The Ask and the Answer

  "By who?" says Ivan. "The army's all off fighting the war while the President sits in his blown-up cathedral a-waiting for me to show up with Todd here."

  "What's he doing there?" asks Ginger Hair. "Why ain't he with the army?"

  "Ain't his style," I say. They all look up at me again. "The

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  Mayor don't fight. He rules, he leads, but he don't pull no triggers and he don't get his hands dirty." Angharrad feels my nervousness and steps a little to one side. "He gets other people to do it for him."

  Plus, I try to hide in my Noise, he wants to talk to me.

  Which in a way feels worse than war.

  "And yer gonna overthrow him, are ya?" asks the Corporal, crossing his arms.

  "He's just a man," I say. "A man can be defeated."

  "He's more'n a man," Ginger Hair says. "People say he uses his Noise as a weapon."

  "And if you get too close to him, he can control your mind," says Sallow Skin.

  Ivan scoffs. "That's all just grandmothers' tales. He can't do nothing of the sort-"

  "Yes, he can," I say, and once again, all eyes turn on me. "He can hit you with his Noise and it hurts like hell. He can look into yer mind and try to force you to do and say the stuff he wants. Yeah, he can do all that."

  They're staring at me now, wondering when I'm gonna get to the part that's helpful.

  "But I think he's gotta make eye contact to do it-"

  "You think?" says Ginger Hair.

  "And the Noise hit ain't fatal and he can only do it to one person at a time. He can't beat all of us, not if we all come at once."

  But I'm also hiding in my Noise how much stronger it was when he hit me in the Arena just now, how much more potent.

  He's been working on it, sharpening his weapons.

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  "Don't matter," says Sallow Skin. "He'll have his own guards. We'd be walking right into our deaths."

  "He'll be expecting you to escort me," I say. "We can walk right past the guards to where he's waiting."

  "And why should we follow you, Lieutenant?" asks the Corporal, getting sarcastic on my rank. "What's in it for us?"

  "Freedom from tyranny!" Ivan says.

  The Corporal rolls his eyes. He ain't the only one.

  Ivan tries again. "Because as soon as he's gone, we take over."

  Less eye rolling this time, but Sallow Skin says, "Anyone wanna be ruled by President Ivan Farrow?"

  He says it to get a laugh but it don't get any.

  "What about President Hewitt?" Ivan says, looking up at me with a weird glint in his eye.

  Corporal Pot Belly scoffs and says again, "He's a boy."

  "I'm not," I say. "Not no more."

  "He's the only one a-willing to go after the President," Ivan says. "That speaks for something."

  The guards look from one to another. I can hear all the askings in their Noise, all the doubts rattling around, all the fears confirming one another, and in their Noise I hear the idea being defeated.

  But in their Noise I also hear how it can be saved.

  "If you help me," I say, "I'll get you the cure."

  They all shut right up.

  "You can do that?" Ginger Hair asks.

  "Naw," says the Corporal. "He's bluffing."

  "It's stockpiled in the cellars of the cathedral," I say. "I saw the Mayor put it there himself."

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  "Why do you keep calling him the Mayor?" Sallow Skin asks.

  "You come with me," I say. "You help me take him prisoner and every man here gets all the cure he can carry." They're listening to me now. "It's about ruddy time Haven became Haven again."

  "He's taken it from the entire army," Ivan says. "We bring down the President, give 'em the cure, and who do you think they'll start a-listening to?"

  "It won't be you, Ivan."

  "No," says Ivan, giving me that look again. "But it could be him."

  The men look up at me, up on top of Angharrad, with my rifle and my dusty uniform and my idea and my promises and there's a rustle thru their Noise as each man asks himself, is he desperate enough to take the chance?

  I think of Viola, sitting in the Arena, sitting there as everything I want to save, everything I'd do anything for.

  I think of her and I know exactly how to convince 'em.

  "All the women are banded," I say. "Who do you thinks gonna be next?"

