“This has always been my residence,” Renati said. “Keller’s got no need to suspect me of anything.”
Man, Renati got to stay in his actual house after the end times? No wonder he seemed so well-adjusted. He could go home after work and bury himself in what looked like at least a full bookcase of varying editions of Shakespeare.
“So how are we doing this?” I asked. “What are we doing? When is Saturday, anyway?”
“Tomorrow,” they both said.
Oh. Shit. That did not give us a lot of time to plan a coup, or an assassination, or whatever the hell we ended up doing. “So…you guys have something figured out, right?”
The good doctor blinked solemnly at me. “We hoped you would.”
It was a joke. Had to be. I could barely plan meals before the endtimes—arranging the systematic killing of a city’s military leadership seemed slightly out of my reach.
I must have looked mortified, because Logan cracked a slight smile. “Yes, Vibeke, we have a plan.”
“Such as it is,” Renati added. “It’s a very simple plan, in fact. Very difficult to screw up.”
I looked at them expectantly.
“We have a very gifted sharpshooter in our midst,” he said.
When I stood there saying nothing, Logan cleared his throat until I shifted my attention to him.
“You’ve seen me shoot,” he said.
“I know,” I answered. “It’s a great idea. I’m just trying to imagine a reality where it works.”
Evie wandered away from him and began sniffing the perimeter of the room.
“I’ll be up in the stands,” he went on. “And I’ll—”
“You think they’re just going to let you in there with your gun?” I rubbed Evie’s ears when she completed her circuit and rejoined me. “People were paranoid before the apocalypse. You couldn’t go into a concert or a ballgame without getting checked out. They’ll search you before you get inside, and that big rifle of yours is going to be one big no-no to them.”
I contemplated covering Evie’s ears entirely. It just seemed wrong to talk about murder in front of a golden retriever.
Logan thought that wrinkle over for about five seconds. “I’ll see if I can get up the back way,” he decided, “after the party’s started. People are already talking about how wild it’s going to be. Guards will be distracted. I should be able to sneak in with the rifle.”
Sure. And pigs would fly. But it was clearly the only part of the plan they’d firmly worked out, so I moved on to my next issue with it: “What if you miss?”
“I’ve never missed.”
I raised my eyebrows. Evie sat down and thumped her tail against the floor.
“In recent history,” he amended.
“That’s the plan, then?” I asked. “We try to get you into the bleachers and you start shooting? That’s awful.”
Renati held up a finger, indicating there was more. “You and I will be there. Lattimore refused to release more medical staff for the event. Can’t imagine why. The fighters have their own medical teams in the dugouts, but they’ll need someone outside, right by the court, so to speak.” He paused, then plunged on ahead: “I volunteered my services and said I would need a medic. That will be you. We’ll likely be right up against the, ah, playing field.”
“You mean the murder field.”
“Whatever. When the shooting starts, crowds will panic and scatter. We’ll go up to Keller’s group on the premise of helping the wounded—”
“And kill the shit out of them,” I said. “Got it.”
After a pause, I realized they didn’t have more to say. “That’s your big plan? Hope the sharpshooter gets him?” No answer, which meant yes, that was the big plan. I started pacing back and forth, and the dog got up and tried to follow me. “And then a doctor and a medic are the pinch-killers? This is a terrible plan.”
Renati gestured for me to go on. “If you have something better in mind…”
I didn’t. I had approximately zero ideas in that regard.
Evie stuck her nose in my left hand and whimpered softly.
How the hell are we going to help our friends if we don’t do something, puppy? I wondered. Keller will have them all slaughtered.
Maybe we needed to slow down. To think about things. We could try sabotage, for instance. Maybe even kidnapping!
Who was I kidding? There was no time for sabotage, or kidnapping, or thinking all this through. Keller was going to start killing the only people I still loved tomorrow. I—we—had to act. Now.
I just wondered if I could do it.
“It sounds like you guys have this planned out,” I said. “What did you need me for? Besides getting someone with a scalpel.”
“The more bodies we have available, the better off we are.”
By bodies he clearly meant able-bodied murderers, which I most certainly was not. But I went along with it: “What are you guys going to do if you pull it off?”
Both men looked at me in surprise. “What?” Renati asked. “What do you mean?”