“Everybody listen up,” says a voice from the door.We all turn, but no one stands.
Hunter’s boss is standing there, a dark-haired guy in his forties who’s just starting to go gray.The living room goes silent, and I hold my breath, because I have a feeling the announcement isn’t “There are cupcakes in the kitchen.”
“I just got the call that a cold front is moving through,” he says.“And there’s likely to be a pretty big shift in weather patterns over the next few days, so we’re heading up north to Eaglevale an hour before dawn tomorrow.Briefing in twenty.”
Then he walks off, and the pit of my stomach goes cold.
The guys in the room all exhale at the same time, like they’ve got one set of lungs.Hunter rubs one hand over his head and starts laughing, and then so do the rest.
“God, I thought we were gonna be stuck here forever,” Silas says.
“No kidding,” says Hunter.“Send us or don’t, just fucking decide.I can’t stand the sitting around.”
“I know it,” Daniel says, standing.“See you guys in twenty.”
“I should get going,” I say, uncurling my legs, standing, and sliding my shoes back on.Hunter gets off the couch too, but I can’t bring myself to look him in the eye right now.
“It was nice meeting you guys, maybe I’ll see you around again?”I say.
They both stand, and weirdly, we all shake hands.
“Have a good one, Clementine,” Silas says, and then I walk for the door, Hunter following me.
“Walk me home?”I ask him, trying to smile, but it feels mechanical.
“Of course,” he says, but he looks puzzled.
We head through the foyer.I wave goodbye to some of the other guys, and then I’m outside in the cool night air.
“Clem,” Hunter says, the moment the door is shut.
I walk down the porch stairs and onto the sidewalk before I answer.
He’s happy about it, I think, over and over.He didn’t like being here, sitting around.With me.
“Yeah?”
He grabs my arm and stops me.
“Say something, you can’t just go quiet and walk away.”
I want to wrench my arm away and shoutwatch mebut instead I take a deep breath.
“I’m worried about you guys, because the Saturn Fire seems pretty bad,” I say.At least it’spartof the truth.
“I’ll befine,” he says.“I’m always fine.”
“Yeah,” I mutter.
“What,” he says.
I just shake my head.
“And if I’m not, you can find someone who knows about desert crust,” he says.
“What the hell?”I say, my voice starting to rise.I swallow hard, trying to keep it down.
We stare at each other for a moment, and I can sense that we’re on the knife’s edge, one more word away from a stupid fight that I don’t actually want to have.
