Every swallowful of air feels as if it should burn, but my mask keeps the taste of chemicals and death out. It’s as if I’m here, but not here at all, removed from this place that used to be my home. Whatever caused the fire must have started on the southern edge where the damage is worst, eating through the booths only to lose its teeth the closer it got to the wall dividing the Third Quarter from the Aihu River and the Second Quarter beyond. There are still ghostly remains of structures on that side, the wood cracked and teetering as if it means to give out at any second.
Mother is silent next to me, her eyes on my fingers as they tap against my leg. Waiting to see if I fold or hold strong.
“What happened here?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Is that the first question you should be asking, Major Hong?” Mother’s eyes weigh on me until I realize she’s talking to me. Major? A ripple of alarm finds my chest, but I smooth it down. Major. I can do this.
A man in full Outside patrol fatigues detaches from the line of soldiers waiting at attention between us and the ashy remains of the market. “This is your second-in-command,” Mother continues. “Captain Bai.”
Captain Bai gives an exact bow, head still and low until Mother nods, releasing him from the subservient pose. “We’ve secured the square and a ring of buildings beyond.” He keeps his eyes politely lowered as he speaks. “As advised by the Firsts, we first cleared a cannery and used the chemicals to make torches. They’ll keep back anyone lacking a mask.”
Something moves just out of my line of sight, a feeling rather than something I can see. The dimpled Menghu is just behind me. “Good work, Captain Bai. I look forward to working with you. Shall we debrief—”
Mother clears her throat, and I pull back, waiting for her to speak. “You’ve done an excellent job, Captain Bai. You will find the resources you requested here.” She gestures to the pallets of supplies we brought along with us. The boxes seem too small to shore up our cover mission to help the people stuck here in the City. “I have all confidence you and my son will get the situation here under control.”
Again, a deep bow. “For the City, everything is possible, General.”
“I’ll expect a full report this evening.” Mother walks back to the heli and boards without looking back.
The Menghu girl eases over to stand directly at my side. “I’ll be your contact point in consulting with Major Hong.” Her dimpled smile seems sharp, cutting between me and Captain Bai.
Inwardly, I roll my eyes. How am I supposed to pretend that this girl is my assistant or anything other than what is glaringly obvious: a gore attempting to fit into a City uniform?
What does she know? I can’t help but think it again. Does she know where Dr. Yang’s base is? Where they took Sevvy and the device? If only I could reason with this girl. Then this whole war could be different. No scrambling to manufacture masks or reopen Mantis labs, for starters.
I focus on Captain Bai. “It won’t be necessary for you to communicate through my assistant, Captain. I’d like a full account of what we’re up against here.”
Captain Bai’s face doesn’t move as he speaks, every word perfectly square. “Yes, sir. I’ll take you to the building we’ve cleared for headquarters.”
The Menghu sticks close behind me as I follow Captain Bai. When we get to the building he’s chosen, I can’t help but want to laugh. Or cry—it’s hard to tell which as the orphanage’s thick windows stare down at me. Sevvy’s old home.
“Is there a problem, Major Hong?” Captain Bai keeps his eyes averted.
I inhale, imagining the ash-soaked air scrubbing clean through my mask filters. “No. It’s a good choice, Captain.”
The door used to sag to the side, rattling with every gust of wind, but it’s been replaced with what looks like a factory door: heavy wood that turns easily on thick hinges. Captain Bai leads the way inside. The polished-cement floor is still cracked down the center, and the low desk and locking cage of a door installed just behind it are exactly as I remember. There’s no reason it would change, I suppose, but without orphans or nuns—and with the market square a pile of ash and the City an SS bomb waiting to explode—somehow I expected this to be different too.
It just feels empty.
“The cafeteria on floor one is large enough for briefings. And there’s a smaller office just next to it that will do for strategy sessions and any of your other needs.” Captain Bai opens the grate that blocks access to the stairs, waiting for me to walk through. “We thought quartering you on the third floor would be safest.”
