her head. She was a tiny thing, with spiked dark hair tipped in blues and purples, and the edge of a curling tattoo disappearing inside her T-shirt, but surprised him with how astute she was. More than once, she’d steered the conversation away from more personal topics he was glad to avoid. “All they’re going to do is spend the next hour arguing. If I wanted to be a part of that, I’d just troll through Tumblr.” She cocked her head. “Is GhostMaster really your PA?”