BRYCE:
The Refuge loomed ahead of Bryce, and the contents of his stomach churned. He wouldn’t have been brave enough to volunteer for this if Merin hadn’t given him a little strength just standing there.
When the door to the Refuge was visible, he thought about his options. He could get thrown in and hope for a short sentence in the ‘re-education’ center, or he could try to sneak in. There would be no records of him, so he could leave when he could, but there also would be no one coming to find him when his time was up. It might take weeks to find an opening to get out, especially when he would need to take out Tiernan.
The Watchers would switch their guard soon. That was something he had learned living with Kor on the roof.
He waited; the first set of guards left their posts a few minutes early. This was his chance. He scooped a bit of dirt up into his pockets, patted the vines in his pockets from the fight at the Council Building, and took a final breath of fresh air. He closed his eyes and walked into the building.
The smell of unwashed bodies in varying stages of adolescence hit him before anything else. Bryce ditched the jacket from Aer. At least the sweat and dirt from earlier would help him blend in. The light from the dirty windows filtered an amber glow through the empty area. The desk where they would normally check him in and remind him of his sentence, his “opportunity to change” as they called it, was empty. They must have changed shifts as well. He walked quickly past the places any staff member might be and headed straight back to where he might find Tiernan. This was much better than his original plan, which was to fight his way in.
The dining hall was empty except for a few little kids. Bryce scanned over them to see if he knew any of them well enough to ask about Tiernan. There was only one.
“Hey,” Bryce said, sliding into the rusted seat next to him.
“Bryce?” the boy asked, surprised. Bryce flashed a smile. “When did you …”
Bryce put his finger to his lips. The boy stared at him.
“Have you seen the little boy who’s normally with me?”
The boy shook his head.
“He would have come in today.”
“About fifty kids came in today,” the boy said. “That’s why I’m down here. Some biggin’ took my bed from me. Can I come sleep with you?”
“I don’t have a bed. And if anyone asks, you didn’t see me here,” Bryce said looking around.
“You snuck in?” the boy whispered.
Bryce nodded. Talking to the boy was beginning to boost his confidence, but he could feel the panic building behind the lump in his throat. He stood, wanting to get out of there before he lost it in front of this kid.
“Will you save me some food at mealtime?” Bryce asked, turning back to the boy.
He nodded. Bryce looked at the little boy. Food was sacred enough as is in the refuge.
“Actually, just eat it yourself. I’m not really feeling that hungry.”
Bryce found his way to the staircase that would bring him to the rest of the Refuge. He didn’t even have to look. Every piece of the place was burned into his memory. The stairs wound around the central smokestack that kept them warm on the roof. If Tiernan was free to wander around, Bryce would find him closest to the warmth, but something was wrong. Bryce reached out his hand. The smokestack was cold.
So much for his plan on finding Tiernan easily. He took a left when he hit the first landing. These were the first beds. They belonged to the larger kids.
One of the girls nodded to Bryce, and he dipped his head in acknowledgment. Respect was important in the Refuge. It meant little outside of these walls, but there was only so much that kids could handle when they were locked up. Bryce moved on. Tiernan wouldn’t be here.
There was a reason the older kids tried to stay as close to the ground floor as possible. They knew what went on in the rooms above. Bryce’s arms sprouted goose bumps as he went up the stairs. He hadn’t even told Kor about these rooms. Kor had probably seen them when he read his cards, but Bryce couldn’t bring himself to talk about them.
“Re-education my ass,” Bryce said as he got closer to the first door on the right. He peeked inside, his chest thumping hard enough that he figured anyone near him would be able to hear it.
“At least they won’t have me on the schedule for this,” he said, getting brave and flicking the leather strap that would have kept his wrists bound to the board. He could feel them even now biting into his skin.
For a moment his vision went white. He could hear a man’s voice. He could smell a metallic tang floating into his nostrils, and the tightness around his wrists extended to one around his middle and a long flat belt across his shins. They felt real. He curled his fingers to see if he could feel the leather biting into him, but there was nothing but his skin. He moved one hand tentatively to fully check the other. There was nothing there.
His vision slowly returned. He was in an empty room. With an empty chair. There were no men in white coats or Watchers ready to punch you in the stomach when no one was looking. He took a deep breath. He couldn’t be afraid of an empty room. If he was, he’d never survive the night.
