Maphira’s desk was covered in papers strewn about chaotically, as she searched for answers to the great mystery that had come up. How the heck was Cole back?
It simply didn’t make any sense. Was she going crazy? Had the Conclave found somebody who looked exactly like Cole and trained him to trick her sister? That seemed extremely unlikely, but what other explanation was there?
She had to warn Rylee, somehow. Maphira didn’t know what exactly was wrong, but it was clear that something was wrong. The thing was, she couldn’t just turn up at their new house unannounced. Rylee would wonder how Maphira had known she was there. No, she had to make it look like a coincidence that she was there.
What reason do I have to go to a random house in the hills?
Of course! The answer was all around her. The Resistance used a solar energy business as a front, and houses needed solar energy. She’d show up and start rambling about how she was there to offer solar panels for small business owners and residential property in the area. Then she’d act all surprised when she saw that it was Rylee there! It was genius!
The only problem was that Rylee might question why a business would send somebody to the middle of nowhere to sell solar panels, but Maphira would simply explain that they believed everyone deserved solar power for homes. At this point, she knew enough about solar battery storage close to Melbourne to make the whole thing believable. It wasn’t like that was something people knew about if they weren’t actually in the solar game.
Yes, this would work perfectly. Then she could caution Rylee and ask if she’d noticed anything suspicious about Cole since he came back. Obviously, she couldn’t tell Rylee the truth, so she’d just have to settle for planting a few seeds of doubt and hoping that her sister got wise.
Rylee was pretty smart. All she needed was somebody to point out how crazy this whole thing was.