I feel another surge of nausea. I wrap my arms around my stomach, as though I can press it deep and down. “Lu wasn’t taken,” I say. My voice comes out as a bark. “And they were waiting for you. The regulators. It was a trap.”
There’s a second of silence. Raven and Tack exchange a glance. Alex is the one who speaks.
“What are you talking about?”
It’s the first time he has spoken to me directly since that night on the banks, after the regulators burned our camp.
“Lu isn’t what we thought she was,” I say. “She isn’t who we thought she was. She’s been cured.”
More silence: a sharp, shocked minute of it.
Finally Raven bursts out, “How do you know?”
“I saw the mark,” I say. Suddenly I’m exhausted. “And she told me.”
“Impossible,” Hunter says. “I was with her. . . . We went to Maryland together. . . .”
“It’s not impossible,” Raven says slowly. “She told me she’d broken off from the group for a while, spent some time floating between homesteads.”
“She was only gone for a few weeks.” Hunter looks at Bram for confirmation. Bram nods.
“That’s time enough.” Julian speaks softly. Alex glares at him. But Julian’s right: It is time enough.
Raven’s voice is strained. “Go on, Lena.”
“They’re bringing in troops,” I say. Once the words leave my mouth I feel like I’ve been socked in the stomach.
There’s another moment of silence. “How many?” Pippa demands.
“Ten thousand.” I can barely speak the words.
There is a sharp intake of breath, gasps from all around the circle. Pippa stays laser-focused on me. “When?”
“Less than twenty-four hours,” I say.
“If she was telling the truth,” Bram says.
Pippa runs a hand through her hair, making it stick up in spikes. “I don’t believe it,” she says, but adds almost immediately, “I was worried something like this might happen.”
“I’ll fucking kill her,” Hunter says softly.
“What do we do now?” Raven addresses the comment to Pippa.
Pippa is silent for a second, staring at the fire. Then she rouses herself. “We do nothing,” she says firmly, sweeping her eyes deliberately around the group: from Tack and Raven to Hunter and Bram; to Beast and Alex and Coral, and to Julian. Finally her eyes click to mine, and I involuntarily draw back. It’s as though a door has closed inside her. For once, she isn’t pacing. “Raven, you and Tack will lead the group to a safe house just outside of Hartford. Summer told me how to get there. Some contacts from the resistance will be there in the next few days. You’ll have to wait it out.”
“What about you?” Beast asks.
Pippa pushes her way out of the circle, stepping into the three-sided structure at the center of camp and moving toward the old refrigerator. “I’ll do what I can here,” she says.
Everyone speaks at once. Beast says, “I’m staying with you.”
Tack bursts out, “That’s suicide, Pippa.”
And Raven says, “You’re no match for ten thousand troops. You’ll be mowed down—”
Pippa raises a hand. “I’m not planning to fight,” she says. “I’ll do what I can to spread the word about what’s coming. I’ll try to clear the camp.”
“There’s no time.” Coral speaks up. Her voice is shrill. “The troops are already on their way. . . . There’s no time to move everyone, no time to get the word out—”
“I said I would do what I can.” Now Pippa’s voice turns sharp. She removes the key from around her neck and opens the lock around the fridge, removing food and medical equipment from the darkened shelves.
“We won’t leave without you,” Beast says stubbornly. “We’ll stay. We’ll help you clear the camp.”
“You’ll do what I say,” Pippa says, without turning around to face him. She squats and begins pulling blankets from under the bench. “You’ll go to the safe house and you’ll wait for the resistance.”
“No,” he says. “I won’t.” Their eyes meet: Some wordless dialogue flows between them, and at last, Pippa nods.
“All right,” she says. “But the rest of you need to clear out.”
“Pippa—” Raven starts to protest.
Pippa straightens up. “No arguing,” she says. Now I know where Raven learned her hardness, her way of leading people. “Coral is right about one thing,” Pippa continues quietly. “There’s hardly any time. I expect you out of here in twenty minutes.” She sweeps her eyes around the circle again. “Raven, take the supplies you think you’ll need. It’s a day’s walk to the safe house, more if you have to circumvent the troops. Tack, come with me. I’ll make you a map.”