Monsters of Men

“Yes, sir!” Mr O’Hare salutes and trots away to meet his squadrons, ready to lead ’em into battle.

I frown. Something ain’t right.

Viola’s voice comes over my comm. “Todd! Simone says there are lights on the road to the south! The Spackle are coming!”

“Yeah,” I say, still looking at the Mayor. “The Mayor’s sending men out to fight ’em. You all right?”

“None of the Spackle are bothering us, but we haven’t seen their leader for a bit.” She lowers her voice. “Simone’s readying the ship to get back up in the air and prepping the weapons, too.” I hear disappointment creep into her voice. “Looks like it won’t be peace after all.”

I’m about to say something back when I hear the Mayor say, “Now, Captain,” to Mr Tate, who’s been waiting patiently.

Mr Tate picks up a burning torch from the campfire.

“Now what?” I say.

Mr Tate raises the torch high above his head.

“Now what?”

And the world splits itself in two.

{VIOLA}

An explosion rings across the valley, echoing back on itself again and again, rumbling like thunder. Bradley helps me to my feet, and we look out. The moons are thin slivers in the night sky and it’s hard to see anything but the campfires of the city.

“What happened?” Bradley’s demanding. “What was that?”

I hear a surge of Noise and I look behind us. The half-circle of Spackle is wide awake now, getting to their feet, coming closer to us, pressing towards the edge of the hill as they look into the valley, too–

Where we all see smoke rising.

“But–” Bradley starts to say–

The Sky bursts through the line of Spackle behind us. We hear him before we see him, his Noise a rush of sound and images and–

And surprise–

He’s surprised–

He storms past us to the edge of the hill, looking into the city below–

“Viola?” I hear Simone say on the comm.

“Was that you?” I say.

“No, we weren’t ready yet–”

“Who fired then?” Mistress Coyle cuts in.

“And where?” Bradley says.

Because the smoke isn’t coming from the south, where even now we can see lights in the trees and another set of lights heading out from the city to meet them.

The smoke and the explosion came from north of the river, up on the hillside in the abandoned orchards.

And then there’s another.

[TODD]

The second is as loud as the first and it lights up the night just north and west of town and the soldiers are getting outta their tents at the sound of it and staring as the smoke starts to rise.

“I think one more should do it, Captain,” says the Mayor.

Mr Tate nods and raises the torch again. There’s another man up in the rickety cathedral bell tower I can see now, who lit his torch when Mr Tate raised his for the first time, passing the message on to men down the riverbank–

Men at the controls of the artillery the Mayor still commands–

The artillery taken outta use when we suddenly had a scout ship to protect us with bigger and better weapons–

But artillery that still works just fine, thank you very much–

I lift my comm again, which is squawking all over the place with voices, including Viola’s, trying to figure out what’s happened–

“It’s the Mayor,” I say into it.

“Where’s he firing?” she says. “That’s not where the lights were coming from–”

And then the comm is nicked right outta my hand by the Mayor, triumph all over his face, just glowing in the firelight–

“Yes, but that’s where the Spackle actually are, dear girl,” he says, spinning to keep me from taking the comm back. “Just ask your friend the Sky, why don’t you? He’ll tell you.”

And I do get it back from him but the smile on his face is so unnerving I can barely look at it.

It’s a smile like he’s won something. Like he’s won the biggest thing of all.

{VIOLA}

“What does he mean?” Mistress Coyle says over the comm in a panic. “Viola, what does he mean?!”

The Sky is turning to us now, his Noise swirling so fast with images and feelings it’s impossible to read anything.

But he doesn’t look happy.

“I’ve got the probes where the President fired,” Simone’s voice says. “Oh, my God.”

“Here,” Bradley says, taking the comm from me. He presses a few things and suddenly the comm is flashing up a smaller three-dimensional picture like the larger remote projectors we have down below and there, hovering in the night air, lit up by my small little comm–

Bodies.

Spackle bodies. Carrying all the weapons Bradley saw in the glimpse of Noise. Dozens of them, enough to wreak all kinds of havoc on the town–

Enough to take Todd and the Mayor, kill them both if they couldn’t be taken–

And no lights to be seen anywhere.

“If those bodies are in the northern hills,” I ask, “what are the lights to the south?”

[TODD]

“Nothing!” Mr O’Hare shouts, running back into camp. “There’s nothing there! A few torches left burning in the ground but nothing!”

“Yes, Captain,” says the Mayor. “I know.”

Mr O’Hare pulls up short. “You knew?”

“Of course I did.” The Mayor turns to me. “May I please use the comm again, Todd?”

He holds out his hand. I don’t give it to him.

“I promised to save Viola, didn’t I?” he says. “What do you think would have happened to her if the Spackle had been allowed to win their little victory tonight? What do you think would have happened to us?”

“How did you know they’d attack?” I ask. “How did you know it was a trick?”

“How did I save us all, you mean?” He’s still holding out his hand. “I’ll ask you one more time, Todd. Do you trust me?”

I look at his face, his completely untrustworthy, unredeemable face.

(and I hear the hum, just a little bit–)

(and okay, I know–)

(I know he’s in my head–)

(I ain’t no fool–)

(but he did save us–)

(and he gave me my ma’s words–)

I hand him the comm.

{VIOLA}

The Sky’s Noise whirls like a storm. We’ve all seen what’s happened in the projection. We can all hear the cheering of the soldiers down in the town. We can all feel the distant rumble of the scout ship as it rises and recrosses the valley.