Chapter 11 – The Center
Maryam
Dad glances at me, a rare smirk on his lips, before turning his attention more completely to Rafe. “Sinclair,” he says – his formality making me smile in turn. I mean, dad has known Rafe since he was a baby – was there at his birth, I think.
But, I guess we’re in a military operation now.
“Some interesting information has come through.” Dad raises his left hand, indicating the slim laptop held there.
“Great,” Rafe says, nodding. “Let’s have a look.”
The two start off together towards one of the therapists’ little fire circles. I hesitate for about a quarter of a second before I stride along with them, certainly not leaving until someone tells me to.
“You don’t really need this information, Nurse,” dad says, glancing up at me as he takes a seat on one of the logs and opens the laptop. His voice is gentle though, soft, and I know his subtle moods well enough to know that he’s entertained by my persistence. Rafe settles in on his left.
“Yes, I do,” I say, seating myself primly on dad’s right and leaning over to see the laptop. “The nurses have elected me their representative and Queen and so I must be briefed so that I can decide what critical information to parcel out to them.”
Dad glances at Rafe for a second, but when Rafe makes no move to oppose my claims dad chuckles and opens a file.
“The military minds at the center of all of this have processed some of the information Jackson McClintock gave us,” dad says, keeping his voice low even though nobody is around. “Our cartographers were able to use his descriptions of terrain to narrow down possible locations of the place he grew up and…we hit a bit of luck there. As it turns out, Jackson was raised right in the center of it all.”
I watch closely as the computer program zooms in on a map, producing a satellite image from above of a surprisingly large number of cabins and buildings nestled away in the wilderness. Surprise rings through me as I study them because…
Well, really? Jackson, Ariel’s mate? He’s somehow at the center of this all? I kind of just thought he was just some guy. I mean, a big, powerful guy – but certainly not someone with intel like this.
“Why is this lucky?” Rafe murmurs, studying the screen.
“Because it would have taken forever to find it without the boy,” dad says, zooming in further on one house at the center – larger and with a shingled roof, not tin or wood like the others. “And we believe that we’ve found…him.”
Rafe looks up in surprise as dread coils in my stomach. The way my dad said that…
“You’re kidding,” Rafe whispers.
“Dad doesn’t kid,” I say, dry.
Dad smirks and glances at me before turning back to Rafe. “David Hassock. The…god damn bastard who’s masterminded this whole thing.”
My eyebrows grow up. I know that the Community is a cult – and I knew it had some kind of insane leader pulling all the strings – but I had no idea we were close enough to have a name and location.
Rafe nods, still staring at the map, his eyes darting all over it, taking in a great deal of detail and information that I don’t think I understand. Inwardly I scowl, jealous of his Academy education that lets him read things like this as easily as a book.
“So, what’s dad’s plan?” Rafe asks. “Making a move or biding time, trying to get more information?”
“That’s why we were sent this,” Hank says, tilting the laptop towards Rafe and zooming out on the map. I snap out my hand, pulling the laptop back so I can see it too. Rafe glances up at me and smiles. Dad ignores my hand but angles the computer so I can look too. “As you can see, we are close enough to this location to be the first point of care.”
Rafe hums consideringly, his face very serious as he presses some buttons on the keyboard, shifting the map so that he can study the terrain.
My frustration gets the better of me. “Okay, what does that mean for us, though?”
Dad looks over at me, quite serious.
“It means, Maryam,” he says. “That we’re going to be seeing the results of this very soon. The Palace has decided to strike now and hit hard while they’ve got a factor of surprise. We can expect the Community to panic. Their response will be unpredictable. All of which means casualties, which means we’ll be seeing our first patients very soon. The strike starts tonight.”
My eyes go wide and my heart starts to pump faster. “But…why would they do that, knowing that civilians will be hurt?”
“Because more will be hurt,” Rafe murmurs, “if they pussy-foot around the situation and don’t strike decisively.” He shifts his eyes to me, the gravity of his gaze making me sit up straight. “The Commanders aren’t being casual with civilian lives, Maryam. This isn’t some kind of cold arithmetic where they’re just taking the easy route to victory. Our entire goal here is to protect as many of our citizens as we can.”
