25. Back East

As Angela’s staff prepares a high-fashion wardrobe for her trip, Porphyre arrives in flamboyant dress. Angela anticipates a managed media reentry in New York and notes that Danielle Stark, a formidable fashion journalist, will accompany them.

During the Learjet flight, Danielle maintains poise until cruising altitude, then steers the interview toward Angela’s detox. After a cordial meal and wine, Danielle presses about the drug’s nature, cost, and effects. She floats a rumor that Angela had been on a Sense/Net antipsychotic and quit because she preferred being “crazy.”

To shut down the off-record probing, Porphyre discreetly drugs Danielle’s wine, sending her to sleep. Angela worries about repercussions, but Porphyre insists they can shape the narrative and that she will remember only what she recorded.

In the quiet that follows, Angela confides she once heard guiding voices linked to syncretic African religion and that these ceased when she used the “dust,” and remain gone. Porphyre deflects lightly, then admits he knows certain things but needs time to think.

As the jet descends over the East, Angela reflects on her past in corporate jets and the intricate mechanisms of fame and media. The chapter ends with Porphyre’s guarded promise of insight as they approach landing in New York.