He came out of the room and sneaked toward the filthy windows. Except for a rat running across the sill, there wasn’t much to see. The light was falling quickly. He wanted to find Tiernan before it was too dark, but that was looking less and less possible. A night in the Refuge was looking more and more likely.
KORVO:
Korvo paced back and forth in Aer’s apartment. Merin had gone home to check in with her parents. It was probably the safest place for her to be. Kor kept waiting for the boot coming through the door, but if they had gotten Aer, maybe this would be a safe place to hide for a while.
He ran through possibilities as fast as his mind could think them up:
1: Bryce brought back Tiernan. They ran. Merin would be alright. But the three of them were another story. They could make it to the Northern Border in the span of a few days if Bryce and Tiernan were in good shape. If they weren’t ... they would be out in the world through the harshest part of winter.
2: If Tiernan wasn’t there, Bryce would be stuck in the Refuge. Kor would have to go after him.
3: The Council declared an all-out war. No one would be safe.
None of those scenarios gave him any hope.
He shuffled the cards in his hand, then dealt them one at a time. He turned them over slowly. Kor first looked over the cards. It let him see patterns he might lose when he got the flashes of images. There was something strange about the way these cards were lying.
He shuffled again, but the same cards came up in a different order.
Their faces were as familiar to him as Bryce’s or Aer’s. Maybe more. The cards had been with him longer. He stared at them now with a crease in his brow.
He took a deep breath and let his hand run over the cards. Each finger dragged over the divots made by the artist as they scratched in the pictures. In that space, sparks of energy piled up and shocked his fingertips as he gave each their due. Each card took a minute. This was no time to rush.
After he finished, he went back over them again. They were taking him all over the place. It was like they were trying to tell him something other than their normal meanings. Images flashed in his mind for each card, but none of them pieced together like a puzzle.
He went back and sorted them. The tower stood tall in the middle of the stack of cards. That made sense. His whole world had been uprooted almost overnight. But it wasn’t the tower that made him confused; it was the images he got when he touched it.
Bryce was there, cast in amber light, but the window he was staring out was glowing orange. Flames lapped at the window’s edges, but Bryce wasn’t moving. Kor caught himself before he yelled out to the magical illusion in front of him.
Kor had to rest for a second after taking his hand off the tower. Ambiguous images took a lot more out of him than the ones that showed clearly what was going to happen. He sat on the edge of Aer’s bed and took a breath, gathering a pillow into his arms. He rested his cheek against the pillow’s cool edge.
“Aer would tell you to get it together and go to the next one,” he said burying his head into her lingering scent. “So get up.”
He took a deep breath and went back to the table where the cards were laid out.
“If the tower is the Refuge,” he said laying a finger on the very edge of the card, “Bryce makes sense.” He talked it out like he would if Aer were there with him. She often sat on the chair across from him, sipping her tea with honey. She wouldn’t make any suggestions, just ask questions now and then, and mutter sounds of affirmation. If he got too lost, she would sing under her breath until he felt his way through the message.
He touched the card that always reminded him of her. The chariot represented strength of will. Aer had that in spades. It’s probably why she was missing from her apartment and Kor was still there. When he touched her card, he just got anger. Blacked out anger rimmed with fire.
He let his head rest on the table. He was ashamed. He was hiding. He had been hiding the whole time he had been in Kaybrum. He reached out for the card that represented himself. The Five of Cups. Sorrow. Lost Friends.
He touched it now hesitantly. The card was always the clearest despite everything being fuzzy with his hand the way it was. The images took over.
It was dark. Ashes surrounded him. The cards fluttered around him. Half of them were burned, flames sputtering out as they fell to the ground. He jerked his hand away.
“What do we see in common?” he asked the ghosts of his friends around the table. “Fire. Tiernan? Darkness. The Refuge?” He shoved the cards away from him. “Or they’re all dead, and there is nothing I can do.” He tapped his fingers against the table to keep himself from losing it.
He had made the table for Aer at work. Working with wood was always a break from the cards. Wood only ever spoke to him of sunlight and rain. It had taken him a week or so to get the grooves right to make it look how he imagined the wind. Now, without his friends around him, it just echoed the darkness he felt in his heart.
“Maybe I start with what I know.” He hastily gathered the cards and shoved them back into his pocket before he peeked out the door. The sun had gone down. He shrugged his hood over his head and he walked to the Refuge. He could at least try to get a hold of Bryce.
