ONE LOOK AT THE empty tram booth told us everything.
“Hope,” Cat and I said in unison.
We followed the footprints in the snow and found a soldier, bound and gagged in a back alley.
“Definitely Hope,” we said.
Our gazes reached up to the distant yellow glow atop the mountain. If she was up there, would our joining her help or hinder? We didn’t want to do anything to mess up her plans.
“I don’t know that we can pull this one off, Book.”
It was one of the few times Cat thought a problem was bigger than a solution. And on the surface of things, I agreed. It was downright foolish to think we could waltz into an enemy fortress, stop the missiles, and rescue Hope. Utterly ridiculous to even consider it.
But then I remembered the night Hope reached out a hand and tried to touch the stars. There was no way I could abandon that person.
“I have an idea,” I said, and took off running.
The barrel of the gun poked my ribs.
“Okay, I get it,” I said.
“Hey, I gotta practice.”
Cat wore the uniform of a Brown Shirt—courtesy of the soldier now lying in the alley—and it was creepy how authentic he looked. Of course, if he hadn’t escaped the Young Officers Camp when he did, these would be his daily clothes.
“You sure about this?” he asked.
“Can you think of any other way?”
We stepped into the tram, and when it jolted to a start, I realized there was no turning back. We were headed up the mountain—a lone tram carrying two Less Thans. Below us, the snow sparkled in moonlight.
For the longest time neither of us spoke. Maybe it was nerves. Maybe it was the thought that there was really no good way we could get out of this.
“What do you think it’s like?” Cat asked, breaking the silence.
“The Eagle’s Nest?”
“No. Heaven. Hell.”
I’m sure my eyes widened in surprise. It wasn’t like Cat to suddenly start philosophizing.
“I’m serious,” he said. “What do you think it’s like?”
“Well,” I said, “I see it like a road. A long, dusty road in the middle of nowhere. And on this road are other people who’ve died before, and they walk with you.”
He shook his head. “That’s not how I see it.”
“How do you see it then? Angels and stuff?”
“Not hardly.”
“Well then?”
He didn’t answer at first. When he did speak, his voice was barely a whisper. “Frank’s place.”
He turned to me. His blue eyes were piercing.
“That’s how I see heaven—like Frank’s place. A tiny oasis in the middle of nowhere. In the mountains. On a lake with fish. Plenty of game nearby. A garden. A wife. Everything he needed, all right there.”
I was surprised. I didn’t know Cat had a soft side. Here I figured he considered Frank’s cabin just another stop on the way. A resting place with a roof. I had no idea it meant more to him than that.
“There’s a library in there,” I said.
“I know.”
“Would you keep it?”
He shrugged. “In heaven, I might start to read. Stranger things have happened.”
What could I say? It seemed like Cat was turning over a new leaf. But then I realized: What did it matter? Because there was the Eagle’s Nest right there, and the closer we got, the more helpless we were. We might as well have put our heads on a silver platter.
The cables shrieked and groaned as the tram slowed to a stop.