War Child--Rogue One

VIII

Sure enough, they do search. I leave Mother sitting on the floor with her blankets when I go to answer the door.

"Good afternoon," I great them.

They shove past. Normally, I might comment something under my breath, but I'm too nervous.

One of them has some sort of sensor in his hand, and he seems to be scanning for life. There's just Mother and I and the two stormtroopers. They dig through the closet, find no weapons, and continue to the next closet. One of them walks over to us, leaving his partner searching. "Where were you around noon today?"

"Sitting there, mending blankets," Mother tells him.

"Were you?" he asks, turning to me.

I nod once. "Yes."

His partner marches over. "They're all clear."

As they leave, I call, "I hope you find whoever you're looking for!"

It's the biggest lie I've ever told.

Mother glanced at me, opens her mouth to say something, then decides not to. She sits down instead, and resumes her work on the blankets.

I follow her lead.

After a bit, she says, "I don't think you should go for a walk tomorrow."

I nod. "I agree. It's too dangerous out there. Something else could explode." Or someone could get suspicious because even though I pass by almost daily, it will be the day after an outburst, and anyone is suspicious the day after something like that.

I feel terrible, planting that bomb and not telling her that I'm rebelling again, but the less people who know about me, the better. Three years of perfect citizenship may not be enough to make them overlook their suspicions about the outburst that killed Theron and Lac.

It's infinitely safer this way.

I wonder if Aden is safe, or any of his other rebels, if they even actually exist.

Mother calls me to bed, after I've already finished with three blankets. I fold them and put them next to the heater, close enough that they'll warm overnight, but far enough that they won't catch fire. Again, we aren't in a place to rebuild. I'm not sure what we would do if our house burnt down.

It's hard to sleep tonight. I find myself imagining what would have happened if it exploded while I was poking the bomb under the snow. I also see, over and over, the possibility of Mother being in the square when Aden detonated it.

I get up, and walk around a bit, careful not to wake Mother up. I need to get that out of my head.

Urgent knocking comes through the door. Mother sits up. "What's that?"

"I don't know." I bend down and retrieve a blaster, holding my armed hand behind my back as I open the door. It slides up, revealing a red-faced, shivering Aden.

"Cassian."

"Aden."

He brushes past me. I look around for a second, then close the door.

"Aden, what happened?" Mother asks. "Where's your coat?"

"I got in a tustle today. I was near the base when a bomb went off." He rubs his face, trying to work the warmth back into his cheeks.

I glance over at him.

"By the Force," Mother muses. "Are you a fugitive?"

"No. No, not that I know of. Some bystander tried to wrestle me to the ground. I punched him, then hid in a shed until dark. Sorry if I woke you two up."

She shakes her head. "It's alright. Cass, get him some of those blankets."

I hand him three blankets in a stack. He buries his head in the top one. "It's so warm."

I laugh, already pulling the pallet from the closet. He helps me set it up on the floor, near the heater again. While we work at the sheets, I whisper, "Did you really fight a bystander?"

"Yes. It wasn't a snowtrooper, or a stormtrooper, if that's what you're asking. He saw me fiddling with a control panel before it went off, but I put a delay on it, so there's less suspicion."

"You're not putting us in danger?" I glance at Mother, who's making a cup of tea.

"I wouldn't put you in danger. Especially not your mother either." Aden finishes tucking the sheet and rocks back on his heels. "I don't even have a blaster with me. And, if they come in here, they won't suspect me. I'm low profile. So are you. The control panel self-destructed." He looks at the blaster in my hand. "You actually may want to put that back."

I watch his face for a second. He nods. I shake out my back, and say, "The compartments under the pallet."

He helps me move both the pallet and the rug, and holds the panel while I replace the blaster next to its broken partner. We gently lower it again, then replace the pallet.

Aden gives me a little smile, then sits down on the pallet. "Thanks for the help."

I shrug. "Part of being a team, isn't it?"

He beams. "Sure is, Cass."

"You still can't call me that."

"Bummer. Cassian is a bit of a mouthful."

"You'll get used to it."

Mother's already in bed, so I turn out the lights and shuffle back to my bed, slipping under the mound of blankets.

If I was having trouble sleeping earlier, this is worse. Every gust of wind, every bit of hail that pebbles the roof, makes my heart pound, my mind thoroughly convinced that the Empire would find us, capture us, and execute us.

Light gathers in the windows after a long, sleepless time, and I decide I may as well get up.