No, the world had robbed me of everything, destroyed my ranch, crushed my dreams, and then laughed as I gasped and snotted and cried. Getting pepper sprayed was something you couldn’t shake off.
Eibling walked into the middle of us. “So, your little assassination attempt has failed. President Jack is on his way out of here. He didn’t get to make his speech, but what a prize we’ve pulled in.”
“We didn’t want to kill him,” I said. “We wanted information. Hoyt has the cure to the Sterility Epidemic. There’s a secret ARK facility in the Juniper. I don’t suppose you know where it is.”
Eibling walked up to my cage. “So, you’re Cavatica Weller. I thought you’d be older, and well, bigger.”
“Let me out, and I’ll show you how big I am, you dirty skank,” I hissed at her.
Pilate stopped coughing long enough to laugh and yell at the sky, “Hey, Wren, your little sister is doing a bad imitation of you!” His lungs rattled his laughter away.
“General,” Baptista piped up. “You can’t tell anyone about Cavatica. Hoyt is going to murder her friends. And have you seen the Gammas? They’re real. And the ARK is creating them. Tibbs Hoyt and his evil corporation are manipulating the U.S.”
Eibling turned on her heel and approached Baptista’s cage. “So, Sergeant, I’m assuming Stockholm Syndrome. Am I wrong?”
“Did you serve in the Sino?” Baptista asked.
Eibling nodded.
“You ever hear of Bloody Mary? That would be Sergeant Marigold Baptista. She’s my aunt. I come from a military family, and I joined up as soon as I finished high school. I’m a proud American soldier, and I follow orders until those orders go against the best interests of the United States of America. It’s not Stockholm Syndrome. I’m fighting for the truth.”
“I knew Mary,” Eibling said. “I attended one of her decoration ceremonies. One of many. Now I guess I’ll have to go to your court martial hearing. It’s a shame you’ve disgraced your family and your rank.”
“Bloody Mary?” June Mai called out. “Really? How come you didn’t tell me? I got drunk with her in Quixong Province one night. That woman could drink.”
“I like her already,” Pilate said. He rose and pressed pale fingers to the black metal of the cage. “So, General, I don’t suppose all of this reminiscing is going to change your mind.”
Eibling approached Pilate’s cage. “And this must be Father Pilate. How come you’re not wearing your collar, Father?”
“Jesus took it from me in a poker game. I bet all my sins, bluffed him down to my underwear, and he beat me with three deuces. How do you like that?”
“Was it all the sex?” Eibling asked. “Could you not live with the contradiction? You did take a vow of celibacy.”
“No, God doesn’t care about where I put my johnson. But She really doesn’t like it when I train nice young girls to become killing machines. Too bad I’m so fucking good at it.” He coughed and couldn’t say more.
“Cursing.” I sighed. Laughed a little.
Pilate looked me in the eyes. And laughed a little back.
Eibling turned and addressed all of us. “This is what is going to happen. You are prisoners of war. We are going to build a bridge across the river, and we are going to take you to the U.S., where you will have a fair trial.”
Sharlotte and I started laughing, and not just a little. It’s called an inappropriate emotional response. A trial? Please. That was just the bad punchline of a dirty joke.
The other outlaws, Pilate, even Baptista joined in.
“No,” I said, wiping tears of laughter from my face. “We will be taken by ARK forces and we’ll be shot like animals.”
“And why is that?” Eibling asked, a little uncertain.
I answered. “Because we know the ARK has a cure to the Sterility Epidemic. And we know they’re doing secret genetic experiments.”
“They created a soldier with tentacles, General,” Baptista said. “I saw it. And it nearly killed us. If Hoyt is doing that, I can’t imagine what else he is doing. But you say I have Stockholm Syndrome. Sure.”
“It’s a tragedy,” June Mai said in the lull. “The United States sent her veterans to the Juniper, and now we’ll be killed by other soldiers. Careers like you, they got the chance to stay Americans. But your average soldier? Us grunts? We were shipped to the Juniper with empty promises. I’m sure you’ve heard about what they did to the Ladies in Waiting. But you got out of China early, didn’t you?”
Eibling didn’t respond. She marched away.
Our chances marched away with her.
I pushed my head against the bars and closed my eyes. I felt the cold. I listened.
The others talked about where they had put our guns, they tried to break the welds, and June Mai and Sharlotte tried to roll their cages, but the snow made that damn near impossible.
And how far could they roll? If they weren’t careful, they’d go right into Cherry Creek and drown.
Then I thought about Wren.
Memories are funny. Deep in our minds, we remember most everything, but we filter out what we don’t need or what’s too painful.
Someone said my name, Pilate I think, but I couldn’t talk.
A memory came to me, fought its way out of the junkyard my mind had become, a broken place, more sharp edges than softness.
“Some chores can’t be done,” Mama said one time.
I couldn’t remember what it was, something about the headcount, prolly, but I could feel Mama holding me. I was crying. Back then, when I cried, Mama would hold me.
“So do I give up?” I asked the memory of my mama. Talking to her was far better than talking to the darkness inside me, a negative number looking a zero.
“You do what you can,” Mama had said. “Little by little,
