Simple. She said it was simple, and it was. Yunks remembers what she used to be. She picked poor Colonel Hampton out of that whole city to torment in person, just because she had met him before. How far would she go to get to me, who stood up to her, and broke her out of her shell?
It was a good question, Keisha had to admit. And its answer was probably “to the ends of the earth.” Considered tactically, it was their obvious next move, and the best chance they were going to get to save all of Europe. And the possibility hadn’t even occurred to Keisha, for obvious reasons. No. Absolutely not.
But why? Her face and voice had both been so calm, when she asked. So very mature. This is what you got me out for, right? That’s what you told your president, to justify the risk. Just on the chance that I might know a way to end all this. Well, I do! So let me do it.
I didn’t snatch you out of the jaws of death just to throw you back in, she’d snapped back.
It’s not ‘the jaws of death.’ It’s just Yunks. I have faced her down before.
Keisha couldn’t remember what she’d said to that. Nothing that made much of an impression. Nadia had kept calm the whole time, and Keisha hadn’t, and Dr. Gus had intervened in time to keep it from escalating to shouting. It is very late, he’d said. We would do better to sleep on this decision; it will take time to arrange transport across the continent under these circumstances in any case.
Don’t you dare try to ‘arrange transport,’ she’d told him.
Why should I have to? I imagine her idea has already occurred to plenty of others. Likely President Dawes had it in mind when he approved your mission.
That had her up till close to dawn, long after the three children traipsed off to bed. Even after Dr. Gus got too tired to keep arguing with her, she’d argued with herself, lying awake in bed composing newer and better lines she should have used. And when she got up at noon, feeling terrible, there were new orders on her phone, telling her to look into the feasibility of Nadia’s idea.
I did not tell them.
Yes, Doc. I know.
I am ready. They are ready. People are suffering. What are we waiting for?
Shut up, child, and eat your lunch.
What are you gonna do, Bob? You going to kidnap all three of us and take us somewhere else, just so we can’t try to follow your orders? Weird way to keep us safe, making us all fugitives. Ain’t even anywhere to run to.
They aren’t orders, she’d protested. Not explicitly. They only said to look into the feasibility, and the orders weren’t feasible, because the United States had already said it wasn’t in the business of employing children as weapons of war. Let alone using them as bait for man-eating monsters.
She’d kicked and screamed and dragged her feet every step of the way, and somehow, it all wound up happening anyway. State department officials showed up before nightfall, bearing the latest facts and figures on the disintegration of western civilization: insurrections in five countries, several attempted coups, unprecedented levels of violent crime, mass suicide, shortages of everything, widespread hunger.
Nadia paid close attention, asked intelligent questions, made thoughtful comments—a long way from the terrified child she’d found in the castle. Keisha was equal parts proud and despondent.
The worst had come at the end, when it was clear that it would happen without her, and the only way out would be to declare a one-woman war against the world. That was when Nadia switched from reasonable argument to just flat-out condescension. I know it’s hard for you to let this happen, but this is how it has to be.
Keisha’s reply had been full of words she didn’t want to remember leaving her mouth. Forceful enough to make the child step back, worried and hurt. But not for long. Nadia was stronger than that.
Keisha, I’m going to do this, and you can’t stop me. It’s the only way. I can do it without you, but it won’t work as well. They all say so, and I believe them. It might work without you. It will work with you.
Sure, that’s what they say. Once again, they’re putting a child in harm’s way, because they—
Because they literally can’t do it themselves. This isn’t cowardice. I know there are many people, maybe thousands, maybe millions, who would gladly do this in my place. But Yunks doesn’t care about them.
Neither do I, Keisha almost said, but stopped herself. She didn’t deny that the situation was desperate. But …
But what?
Keisha remembered her mother’s bedroom door, closed and locked, and the words she heard through it with her ear to the door: You can do what you want, child. You’ve obviously decided you’re going to anyway, and I can’t stop you. But you do it without me. The Corps already took my husband from me; if it’s going to take my child too, I can’t stop it, but it can’t make me come watch and cheer.
Mama had been true to her word. There was an empty seat at Keisha’s graduation. And Keisha hadn’t spoken a word to her mother in five years.
She couldn’t bring herself to accept it with words, but she stopped arguing, and she didn’t turn away, and Nadia understood.
“Poland, huh? She’s really scraping the bottom of the barrel now.”
It wasn’t much of a quip, and Fatima had said something like it twice before. Nadia confined her response this time to a tight nod. She was nervous too. But she had no right to complain of mere nerves, after what she’d seen in the city. Warsaw was an open grave, the dead lying in the streets. That was the latest game, they said: anyone who tried to move or bury the fallen would become the next target. Otherwise, they were free to go about their business, stepping around and over the remains of their neighbors, waiting for her to get bored. She couldn’t possibly enforce that across the whole city, of course; the whole point was to show that they didn’t dare take the chance of her being nearby.
Leaving town would be the smart move—if it wasn’t for her gangs watching the major roads out. She picked the members at random, told them they had been chosen to enforce her will. Not many refused, given the consequences. Attacking the gangs, obviously, brought swift retaliation, but nobody wanted to enter the city when they wouldn’t be able to leave. Including truck drivers. It had only been three days, but grocery shelves were bare from thieves and hoarders. Humanitarian drops from airplanes had been allowed, then discontinued when the first two turned into murderous brawls.
Nadia’s job was relatively easy. She didn’t have to wait in dying Warsaw. Her place was in Kampinos forest, a sprawling sanctuary of over two hundred square kilometers left to the wild. The city and its neighbors had grown up around it, enclosing it entirely. A few roads led through it; a tight-lipped and angry Keisha had driven them down one in person this morning, dropping them off in the middle of nowhere without a word. Now there was nothing to do but wait.
