She waited. Maybe she would have to wait all night. Mosquitoes buzzed around her ears, and bugs whined and chirped in the field. The wind hissed above her head. Slowly, the stars shifted in the sky.
Voices came from the farm, two voices, one Ruby’s, the other maybe a man’s, quiet and urgent. They’re making plans to go away, Irene hoped. No, they were coming closer. To shoot Nimkii? Could she stop them if she tried?
“Irene!” Ruby shouted. “Come out! If Nimkii’s here, we know you have to be here, too. We can see you with infrared, there in the field. Stand up. Put your hands up and come out.”
Maybe they’d shoot her instead of Nimkii. Or both of them. And she couldn’t stop them—unless she could talk them out of it somehow. She stood up, raised her hands, and started walking. The man looked like a shadow against the porch light at the house. Ruby’s face was lit by the yellow light of the screen on the gun’s target system as she pointed a rifle at her.
Mamá, a ti me voy. I’m coming to you.… Every step was taking her closer to Mamá.
Ten feet away, she could see the man more clearly, young and dressed in hunter’s camouflage. He stood stiffly and announced, “In the name of the United States of America, we’re making a citizen’s arrest. You’ve been identified as a secret Chinese agent. Do not resist and you won’t be hurt. We’re going to turn you in to the authorities.”
That made no sense. “Chinese agent?” She started to drop her hands in astonishment, then shot them back up.
“You’ve seen the news.”
“No, I haven’t.” The Prez’s news? Lies, lies, lies.
“The White House said Chinese agents are here spreading chaos and disease to undermine our ability to fight.” He seemed to be reciting that.
“I’m not Chinese.”
“You’re a Chinese dupe.” He held out his display and turned it up to large. There was a gallery of photos, mostly of people who looked Asian. He scrolled down a bit. There were Irene, Avril, Berenike, and a fourth woman—no, a child—another identical sister.
“Oh, the fourth one,” she said. Wait, that was the wrong thing to say.
“So she was hiding.”
“Well, no, I don’t know who she is. My mother got me from an IVF clinic, in vitro fertilization.”
“Dupes aren’t natural. That whole clinic was sending spies to the United States, that’s what they said.”
“Well, I didn’t know I was a spy.” Nimkii had been silent for a long time. Was he listening intently? Stay quiet. Don’t draw attention to yourself. Ruby could swing that gun toward him in a heartbeat.
“You were just talking to one, and she was talking to a big-time spy. That’s what it says here. It’s tracking all of you.”
What? Oh, Peng. Their phones must have been tapped.
Ruby laughed, an ugly noise. “Mutinous mutants. How does that sound, Ethan? They’re spreading the killer cold. You infected Alan.”
She didn’t sound angry. Suddenly something made sense.
“Will said Alan was spreading it,” Irene said, “and he got what he deserved.”
“He said that?” Ruby kicked at a stone in the driveway without lowering the rifle. “You’re lying, and no one can prove otherwise.”
Irene knew that if what she’d heard from the mutiny news was true, anyone could prove otherwise—but she wasn’t going to spend her last breath saying that.
“Look,” Ethan said, “we’re wasting time. We need to make this arrest and deliver her to the sheriff.”
“Yeah,” Ruby said, “get in the car.” She jerked her gun.
“First,” he said, “handcuffs. Put your arms out.”
Irene did. He closed them so tight they hurt. The sheriff? Apparently not a mutineer, but maybe she could reason with him—if she got there alive. She’d have to make sure that happened. She walked toward the car, an old-fashioned sedan, and glanced back at the pen. Nimkii’s bulky shadow stood silent, watching without comprehending. He rumbled so low that Irene felt it more in her chest than in her ears. She climbed into the back seat. Ethan slammed the door shut.
Maybe Nimkii would leave as soon as he realized she was gone again … and he’d wander around, get lost, and maybe panic and attack someone. Get shot as a dangerous nuisance. Or maybe he’d just starve.
Goodbye, Nimkii. I love you.
The car started up and crunched down the gravel driveway, headlights slicing through the night. Ruby drove manually and turned east toward the city of Wausau.
“Listen to this,” Ethan said. He ordered his phone to play a recording and turn up the volume. A woman with a California accent was nattering about how the Chinese took a long view of everything and made plans a hundred years out.
“Yeah, exactly,” Ruby said. “That’s why they need to interrogate you. That’s why we’re turning you in. If I’d known this, I wouldn’t have put you in the prison.”
“Then she got out,” Ethan said sarcastically, as if it were part of a long-running argument.
“Yeah. That mammoth. When we’re done with her, we’ll go back and shoot it.” She chuckled. “It’ll be fun.”
I hope he kills you first. Or maybe Irene could wrap her cuffed wrists around Ruby’s throat. As if Ethan had read her thoughts, he turned and pointed a handgun at her.
“Don’t get any ideas, dupe.”
The recording droned on about how certain members of the United States population were Chinese followers, useful idiots, especially the ones running the electrical system.
“That’s where the civil war is happening,” the California woman said. “Cities are in rebellion. We’ve gotta shut them down. Hit ’em where it hurts. Electricity. We have the means to shut it off if we use our might. Some of the power companies refuse to do it, and the people working for them refuse to do the right thing,
