Lorenzo gave him a tired smile. “I want to go home. I sent Governor Hannigan my final report and my resignation from the task force a couple of days ago. This was my last stop before heading back to Lakeside.”
“You’re going back to the hospital to work in the emergency room?”
“No. I know too much about the blood prophets and would be vulnerable in a city hospital. I was planning to sell my house, find a way to disappear—find someplace to work where unscrupulous men couldn’t find me.”
“We have an opening for a physician on Great Island,” Steve said. “The work would include running the little clinic in the River Road Community, but that’s safe ground too. Even if you’re looking for something different, we’ll find a place for you on the island until you recover from your injuries.”
“I appreciate that.”
When they were back on the road to Lakeside, Burke said, “Why resign?”
“Besides the risk of leading someone to the girls, or being run off the road by someone trying to capture me for information?” Lorenzo replied dryly. “We weren’t doing those girls any good. I think the governor meant well when he set up the task force, but the girls didn’t need someone coming in to ask questions and disrupt their routine. And sooner or later, someone watching the doctors would see a pattern, would figure out where the girls were located. Like they did with me.”
“What was your recommendation?”
Lorenzo closed his eyes. “To leave them alone to find their own way to deal with the world and their cursed gift of prophecy. That would be the kindest thing we could do for them.”
Messis 16
Dear Merri Lee,
The train ride from Lakeside to Bennett was equal parts exciting and frightening. Despite all of us arriving together, the conductor didn’t want to let me take a seat in the earth native car. Technically, anyone can ride in either car, but that passenger car is reserved for terra indigene and Intuits, while the other passenger car is for regular humans. From what I can tell, and from the bits I picked up from chatting with other passengers when I went to the dining car, there is no difference between the railcars themselves—the earth native symbol is a decal that can be removed and put on any car that’s available. And it’s not like a regular human can’t sit in the earth native car if the other car is full, but it’s clear that if there is any trouble of any kind, the human will be blamed in order to protect the train and the rest of the passengers. So the train’s personnel try to keep regular humans from spending much time with the Others in a confined space.
Fortunately, John Wolfgard spoke up for me, telling the conductor that we were traveling as a group to Bennett.
It was a long ride, but we swapped seats often to talk and get to know one another. We’d all seen the pictures of the dead Wolfgard piled into mounds after the attacks by the Humans First and Last movement. Even the Simple Life folk had seen a few of the pictures. And most of us had seen pictures of the mounds of humans who had been destroyed by the Others in retaliation. It would have been easier for all of us if we could believe everyone in Bennett had participated in killing the Wolves. But the innocent had been killed too, and what had killed them was out there, in the dark, waiting for us to make a mistake.
I was told that if I can’t accept that, I should ask for a ticket back to Lakeside or some other human community that’s large enough to provide a buffer from the truth—that no place on this world is free from the Others who are called Namid’s teeth and claws. Their existence is just more obvious now in a place like Bennett.
I met my boss, Sheriff Virgil Wolfgard. It’s one thing to mentally prepare yourself for harassment and bullying by your coworkers because your body doesn’t have the same equipment as theirs; it’s quite another thing to have your boss look at you like you’re an item on the menu. I guess he needed a deputy more than he needed a meal. So I have a shiny new badge and a gun. And I have a horse, which a couple of the Simple Life men helped me choose—an easygoing bay gelding with a high tolerance for human foolishness, to say nothing of putting up with a novice rider. Driving around town is discouraged, as a way to save gasoline, so I am the horse patrol within the town limits. No one has explained what I’m supposed to do if I arrest someone and have to take the person to jail. I guess I’ll find out when it happens.
On a lighter note, I’m glad I brought a couple of the Crowgard cozies you recommended. They’re great fun and nothing I would have found in a strictly human bookstore. I’m loaning them to Jesse Walker after Barb Debany has a chance to read them. I liked Barb the moment I met her, and I think we’ll be compatible housemates, especially since she’s okay with me adopting one of the young orphan dogs as long as the dog gets along with Buddy the parakeet.
I’ll write again soon.
—Jana
CHAPTER 14
Thaisday, Messis 16
Standing on the apartment building’s walk, Monty watched Lizzy and Grr Bear go next door to wait with Sarah and Robert until it was time for school. He knew the routine. Before the school day began, his mother would give the efficiency apartment/schoolroom a quick dust and sweep before going to her job at the consulate. Ruthie would pick up the food from A Little Bite or the Market Square grocery store for the children’s midmorning snack and get ready for the day’s lessons. Then the children would arrive. Just the three of them again, now that Sierra and her girls were gone.
He thought Fanny wouldn’t mind going to school as a way to spend time with the other girls and have something to do. But she’d helped Clarence shoplift by acting as his lookout and she’d tried to stop Meg from going to Sam’s aid when the two boys were fighting. Even if he could talk Simon into letting Fanny into the Courtyard just for school, allowing the girl to go in when Clarence was banned would only make things hard on Fanny when she got home.
Lizzy smiled at him and waved. Grr Bear’s wooden paw was moved in a bye-bye motion.
Monty waved back. Then Lizzy bounded up the steps to the Denbys’ porch, rang the bell, and went inside, not waiting for Eve or Pete to come to the door.