BRYCE:
Nighttime in the Refuge changed everything. Boys who were ready to take your lunch or give you the stink eye were just as likely to put an arm around you once the lights went out. Bryce waited until the first round of bed checks was complete before he made his way to the beds on the third story.
The little boy from earlier was huddled in a corner. There were always kids without beds who slept on the other furniture. Multiple kids smashed into small beds. Anything was better than the floor. The floor was for rats and garbage.
“I can’t have you on the floor,” Bryce said, pulling the little boy from the corner.
“But all the beds are full, and no one will share with me.”
“Someone will let you share,” Bryce said, dusting the boy’s thin jacket as best he could. He gnashed his teeth when he saw the tell-tale marks around the boy’s wrists.
Bryce looked around. The beds on this floor were pretty full. There was only one small cot left underneath the window, so dirty he couldn’t see outside. The cot’s legs were broken, and it hung awkwardly, but it was free. Unusable, but free.
“Come on,” Bryce said tilting his head to the cot. The little boy followed obediently. It was strange having someone follow him that wasn’t Tiernan. The boy with him now looked almost exactly like Tiernan had when he last saw him. Eyes terrified of everything around him.
“It’s broken,” the little boy said, hiding behind Bryce’s leg as if that would somehow change the situation.
“Broken? Hardly. It just needs a little face lift.” Bryce had watched Kor work enough to understand the basics of how to lodge the pieces of the wood back together. The bed wobbled, and he bet even if he put just the small boy on it, it would collapse again.
“Bryce…”
Bryce waved him off.
“Give me a minute,” he said, reaching into his pocket for the vines. He let them grow, circling and weaving throughout the cot, holding the pieces together. He stepped onto the mattress to test it. It didn’t give. The little boy stared up at him. Bryce jumped to make sure he believed him.
“We’re… we’re not supposed to use magic in here,” the boy said. Despite being Tiernan’s age, the boy’s hand went in his mouth.
“They won’t notice. If they cared to look, they might have already seen the rats by now.” He patted the boy on the head. He continued to stare helplessly at the leaves on the side of the bed.
“We could get in trouble,” the boy said, backing away from the cot. Bryce sighed, sitting on the edge.
“Come here,” Bryce said. The boy got closer to him. Bryce wondered if after all of this he could ask this kid to be Tiernan’s friend. They probably both needed somebody. Bryce patted the half of the bed closest to the wall. “If they come, I’ll protect you.”
The little boy relented and was soon fast asleep. His small breath drifted over Bryce’s chest. Bryce placed his hands behind his head. He didn’t need a pillow. He wasn’t going to sleep. Bryce lay staring at the darkening ceiling.
“I’ll protect you,” he said to the sleeping boy, “more than I protected Tiernan and Merin. More than I protected Aer,” he said in a mantra that soothed him.
A knock on the window had Bryce’s fists clenched ready to fight in less than a second. The knock came again. Fingers rapped on the dirty glass. Tapped twice slowly and once fast. Bryce grinned. Korvo. He pried open the window the best he could. There was only a sliver of fresh air escaping between them. Bryce scraped his finger, making himself bleed.
“Do you know Bryce?” Korvo asked the stale air leaking through the crack in the window.
“Kor, it’s me,” Bryce said, sucking on the tip of his finger. The blood was still coming.
“That was lucky,” Kor said. Bryce heard the soft thump of a body resting on the glass.
“I haven’t found him yet,” Bryce said turning away from the window to hide the shame across his face even though there was no way Kor could see it.
“I doubted any of us could have found him that quickly.”
“Kor, I need to,” Bryce started.
“Find him? I know. I’m looking out here for him too. But the cards aren’t helping.”
“No,” Bryce said, taking a deep breath, “I need to apologize. I went behind your back. I couldn’t handle the thing you asked me to do. After everything you told me.”
“I need to apologize too. I was trying too hard to keep you from seeing what I had seen, but I was ignoring what you felt. How I had felt. I was ignoring the truth.”
There was silence. But Bryce could see the tiny puffs of Kor’s breath, even if he couldn’t see his face.
“Everything has changed. Now we have to focus on protecting Tiernan,” Bryce said, rubbing at his eyes. He knew Kor wouldn’t have cared if he cried, but tears felt like hot memories running down his face.
“Do you know what happened to Aer?” Kor asked.
“The Watchers have her. She was pretty banged up.”
“And she hasn’t been brought here?”
“She was the last one in. Maybe they’re keeping her in a holding cell overnight. That might be where Tiernan is, too.”
