Page 131 of Chaos

AS SOONas I step into the road, guns swivel around to lock in on me.

I stop.

On the perch over the gate, Venus’s pink hair tosses in the wind from under a helmet.

She straightens slightly when she sees me, and so do the soldiers beside her.

All across the wall, gunfire goes silent, like dominos falling down a line, starting from the epicenter of the gate, silence scattering along the ramparts.

A woman emerges from the line of military trucks. Not Lavinia Hope, who I saw several times back in DC. This woman is younger, taller, with dark blond hair and an air of caution coupled with calculation.

She takes a thick breath of relief when she sees me. “Yorke Garrett.”

It’s not a question. She knows my face.

Sebi steps out from behind one of the armored trucks along the line.

He ducks under the hanging US flag, its blue and red almost garish next to the relentless gray and green and brown of everything else around us. The camouflage patrol cap is firmly on his head, but he’s wearing a parka.

He lifts his chin when he sees me.

I should have known he and Renata had a hand in this. That explains where they’ve been.

Smoke roars from the top of the clocktower, from every window, from the sixth floor, our floor, filling the sky like a massive smear of danger and worry. Frankie has to have gotten the boys and gotten out of there.

She’s smart. She’s capable.

So I force myself to focus on the people in front of me.

The woman’s in charge, that’s clear by how the others look to her first, but it’s a politician’s power, not a soldier's.

I walk across the road, keeping my motions measured and my hands up as a few stray snowflakes fall, the wind kicking up. “You’re here for me?”

The woman in the long dark coat’s smile is almost sad. “Yes.”

“You’ll leave Thornewood if I give myself up?”

“Yes.”

I send a last look at the smoke, the clocktower. Frankie’s not in there. I know she’s not. She’s safe out back.

“Fine.” I set my gun carefully down on the asphalt before me, then straighten with my hands up. I'll go to DC, figureout what they want. I’ll come back. “I’ll surrender. But first—”

A red laser appears in the center of her chest, wobbling like a metronome, ticking across her camouflage chest.

Jacquetta.

It’s the only answer.

She and Ebundi must have made a plan after I left, and sent a portion of the army to stand at my back. A rush of gratitude fills me.

She’s giving me bargaining power.

Immediately, ten, fifteen, a hundred red laser dots appear all across the way, over Sebi too, as well as the soldiers with them.

I barely have time to make sense of that when a voice calls from behind, heavy, thick, and chalky. “Garrett! We’re in position east and west.”

That’s Ebundi.

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