“You didn’t have to. I assumed that since nothing was taken, someone’s trying to cause trouble, or maybe it’s just an animal. But either way you want to find out, right?”
Charley was incredibly perceptive.
“You got it,” I said.
She nodded, still looking thoughtful. “So are you in charge?” she asked. “I mean, is that your job? You’re the one who talked tonight, and everyone comes to you with questions.”
“For now. It’s a hand vote thing. Before me, Natalie was Leader; before Natalie, it was Omar, and so on. It’s just someone to help settle differences and to coordinate teams.”
“Why did Natalie quit?”
“She got Priority.”And once you have Priority, that’s all you do. Search. Pray. And run like hell.
“Priority?” Charley frowned.
“You get Priority at sixty days out. Then you’re off job detail. You’ve paid your dues, so all you do is Search, with full City support. People with Priority pick their teams first.”
“I thought you picked the teams.” She sounded frustrated.
“Nope. The Search Leader does, which may be a person with Priority, but not always.” One look at her face told me I was talking in circles.
“Okay, let me lay out the whole Search team deal. When a person goes on Search, they pick who they want to take. Jason’s the best Spotter, so he gets picked almost every time. Timing gates is tricky. Jason’s got a natural instinct for how gates roll, the speed, stuff like that. Plus, he’s the youngest kid here, and people want him to make it. That’s the other reason he gets picked, to give him a solid shot when it’s his turn.”
“And Spotters are the eyes, right?”
“Yup. Gates always roll north, never east–west. But you need all the eyes you can get to spot a gate rising and track its roll. Every second counts. And like I said, the rest of the team is backup. Like sherpas.”
Charley digested this information. “Do the gates appear in one spot more than others? I mean, is there a go-to spot to catch one?”
“Nope. Nil doesn’t make it that easy. There’re a few hot spots right now, but gates jump around. It’s like trying to catch lightning.”
“That stinks. It’d be good if we knew where gates were more likely to hit. If there’s a pattern.”
“Yeah, a schedule of outbounds would be great. We’re still waiting on Nil to deliver one.”
Charley smirked. “I’m serious.”
“So am I. If anyone’s ever figured out how to increase the odds of getting off this rock, they took the secret with them when they left.”And it doesn’t help us now, and now is all that matters.
“There’s something I don’t get. Y’all didn’t know if Kevin made it or not. If Jason’s the best Spotter, why wasn’t he with Kevin when Kevin caught a gate?”
“Because Kevin was down to his last forty-eight hours. He wouldn’t let anyone go with him, especially Natalie. He said he had to make it alone, and if he didn’t, he wanted her to remember him alive. His words.”
Charley was quiet, no doubt pondering Kevin’s choice.Goodluck, I thought. I still didn’t understand why Kevin went renegade. In the end it worked out, but it seemed to me that Kevin caught a gate despite his choice, not because of it. Ditching his team made no sense. It was like cutting off your hand because your fingers hurt. And Nat still went through hell.
“Okay, one more thing.” Charley spoke slowly. “When groups go out, what stops someone else from taking a gate? From skipping in front of the person with Priority?”
“Nothing,” I said. Her eyes widened, then narrowed. “It happens,” I continued, “but it’s rare. Stealing someone’s gate is island manslaughter. You may not pull the trigger, but you’re damn close, because you’re stealing their best chance to leave—and to live. And if you make it off, you’ve got to live with knowing you might’ve just sentenced someone to death, especially if that person had Priority. Some people might be able to carry that weight around, but not most. Especially if you’ve stayed in the City. You get to know people. You want them to make it.”
Charley stared at her cup, running her thumbs over the rim. “I saw the look on Sabine’s face when the gate grabbed her. It was pure horror, and the last thing she would’ve heard was everyone yelling for Li. Poor Sabine. But there wasn’t anything she could do.” Her voice had dropped to an agonized whisper.
“No, there wasn’t. Because it wasn’t Li’s gate after all; it was Sabine’s. Nil made the choice.”
I couldn’t help thinking it was because of Ramia and that creepy bone cuff. Because Nil had left Ramia and her bracelet exactly how Nil wanted, exactly how Ramia predicted: bone on bone. Maybe Nil wanted us to wonder about Ramia’s fate; maybe we weren’t meant to know. We were Nil’s pawns, her playthings. This was her sandbox, and it didn’t matter if we didn’t want to play. Thinking of Charley, I felt a spike of fear.
She was looking away. I followed her eyes to where Heesham sat by himself, staring at the sea where he’d thrown the bracelet, a gift meant for the girl who taught him how to saylovein French.
“Is Heesham okay?” Charley asked.
