Partials

she did.”

“I’m going to ask you to set your weapons down now,” said Tovar. “Nice and easy, right at your feet.”

“We came here because we thought you were a friend,” said Kira. “We need food — we’re not here to rob you.”

Tovar’s voice was lean and cold. “Is that why you drew your weapons and tried the door without knocking?”

“We didn’t want to wake Dolly,” said Marcus. There was a pause, and Tovar laughed; Kira thought it was coming from a vent near the top of the wall, but she couldn’t be sure.

“I forgot how much I liked you,” he said. “Looks like you’re not being followed, so go ahead and put down those guns, and you can come on in for a chat.”

Kira looked at Jayden, who shrugged and set down his rifle carefully by his feet. Marcus and Xochi followed, and Kira did the same. If we’re about to get robbed…, she thought, then shook her head. We have nothing — surely he can see that. The only valuable we have is the cure, and nobody knows about it.

“There you go,” said Tovar. “Now, say hello to my friends.” A bush moved to the left and Kira flinched, and then another bush moved, and a boarded-up window swung open, and suddenly the backyard was filled with men and women in various forms of camouflage and homemade armor, all of them armed.

“Easy,” said the woman in front, and Kira thought she recognized the voice. “Keep your hands in the air and step away from the guns.”

“Gianna,” said Kira, realization dawning. “You were with us last time we came here — you were on the salvage run that found the bomb.”

“Kira Walker,” said Gianna with a smile. She glanced at Jayden, and her expression soured. “And the fascist plague baby. Keep those hands where I can see them.”

“What is this?” demanded Kira. “Are you … the Voice?”

“The very same,” said Tovar, stepping out of the back door with his fat black shotgun on his hip. “The new regime is out in force, rounding up refugees and runaways. I don’t know if it’s good luck or bad that we found you first.”

“You’re the Voice,” said Marcus, as if still trying to get his head around it. He laughed. “That might be the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard — and you,” he said, turning to Gianna. “Were you the Voice back then, too?”

“Not until after,” she said. “I get testy when I’m detained without cause.”

“Still, though,” said Jayden, “you were a sympathizer. I was right not to trust you.”

“Even a paranoid clock is being followed twice a day,” said Tovar. He gestured to the open door. “Come inside so we can reset our trap. If the Grid does drop by, I don’t want to be caught in the open flapping my gums.”

They filed inside while the Voice went back into hiding. Tovar led them down one hall while Gianna locked the door and took their guns down another. Inside, the house was more or less as Kira remembered it, including the laconic camel in the living room.

“Hello, Dolly,” said Marcus. “Long time no see.”

Xochi offered her hand to Tovar. “Looks like you know everyone else. I’m Xochi.”

“Xochi Kessler,” said Tovar, ignoring her hand as he searched in his wagon for food. “Or should I say ‘the infamous Xochi Kessler.’ Your poor mother is worried sick.”

“My poor mother can go and hang herself.”

“She’d much rather hang you,” said Tovar, handing her a can of ravioli. “I’m still looking for the can opener.” He turned back to the wagon. “I did mention that you’re wanted criminals, yes? Bounties on your heads, posters in the town square, the whole bit. Here it is.” He turned back to them, pointing at Kira with a rubber-handled can opener. “She’s the great betrayer, the Partial-lover, the ringleader of the whole thing. These two are the dupes who went along with it.” He pointed back at Xochi. “You’re the ungrateful daughter: the symbol of how anyone can believe the Voice lies and go traitor.” He handed her the can opener. “I’ll look for spoons.”

“Who’s in charge now?” asked Kira. “What happened after we left?”

“After you personally threw the island into anarchy, you mean,” said Tovar, handing her a set of mismatched silverware.

“How much did they say about us?” asked Kira.

“That you were in league with the Voice, who are in turn in league with the Partials. That you broke into the hospital and broke a Partial agent out of Grid imprisonment, and are currently either hiding in the wild or escaping to the mainland to aid in a Partial invasion. How much of it should I believe?”

Kira spoke carefully. “I guess that depends on how you feel about Partials.”

Tovar sat on the couch across from her, watching Kira carefully. “Aside from murdering everyone I know, the Partials haven’t really been a big part of my life. Consider my opinion ‘generally very poor.’ That said, I figure if they wanted us dead, we’d be dead, so if you have another perspective, I’m listening.”

Kira nodded. “Do you consider yourself an open-minded man, Mr. Tovar?”

“I’d like to think so.”

“It’s going to have to open really wide to swallow what we’ve got to tell you,” said Marcus. “Number one: The Partials didn’t create RM.”

“And they’re not looking to destroy us. At least not all of them,” said Kira. “At least not yet. Which leads us to number two: Yes, we were in league with a Partial. We broke him out and took him off the island, and then he helped us get back here.”

“Mother of mercy,” said Tovar. “And that caused the riot?”

“It’s the other way around,” said Kira sheepishly. “We started the riot as a distraction for the jailbreak.”

Tovar whistled. “You don’t mess around.”

“No, we don’t.”

“Is that everything?” he asked.

“For now,” said Jayden. “Now it’s your turn.”

“Where to start,” Tovar mused. “Two nights ago you spread your rumor, started your riot, and left right when it was getting interesting. The coliseum burned, though not to the ground; the town hall also burned, with more than a handful of senators inside it.”

Kira went white, thinking of Isolde. We thought it would be safe there. Did she die inside it? “What about the hospital?”

“The hospital was never set on fire, though I can’t say as much for the houses across the turnpike. The hospital was, on the other hand, the home of the biggest riot of the night, and the body count was, shall we say, high.”

“Are the mothers okay? How many people died?”

“Maternity was untouched,” said Torvar. “And I’m afraid I don’t have exact numbers — probably less than the Senate is reporting, probably more than you’d expect.”

“What is the Senate reporting?” asked Kira.

“Two hundred.” Tovar’s voice was as hard as flint. “A very high price for a Partial life.”

It was worth it, Kira swore, though it broke her heart to think it. Two hundred. She looked up at Tovar, still not sure she trusted him enough to explain why they’d be willing to go to such an extreme. They were still prisoners, after all; he’d offered them nothing but information, and promised them nothing at all.

“Who’s left of the senators?” asked Xochi. “Apparently my mother, but who else?”

“It might be more accurate to ask what’s left of the Senate,” said Tovar. “The few senators who lived through the night declared a state of emergency, declared martial law, and filled the city and the countryside with soldiers from the Grid. Elections to replace the fallen have been postponed until ‘a state of peace and equilibrium is reached,?? which is an awful lot of syllables for ‘never.’ It’s totalitarianism in all but name.”

“Yes,” said Kira, “but who are we talking about specifically? Which senators?”

“Oh, you know,” said Tovar with a shrug, “the real hardliners, like Kessler and Delarosa. Hobb’s a weasel, so of course he’s in there as well, and the one from the Grid — Senator Weist. That’s how they got the military’s support so quickly.”