The Ask and the Answer

I look at the setting sun.

“Maybe an hour,” Todd says, seeing me check. “Probably less.”

“Lee won’t get to them in time,” I say.

“He might. There must be short cuts.”

The snake of the army slithers up the hillside. So many there’s no way the Answer will be able to fight them if it comes to open battle.

“We can’t fail,” I say.

“We won’t,” Todd says.

And we reach the cathedral.

We march up the side. This is where most of the damage is, the whole north wall having collapsed straight onto the road.

“Remember,” Todd murmurs to the men, as we climb over rubble. “Yer taking two prisoners to see the President like you were ordered to do. Nobody needs to be thinking nothing but that.”

We pick our way down the road. The pile of stones is so high you can’t see into the cathedral. The Mayor could be in there anywhere.

We come around the corner to where the front used to be, now just a gaping hole into the vast lobby and sanctuary, still watched over by the bell tower and by that circle of coloured glass. The sun, behind us, shines right into it. Open rooms hang from upper walls, their floors crumbling. Half a dozen redbirds pick through the remains of food and worse in amongst the stones. The rest of the structure leans in on itself, like it’s grown suddenly tired and might fall down to rest at any time.

And inside its shell–

“No one,” Ivan says.

“That’s why there aren’t any guards,” says Pot Belly. “He’s with the army.”

“He’s not,” Todd says, looking around, frowning.

“Todd?” I ask, sensing something–

“He told us himself to bring Todd here,” Ivan says.

“Then where is he?” asks Pot Belly.

“Oh, I’m here,” says the Mayor, stepping out of a shadow that shouldn’t have been able to hide him, almost seeming to step straight out of the brick, out of a shimmer where he couldn’t be seen.

“What the devil–?” says Pot Belly, stepping back.

“Not the Devil,” the Mayor says, taking his first steps down the rubble towards us, his hands open at his sides. The guards all raise their rifles at him. He doesn’t even look like he’s armed.

But here he comes.

“No, not the Devil,” he says, smiling. “Much worse than that.”

“Stop where you are,” Todd says. “There are men here who would happily shoot you.”

“I know it,” the Mayor says, stopping on the bottom step of the cathedral entrance, resting one foot on a large stone toppled there. “Private Farrow, for example.” He nods at Ivan. “Still seething for being punished for his own incompetence.”

“You shut your mouth,” Ivan says, looking down the barrel of his rifle.

“Don’t look into his eyes,” Todd says quickly. “Nobody look into his eyes.”

The Mayor slowly puts his hands in the air. “Am I to be your prisoner then?” He takes a look around at the soldiers, at all the guns pointed at him. “Ah, yes, I see,” he says. “You have a plan. Returning the cure to the people, capitalizing on their resentment to install yourselves in power. Yes, very clever.”

“That ain’t how it’s gonna be,” Todd says. “Yer gonna call off the army. Yer gonna let everyone be free again.”

The Mayor puts a hand to his chin like he’s thinking about it. “The thing is, Todd,” he says, “people don’t really want freedom, no matter how much they might bleat on about it. No, I should think what will happen is that the army will crush the Answer, that the soldiers accompanying you will be put to death for treason, and that you and I and Viola will have that little chat about your future I promised.”

There’s a loud snap as Ivan cocks his rifle. “You think so, do you?”

“Yer our prisoner and that’s the end of it,” Todd says, taking out a length of rope from Angharrad’s saddle bag. “We’ll just have to see how the army reacts to that.”

“Very well,” the Mayor says, sounding almost cheerful. “But I should send one of your men to the cellar so you can start taking the cure immediately. I can read all your plans perfectly clearly, and you wouldn’t want that.”

Pot Belly looks back. Todd nods at him and Pot Belly jogs on up the steps past the Mayor. “Just back and down,” the Mayor points. “The way’s quite clear.”

Todd takes the rope and walks towards the Mayor, moving past the guns pointed at him. My hands are sweating into the reins.

It can’t be this easy.

It can’t–

The Mayor holds out his wrists and Todd hesitates, not wanting to actually get near him. “He tries anything funny,” Todd says, without looking back. “Shoot him.”

“Gladly,” Ivan says.

Todd reaches forward and starts winding the rope around the Mayor’s wrists.

We hear footsteps in the cathedral. Pot Belly comes jogging back, out of breath, his Noise a storm.

“You said it was in the cellar, Lieutenant.”

“It is,” Todd says. “I saw it there.”

Pot Belly shakes his head. “Empty. Completely empty.”

Todd looks back at the Mayor. “Then you moved it. Where is it?”

“Or what?” the Mayor says. “You’ll shoot me?”

“I’d actually prefer that option,” Ivan says.

“Where did you move it?” Todd says again, his voice strong, angry.

The Mayor looks at him, then looks around at all the men, and finally looks up to me on horseback.

“It was you I was worried about,” he says. “But you can hardly walk, can you?”

“Don’t you look at her,” Todd spits, stepping closer to him. “You keep yer filthy eyes off her.”

The Mayor smiles again, his hands still out, loosely bound by rope. “Very well,” he says. “I’ll tell you.”

He looks around at everyone again, still smiling.

“I burnt it,” says the Mayor. “After the Spackle sadly left us, there was no more need and so I burnt every last pill, every last plant that the pills were made from, and then I blew up the processing lab and blamed it on the Answer.”

There’s a shocked silence. We can hear the ROAR of the army in the distance, marching up that hill, keeping on towards their goal.

“You’re a liar,” Ivan finally says, stepping forward, gun still raised. “And a stupid one, at that.”