“I’ll check in the morning.”
Bryce heard slight hesitation in Kor’s voice. It wasn’t much, but it was there. Bryce knew Kor was probably rubbing his hand. He always did that when he was nervous.
“What about the Council?”
“The Council is not going to listen after what happened today. Even Jacqui looked at me like he was second-guessing everything I said, and the only people that got hurt were Magics.”
Bryce pushed at the knot forming at the back of his neck. He had known all along that Aer’s plans would put Korvo’s in jeopardy, but he hadn’t thought their closest ally in the Council might turn against them.
“It’s all my fault. I could have said no.”
“You could have. There is no denying that. But Aer would have done it whether you were there or not. Sometimes the cause becomes more important than the people you’re fighting for. That’s the thing I wouldn’t forgive you for,” Kor said. His voice had dropped almost to a whisper. “You wanted to know what happened to my hand,” he said.
Bryce strained to hear him. His voice was barely making it the few inches between them.
“When I started my own army, my own revenge, I had followers. They were like Aer. Hungry for revenge. I told them about the General, and what he had done. I wanted to push them forward.
“We gathered more people around us. We used the city as our battleground. I’ll be honest, it was more about revenge than anything. After every attack, more Magics would come to us. Young, and angry like Sid. I had perfected my speech about the General, about what he had done to me. But one of the recruits, he was probably about your age when we first met, didn’t see it as a tale of inspiration. He saw it as a warning, and,” Kor stopped for a minute. Bryce leaned in, his ear almost on the glass, making sure Kor hadn’t just dropped his volume again. But there was nothing. A silence only interrupted by the ragged breathing of the kids in the refuge.
Kor cleared his throat. “Bryce, that boy was the one who dumped the acid on me. My own man. My own friend.”
“But Kor—” Bryce started. He didn’t know what to say.
“Just like the General feared I could help the Magics, my friend had feared I might help the General again.”
“But you were leading them? You wouldn’t.”
“Sometimes we can’t see the forest for all of the trees,” Kor said. Bryce heard him take a deep breath.
“Kor …”
“I’ve hung on to these ghosts for too long,” Kor said. There was a waver in his voice so foreign Bryce almost couldn’t believe it was Korvo on the other side of the dirty glass. Bryce placed his forehead against the glass, guessing his friend was rubbing at his right hand again.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway. Bryce jumped. Guards on night rounds were making their way through the halls.
“Kor, I have to go,” Bryce whispered. He didn’t shut the window. The guards would hardly notice a little fresh air in the stench of the Refuge. Kor knocked quietly on the window to show his acknowledgement, and Bryce watched the shadow his body made against the glass disappear down the fire escape. Bryce wished he could follow. But he had a promise to keep.
Bryce lay down, trying his best to block the little one from the view of the guards. He kept his eyes partially opened and watched for the tale-tell sign of the boots in front of him. The beam of a light drifted over him. He heard the guards mumbling to each other from the other side of the room. Slowly the boots thumped closer to Bryce.
His mind went into overdrive. What would happen if they realized he wasn’t supposed to be there? He squeezed his eyes shut. He took a deep breath and held it in his chest until he felt calm. All they could do was keep him here. He swallowed hard. He could get through that. He had to find Tiernan anyway. Soon he could see the lantern’s flickering flame mirrored in the polished shoes of the guard closest to him. These were the people who couldn’t make it as Watchers on patrol. They lacked things like patience, empathy, and the understanding of other ways to handle things besides brute force.
The edges of the boots were right below Bryce. He could feel their eyes on him.
The bed lurched beneath him as the taller guard kicked at the leg Bryce had pulled together with vines.
“Whatcha think we ought to do about that?” the huskier guard said, letting his light move down from the leg of the bed to Bryce’s face. He shifted a little, hoping to look natural. It wasn’t natural to be stiff as a board when you slept.
“Ain’t that the Segal kid?” the tall one said. Bryce winced.
“Looks like he’s awake,” the large guard said. His fingers snaked around the collar of Bryce’s shirt. Bryce lurched to a stance.
“I don’t remember him coming in.”
“Probably just got hauled in today. I doubt they’ve finished the paperwork yet.”
Bryce’s eyes snapped up to the guard’s face. Of course. If they had Tiernan, there would be paperwork. If he found that, he could find Tiernan. The guard snarled at him. Bryce felt his muscles relax. He had a plan. Now he just had to get himself hauled into one of the offices without starting a brawl.
