Page 108 of Concluded
In, out.
In, out.
A hand gently touched Achilles’ shoulder, and he looked up to see Henry, whose usual bright and diverse clothing was muted with a layer of white-and-gray dust.“Do either of you need first aid?”he asked gently.
“No.I think he’s just… drained.”
“And you?”Henry looked skeptical about Achilles’ condition.
“Fine.Henry, do you know….How many did we lose?”
Henry’s expression turned grave.“Mazur.Lewis.”He glanced across the parking lot.“Cruz is… not good.But his ibbur is trying hard, I think.”
Ibbur.Gods, in all the confusion and terror, Achilles had forgotten about that.“Santiago?”he ventured, very quietly.
Been here the whole time, dude.
That made sense.The final zap from Spurling had been stronger than any Achilles had felt before, but he’d recovered fairly quickly.“I’m sorry I dragged you through this mess.You gave your life already—and once should be enough.”
I’m here willingly.Just like everyone else.
Henry nodded as if he’d heard Santiago.Maybe he had; Achilles wasn’t sure exactly what talents the house spirit possessed.With another gentle shoulder tap, Henry hurried away to help someone else.
Achilles was left with Dee, Santiago, and a lot of regrets.“I fucked up.We had them right there in front of us, and?—”
We all fucked up.We thought it would be easy and we were wrong.Besides, I thought you were going to cut out the hubris crap.
Right.Achilles sighed and smoothed hair back from Dee’s forehead.He wished he had a damn cloth to wipe the debris from Dee’s face.But he’d already used up all his wishes.He did something dumb instead: he hummed a song.He didn’t know the name of it—if it even had one—and if it had words, he’d never learned them.But his mother used to hum that tune while she worked, and sometimes his father would join in.He hadn’t thought about it in years, but it soothed him now, and he hoped it soothed Dee as well.Achilles noticed that Dee’s breaths perfectly matched the song’s rhythm.
In, out.
In, out.
We’re not perfect, but we’re badass, man.Look what we’ve been through.Some of you are still kicking, and the rest of us, well, we’re here too.
“Maybe we’re all just phenomenally stubborn.”
I’m good with that.
In, out.
In, out.
You know what, though?Those assholes who attacked us, they probably think everyone’s dead now.I bet they figure that when they destroyed HQ, they destroyed us too.
“Maybe.But if you think I’m going to spend the rest of my life in hiding, I won’t.”
Good.
Achilles started to scratch his beard, realized it made bits of debris fall onto Dee, and stopped.He was tired and was tempted to lie down next to Dee, but the pavement was hard, and sleeping wouldn’t improve the situation they were all in.Besides, the neighborhood sounded like a war zone.From what he could glean from bits of conversations, the enemy had hit HQ with a drone attack, and they’d damaged the surrounding neighborhood too.Emergency personnel were still assessing civilian casualties, but someone within the federal government had already informed the media that this was a terrorist attack committed by people who were in the country illegally.
In, out.
In, out.
“Okay, Santiago.Their wrong assumption about our demise gives us a potential advantage.How do we use that?”
Beats me.I never was a strategist.
