6:12 P.M.
Everyone stills as Grace’s hands close on Cole’s throat. Miranda looks at the door. Has Grace’s shout just given them away?
“Shh, Grace, they’ll hear you.”
“I don’t care who hears me.” Grace’s eyes glitter with unshed tears, but she doesn’t loosen her grip on Cole’s neck. “Cole, or whatever the hell his name is—he’s the one who shot my mom!”
Cole opens his mouth, but all he manages is a choking sound.
In Miranda’s memory, the whole ordeal rearranges itself, like those pictures made of thousands of tiny photos you have to step back to see. It’s possible. But it can’t be true—can it? Her rib cage is a fist around her heart.
Suddenly the light goes on. “That Nicholas they couldn’t find,” she says. “It’s him. They called him November because of the military alphabet, but it’s Nicholas. Nick-Cole-Us. Cole.”
Cole’s gray eyes are bugging out as his face turns a dusky shade of red. A vein stands out on his forehead. But he doesn’t struggle, doesn’t even pull on Grace’s hands, even though she seems intent on killing him. Instead he stares into her eyes.
Miranda can’t watch one more person die right in front of her. She leans close to whisper in Grace’s ear.
“Let go, Grace. Come on. Let go.” Miranda’s fingers pull at the other girl’s, but they stay as taut as wires. “This won’t solve anything. It won’t bring your mom back.”
Grace finally releases Cole’s neck.
And then she reaches for the rifle.
Oh, hell no. Miranda grabs it up first. After a moment, she jams the muzzle against Cole’s chest. She might not want to see him die, but right now, she doesn’t mind leaving him with a few bruises. She keeps her finger off the trigger.
Unlike the scenario he made them rehearse, Cole doesn’t pretend to be surrendering while really keeping his hands ready to grab the rifle. He doesn’t move his hands at all, not even to swipe at the blood trickling down his neck from the red half-moons Grace’s nails cut on his throat.
Finally he speaks. Or tries to. “I … don’t … You see, I…” he stammers.
“Oh, I see all right,” Miranda says. “The reason you knew about this rifle is that it’s your rifle. And you knew exactly where it was because you’re the one who left it there.”
Grace sneers. “What happened? Did you shoot my mom and then chicken out? Drop the gun, take off the vest and mask? And then you tried to pretend you were one of us. You tried to pretend that you were human.” Her voice breaks on the last word.
Cole doesn’t answer. But his pale eyes are full of what Miranda would swear was sorrow.
Javier curses. “Who are you, dude? Are you really one of them?”
“You’re their brother, aren’t you?” Miranda says. “But you said your brothers were dead.” Hadn’t he? Or had he just said his brothers were in the army as he’d looked toward the food court, and she had misunderstood what the past tense meant?
Cole straightens up as much as he can with the muzzle of a rifle pinning him to the wall. “I didn’t lie to you.”
“Oh, so it’s okay to kill my mom but it’s not okay to lie?” Grace scoffs.
“Look, what I told you guys was true. My parents died the way I said. And my two brothers, Gabriel and Zach”—Golf and Zulu, Miranda translates in her head—“were in the army. I grew up wanting to be just like them. Only after they were discharged, they couldn’t find work. The only jobs they could find were at this cruddy mall where everyone calls them wannabe cops and makes fun of them. But they’ve opened my eyes. Now I know what’s really going on overseas. What’s really going on in this country. And we joined a group of other people who felt the same way. This guy Karl, he’s in charge. He picked this mall because my brothers and Ron, the guy who took Amina, worked here. And they got another of the guards to join them.” Cole sucks in his lips until they disappear. “Karl said the only way to get America to listen would be to do something so big that no one could ignore it. And it all made sense, I swear it did. But then today…” His voice dwindles. He tries again. “Today, after I…” Cole looks from Miranda to Javier and finally to Grace. His mouth closes, opens, and closes again.
“What?” Grace bites off the word. “Come on, say the rest of it. ‘After I shot your mom.’ You do something so awful and then you can’t even be man enough to own it, to live with it?”
“I’m—I’m sorry.” He blinks, and a tear runs down his face. “As soon as I did, I realized it was all a terrible mistake.”
Grace’s incredulous smile is like a gash in her face. “It doesn’t make it any better that you’re sorry. In fact, it makes it worse.” She gives her head a short, sharp shake. “Because if you had only thought to be sorry before all this happened, then maybe it wouldn’t have. Or at least my mom would still be alive.”
Cole’s mouth twists. “So what are you supposed to do when you make a mistake? When you make a mistake and there’s no way you can take it back, no way you can fix it? Because it’s already done. It’s already over.” His voice is rough with tears. “I tried to save who I could. And then when I met you, I thought I could get us out of here, or at least I could get you out. But I couldn’t even do that.”
Miranda thinks of how the security guard grabbed Amina. About how Cole left her and Javier behind. She jabs him with the rifle. “You didn’t even try, you liar! You led us right into a trap.”
“If I’m lying, why did I run when Ron took Amina? Why didn’t I help him capture you? All I wanted was to help you find a way to escape. But you wouldn’t let me. You had to go back for her. You weren’t willing to cut your losses.”
“Cut our losses?” Grace echoes. “You mean we should have just let Amina die?”
“What’s worse? One person dying or five people dying? Besides, I wasn’t lying when I said I didn’t think they would kill her. Yes, some initial sacrifices had to be made, but after that the plans called for us to hold hostages and use them as bargaining chips.” He takes a deep breath. “But I must not know all their plans. Like I didn’t know they were going to blow up those cops.”
“So you would have stopped them if you knew?” Javier demands.
Cole pauses before his answer, and the pause is answer enough.
Miranda doesn’t wait for him to speak. “They were talking about a bus and a plane. What’s supposed to happen now?”
“We were asking for a bus so we could take the hostages with us to an airport. And they had to release three of my brothers’ friends from prison and take them to the airport too. Once we got on the plane, we were going to release half the hostages. And then we were going to fly someplace—they never told me where—and when we landed safely, then we would let the rest of them go.”
“And you really thought that was all going to happen?” Javier’s voice is flat.
Cole is silent.
Miranda had been thinking. “Well, right now, we’re going to do that stupid plan you came up with. With some slight modifications. We’re going to march you down there. You’re not going to wear a mask or a vest. And we’ll tell them we’ll kill you if they don’t open everything up. The metal gate, the doors.” She pokes him with the barrel of the gun. “And if they don’t, well, at least I know how to keep my promises.”
“Do you even know how to shoot that thing?” Cole asks.
Miranda shrugs. “If I’m three inches away, I don’t think that will matter much.”