He doesn’t back off, however, and evidently Ben has had enough. I’ve felt him just behind my right shoulderthis whole time. And now he steps forward, putting his large body between me and Roderick.
After a few seconds, the other man finally steps back and drops his head with a wordless mutter.
“What was that?” I ask, cool but still not angry. Mostly I feel kind of sick. I don’t think I was made for this sort of interaction.
“Nothing.”
“If there’s more that’s on your mind, you’re welcome to tell me. I don’t hold it against folks for voicing legitimate concerns. You’re still worried about the safety of our south side?”
I ask this last thing as a face-saving escape route, and he takes it.
“Yeah. I think we should beef it up some. They like routine, but they’re not all buffoons in the Capitol. They might try to come at us from behind next time.”
I nod. “You could be right. So work with your team to make a plan for added security, and then run it by Ben.”
“Okay. I will. Sorry about the outburst.”
I give him a half shrug. “Tensions are running high for obvious reasons. But Vella’s been with me from the beginning. She’s not going to interfere when there’s no call.”
“Understood.” He gives Vella a reluctant nod.
She’s still annoyed by him, but she knows the right move. She nods back.
Relieved this is almost over, I glance at the sky to gauge the time. There’s only about an hour left of lightand still no word of a new contingent of troops coming this way.
I figured it wouldn’t happen until tomorrow. One thing that’s true about decision-making in the Capitol is that it’s always slowed and weighed down by endless paperwork. And they never send out guards after dark.
They’ll probably be heading this way tomorrow at the same time they were today.
Any more than two trucks would catch attention. People would question whether there’s a rebel threat in the area, whether someone is defying the government to such an extent that it takes an army to subdue.
Patterson, the former president, was originally a military commander, and he functioned that way. Vincent isn’t. He’s a politician at heart.
And thus always cowed by public opinion.
My expectation all this time is that they’d send two units and two trucks on the second day. After they lose that force too, they might just call this outpost a wash. They never used it for administrative functions the way they do some of their other outposts. It was mostly a convenient launch point for troops leaving the Arsenal. They can do without it.
And I’m betting everything on Vincent losing this outpost rather than letting the news get out that a ragtag rebel group has won such a coup against Central Cities guards.
6
“You needto get more than two hours of sleep tonight,” Ben says a couple of hours later when we’ve all pulled back into the building except the folks on guard duty for the first night shift. His voice is low so no one else hears it.
“So do you,” I tell him.
“I sleep when you sleep. You already know that. So if you want me to get more sleep, then you will too.”
I exhale and give him a mild eye roll, mostly on principle. He’s not wrong, and I no longer mind him insisting I take care of myself.
I’ll be no good to anyone if I run myself into the ground, and this fight is far too long to exist in eternal crisis mode.
“You did good,” he mutters as I take off my belt—complete with holsters for my handgun and hunting knife—and drop it on the sofa where I slept last night.
“I did good in what?” I’m genuinely confused. The only thing I’ve done for the past hour is wander around to touch base with everyone, listening to concerns and rallying excitement for what we’ve almost accomplished.
“With Roderick earlier. If you’d handled it any other way, we would have lost him.”
“Yeah. It was touch and go. But he’s an asset, and he’s been a big help lately.”