Of course that’s where he wants me. Maybe he’ll read into my past somehow and suggest I sleep in Sevvy’s room, in her old bed. Her last ugly look of betrayal still sits in my brain as she fought to get away from me. Blamed me when it was Menghu who came for us. Acted as if I weren’t trying same as her to get the cure to a safe place. A place were we could all use it.
I shake my head, wishing I could control her touch on my thoughts the same way I can control the number of wrinkles in my uniform coat. Even with reality laid out clear before her, Sevvy didn’t want to give me the device. Didn’t trust me to know the difference between right and wrong when it was obvious she was the one who hadn’t properly evaluated the situation.
The things Sevvy said to me feel like scars now. She practically accused me of being less than human, unworthy of her friendship or love. But scars are what they are, fading over time. I know I chose the right thing, whatever she might have thought. And so I keep walking, refusing to let this place hurt like an open wound.
When we get to the third floor, I stop at the fourth door down, feet stalling out of habit before Sevvy’s old room. There’s an orphaned shoe on the ground in front of it, laces undone.
Captain Bai stops at attention by the door, taking the pause as my choice of rooms. Inside, the room is worse than I expect. White plaster. Bare floor. Naked mattresses on battered wooden frames. No chests full of possessions, no shoes or coats, no clothes hanging over the bedposts or from the hooks on the walls. I walk into the room and lower myself onto the bed that used to be Sevvy’s, the springs squeaking under my weight.
What was I expecting? That finding something of her here would smooth out my memories of her? So many of her smiles have now been painted over in my mind to be a gritting of teeth instead.
There’s not so much as a strand of hair in this room to say Sevvy has ever been here.
“I’ll take this one.” The Menghu sits on the other bed, crossing her ankles.
“Sir?” Captain Bai asks.
“That will be fine.” If Dr. Yang wanted me dead, he would have told his soldiers to kill me back on the tower in Kamar. If the Menghu’s here, I’ll be able to watch her just the way she’s meant to watch me.
My skin prickles as I look her over, wondering where this girl’s bloody set of bones are—Menghu wear the trigger fingers of those they’ve killed like jewelry, according to Sevvy. She smiles at me, kicking her feet from her seat on the bed because they don’t quite reach the floor. She doesn’t look like a killer. But a face does nothing but shield the truth of a person.
Captain Bai’s surprised expression at the unconventional sleeping arrangement makes me squirm inside as it occurs to me what he must see. A young man less than half his age. A Major, though he’s done nothing to earn the station except be related to the General. Sharing a room with his pretty “assistant.” A mockery of everything a Second should stand for.
I close my eyes for a second, wishing I could take back letting the Menghu stay in here, but not sure how to fix it without losing face.
Captain Bai keeps his eyes respectfully lowered. “General Hong mentioned that you’ve only been given our primary goals. Her specific implementation plans are below, and there is some urgency in beginning our—”
Just as I bring up a hand to stop him, the Menghu interrupts. “You’ll have my things brought up with his? And I’m thirsty.”
“I’ll take care of my own
things, and so will she,” I answer before the captain can respond. “As for orders, let’s talk downstairs. Could you give me a few minutes and I’ll meet you in the cafeteria?”
He gives a gruff sort of nod, lowering it into a bow at exact regulation angles before backing through the doorway. Once he’s out of sight, I turn to the girl, my fingertips brushing the gun holstered at my side. “If you want to play a convincing Second, I’d start with—”
The Menghu springs off the bed, and I barely have time to pull my gun before her knife presses into my collarbone through my thick winter uniform. We stand there staring at each other, her knife at my throat, my gun pushed up against the fabric over her heart.
“If you want to play a convincing Second, I’d start with at least pretending to respect people who outrank you,” I finish. My voice sounds much steadier than I can account for. “And you can get your own water.”
