He Traded Me for Land, Now I Write the Rules novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Registry Strike
The Ashgate registry office was on the ground floor of the Tribeca building, behind a glass door I had walked through every morning for four years.
Tonight the line ran out of it and across the lobby.
Ned Garrity stood behind the counter in his shirt sleeves, with no badge on his lapel.
He looked up when I came in with Everett and Toby, and his big tired face eased.
"I didn't know who else to call," he said.
"What's happening?"
"They've been coming since four." He pushed a ledger across the counter. "Nobody told them to. A woman in the garage heard what you read out at the Council, and she told her floor."
I looked down the line.
A woman held a toddler on her hip.
An old man leaned on a cane with a work card in his free hand.
Two young men in delivery jackets whispered together and looked at the floor.
Forty, Ned had said. It was more now.
"Each of them is withdrawing their own entry," Ned said. "Nobody can stop it. A wolf can leave an Alpha by filing, the same as an Alpha can withdraw by filing. I looked it up."
"Where do they go?"
"Unaligned, on the Council's list, for ninety days." He rubbed his face. "Their housing goes with the entry. Most of them live in Falk buildings."
The old man at the head of the line cleared his throat.
"Miss Hartigan."
"It's Adeline."
"Miss Adeline. You did my daughter's work card in March when the office lost it." He held out his own card. "Nobody else would answer the phone."
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