“Are you guys going to continue to talk about me as if you didn’t just wake me?” he said, brushing some dust off his shoulder and fixing the collar of his shirt, even if it was beyond wrinkled before this whole encounter began. Aer’s father would be appalled to see what shape his clothes were in now.
“You better watch it, boy,” the huskier of the two said. Bryce couldn’t help but grin a little at the wheeze in the man’s voice. On the streets, Bryce could have outrun him with no problem and probably come out of a fight okay. But this was the Refuge. Bryce tracked the man’s hands. He was fine as long as no one went for the batons.
“Magic ain’t allowed in here, boy,” the taller one said.
“Magic? You got proof of magic?” Bryce let his arms cross in front of his chest.
“This,” he poked the leaves with his foot, “is as unnatural as you.”
“Well, someone like you can’t appreciate natural beauty. Not with that mug.”
“I’m gonna smack you right in the jaw.”
“I’d still be prettier than you,” Bryce smirked.
“That’s enough.” The guard reached for his shoulder.
Bryce shrugged him off. “I can walk on my own. I know the way.”
“Then get on with it,” the tall guard said. The little boy had turned and was looking at Bryce. He trembled. Bryce lifted a finger to his lips and gave the kid a wink. He wished he could have made him sleep with Merin’s powers or sent a calming breeze over him. Hell, he would have welcomed a reading from Kor, even though none of them were turning out good. Anything to calm the drumming in his chest.
The guards flanked him as they walked down the twisted hallways. Their lanterns flashed across the walls. Bryce tried to think through a plan before he got to the record room. They always took them there before they took them anywhere else. The last time he was in there he was standing next to the cabinets, crammed in there with three other kids. The drawers weren’t locked. The girl standing next to him had been playing nervously with the locks as their punishments were laid out.
“Hey, where are we going?” Bryce asked as the guard made a sharp right down a hallway he hadn’t ever been down. He tried to turn around back to somewhere familiar. He could taste bile in the back of his throat.
“Not such a man now, are ya?” The guard behind him laughed and poked Bryce in the ribs. Bryce jerked to a stop.
“Where are we going?” he repeated. He reached for a vine in his pockets, but he had left all the vines back with the little boy. He sucked air in through his teeth for such a stupid mistake.
“I think this place will give you some time to think about that little attitude of yours,” the guard said as he jabbed the baton in between his ribs. Bryce grimaced, but he said nothing. His muscles tensed.
“You can be the first one to try out this room,” the second man said.
“Aww, you should save the best for last,” Bryce said, trying to regain his composure. The bile still coated his throat, making the words hard to get out.
The guard twisted the baton. “Get in there,” he said, and the last bit of light was lost behind the big steel-framed door.
MERIN:
Merin paced around her bedroom. She couldn’t sit still for three minutes before she had to stand again and move.
Merin sighed and picked up the pillow. She straightened the edges of the ribbon fringe with her fingers. Then punched it. Her stomach lurched.
Bryce was in the Refuge because she couldn’t hold on to Tiernan. And if she had to admit it to herself, she had been afraid of him. A little boy. Regardless of the fear in his eyes, the heat rising from his palms had scared her, and she had let him go. The guilt made her take another turn around the room. Every shift of light made her jump, hoping it was Bryce’s plants on her windowsill like before.
Instead, he was in his own version of hell. She had seen the ways his eyes were distant whenever they talked about the Refuge. She had felt him pull away whenever they were near the building. And yet he was back in the Refuge, probably starting some fight to pretend he wasn’t scared, wasn’t as terrified as Tiernan had been. And here she was, stuck staring out the window, and pacing in a recursive pattern, wearing a line in the plush carpet on the wood floor.
“I should be there,” she said to the pillow before flopping back onto her bed. “I should never have let Bryce go.” She wanted to blame Aer. But the lurch in her gut felt like rocks were piling up. Bryce had the right to stand up to the treatment he had received. Aer couldn’t be blamed. Merin knew it was her fault. And losing Tiernan was her fault, too.
“I can’t sit here anymore.”
“Merin Elia?” her mother called from outside the door, “Just who are you talking to, my dove?”
“Myself, Mother.”
“Well, if you could, darling, your father has a few knots in his shoulder from work. These little rebellions are really causing a strain,” her mother chimed from the other side of the painted white door. Merin scowled.
