The Better to See

Chapter 18: Sarah

Into the silence after Pearl stopped speaking, they all heard a groan from the other room.

"Speak of the devil," Ben said.

Pearl sighed. "Yeah, I should probably get in there. He woke up alone once on the way here and kind of freaked out a little. He's like a toddler, I swear."

Ben raised an eyebrow. "Unless I'm very much mistaken, he's like a toddler with orders to kill you, right after you guys kill both of us. Am I missing something?"

"No," said Pearl, getting up, "that's about the size of it. But he's sick, and I don't think he's in any shape to go killing anyone. Besides, he said some interesting stuff on the way here, and I don't think he's even interested in killing anyone any time soon."

"Come on, Sarah," Ben said. "Let's go get executioner number two."

Pearl flinched, but managed to roll her eyes. Sarah waved at them to go ahead. She wondered if her face showed the hollowness she felt. Commander Edwards - better be just Paul Edwards now, Sarah - had sent Pearl to kill them. He probably doesn't even have a daughter, she thought bitterly. I hope he doesn't, anyway. What would it even be like, having him as a parent? She reached for the righteous sense of betrayal she was sure she should be experiencing, like Pearl had, but she couldn't seem to raise enough energy to feel betrayed. She just felt tired. She thought of Ben, who didn't appear to feel betrayed at all, either. But he seemed to have ridden the storm of the last few weeks almost without batting an eye, easily focusing on other things. God, there must be something wrong with me.

Pearl and Ben came back, supporting Naudi between them. Naudi was awake. His expression was considerably less arrogant than it had been before he'd run off with the truck. Sarah thought she probably ought to be angry at him.

"Fireman Naudi," she greeted him, trying for a chilly tone.

He slumped down at the table. "Hatchet Blake," he said back, sounding as tired as Sarah felt. "Sorry about the food. We meant to bring more, but we had to leave the truck. Right? We didn't bring the truck?" He said this last to Pearl.

"We put the truck under some terrible cover a little way away. Edwards is going to be looking for us, or Naudi, anyway, and it seemed like a better idea to not give him too much to work with. Still, we should all probably get out of here before too much longer."

"Decided not to kill us after all?" Ben said.

Pearl glared at him. "Right, you haven't heard Cormac's part yet. Cormac, come on, tell them what you told me, about what happened to you when you got back to Headquarters."

Naudi glanced at Sarah appologetically, and Sarah realized with a swooping sensation in her stomach that her meetings with Edwards were about to be revealed. It wasn't right that Ben should hear it from someone else. She clenched her teeth, then cleared her throat.

"There's something I should say, first," she said when she had everyone's attention, conscious of digging her own grave. She kept her eyes locked on Naudi, who already knew, so she didn't have to see her brother's face. "Edwards came here. Twice. He," she stopped, took a deep breath, "he's got your cure, Ben. Because I gave it to him." She took another breath. "I'm sorry."

There was a long silence. Sarah risked a glance at Pearl. Pearl's head was down, but Sarah could see a little, sad smile on her face.

"Good to know," Ben said at last. His voice sounded steady, but Sarah still couldn't quite bring herself check his face. "Fireman Naudi, or no, I'm sorry, Cormac. You were going to tell us your part?"

"Um, yeah. I took the truck back, don't know if you guessed that."

"We did consider the possibilty," Ben said diplomatically.