“But…” I say, my brows knitting together, still not understanding.
Rafe waits, more patient with me than he’s been before. But I just sigh, unable to cogently form my question with my mind racing through a thousand thoughts like this. God, sometimes the way my mind works gets on my nerves.
He nods, understanding, still keeping his eyes on me. “I understand your hesitations, Maryam. But you may not have all the information. It’s important to know that the Community is an institution that is not beyond threatening its own citizens to keep us out. And they’ll follow through on their threats. Taking them out fast saves lives, if we can manage it. I promise.”
My dad nods, agreeing. “I understand the logic. We have to take the shot.”
I exhale slowly, realizing that – as Rafe says – I’m out of my depths here. My hand clenches on my knee, frustrated at that. I…I want to know everything – as much as they do.
But, as my dad says, I don’t have clearance for that.
Or at least I haven’t. Until now.
“Okay,” I say, nodding, understanding but wanting to give it more thought before I voice my opinion anything more. That always seems to get me in a great deal of trouble with these wolves.
“Well, Queen Nurse?” Dad asks, slipping the laptop to Rafe so that he can explore the map a bit further while dad takes a moment to talk to me. “Shall you return to your nursing minions and make your report?”
I smile at him, shaking my hair back over my shoulders, pretending a loftiness that I know he thinks is funny. Dad smiles softly, which is usually all we get. But it’s a rare enough gesture from my serious father that I take it for the compliment it is. “Yes. Thank you for including me. I think it’s worth warning the nurses that we could be seeing patients sooner than we anticipated.”
Dad shifts his eyes to the nursing tent. “Yes, true. At least this way Shannon will know to have just slightly less tequila tonight.”
I laugh, shaking my head at him. “You knew about that?”
He moves his eyes back to me. “I know about everything.” He pats my shoulder and leans forward to press a kiss to my cheek. “I’m glad to see you take a leadership position, Maryam,” he murmurs, “even if there was no democratic process involved. I hope you wear the responsibility well.”
“I will,” I say, nodding to my dad, my eyes shining a bit as he stands up and gives me a nod, reaching for the laptop.
“Thank you, sir,” Rafe says, handing the laptop back and keeping his seat. “I’m glad to know. I’ll marshal the guards and contact the closest military units in the rare case that we have to evacuate the volunteers.”
My brows raise. Could it seriously come to that?
But dad and Rafe just nod to each other once, warm, before dad strides away.
“This is getting…real,” I whisper, twisting my hands in my lap as I watch dad go.
“It’s been real,” Rafe says, sighing. “For those in the Community, at least, it’s their everyday lives. We have been…remiss in letting it go this long without attention.”
“Yes,” I say, turning back to him. “You have.”
He holds my gaze seriously. “You realize that we had Atalaxia to deal with, yes? Which was a larger threat?”
I shake my head at him, not letting him get away with that flimsy excuse. “Your family has all the money in the world, Sinclair. It’s not enough to point to the bigger bear as the true threat and ignore the little cub massacring your people. You have the capacity to deal with both. If you have all of the privileges, you have to do better.”
Rafe holds my gaze steadily and nods to me, just a tiny dip of his chin. My lips turn up a little despite myself because I can tell that he doesn’t agree with me. But…I mean. He’s listening, isn’t he?
A real smile takes my lips and Rafe grins too.
“I can’t believe I actually got a smile out of you,” he murmurs, his eyes shifting to my mouth.
“Yeah well,” I say, laughing softly. “That’s what happens when you –“
“Hey!” a cheerful voice calls.
We both turn towards the blonde vision that strides towards us, a dark-haired therapy student by her side. My smile wipes instantly away.
“So, what was that about?” Theresa asks, looking after dad. “That was the doctor, right? Did he give you some news?”
“Hello, Theresa,” Rafe says, sounding glum about it.
Theresa just turns her head back to him and beams, clearly picking up on his tone and ready to cheer him up. I narrow my eyes at her, thinking that she’s probably got some salacious ideas in mind for precisely how she’s going to do that.
The therapy student looks awkwardly between the three of us, clearly not understanding the very clear tension in our group.