Page 132 of Chaos
A sense of grim satisfaction floods me, but it’s short-lived. Every second we’re out here and the army inside the gates is on the wall means no one is working on that fire.
“There’s no way they have enough people behind them to win this,” Sebi says quietly.
“Maybe not,” I say. “But we have enough to shoot you both right now. What would your army do then?”
“Leave. But we would come back. Neither of us wants a war. But we do need to take you”—the woman in the dark coat looks sharply at me—“back to DC. That’s non-negotiable.”
“And you’re working with the Butcher?” I ask.
“He’s working for us.”
“What’s your deal with him?”
She pushes her hair over her shoulder. “It was our evaluation that the pigs and the five thousand people he has is enough power to be consolidated in one place.”
I keep my face neutral. “So you’re equalizing the playing field?”
Her smile is flat. “For our subjugated colonies, yes.”
“And all you want from Thornewood is me?”
“Yes.” Her hands splay out as if she’s thinking but not sayingfor now. “You come with us, your people have peace with their enemies, a bullet machine to use for trade with Auggie’s people, and no one else dies. It’s a major victory for Thornewood.” She gestures brightly toward the line of trucks. If the red lasers on her chest representing a dozen bullets that could be fired at any second bothers her, she doesn’t show it. “Shall we?”
“I won’t leave until I see my … girlfriend.” Even saying the word roughs up against an ache inside me. I point at the rising nightmare of smoke filling up the sky. “She’s in there.”
The wind kicks up like it heard the subtle plea in my words.
A few scattered flakes falling.
Leaves scuffling in the woods.
I focus everything I have on sending a vow into the universe …thisuniverse … not the Flower-verse or any other place … this one. Frankie had better be outside Thornewood right now, safe and waiting.
The woman pulls a pair of leather gloves from her pocket. “I met a man named Duffy who told me you paid a debt without even knowing the price.” She slips one glove onto her hand. “You give me your word? You’ll come to DC?”
“Yes.”
“And when you’re in DC, you’ll do as I ask?”
“Within reason.”
“I keep my word, too.” She slips a glove on her other hand and flexes her fingers. “I’ll remind you, there will be very serious consequences if you go back on your word,” she says crisply. “I won’t ever forget.”
“I’ll keep my word.”
“Good. We didn’t come for war.” She touches her fingers together like a leather-gloved church steeple. “The army will stay outside the gate. Knox and I will come, along with Renata and Sebi. I look forward to meeting this … Frankie I’ve heard so much about.”
Before I can argue, she swirls her hand through the air, and a soldier down the line barks out a series of orders.
Sebi sends me a final lingering glance, promising there’s a conversation coming at some point in our future, and Renata steps out from an armored vehicle, holding Charlotte Rose in her arms.
The trucks slip into gear, and begin the slow process of retreating their line a hundred yards away from the gate, pulling them over to the side of the road and letting Jacquetta and Ebundi’s soldiers drive right past them, presumably with Kelly inside headed straight for Sheila.
“Please.” The woman gestures me into Thornewood like it’s her own personal domain. “We’ll be right behind you.”
Glancing back at the woods full of soldiers, the red lasers fracturing their way through the trees, then back at the wall and the soldiers standing atop it, I decide to focus on one thing at a time.
Frankie, Shane, Auden, Beast, the blueberry.