The king’s eyes stop darting and focus on Caden for a solid ten seconds. I feel uncomfortable on his behalf. Finally, the king says, “Welcome to High Hope, Captain.”
“And I am Otto James, sir, Assembly Member Lock’s representative. A pleasure to meet you.”
“I met Lock once. A rather stiff fellow, isn’t he? I was told that my friend River also came with you. I’ll be sure to catch up with him during my upcoming ball. Now, join me, Finn. Let us commune.”
“Caden and Otto—”
“Can stay here and pet my exotic friends, or walk around the gardens. Remy, offer them something to eat.”
I give Caden and Otto an apologetic look before following the king out of the room. We climb up a flight of stairs, walking past old framed photographs from the Before Times that must be worth a fortune. We reach the king’s private office, which is twice as large as Dino’s. The view from here is breathtaking during the day, but it’s mostly dark now with the moon hiding behind the clouds.
“Wine?” the king asks as he puts aside his golden staff.
“No, thank you.”
“Does Dino not allow you to drink on the job?”
“I’m not a fan of alcohol.” And I don’t want to become even more tired.
He pours himself a glass of wine and takes a long sip. “Did you know that this is how my great-great-grandfather started collecting his wealth after the world ended? While others searched for canned food, he searched for alcohol. When he had a decent amount, he found people to sell it to for ridiculous prices. In the old world, he used to sell cars, and not just regular cars, but used ones. It was considered a very prestigious profession. He turned himself into the go-to guy for buying pre-war alcohol, and this mountain was where he hid his products. When he had enough trustworthy men with him, they decided to turn this place into a city.” He sits down next to the fireplace and gestures for me to sit in front of him. “You might say this place was founded on booze.”
“And hard work.”
“Of course. You didn’t survive back then without hard work and a whole lot of luck.”
“Things are not a walk in the park these days either.”
The king tilts his head, the shadows from the flames dancing over the left side of his face, emphasizinghis elegant nose. “I’d argue that life is much more stable now, at least for some. Do you think my people fear for their lives? No one goes hungry, and no one is unsafe in High Hope.”
I nod. “You’re doing a wonderful job here, sir. No one can claim otherwise.”
“Yet here you are, Unity’s envoy, about to ask me to risk it all.”
I sit straighter, surprised he’s not beating around the bush like he’s known to do. “The Raiders will get here eventually, sir.”
“Oh, will they? Their last attempt was twenty years ago, did you know? I remember how fun it was to shoot them down. I was drinking an excellent merlot as the bullets rained down. The one who blew off the most heads won a medal.”
I’m not surprised by his confidence, nor can I dispute it. “You’ve mentioned your people are well-fed, but we both know that safe trading routes are the main reason for that. You have no major crops on this mountain, definitely not enough to feed a whole city. If the rest of us fall, every person living here will be affected.”
“Tomatoes and carrots are not good enough reasons to go to war, my boy. I told Dino that, yet he still sent you. I would have taken your presence as an insult, but I’m aware of your value in Dino’s eyes.”
I don’t feel very valuable at the moment, since it seems he has already made up his mind, as Lyla suspected. “Raiders are cancer, sir. I know that better than anyone. War is coming, and our enemy will use non-human soldiers alongside thousands of Raiders.”
“Mutantsarehuman, Finn. Some of them live here.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“If you’re referring to those rumors of lizard men—”
“Not rumors. Captain Anderson saw them. They took out his entire squad before they could even react. What if they can climb up this mountain?”
He lets out a long breath and asks, “And how many of those creatures are out there?”
“We don’t know, but they seem to be wiping out small settlements up north.”
“Hmm.” He watches the fireplace. “That is concerning. And how many troops do you have in your alliance?”
“Over three thousand trained fighters. If we have to, we can call on a similar number of less trained civilians. Unity and Blue Moon will provide the majority of support. Our sister Hive is smaller than us, but their Defenders are just as trained as ours. Indifference will mostly provide ammunition and vehicles.”