  Lee's pulling the last bandages round Viola's feet when I come back in and her face is looking way less pained.

  "Can you stand?" I ask.

  "Only a little."

  "Don't matter," I say. "Angharrad's outside. She'll take you and Lee to find the Answer."

  "What about you?" Viola says, sitting up.

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  "I'm gonna face him," I say. "I'm gonna take him down."

  She really sits up at that.

  "I'm coming with you," Lee says instantly.

  "No, yer not," I say. "Yer telling the Answer to call off their attack and yer telling them just how Mistress Coyle works."

  Lee's mouth sets firm but I can see his Noise roiling in anger over the bomb. He woulda died, too. "Viola says you can't kill."

  I send her a dirty look. She's got the good grace to look away.

  "I'm gonna kill him," Lee says. "I'm gonna kill him for what he did to my sister and mother."

  "If you don't warn the Answer," I say, "there'll be a lot more dead people to make him pay for."

  "He can have Mistress Coyle," Lee says but I can already see other people churning in his Noise, Wilf and Jane and other men and other women and Viola and Viola and Viola and Viola.

  "What are you going to do, Todd?" she asks. "You can't just face him one-on-one."

  "It won't be one-on-one," I say. "i got some of the guards to come with me."

  Her eyes open wide. "You what?"

  I smile. "Got me a little mutiny going."

  "How many?" Lee asks, his face still serious.

  I hesitate. "Seven," I say. "I couldn't get 'em all to agree."

  Viola's face drops. "You're going to fight the Mayor with seven men?"

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  "It's a chance," I say. "Most of the army's off marching to their final battle. The Mayor's waiting for me. It's the least guarded he's ever gonna be."

  She watches me for a second, then she puts one hand on Lee's shoulder and one hand on mine and lifts herself to her feet. I can see her catch herself at the pain but Lee's wound the bandages tight and even if they ain't bone-fixers then at least they let her stand for a second or two.

  "I'm coming with you," she says.

  "No, yer not," I say at the same time as Lee yells, "Not a chance!"

  She sets her jaw. "And what makes either of you think you have a say in the matter?"

  "You can't walk," I say. "You have a horse," she says. "It's yer chance to get safe," I say.

  "He's expecting both of us, Todd. You walk in there without me, your plan is over before you even speak."

  I put my hands on my hips. "You said yerself the Mayor will use you against me if he gets the chance."

  She grimaces as she tests the weight on her ankle. "Then your plan had better work, hadn't it?"

  "Viola--" Lee starts but she stops him with a look.

  "Find the Answer, Lee. Warn them. You haven't got much time."

  "But-"

  "Go," she says again, more firmly.

  And we both see her rise in his Noise, we both feel how much he don't wanna leave her. It's so strong, I have to look away from him.

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  But it sorta makes me wanna hit him, too.

  "I'm not leaving Todd," she says. "Not now that I've found him again. I'm sorry, Lee, but that's the way it is."

  Lee takes a step back, unable to keep the hurt outta his Noise. Viola's voice softens. "I'm sorry," she says again.

  "Viola-" Lee says.

  But she's shaking her head. "The Mayor thinks he knows everything. He thinks he knows what's coming. He's just
sitting there waiting for me and Todd to show up and try and stop him."

  Lee tries to interrupt but she don't let him.

  "But what he's forgetting," she says. "What he's forgetting is that me and Todd, we ran halfway across this planet together, by ourselves. We beat his craziest preacher. We outran an entire army and survived being shot and beaten and chased and we bloody well stayed alive this whole time without being blown up or tortured to death or dying in battle or anything."

  She takes her hand off Lee so she's balancing just against me.

  "Me and Todd? Together against the Mayor?" She smiles. "He doesn't stand a chance."

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  38 MARCH TO THE CATHEDRAL

  ***

  (V iola)

  "DID YOU MEAN what you said in there?" Todd says, pulling the strap on the saddle. His voice is low and he's keeping his eyes on the horse work. "Bout him not standing a chance against us?"