Her full mouth widens into a smile, her dimples a sharp slash across each cheek. “You think I’m the one alienating Captain Bai?” The edge of her knife clicks against the two metal stars pinned to my collar. “Can’t you see how much he hates that Mommy sent you here to temper-tantrum at him when there’s real work to be done?”
“I don’t think—”
“You’ve probably never had to do any real work before. Lucky for you, I’ll be here to help you get through it. In all your meetings, every mission. Every meal. Every moment.” She leans a hair closer. “I’ll be right by your side, just like the Chairman asked.”
I edge back from her knife, keeping my gun firm against her coat. “If you’re going to make an attempt on my life, get on with it. You might get to see some of my blood, but it’ll be the last thing you do.”
She presses against my weapon, as if she’s daring me to fire. “You kill me, then my friend bunked with the Reds downstairs will kill you back. You do anything but what I say, this whole unit will be dead.”
I pull the gun away from her, letting it hang by my side. She doesn’t move the knife, so I swat it away with the flat of my hand. “Want to try this again? I’m Major Hong.” The title hangs crooked when I say it out loud. “What’s your name?”
“Mei.” She relishes saying it, licking her lips and watching me closely, as if it’s supposed to mean something to me.
Clearing my throat again, I occupy myself with holstering my weapon. “What can I do for you, Mei? There’s a pressing need for food outside this safe zone, and I’d like to get started distributing it.” I take a step toward the door, pausing with my hand against the frame. “Unless you were hoping I’d be the one to fetch your water?”
Mei’s smile never detaches, scarred into her face as if she couldn’t let it slip if she wanted to. She folds the knife up into her coat sleeve and laughs, one hand brushing the hair out of her eyes in a horrifyingly girlish gesture. “That would be nice, but I’m getting a when-the-sky-turns-to-flame sort of vibe. I was expecting to sneak a little more. For you to pretend you didn’t know where I came from and for me to pretend you’re worthy of being spat on.”
“I trust you have adequate Mantis supplies?” I ask, when it seems she doesn’t have anything else to add. At least she isn’t trying to pretend she’s civil. “We don’t have any for you to steal.”
The laugh slides right out from her throat, her face going hard. “You came to help the infected trapped here but forgot to bring Mantis?”
“There’s only so much we can do with Dr. Yang redirecting most of our stockpiles toward Menghu.” I rack my brain, thinking of all the other things Captain Bai is probably waiting to discuss. Things we won’t be able to say if Mei is standing at my shoulder, not unless we want Dr. Yang to stop this mission before it starts.
“It gives you all a taste of your own medicine.” She smirks. “Or the taste of no medicine, I guess.”
“Let’s make this easy. What is it you want? I’ll do my best to be accommodating. No one wants a repeat of what happened at Dazhai.” The massacre. Menghu running with their guns drawn through a Red camp.
“I want the first fifteen years of my life back, Major Hong.” The way she leers over my title makes it plain she means to pay no respect. “That, or I want to watch the pedestal you’re standing on crumble.”
I try to keep my teeth from clamping down together, the muscles in my jaw sore. Perhaps this is the beginning of my newest failure. Not doing exactly as Mother said and finding she was right after all. I should have waited, watched, and then taken care of this girl. I never much understood spies and lying, though. It doesn’t fit together in my head, because the world is made up of truth no matter how much you try to twist it into something else. It never even occurred to me to do anything but confront Mei. People who lie hardly seem like people at all, as if they exist on some other plane where reality depends on the way you word it.
The thought smolders for a moment in my mind because it’s not true. I know how to lie. I lied to Sev about what I really wanted to do with the cure. It was necessary. There was no other way she’d let me stay with her. She was being unreasonable, twisted by the Outsiders she’d fallen in with.
Does that mean lying is all right so long as the end in mind is worth it? I’m not sure.
I step into the hall, ready to be done talking. “You’re welcome to watch whatever you like. But Captain Bai is waiting for me, so you’ll have to do it at a quick walk.”
