I rub the sweat off my face.
“You know he has me doing all these rotations around the Forge,” I say. “Filtering through trash and cataloging shipments. It’s tedious, but mostly it’s undeserved.”
Spider sits on the ground, chugging his water. He seals the cap and looks at me.
“You mouth off to him and throw him dirty glares,” Spider says. “Is it really undeserved?”
“Hey, whose friend are you? Mine or his?”
“Yours.”
“Then that means you agree that I am always right,” I say. “And that Ender is always wrong.”
“You know you’re the only person here who is nice to me,” Spider says, glancing down at his boots. “Knox tolerates me, but the others, they find me despicable.”
“They are fools,” I say. “Too dumb to see a good thing before them.”
Spider smiles brightly. “I appreciate it, Mercy.”
He stands up, stretching his arms.
“I should get some sleep. We have an early morning briefing tomorrow.”
“We have a mission coming up?”
“No, it’s members only, unless Ender decides to bring a few of you along,” he says. “It’s going to be a big one.”
I try not to make it seem like I am prying.
“You found a rebel hideout?”
“Better,” Spider says. “We found an entire settlement.”
I slip into the bathroom and seal the vents for extra measure. I have to warn the Resistance.
One tap and the connection goes live.
Ender is going after a rebel settlement.
Not all rebels hide in abandoned buildings and safehouses. Some of them have built lives. They’ve found corners of the wildlands on the outskirts of the divisions where the barbed electric fence sits, and they’ve built out communes where they raise their children and plant their vegetation.
It’s been a long time since the regime discovered a settlement.
I don’t know how they learned about this. The thought of them raiding their houses and slaughtering their children sickens me. None of the young will be spared. Not according to the revised law in the Code.
I could be executed for this warning, but I’ve long passed caring about what fate befalls me. I only hope that my sister is spared from punishment if I am ever caught. I refuse to see her fall for my actions.
Nobody speaks on the other end of the line.
“Hello.”
I know that familiar voice. It’s Idris.
“It’s me,” I whisper. “There’s a strike planned at a rebel settlement. Departure in less than forty-eight hours. You have to tell them to evacuate.”
Idris sucks in a sharp breath. “Which one?”
“I don’t know.”
