Rosa let people contemplate those things for a moment, before delivering her advice: “I ask that all of you consider this option. Give Ben the chance to redeem himself. I don’t think it’s too late.”
Ben’s eyes had been glued to Rosa; his expression unreadable. When he looked away from her, he found that everybody was staring at him. He was lost for words.
Rosa took two more steps and drew the attention back to herself. From the table beside her, Q watched.
“We’ve allowed people to join our group and it has made us more diverse. Stronger. So, my vote is to let Ben join us. All I can ask people like you, Q, is to not judge another before knowing that person, or thinking it through. As I am sure you have been judged at first sight in the past yourself,” Rosa concluded with a knowing expression.
She walked back to her table and sat down without another word.
Q frowned. It was hard to tell what the young man was thinking, as he seemed angry and thoughtful at the same time. Surprisingly, it was the person next to Q who spoke.
“I’m new here,” Breanne started. “I haven’t really talked to any of you folks. Sorry about that. Being social is not my thing. Behind her, Tammy smiled at the admission.
“But I’m kind of tired of running from place to place. And this place — and you people — feels good to me. You’re real. Uh, I don’t know if that makes sense. But this guy”—he indicated Ben—“feels the realest right now. I can almost physically feel his pain! Either he is real or he’s the best goddamn actor I’ve ever met.”
Not everybody followed Breanne’s line of thinking. Shelley thought that she understood, though. Honesty is the path to God, her dad used to tell her. At that moment, she was convinced that Ben was honest.
Breanne wasn’t done.
“Anyway, you’re obviously military. I almost joined up a bunch of years ago. Join the army. Visit exotic places, meet strange people, then kill them.” She looked around, hoping for a grin here and there. The joke fell flat, however, and Breanne sobered up quickly. “Anyway, what I want to say is that we can use guys like him,” She waved her hand towards Ben. “looking out for us. And I definitely think that he needs to tell us everything he knows about this Order of his!”
The room was silent.
Joe broke the silence. “Ben.” He sat down at Ben’s table and addressed the soldier on behalf of everyone. “Redemption. Is that something you want?”
“Yes. Very much.” Ben’s answer was little more than a husky whisper, but everybody in the room caught it.
“All right.” Joe got up from his seat. “So, we have three things to vote on.” He raised his index finger. “Do we carry out punishment on Ben?” His thumb shot up. “Do we exile Ben? Set him free.” He straightened his middle finger. “Or do we accept him into our group? Do we give him a chance?”
Standing in the middle of the room, he called out to all.
“All those in favor of punishing Ben?”
No hands rose. Joe sighed with relief. Sarah was not prepared to send Ben to his death, and even Q had kept his hand down.
“That’s good, I think. It means we are not killers.” Joe said. “Next: Who here wants to send Ben away?”
This time several hands did shoot up. Joe counted three: Sarah, Melissa, and Romy. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Rachel raising her hand and then quickly lowering it when she saw how few people had chosen this option.
“All those in favor of allowing Ben to stay with us?” Joe asked.
The rest of the group raised hands. Some looked around, clearly pleased with themselves and their companions. Others looked slightly less sure but still managed to return smiles.
“I think that settles it, folks,” Joe stated. He turned back to Ben. “Ben, we learned a lot since the last time you saw us. One of the things we have learned is that we all consider ourselves as part of this clan. As you can see, our clan has judged you.”
“Aw, cut the officious crap, Joe, and let the guy eat his breakfast in peace,” Ern said good-naturedly.
Joe almost bristled at the remark but showed uncharacteristic composure and smiled back at the old man. “You mean you just want to get on with breakfast, don’t you, Ern?”
They shared a grin, and Ern got up on some unspoken signal. The two men walked off to the buffet trays to grab some food. Shelley smiled as she watched them.
That felt good.
JUST ABOUT EVERY PERSON came over at some point during breakfast to shake Ben’s hand or offer him some words of encouragement. Emily sat with him throughout breakfast and could tell the impact of all that support. The young man seemed to grow taller and smiled more in that hour than he had for the entire time that they had served in their squad together. She told him as much.
Ben seemed to turn introspective at that comment, his smile fading briefly. He faced Emily.
“Those guys were amazing. I’m sorry that I couldn’t save them.”
“What could you have done?” Emily said, suggesting he had been powerless to help their doomed squad mates.
“I actually did try to give them the antidote.” He looked at her. “You, Moyers, and Durant were the only ones I managed to slip it to, though.”
Emily’s eyes opened wide in surprise at that admission. “Say again? What are you on about?”
“Well, do you remember our first day together? Durant and Collins were with us, but Peters, Garcia
