Green Jack

  Chapter 21

  Saffron

  They stayed cramped together for at least an hour, though it felt like much longer. When they finally emerged from the cocoon, it was to red streets littered with the carcasses of slow-moving animals. Saffron could see the gleam of the Directorate farm domes circling the edge of the Spirit Forest and the crackled hills of the Badlands beyond. She’d never guessed there’d be so many. The Wall cut down towards the lake, extending the Kill Zone. “I told them this was a bad idea,” Saffron muttered.

  “Do you have a way in?” Jane asked.

  “Not yet.”

  “Maybe I can help you.”

  “Why?” Saffron demanded. She knew half a dozen people who’d have already killed Jane for her suit alone and yet she was oblivious or trusting. Two qualities Saffron didn’t understand.

  “Because that’s what people do. Help each other.”

  “No,” she pointed out drily. “It really isn’t.”

  “Well, maybe they should start.” Jane made a face. “Anyway, the moon led me to you.”

  “The moon.” She turned her head. “I appreciate the help with the Dust, but I can’t take care of a crazy Enclave girl right now. Even if you did save my life.”

  “I’m not crazy,” Jane said, “I’m an Oracle.”

  Saffron wasn’t convinced there was a difference. Still, she remembered Killian had gone to this tiny bruised girl. “You read omens for my friend.”

  Jane nodded. “The one with the katana. I read for him twice actually.”

  “And what did you see?”

  “That’s not for me to say,” she replied primly. It made Saffron want to shake her. Still, Jane clearly hadn’t said anything about the leaf mask, or else she’d be raising an alarm.

  Unless that’s what this was.

  Saffron blamed the hot stifling air inside the silver survival bag for not realizing it instantly. She’d saved Saffron from the Dust, knowing she had a leaf mask, knowing she was a Green Jill.

  She’d been sent by the Directorate, not the moon.

  Saffron spun sharply, punching Jane in her already bruised face. She flew backwards onto the shingles, landing hard. Saffron crouched beside her. “You can tell the Directorate to go to hell.”

  “I thought I was,” she mumbled around her split lip. She tried to sit up, blinking dizzily.

  “You saved my life,” Saffron said, unclipping the paracord from Jane’s belt and tying her wrist to the chimney pot. “So consider the debt paid.”

  “By tying me up?” Blood stained her teeth.

  “By not killing you.” She rummaged through Jane’s pack, claiming the water canteen, and several protein bars. She took the knife from Jane’s boot as well. She’d have taken her survival suit too but it was too much like leaving a kitten out to die. Even though the gear wasn’t even repurposed, everything about it was new and perfect. Saffron had never actually seen anything made from whole cloth like that. Mostly they all made do with leftover clothing from the department stores abandoned during the wars. There were a great deal fewer people left to clothe, after all.

  Jane fought against the paracord, leaving raw marks on her wrist. “You can’t just leave me here!”

  “I’m sure the Directorate will find you in no time. They always come for their own.”

  “I’m not working for the Directorate!”

  “Sure, you found me in the middle of nowhere just in time to save me from the Dust,” She got to her feet, sneering. “All because of the moon.”

  “I’m a Core rat,” she added, before climbing down the trellis. “Not an idiot.”