“What were your names?” Josh asks.
“We don’t remember. When you feel and act as one for so many years, names lose their meaning. We do remember the names of others, like the five children who left us. Paul, Erica, Ben, Eleanor, and Samuel, though we called him Sam.”
“They all left together?” I ask.
“Yes, following Paul. We asked them to wait until we learned more about the state of the world, but Paul was restless.”
“Was he also cruel back then?” I ask.
“No.”
“The child you knew is gone,” Josh says, as if it’s important for him to make it clear.
“Yes, the child we knew is long gone, but we would still like to see for ourselves what he has become.” He melts into a puddle again, sliding back into the bottle.
Buck returns shortly after and sits down by the fire.
“You’ve been thinking,” Josh tells me.
“What do you mean?”
He shrugs. “Feels to me like you might have a plan, or the start of one.”
I like how well he can read me. I didn’t want to bring up my plan, but perhaps it’s the right time to discuss it. With all eyes on me, I say, “I don’t think that an attack on Denver is likely to happen anytime soon. Unless the Raiders end up doing something extreme, the Free Cities will take their time. And even if we do attack, Caden might get hurt in the process, maybe executed before we can get to him. Our best chance to save him will be to find out where they are keeping him and in what conditions. For that, we need someone from the inside.”
“Do you know anyone in Denver who can help us?” River asks.
“He means himself.” Josh holds my gaze. “You want to enter Denver undercover.”
“I have the tattoos, and I know my way around a bit. I can keep a low profile and search for him, then reach out to you when I have something to share.”
“How will you do that from there?” River asks.
I raise the bottle. “I’ll take one of them with me, and the other two will stay with you. They can communicate with each other from afar.”
“Smart,” Buck says. “I’ll get someone to help you out with a good cover story. They can get suspicious of people they’re not used to seeing, even with your tattoos.”
“I don’t like you being alone in there,” Josh says.
“Neither do I,” Timothy says. “You must remember that Caden was captured because of Hector. To find him, you would likely need to get close to a very dangerous man.”
“All the more reason for me to investigate and find out more about what we’re facing. I can’t think of a better way to learn about Hector’s intentions than to get close to where he’s operating from. Even if I can’t get to Caden, discovering more about what’s going on in Denver could make the Free Cities act sooner.” The more I speak, the more confident I feel about my plan.
“It sounds very dangerous,” River says. “I don’t like it.”
“You once asked me to get captured by Raiders so I could infiltrate Unity, which almost got me killed.”
“Yes, but I am much more mature now and wise.”
“Well, I guess I’m not. My plan is the best option we have at the moment, and we all know that.”
“Even if that’s true, we still need to consult with Dino,” Timothy says.
“He won’t agree.”
“He can’t stop you,” Josh says. “He’ll get angry, and you’ll feel like shit for disappointing him, but he’ll end up accepting your decision because he cares about you more than he cares about being right.”
He clearly speaks from experience, though my bond with Dino isn’t the same as the one he has with Josh, so I might just end up with the angry and disappointed version of Dino. “Okay, I’ll speak with him.”
