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“Really. Did Starkey tell you that?”
“Not exactly.” Finally Emmalee rises to face Bam, holding her gaze and speaking slowly. “We have to take care of ourselves . . . because Starkey’s made us unwind proof.” Bam is not a stupid girl. She’s not much when it comes to school smarts, because her attitude always got in the way—but she’s always been a quick study in the school of life. This, however, is so far out of the realm of Bam’s concept of reality, she just doesn’t get it.
Now the other Prissies stand. Makayla puts a sympathetic hand on Bam’s shoulder. “Unwind proof for nine months,” she says. “Do you understand now?”
It hits her like a mortar blast. She actually stumbles back into the wall. “You’re lying! You have to be!”
But now that it’s out, their eyes take on a strange ecstatic look. They’re telling the truth! My God, they’re telling the truth!
“He’s going to be a great man,” Kate-Lynn says. “He already is.”
“We might all be storks, but his children won’t be,” says another. Bam doesn’t even know which one it is. They’re all the same to her now. Three talking heads on a single body, like some horrible, beautiful hydra.
“He promises he’ll take care of us.”
“All of us.”
“He swears he will.”
“And you don’t know what it’s like.”
“You can’t know what it’s like.”
“To be chosen by him.”
“To be touched by greatness.”
“So we can’t carry munitions today.”
“Or tomorrow.”
“Or ever.”
“So sorry, Bam.”
“Yes, so sorry.”
“We hope you can understand.”
• • •
Bam storms through the maze of the mine in search of Starkey, losing track of where she’s been, her thoughts and emotions in such a tailspin, it’s all she can do not to blow up like a clapper.
She finds him at the computer looking over Jeevan’s shoulder at their next target, but right now, there’s no room for that on Bam’s radar. She’s out of breath from running through the mine. She knows her emotions are on her sleeve, staining as brightly as blood. She knows she should have just run deeper into the mine and paced and stewed and broiled until her anger and disgust had faded. But she couldn’t do it.
“When were you going to tell me?”
Starkey regards her for a moment, takes a sip from his canteen, and sends Jeevan away. He knows from the look on her face exactly what she’s talking about. How could he not know?
“Why do you think it’s your business?”
“I am your second in command. You don’t keep secrets from me!”
“There a difference between a secret and discretion.”
“Discretion? Don’t you dare talk to me about discretion after scoring your little hat trick.”
“This is a dangerous thing I’m doing out there. I’m not entirely blind to that. I know it might be messed up, but I want to leave something behind if I don’t survive—and it’s not like I forced them.”
