“What do you mean?” I take the binoculars back so I can check.
That’s when I see it.
A single guard walking on the road in our direction, carrying a gray flag.
A solid gray flag.
The universal sign in the Central Cities for parley.
“They want to talk?” I’m stunned. Bewildered. I pass the binoculars to Vella.
“No, they don’t wanna talk,” Ben mutters. “They wantyou.”
“Yeah,” Vella agrees. “The Central Cities doesn’t negotiate. They take what they want and wipe out anyone in their way.” She passes the binoculars to a waiting Roderick and then meets my eye. “They might pretend they want to talk, but they want to kill you. They’re trying to get you to show yourself so they can kill you.”
“She’s right,” Ben mutters.
“Robin’s down,” Roderick says. He hands me the binoculars when I extend my hand. “In front of that first truck.”
I shift the view so I can scan for Robin’s body, and I see it where Roderick indicated. He’s sprawled out on the pavement, bloodied and awkwardly positioned. His hair glints gold in the rising sun.
I gulp. “He’s still alive. Wounded but still alive.”
“Not for long,” Vella says gloomily.
“None of them will be alive for long,” Roderick says. “And neither will we if we go out to meet them. We need to run, and we need to do it now.”
“No.” My voice is sharp but not from anger. The dream of a victory, of a long rest in the wilderness, of being with Ben for real, forever, is all fading into blurred darkness where it belongs. The narrow beam of reality’s stark light is all that’s left. “I won’t run when our friends are in danger. Those are our people now, and they were taken down fighting our fight. I will not run.” When Roderick starts to argue, I speak over him. “Don’t you dare say that sacrifices have to be made to achieve our ends. What we believe in cannot be sacrificed. I won’t do it. We have five minutes to make a plan.”
“It’s probably too late to call our folks back, but I’ll try.” That’s Ryan, moving a few feet away and raising his radio to get to work.
“We are twelve. They are more than forty. What the hell can we do?” Vella is loud, audibly upset. “And don’t say you’re going down to negotiate with those bastards because it will be suicide. They don’t have any honor. They don’t play by the rules. They won’t honor the gray flag of parley. As soon as you’re in range, they’ll shoot you down.”
“Maybe,” I admit, my voice weirdly small and chilled. I see it now in that blinding beam of light—the end I’ve been moving toward my entire life. “But at least it wouldprovide the diversion we need, and it might be our only option.”
“No!” Vella turns to Ben. “Tell her she’s being stupid. Stop her!”
Ben has been frozen since he saw that parley flag. His expression is tight and blank as he looks from Vella to me and then back. It’s not even been two days since he pushed my head down and held it there against my will out of desperation to protect me.
He’ll never agree to this. To make it happen, I’ll have to fight him first. He’ll never let me walk down there to my death even if it’s the only way to save us.
I sense rather than see a deep, aching shuddering inside him as he finally rasps, “She’s the boss. She makes the decisions. So if she decides to go down, I’ll sayyes, ma’am. And so should you.”
It’s too much. Too shattering. I can’t see through the pressure in my eyes as I hug my arms to my chest.
A couple of tears stream down Vella’s face. “They’ll kill you, Annabelle. I get we can’t let Robin and his folks die, but if you go down there to a parley, they’ll kill you.”
“Maybe,” I manage to say. “They might. But if they do, I’m not going to let it be wasted. So once again, I’m telling you that we need a plan and we need it fast.”
28
A few minutes later,when Ben disappears into the building without a word, I follow him there.
He’s waiting for me in the hallway. His face has been tightly stoic all this time, but it cracks as I walk the few steps to reach him.
“Thank you,” I say, my own composure strained by the sight of his suppressed emotion. “I know how hard that was for you. Thank you, Ben. Thank you.”
He went against every one of his instincts to support what I need to do. I could sense the strain in him even when he was showing no feeling at all.
