Home > The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking #2)(90)

The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking #2)(90)
Author: Patrick Ness

“That sounds like something he’d do,” Todd says, staring at the cathedral as if he can see the Mayor somewhere through the walls.

“If he’s even inside,” Ivan says.

“He is,” Todd says. “Trust me.”

The red-haired soldier starts backing away down the road. “No way,” he says. “We’re walking to our deaths here, boys. No way.”

And with a final frightened look, he takes off running back the way we came.

Todd sighs. “Anyone else?” The men look to each other, their Noises wondering why they came in the first place.

“He’ll put the band on you,” Ivan says. He nods up at me. I pull up my sleeve and show them. The skin is still red and hot to the touch. Infection, I think. The first aid creams aren’t doing what they’re supposed to.

“And then he’ll enslave you,” Ivan continues. “I don’t know about you, but that’s not why I joined the army.”

“Why did you join?” asks another guard but it’s clear he doesn’t want an answer.

“We take him down,” Ivan says. “And we’re heroes.”

“Heroes with the cure,” says the pot belly, nodding. “And he who controls the cure–”

“Enough talking,” Todd says and I hear the discomfort in his Noise about how this is going. “Are we gonna do this or not?”

The men look to one another.

And Todd raises his voice.

Raises it so it commands.

Raises it so even I look at him.

“I said, are we ready?”

“Yes, sir,” the men say, seeming almost surprised to hear it coming out of their mouths.

“Then let’s go,” Todd says.

And the men start marching again, step step step, crunching through the loose gravel scattered across the road, down a small slope, through the town and towards the cathedral, getting bigger and bigger the closer we get.

We file past some trees and I look to our left, to the hills on the southern horizon.

“Sweet Jesus,” Pot Belly says.

Even from here you can see the army marching in the distance, a single black arm twisting up a path too narrow for them, up to the summit of the hill with the notch on top, up to where they’ll meet The Answer.

I look at the setting sun.

“Maybe an hour,” Todd says, seeing me check. “Probably less.”

“Lee won’t get to them in time,” I say.

“He might. There must be short cuts.”

The snake of the army slithers up the hillside. So many there’s no way the Answer will be able to fight them if it comes to open battle.

“We can’t fail,” I say.

“We won’t,” Todd says.

And we reach the cathedral.

We march up the side. This is where most of the damage is, the whole north wall having collapsed straight onto the road.

“Remember,” Todd murmurs to the men, as we climb over rubble. “Yer taking two prisoners to see the President like you were ordered to do. Nobody needs to be thinking nothing but that.”

We pick our way down the road. The pile of stones is so high you can’t see into the cathedral. The Mayor could be in there anywhere.

We come around the corner to where the front used to be, now just a gaping hole into the vast lobby and sanctuary, still watched over by the bell tower and by that circle of coloured glass. The sun, behind us, shines right into it. Open rooms hang from upper walls, their floors crumbling. Half a dozen redbirds pick through the remains of food and worse in amongst the stones. The rest of the structure leans in on itself, like it’s grown suddenly tired and might fall down to rest at any time.

And inside its shell–

“No one,” Ivan says.

“That’s why there aren’t any guards,” says Pot Belly. “He’s with the army.”

“He’s not,” Todd says, looking around, frowning.

“Todd?” I ask, sensing something–

“He told us himself to bring Todd here,” Ivan says.

“Then where is he?” asks Pot Belly.

“Oh, I’m here,” says the Mayor, stepping out of a shadow that shouldn’t have been able to hide him, almost seeming to step straight out of the brick, out of a shimmer where he couldn’t be seen.

“What the devil–?” says Pot Belly, stepping back.

“Not the Devil,” the Mayor says, taking his first steps down the rubble towards us, his hands open at his sides. The guards all raise their rifles at him. He doesn’t even look like he’s armed.

But here he comes.

“No, not the Devil,” he says, smiling. “Much worse than that.”

“Stop where you are,” Todd says. “There are men here who would happily shoot you.”

“I know it,” the Mayor says, stopping on the bottom step of the cathedral entrance, resting one foot on a large stone toppled there. “Private Farrow, for example.” He nods at Ivan. “Still seething for being punished for his own incompetence.”

“You shut your mouth,” Ivan says, looking down the barrel of his rifle.

“Don’t look into his eyes,” Todd says quickly. “Nobody look into his eyes.”

The Mayor slowly puts his hands in the air. “Am I to be your prisoner then?” He takes a look around at the soldiers, at all the guns pointed at him. “Ah, yes, I see,” he says. “You have a plan. Returning the cure to the people, capitalizing on their resentment to install yourselves in power. Yes, very clever.”

“That ain’t how it’s gonna be,” Todd says. “Yer gonna call off the army. Yer gonna let everyone be free again.”

The Mayor puts a hand to his chin like he’s thinking about it. “The thing is, Todd,” he says, “people don’t really want freedom, no matter how much they might bleat on about it. No, I should think what will happen is that the army will crush the Answer, that the soldiers accompanying you will be put to death for treason, and that you and I and Viola will have that little chat about your future I promised.”

There’s a loud snap as Ivan cocks his rifle. “You think so, do you?”

“Yer our prisoner and that’s the end of it,” Todd says, taking out a length of rope from Angharrad’s saddle bag. “We’ll just have to see how the army reacts to that.”

   
Most Popular
» Nothing But Trouble (Malibu University #1)
» Kill Switch (Devil's Night #3)
» Hold Me Today (Put A Ring On It #1)
» Spinning Silver
» Birthday Girl
» A Nordic King (Royal Romance #3)
» The Wild Heir (Royal Romance #2)
» The Swedish Prince (Royal Romance #1)
» Nothing Personal (Karina Halle)
» My Life in Shambles
» The Warrior Queen (The Hundredth Queen #4)
» The Rogue Queen (The Hundredth Queen #3)
young.readsbookonline.com Copyright 2016 - 2024