“What?” Emily says, standing up and inserting herself into the argument. “What the hell? Is that true?”
Bobby sighs. “I thought maybe I could do something so that you guys wouldn’t have to see this. I thought maybe I could help. I’d been sharing the road with you guys since you left Pennsylvania; you were the first ones I saw. I thought . . . I just wanted to help. I thought I could help, honestly. But that doesn’t matter now. And just . . . this is currently the second-worst-case-possible scenario, and you need to leave. Now. You need to take Greta and leave the island. Listen. There’s a boat docked out there. It’s got sails and a motor and gas. I left it there during recon. As far as I know, nobody’s thought twice about it.”
“Why?” I say. “Why do we need to go right now? What will happen if we don’t? You said it might get worse. What’s the worst-case scenario?”
But he just says it again. “You need to leave the island. Please. I need you to trust me. Please, take Greta and leave the island.” And how he says it, the pleading in his eyes, how he’s trying so hard not to answer me . . . I get a shudder all over.
“Bobby,” I say. “You need to tell us. If you really want us to leave, we need to understand why it’s so important.”
“Bobby, what is the worst-case scenario?” Stan asks.
“The worst-case scenario is a full-measure attack to ensure that no AROs ever leave this island.”
“What are you saying?” Stan asks. “They’re going to pick them off one-by-one? Isn’t that what they were doing just before you and Jane called them off?”
“It’ll be worse than that,” Bobby says, looking down at his boots now.
“Worse?” I say. “Worse how?”
“If Jane gives the okay, if she thinks it’s necessary . . .” he starts, then lets out a heavy sigh before bracing himself to go on. “If she thinks it’s necessary, she’ll press a button that will blow up the entire island. I don’t mean an explosion like the one you saw during the drone attack. That was nothing. I mean a catastrophic measure that would neutralize all biological entities on and beneath the surface.”
Emily’s face goes slack. Stan just stares out at the ice field, at the rows of destroyed stalks and their ashes.
“But why would Jane need to do that?” I ask. “All those pods came up dead and empty, and even if they hadn’t, they’re blown to bits now. Why would she risk all the bad press, all the questions back home, just to kill our Icelings, who have been living with us pretty peacefully for the last sixteen years? Why would she risk all of that to kill us?”
“It’s not the pods, or your Icelings, or you they’re worried about.”
“Then what?” I shout at him, clutching Callie’s hand tight.
“You saw him,” Bobby says quietly. “The one that was here already, the one they came to meet.” The Iceling leader. The one the drone was aiming at. But the drone missed, because . . . “He went back. Under the ice. He’s down there, and he’s still alive. And he’s—they think he’s the one who makes it happen. The pods. He’s the original Iceling.”
“Oh my God,” I say, and then a starker realization hits me. “And we . . . we saw it all.” Bobby nods. “The Icelings can’t say anything about it, but we’re witnesses.”
“Yeah,” says Bobby. “So do you get it now? Do you see why you need to go?”
“Where in the hell are we supposed to go from here?”
“You know where to go, Lorna.”
What the hell? Why do I know where to go? Why does he keep looking at me like I know what’s going on?
“You’ve got no reason to trust me, I know,” he says, speaking now to my expression of incredulity and confusion. “But I just told you that the goal is to kill you and everyone else on this island. I’m the one person here who has not shot at you, or at anyone other than soldiers who risked and took lives because they were too stupid and too scared to follow orders. I’m trying to save your lives. I’m trying to save my sister’s life. And if you have trouble believing that, then just think about what you would do to save Callie, and then put yourself in my shoes.” He looks up, and we follow his gaze, and we see drones circling overhead. “You need to go now, and I need to get back to Jane. Stan, I need you to do me a favor before you go.”
“Are you serious right now?” Stan says, looking from Bobby to the drones to Ted to all of us and then back to Bobby.
“I think you’ll be okay helping me out with this one,” Bobby says, then asks Stan to punch him as hard as he can, to make him look injured so he has an explanation for where he’s been and why he’s late, and I can tell Stan is happier than he should be to help him out with this one.