After another long moment, Fatima spoke again, because she couldn’t bear silence. “You think she got the message?”
“She must have.” Fatima had asked that before, too. Nadia tried to be patient with her; nobody had forced her to come along. Only loyalty kept her here, loyalty and concern for her sister.
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“But with the whole population—“
“They put it on television. Word will spread.” Nothing more than a rumor and a challenge, that the children of Titus Marshall had come to Kampinos forest, and were waiting to speak with their father’s pet.
“Kind of an obvious trap, isn’t it?”
“That’s why she isn’t here yet. She will be.”
“So we’re irresistible, huh?” Fatima kicked at the brown pine needles underfoot; they were soggy with spring rains. “Well, she’s taking her time. Shoulda brought a damn folding chair or something. Shit.”
For an answer, Nadia spread her plastic poncho on the ground, and sat on it. She had a sweatshirt on underneath, but it was still a bit chilly, and an icy drip from the trees overhead landed in her hair the moment she sat down. The challenge would be to stay vigilant. Her new picture was a sword and a trumpet, crossed like a coat of arms. She’d picked it herself. She could still see it fine, and they had tested it to prove that it worked. But her mind wanted to wander.
Fatima looked down at her, shook her head, and leaned against a tree while she lit up another cigarette. Nadia wrinkled her nose, and turned her face away. Nerves. Just nerves.
“Do you think I’m the same person I was, Fatima?”
“What, are you worried about that? Hell, he didn’t know what he was talking about. Don’t anybody really know how any of this stuff works.”
“But—“
“Yes. Yes, you’re still the same Nadia. This whole plan is classic Nadia. Rus sure as hell wouldn’t suggest it, or agree to it if someone else did.”
“No. He wouldn’t.”
“How do you stand this, Doc? You’re not even protected.”
Dr. Gus looked up from the map, and blinked. “I assume you would not simply sit there and allow me to be devoured before your eyes. Surely I have that much of a claim on your affection, even if you are not very happy with me at the moment.”
“Mm-hmm.” She crossed to the window, and looked out. She wasn’t sure why; it wasn’t as if Yunks would come walking down the street. Dr. Gus would be her eyes and ears for this operation. Being so dependent didn’t make the wait any easier to bear.
“Clairvoyant training encourages a certain passivity of outlook—a willingness to hold still, and experience, and accept all outcomes. The reverse of what you received. At times, it is useful. That being said … “
“Yeah, yeah.” Shut up and let me trance, Keisha. Good advice. Hard to follow. He stretched out his hand, and she held her breath—but the hand came to rest on the east of Warsaw, nowhere near the forest.
What was the bitch waiting for? It was almost eleven.
Fatima’s cigarette was cold ash in her fingers. She held off on lighting another; she had no idea how long they’d be waiting. And they hadn’t brought any food, either, or water. Dumb-ass way to run an operation. She wanted to ask Nadia how much longer they were going to sit around, but the child was pissy enough already.
“’All creation groans, like a woman giving birth, even up to today,’” Nadia said, spread out on her raincoat like it was picnic blanket and staring up at the treetops.
“Oh, they’re doing a lot more than groaning right now. What was that? Bible?”
“I think so. I probably got it wrong.”
“Where’d you get it from?”
“Father Fyodor said it, and it stuck in my memory. I paid attention to his sermons, even if I was a bit of a brat.”
“Huh. So, you back to being ordinary kufr now?”
“Fatima. Must you be so flippant about the whole thing?”
“Probably not. Force of habit. Too late to quit now, same as the cigarettes. What do you believe, sister?”
“I don’t know what I believe, or even what I want to believe. But my emissant does, for some reason. Sort of.”
“Yeah, that’s another thing nobody understands. Add it to the list.”
“But why?” She slapped her spread arms against the jacket on the ground. “Why don’t we understand anything? Why do we have to stumble around in the dark like this?”
“Because we’re kids, and didn’t nobody teach us a damn thing. We did pretty well, for all that.”
“The adults aren’t any better!”
Fatima shrugged. “So it’s fair. Even playing field.”
“All those people out there, dying in the city, were they expecting the grown-ups to save them? The grown-ups, the government, God. Everyone is letting them down.”
“Whoa. Hold up. You think because He’s not doing everything they want, when they want it, He’s to blame? Maybe they need to accept that He’s in charge, and get working on accepting His will. Ever think of that?”
“Such a hypocrite. You’ve never meekly accepted anything, in all the years I’ve known you.”
“Well, no. Not from people. I’m not gonna take their shit. Allah is different.”
Nadia closed her eyes. “Why am I even talking to you?”
“Nobody else here. Just us and God. You could try talking to Him.”
“Maybe I will. He can’t be as annoying as you.”
“Allah is sovereign, and can be whatever He—“
“Shut up!”
The girls’ location was marked on the map with a big red X. They had clear instructions not to leave it, and no reason to stray. Keisha stared at the X, wishing she could be sure they were still there. But even Dr. Gus couldn’t see without a halo. It was all blind faith.
“They are hardly helpless,” her mentor mumbled out of his trance. His eyes were still closed. She turned to look at him, and he added, “Your agitation is troubling the waters. Settle yourself.”
“What if there are men in those woods? Outlaws, or cultists, or lunatics. You know what things are like, these days.“
“Mister Higgins can easily handle any number of men. Chansonne likewise. You know that. You are only looking for reasons to justify your own fear. And … ahhh. Now it is moot.” His eyes cracked open, and he reached out to rest his hand on the map, at the edge of Kampinos forest. “Contact.”