The Ask and the Answer

Todd starts kicking at the door. “Then let yer Mistress do it. We’ll get to her somehow, warn ’em if we can, and then we’re outta here.”

“Out of here where?”

“I don’t know.” He starts looking around for something that might knock down the door. “We’ll go to one of the abandoned settlements. We’ll hide out till yer ships get here.”

“He’ll beat Mistress Coyle and then he’ll go right for the ships.” I gasp a little as I turn my head to follow him. “There’s only a small number of people awake when they land, Todd. He can overpower them and keep everyone else asleep as long as he wants. He doesn’t ever have to wake them up if he doesn’t want to.”

He stops his search. “Is that true?”

I nod. “Once he destroys the Answer, who’s left to stop him?”

He clenches and unclenches his fists again. “We have to do it.”

“We find the Answer first,” I say, trying to pull myself upright. “We warn them–”

“And tell ’em exactly what kinda leader they got.”

I sigh. “We’re going to have to stop both of them, aren’t we?”

“Well, that’s easy, ain’t it?” Todd says. “We tell the Answer all about yer mistress and then someone new will lead ’em.” He looks at me. “Maybe you.”

“Maybe you.” I take a minute to try and catch my breath. It’s getting harder. “Either way, we have to get out of here.”

And then the door suddenly opens.

A soldier stands there with a rifle.

“I have orders to take you both to the cathedral,” he says.

And I think I recognize him.

“Ivan,” Todd says.

“Lieutenant,” Ivan nods. “I’ve got my orders.”

“You’re from Farbranch,” I say, but he’s staring at Todd, not blinking. I can hear something in his Noise, something–

“Lieutenant,” he says again in a way that seems like some kind of signal.

I look at Todd. “What’s he doing?”

“You have orders,” Todd says, concentrating on Ivan. I can hear stuff flying between their Noises, fast and blurry. “Private Farrow.”

“Yes, sir,” Ivan says, standing at attention. “Orders from my superior officer.”

Todd looks at me. I can hear him thinking.

“What’s going on?” I say.

I see Lee rise in Todd’s Noise. He turns back to Ivan. “Is there another prisoner? A boy? Blond shaggy hair?”

“There is, sir,” Ivan says.

“And if I ordered you to take me to him, you’d do it?”

“You are my superior officer, Lieutenant.” Ivan’s looking harder at Todd now. “I’d have to follow any orders you gave me.”

“Todd?” I say, but I’m beginning to understand.

“I’ve been a-trying to tell you this for some time, Lieutenant,” Ivan says, impatience in his voice.

“Are there any higher ranking officers on the premises than me?” Todd asks.

“No, sir. Just myself and the guards. Everyone else has gone off to fight the war.”

“How many guards?”

“Sixteen of us, sir.”

Todd licks his lips, thinking. “Would they regard me as their superior officer, too, Private?”

Ivan looks away for the first time, glancing quickly behind him before saying again in a lower voice, “There is some concern with our current leadership, sir. They might be persuaded.”

Todd stands up straighter, pulling at the hem of his uniform jacket. I notice again how tall he is, how much taller than the last time I saw him, how his face is lined in a way that’s not at all boyish, how his voice is deeper and fuller.

I look at him, and I begin to see a man.

He clears his throat and stands at attention before Ivan. “Then I order you to take me to the prisoner called Lee, Private.”

“Even though I have been instructed to take you straight to the President,” Ivan says in an official voice, “I feel I cannot disobey your direct order, sir.”

He steps back out of the door to wait. Todd comes to my chair and kneels down in front of me.

“What are you planning?” I ask, trying to read his Noise, but it’s spinning so fast I can hardly keep up with it.

“You said it’s us who has to stop him cuz no one else will,” he says, the crooked smile inching higher. “Well, maybe there’s a way we can.”

[TODD]

I feel Viola watching me as I leave and follow Ivan down the hallway. She’s wondering whether we can trust him.

I wonder it, too.

Cuz the answer’s no, ain’t it? Ivan joined the army as a volunteer, saving his own skin in Farbranch, and I remember him slinking up to me all those months ago even before it happened and telling me he was on the side of Prentisstown. He probably couldn’t wait to join the army when it marched into town and then he led troops here and was even a Corporal.

Till Mayor Prentiss shot him in the leg.

You go where the power is, he said to me once. That’s how you stay alive.

So maybe he thinks he’s found the new power.

“Exactly what I’m a-thinking, sir,” Ivan says, stopping outside a door. “He’s in here.”

“Can he walk?” I say as Ivan unlocks the door–

But Lee’s already jumping out with an AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! and knocking Ivan over and punching him again and again in the face and I have to grab his shoulders and pull him back and he turns to me fists ready till he sees who it is.

“Todd!” he says, surprised.

“We need–” I start.

“Where is she?” he shouts, already looking round, and I have to step forward to keep Ivan from smashing the back of his head with a rifle.

“She’s hurt,” I say. “She needs bandages and splints.” I turn to Ivan. “You got those here?”

“We got a first aid kit,” Ivan says.

“That’ll do. Give it to Lee and he’ll take care of Viola. Then tell the men I wanna talk to ’em out front.”

Ivan’s glaring at Lee, Noise blaring.

“That’s an order, Private,” I say.

“Yes, sir,” Ivan says, all sour, before he disappears down the hallway.

Lee goggles at me. “Yes, sir?”

“Viola’ll explain.” I push him after Ivan. “You get those bandages on her! She’s hurting!”