Page 31 of Love, Nemesis
“Yes?”
“Jasper’s waiting.”
“Thanks,” Ana said coolly before pushing the door open and making her way down the walkway into the rain.
Jasper was waiting on his horse. Ana hopped up onto her own, and they started walking their horses through the town. They’d barely cleared the edge of town before Jasper spoke.
“Ares betrayed the State,” Jasper muttered mockingly. “Now we know why. Why aren’t you angry?”
“Because I have to do my job anyway,” Ana said.
“What if Ares has turned on the State for a good reason? What if we’re the bad guys? Ares agreed to serve the State under one condition. He was very vocal about that,” Jasper said, keeping pace. “You can’t be okay with this.”
“We don’t know anything yet,” Ana said, picking up the pace into a trot. “If The State was trying to create black bred people again, there is no way they could keep that a secret. I think it’s something else. Ares has served the State for fifty years. He could have just as easily wanted a change of pace.”
Change of pace. Listen to yourself, Ana thought. She wasn’t any less uneasy than Jasper about the whole thing. He could very well be right, but he’d ruminate on that, stress it to such a degree that she’d find it hard to follow through with her mission.
She knew that if she didn’t do what she’d been told, more than a few lives would be at stake. Hailey likely had a list of her favorite people in his office, all ready to take the sunrise execution for her if she did anything but succeed or die on her mission.
“Change of pace?” Jasper repeated, and from his lips, her reasoning sounded even more absurd. Jasper was smarter than her—always had been, and she felt foolishly transparent trying to mislead him.
“Jasper, I just wouldn’t focus on it, all right? Maybe when we talk to Evira, we can ask her about this too. Ares could easily have other motives,” she said, and knew he wouldn’t argue with her there.
She had a bit of leverage in their discussion. Having had the rare experience of talking with Ares, she could pretend to have more insight into the enigma he was. That didn’t mean she did, but at least Jasper would leave the issue be for a while.
He did. They started their journey to Richter. Jasper rode behind her, their speech replaced by the rhythmic clap of galloping hooves. He didn’t broach the topic again when they stopped to camp for the night, nor the nights after.
* * *
By the time they reached Virasa’s cliff’s outside of Richter, it seemed easy to forget Jasper had brought it up with such insistence.
Ana basked in the familiarity of the cliffs, the famous beauty with the roaring spray of the ocean to the right and foggy green plains to their left. They’d traveled to Richter many times when she’d been active in the Numbers.
She lifted a set of binoculars as the town peeked past the rocky hedges near the path.
“What three values did you pick as the most important in that seminar in Saltin? You don’t kill, steal, or lie?” Jasper asked.
“Yeah. When I can help it.”
“Just thought I’d ask you before I also ask where all the raisins in my mix bag went. There are only peanuts left.”
“Yeah,” Ana said, looking through the binoculars at a tree in the distance. She kept steady on the horse as she spotted a bright red bird sitting on a branch. “That’s me.”
“When did you even get time to get in here?” he asked, rummaging around in his pack. “You denied it last time.”
“It was Diane last time. She eats all the peanuts. I told you. Top three rules.”
“You lied a few months ago when you denied stealing those binoculars you’re using right now,” Jasper shot back.
“I didn’t kill you for them. To be fair, you asked about your blue ones.”
“Oh, good, so as long as you don’t break all three rules at once.”
“It’s the spirit of the ideas,” Ana explained simply.
“That you’re breaking.”
“I don’t organize my shirts by their shade of brown.”