  I shrug. "It helped, didn't it?"

  He smiles to himself. "I gotta go talk to the men." He nods over to Lee, standing away from us, hands in his pockets, watching us chat. "You try and make this easy on him, okay?"

  He gives Lee a wave and goes to where our escort of seven soldiers stands huddled by the big stone gate. Lee comes over.

  "Are you sure about this?" he says.

  "No," i say, "but I'm sure of Todd."

  He breathes out through his nose, looking at the ground, trying to keep his Noise flat. "You love him," he says. Not an asking, just a fact.

  "I do," I say. Also a fact.

  "In that way?"

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  We both look over at Todd. He's gesturing with his arms and telling the men what we're planning and what they should do.

  He's looking like a leader.

  "Viola?" Lee asks.

  I turn back to him. "You need to find the Answer before the army does, Lee, if you can at all."

  He frowns. "They may not believe me about Mistress Coyle. A lot of people need her to be right."

  "Well," I say, gently taking up the reins of the horse. Boy colt? she thinks, watching Todd, too. "Think of it this way. If you can reach them and we can take care of the Mayor, this could all be over today."

  Lee squints into the sun. "And if you don't take care of him?"

  I try to smile. "Well, then, you're just going to have to come rescue us, aren't you?" He tries to smile back.

  "We're ready," Todd says, coming back over. "This is it," I say.

  Todd holds out his hand to Lee. "Good luck." Lee takes his hand. "And to you," he says. But he's looking at me.

  After Lee's set off into the woods, running to scale the hills and intercept the Answer before the army does, the rest of us start our march down the road. Todd leads Angharrad, who keeps saying Boy colt? over and over again in her Noise, nervous at someone new on her back. Todd murmurs things

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  to keep her calm, rubbing her nose and petting her flank as we go.

  "How do you feel?" he asks me as we approach the first set of dormitories.

  "My feet hurt," I say. "My head, too." I rub my hand on my sleeve where the band is hiding. "And my arm."

  "Other than that?" He smiles.

  I look at the guards around us, marching in formation, as if they really are escorting me and Todd to the Mayor as ordered: Ivan and another in front, two behind, two to my right and the last to my left.

  "Do you believe we can beat him?" I ask Todd.

  "Well," he says and laughs, low, "we're going, ain't we?"

  We're going.

  Up the road and into New Prentisstown. "Let's pick it up," Todd says, a bit louder. The men pick up the pace.

  "It's deserted," whispers the guard with flaming red hair as we pass through areas with more and more buildings. Buildings but no people.

  "Not deserted," another guard says, one with a big belly poking out in front of him. "In hiding."

  "It's spooky without the army," the red-haired one says. "Without soldiers marching up and down the street."

  "We're marching, Private," Ivan says. "We're soldiers, too."

  We pass houses with shutters closed tight, storefronts with locked shutters, roads with no carts or fissionbikes or

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  even people walking. You can hear the ROAR from behind closed doors but it's half the volume. And it's scared.

  "They know it's coming," Todd says. "They know this could be the war they've been waiting for."

  I look around from atop Angharrad. No homes have any lights on, no faces peep out of windows, no one even curious as to what this band of guards is doing around a horse carrying a girl with bandaged feet.

  And then the road bends and there's the cathedral.

  "Holy moly," says the red-haired guard, as we come to a stop.

  "You lived through that?" the pot belly says to Todd. He whistles in appreciation. "Maybe you are a bit blessed."

  The bell tower still stands, though it's hard to see how, teetering on top of an unsteady ladder of bricks. Two walls of the main building stand, too, including the one with the colored glass circle.

  But the rest of it.

  The rest of it's Just a pile of stone and dust.

  Even from behind, you can see that most of the roof has caved in and the largest parts of two walls have been blown out onto the road and the square in front of it. Arches lean dangerously out of balance, doors are twisted off their hinges, and most of the inside lies open to the world, receiving the last of the sun as it heads down to the horizon.

