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A bead of bright-red blood popped onto the edge of the knife and slid down its silvery length. Ledger raised his voice.
“Tom . . . why don’t you take our new friend out of here. Take her back to Mountainside, maybe.”
“Joe,” said Tom, “I can’t just leave you here.”
“Sure you can.”
Rags pushed herself away from Tom and pawed the tears out of her eyes. “What are you going to do?”
Ledger smiled the most frightening smile she had ever seen. “I’m going to dance with Mama Rat here. Her and her boys.”
Baskerville uttered a loud, sharp, single bark. Like a promise.
“Please . . . ,” whispered Mam
a Rat. “Please don’t.”
“You called this play, darlin’,” said Ledger. “You pushed us both right out onto this tightrope. What choice do either of us have?”
“Let her go,” said one of the men, but his voice lacked all force and conviction. Bones and Baskerville growled him to silence.
“Go on, Tom,” urged Ledger. “Get the girl out of here. She shouldn’t have to see this.”
“Let her go.”
This time it was not any of the men who spoke. Nor was it Tom.
It was Rags.
Trembling, tear-streaked, flushed with psychological pain, she stood there and shook her head. “Please,” she said, “just . . . let her go.”
Ledger looked at her with a mixture of surprise, annoyance, and pity. “Seriously? You want me to cut them loose?”
Rags sniffed and wiped at her streaming eyes. “Y-yes.”
“Why on earth would you want me to do that? I mean it,” said Ledger. “Why?”
“Because we shouldn’t kill each other.”
A slow, sad smile formed on Ledger’s mouth, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Do you have any idea what these freaks were going to do to you?”
Rags nodded.
Ledger kept the knife against Mama Rat’s throat. “Do you think this witch or any of these scum-suckers would have carved off even a splinter of mercy for you?”
Rags shrugged.
“Think about the worst things that could happen to a person,” growled Ledger, “then triple that because you’re a girl. Now hold that in your mind and tell me again that you want me to let them go.”
“It’s you, isn’t it?” Rags asked. “You and this other guy. I keep finding people with skull tattoos. Dead people. Not walking around dead, but left to rot. That’s you two, isn’t it?”
“It’s us,” said Tom Imura.
“Sure,” agreed Ledger. “It’s us. We’re at war. The whole damn world is at war, or haven’t you noticed, kid? Oh, wait, that’s right, you’re already a veteran of this war. You did what you had to do. That took courage. It also took smarts and compassion. Bottom line is, it had to be done. So does this.”
“Why?”
“Why the hell do you think?” snapped Ledger.