“Sure, Mother,” she said, looking at herself in the mirror, making sure her face wasn’t tangled in the rage her stomach was twisted in.
She dragged her feet toward her father’s study. Was this really what her parents wanted for her? To stay here and be her father’s personal healer for any minor discomfort? To stay hidden and ignorant of what was going on around them? To be thankful for what she had?
She was thankful. She didn’t wake up with nightmares like the others. She had a bed and clothes. No one molested her as she walked down the street. No one second-guessed her coming and going.
She stopped, her hand poised over the brass door handle to her father’s study.
No one second-guessed her coming and going. Not even her own parents seemed to care where she had been the last few hours.
She could use this to her advantage, and with that she turned from the door handle. She went back to her room and put on the light blue dress Bryce would love, and she walked out the front door.
It was a quiet walk downtown. Most people were home, so there was no one but the clerks and messengers inside the office buildings. She sighed. The Council Members were at the actual building when it was attacked. It was as if someone had warned them Aer was coming.
Merin was going to find out who.
“Who are you?” asked one of the clerks who had put his feet up on the front desk.
“I’m sure you know my father, Mr. Pomry,” she said in her most posh way of speaking.
“Why did Pomry send his daughter?” the clerk asked skeptically. He looked her over from head to toe. Merin knew she looked like her father, and her clothes screamed wealth. There was nothing that was going to tip him off.
“He’s been having a bit of trouble with the messengers.” Merin took a stab in the dark.
“Can ya blame them, Miss?”
“Most certainly, not. The times as they are,” Merin said. The clerk sounded a lot like Rachael, and it made it easier to talk to him.
“What can I help you with?” The clerk sat as straight in his chair as he could.
“My father needs all the documents you have so far on the events of the last few days and Operation Fire Bird,” she said. She tried to say everything in a calm and collected manner, but her hands were sweaty, and she could feel beads beginning to form on the sides of her face. “Lots of legal things to take care of, in this mess,” she said hoping it gave the clerk enough of a reason to let her see the documents.
“I can’t let you take them out of the building.” His smile grew as he looked her over again. A smile she wished she could beat off his face. Maybe she was spending too much time with Bryce.
“Would I be permitted to read them here? He does need this information, and I have a very good memory. Top of my class.”
“Sure, I’ll put them right over there where I can keep my eye on you,” he said with a wink. Merin forced a smile.
The stack of papers was the size of her head. She wasn’t sure where to start. She thought about what Kor would do.
He would look for anything that had to do with the Watchers knowing they were coming and anything about the operation. Everything else could wait.
She spread the files out in front of her a few at a time. As she glanced through them, she set them into different piles. Useful, not useful, potentially useful. Her useful pile wasn’t growing as fast as the other two.
The files were filled with boring things. Shift changes, job placements, parade uniform orders. The list went on and on. She stopped. Parade uniforms. Weren’t the men all dressed up when they had first found Tiernan? They never did hear anything about anyone special coming. She flicked through the file. Parade uniforms ordered for all members at the prisoner processing centers, and for all men in the Refuge. That was strange.
She shuffled aside order and size charts to find a logged date and a reason. The Head General of the Hadranian Army was coming to inspect progress on Operation Fire Bird.
She took a look around the room. The clerks were busying themselves with puttering, and the head clerk seemed to have grown bored of her already. No one was watching. She pulled the paper carefully from its bindings and slipped it into the purse at her side.
She shifted through the next few folders. She had stopped on some page filled with legalese when the clerk came to check on her. She tried her best to use every piece of jargon she had ever heard her father use. The clerk moved on. She kept looking.
There were several mentions of Operation Fire Bird in the files, but nothing explained what it was.
There were only two files left in her potentially useful pile, when she stumbled on letters sent from the General of Hadran. They were cryptic.
“The animal has been released. He should fall into your trap soon.”
Another read: “The animal wasn’t with the idiot wall rat. But the weather girl will do fine.”
Another dated from last night read: “They’ll be there as promised. Let’s hope they bring the Fire Bird. I am growing impatient. That animal needs to come home.”
Was he … was he talking about Tiernan? Was it all a plan? The General was behind it all. Letting Tiernan escape, supporting Sid, telling the Watchers.
The last one was dated from earlier that day: “After tomorrow, no one will care if you destroy all the garbage. They will beg you to do it.”
Tomorrow. Something was happening tomorrow. Operation Fire Bird. She had to get to Korvo. They were going to have to get Bryce out of the Refuge.