Page 144 of Chaos

She’s the last person I want giving me a drug.

She flips the clip that holds the tube closed, and the fluid in the bag starts its downward trickle straight to the needle she just shoved in my vein.

No, no, no.

“Frankie?” Shasta flaps her arms blindly against the sheets. “Frankie?”

37 |Flip the earth

YORKE

IJERK THE SHEETback into place behind me. The last thing I want is to fight with her before I go.

Auden and Beast are across the way. Someone’s brought cookies from the kitchen along with thermoses full of tea, and he’s giggling over a teacup with his friend Anna while Beast pants in his face.

I’ll have to say goodbye to him, too.

That sits heavily on my shoulders.

The woman with blond hair sees me, and murmurs quietly to the tight circle of Renata and Sebi and approaches me.

“Are you free to talk now?” she asks.

“Yeah. Okay. What’s your name.”

She holds out a hand. Her gloves have come off, and her skin is cold against mine. “Ottilie.”

“Unusual name.”

She makes a tight smile. “It’s German. They pronounce it differently over there.”

I don’t say I know, because if they don’t know I speak German, that’s something I might be able to use later. Especially if she does speak it.

But I know the name.

It would be pronouncedoh-tee-lee-uhthere, but here, it’s justah-tilly.

She gestures toward the window, away from the clusters of people. “Can we speak more privately?”

“Sure.” I walk the handful of feet away from Frankie’s sheeted area, and rest my hip against the window sill there.

Ottilie follows me. “I heard of your troubles with the woman … Rey?”

“Yeah.”

“She was acting under duress for Auggie who was acting for me.”

Which makes them all ruthless. Something to remember for all the soft-gestures and soft-spoken words. She also was a part of leaving the fifteen people at that factory, waiting for us to come and kill them. Sacrificing your own soldiers takes ruthlessness.

“I can offer them both a place in DC,” she says.

“That’s up to our leader, Colleen.” Or maybe Church and Jacquetta, though Church probably won’t be making any choices for a while.

“Okay, something to think about.”

“I’ll relay the message. Unless you find time to talk to her yourself.”

She leans toward the window and looks out. “I suspect I’ll have plenty of time. I just ordered our army to continue on to the high school we passed on our way in. The snow is quite thick.”

---