Mei gives me a nose-wrinkled smile, full to the brim with disingenuous excitement. She has freckles all across her nose.
CHAPTER 5 Howl
THE SHORES OF THE ISLAND seem to be made from broken tiles and crumbling stone. There’s a heli lying on its back like a dead fly just outside the doorway from which we emerge. Luokai eyes the aircraft as we pick our way around it, our pace much slower than I’d like. Unfortunately, I’m the one who’s slow. Luokai found me a sling, so moving I can handle, but everything still hurts. At least the bite has healed over. Luokai called in a medic to cut out the stitches outlining gore teeth in my shoulder, leaving nothing but scabs and ugly red lines to remember.
“There are still Reds in the settlements rounding people up.” Luokai’s voice is soft as he leads me down the steep switchbacks toward a long white bridge that spans the distance between the island and the beach. “We haven’t had any on the island itself in about a week—”
“A week? How long was I out?”
Luokai licks his lips. “You weren’t… out exactly. ‘Subdued’ is more like it.”
“That’s right. You said they drugged me.”
“For your safety. Your wounds broke open while you were trying to help Sev find Gao Shun.”
“You sure it wasn’t because I had to fight off a compulsing Seph?” I give Luokai a pointed look.
Which he misses completely because he’s watching his footing. Still, he nods in acknowledgment as if fighting him off that night was an unfortunate given. “The medics worried you’d break them again if you woke up confined.”
“How long have I been subdued, then?”
“Twenty-three days.”
“Twenty…” The number won’t even come out of my mouth, stuck inside me. The whole world could have burned in twenty-three days. Everyone I know could have gone out in one violent flash. Twenty-three days is a lifetime that I’ve just lost.
“Keep your eyes open out there.” Luokai is still talking, as if he can’t see what the medics—no, what he has done to me. “You’ll be an asset to Reifa’s team.”
He’s so calm. Ruining lives, condemning civilizations as if the ground under him is solid enough he’ll never fall. Shaking my head, I try to concentrate on what he’s saying. Reifa. The one leading the group of Islanders I’m supposed to catch up with. “What am I supposed to say to her again?”
“I think you will find your connections to the Mountain and knowledge of Red camps will be a good start.”
I try to quicken my pace as we negotiate a set of stairs, but still have to take them one at a time like an old man.
“How’s Sole doing?” I ask, eyeing the pocket where Luokai stowed the link after telling me the cure we sent her was bad.
“I don’t know. She thinks I’m you, and I don’t know how to ask questions the way you would.”
“You haven’t told her who you are?” The words come out sharp as knives, and I have to bite the rest back. Losing my temper won’t help anything. Just think of the last time.…
But then I do think of the last time. Sev all curled in on herself, her eyes wide and scared as if she was waiting for my head to split in two, for the gore she was sure lived inside my skin to come out. I swallow the thought back, continuing down the stairs.
When we get to the wide bridge that links the island to where the settlements lie empty up the shore, Luokai stops, handing over the rucksack he’s been carrying. I can only carry it on one shoulder because of my wounds, so I’ll be sore by the end of the day, but if it comes down to a choice between a sore back and an empty stomach, I’ll always choose food.
“There’s some medicine in the front pocket to fight the bacteria from the gore bite. Not the same kind they were giving you in quarantine. I couldn’t take that without anyone noticing.” Luokai points at the battered bag. “It’s stronger, I think. Take the pills twice a day. We can’t have you relapse out there.”
My hand absently touches the pocket he indicated as I look out at the bridge, the stone bright white and exposed in the sunlight. Anyone on the other side will be able to see me as I cross. When I was with Tai-ge, Sev, and June in the heli, it took us, what, ten hours to fly here? So, at the roughly fifty-five-knot speed Tai-ge had us gliding at, the old farm from where we took off has got to be at least six hundred miles away. Which means walking back there will take approximately the rest of my life.
Dead Moon Rising Page 3