  And there's not one soldier guarding it.

  "He's unprotected?" says the red-haired one.

  "That sounds like something he'd do," Todd says,

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  staring at the cathedral as if he can see the Mayor somewhere through the walls.

  "If he's even inside," Ivan says.

  "He is," Todd says. "Trust me."

  The red-haired soldier starts backing away down the road. "No way," he says. "We're walking to our deaths here, boys. No way."

  And with a final frightened look, he takes off running back the way we came.

  Todd sighs. "Anyone else?" The men look to each other, their Noises wondering why they came in the first place.

  "He'll put the band on you," Ivan says. He nods up at me. I pull up my sleeve and show them. The skin is still red and hot to the touch. Infection, I think. The first aid creams aren't doing what they're supposed to.

  "And then he'll enslave you," Ivan continues. "I don't know about you, but that's not why I joined the army."

  "Why did you join?" asks another guard but it's clear he doesn't want an answer.

  "We take him down," Ivan says. "And we're heroes."

  "Heroes with the cure," says the pot belly, nodding. "And he who controls the cure-"

  "Enough talking," Todd says and I hear the discomfort in his Noise about how this is going. "Are we gonna do this or not?"

  The men look to one another. And Todd raises his voice. Raises it so it commands. Raises it so even I look at him. "I said, are we ready!"

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  "Yes, sir," the men say, seeming almost surprised to hear it coming out of their mouths. "Then let's go," Todd says.

  And the men start marching again, step step step, crunching through the loose gravel scattered across the road, down a small slope, through the town and toward the cathedral, getting bigger and bigger the closer we get.

  We file past some trees and I look to our left, to the hills on the southern horizon.

  "Sweet Jesus," Pot Belly says.

  Even from here you can see the army marching in the distance, a single black arm twisting up a path too narrow for them, up to the summit of the hill with the notch on top, up to where they'll meet the Answer.

  i look at the setting sun.

  "Maybe an hour," Todd says, seeing me check. "Probably less."

  "Lee won't get to them in time," I say.

  "He might. There must be shortcuts."

  The snake
of the army slithers up the hillside. So many there's no way the Answer will be able to fight them if it comes to open battle.

  "We can't fail," I say.

  "We won't," Todd says.

  And we reach the cathedral.

  We march up the side. This is where most of the damage is, the whole north wall having collapsed straight onto the road.

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  "Remember," Todd murmurs to the men, as we climb over rubble. "Yer taking two prisoners to see the President like you were ordered to do. Nobody needs to be thinking nothing but that."

  We pick our way down the road. The pile of stones is so high you can't see into the cathedral. The Mayor could be in there anywhere.

  We come around the corner to where the front used to be, now just a gaping hole into the vast lobby and sanctuary, still watched over by the bell tower and by that circle of colored glass. The sun, behind us, shines right into it. Open rooms hang from upper walls, their floors crumbling. Half a dozen redbirds pick through the remains of food and worse in amongst the stones. The rest of the structure leans in on itself, like it's grown suddenly tired and might fall down to rest at any time.

  And inside its shell-

  "No one," Ivan says.

  "That's why there aren't any guards," says Pot Belly. "He's with the army."

  "He's not," Todd says, looking around, frowning.

  "Todd?" I ask, sensing something-

  "He told us himself to bring Todd here," Ivan says.

  "Then where is he?" asks Pot Belly.

  "Oh, I'm here," says the Mayor, stepping out of a shadow that shouldn't have been able to hide him, almost seeming to step straight out of the brick, out of a shimmer where he couldn't be seen.

  "What the devil-?" says Pot Belly, stepping back.

  "Not the Devil," the Mayor says, taking his first steps down the rubble toward us, his hands open at his sides. The

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  guards all raise their rifles at him. He doesn't even look like he's armed.