“He didn’t have to deal with me,” Anna said.
“He knows a lot more than we do.”
“I know,” Anna said. “But he doesn’t know everything.” She paused. “Besides, you promised me.”
She squeezed my hand. Yeah, there was that.
“You’re right. We’ll bring it up at the meeting. We’ll find a way to get there. The Wanderer might have some useful information we could use, anyway.”
All I wanted was to make Anna happy, but I didn’t know if I had the ability to keep that up. After all, it was hard to make someone happy when…
I couldn’t think about that.
“It’s worth asking him again,” I said.
“Okay,” she said, finally relaxing.
I pulled her close, and she buried her face in my chest. I wanted to do whatever I could to keep this going. Love was as scary as it was exhilarating. I didn’t know how it would turn out, but I had to keep it going, because there was no greater reason for me to fight than her.
Still, the Wanderer’s words haunted me. The logical side of me warred with the illogical. It was no good to cling to false hope. I had to face reality, no matter how painful. I had to focus on my mission. My ultimate goal. It wasn’t just Anna and me at stake. It was the world.
At the same time, I couldn’t ignore the beauty I held in my arms. If there was even a chance she was right, I had to take it.
Chapter 15
We slept for a while before the alarm on my watch buzzed at 17:45. I turned it off, keeping my eyes closed. I didn’t want to get up and move just yet. I could sleep the rest of the night if I let myself.
“We have to get up,” Anna said.
I groaned. “Would it have killed them to put it off until the morning?”
“There’s a big mess to clean up.”
Finally, I forced myself to get up. I checked my watch again, seeing that it was now 17:47. The council was supposed to start at 18:00 and wasn’t supposed to last more than an hour.
I knew there was little chance of that.
“Where’s your wheelchair?” I asked.
“I’m walking.”
“No, you’re not. You’re going to be out and about for a while.”
Anna sighed. “Fine. It’s in the clinic.”
“Be right back,” I said.
I found the wheelchair and rolled it to the cabin, its wheels squeaking. Anna had pulled herself up. Her eyes were half-lidded and sleepy.
“Here,” I said, helping her into the chair.
“I can manage,” she said.
She groaned as she sat roughly in the vinyl-padded seat. She closed her eyes, wincing in pain.
“I left my katana on the bridge,” Anna said.
“Alright,” I said.
I started to wheel her toward the bridge, but when we entered the wardroom, she placed her hands on the wheels, stopping the chair.
“Let’s just get to the council.”
“You sure?”
Anna nodded. “I need to accept things as they really are. I’m incapacitated, and I can’t fight. I have to make peace with that. Accept the things I cannot change.”
She began to wheel the chair forward, pressing the exit button to the ship. When the door opened, she pushed herself down the boarding ramp. The wheels squealed, so much so that I was afraid the chair would fall apart. The chair careened onto the cement. She flew with the chair, laughing, as a couple of Raiders dodged her path. She circled around, still going fast, before stopping herself and looking up at me, seeing if I was impressed.
“Pretty good,” I said.
I walked down the ramp. As I did, I looked up to see Char walking toward Anna. Seeing me look that direction caused Anna to wheel her chair around.
“Char!” she said.
He gave a tired smile. His face was thin and gaunt, and he seemed older than the last time I’d seen him. His eyes were tired and circles underlined his sharp, blue eyes. Those eyes had not lost their light or intensity, but Char looked worn, for lack of a better word. The marred left side of his face lay in shadow, hiding the horrible scars of his disfigurement.
Anna stood, and the man who was like her father embraced her.
“You shouldn’t stand,” Char said.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
She sat back down, wincing in pain.
By now, I’d reached them and stood beside Anna’s chair. Char’s gaze shifted to me, his eyes appraising.
“I don’t think you realize the kind of girl you got,” Char said. “Or what you got yourself into.”
“Now what’s that supposed to mean?” Anna asked.
“Let me put it this way,” Char said. “Most seventeen-year-olds who wander into Raider Bluff don’t become the Alpha’s chief bodyguard. There were men under my command who would have killed you.” Char smiled in remembrance. “You challenged any of them to a one-on-one fight, and one of my top guards took you up on it.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“They fought, right there in the dirt of the marketplace,” Char said. “No weapons. My guard had the upper hand most of the time, as might be expected for a man his size. A crowd of hundreds gathered. All business stopped as Anna fought for her right to be a Raider. I remember watching this kid, thinking she was foolish. Dead.”
Anna said nothing, only listening to the story.
“Then like lightning, she pinned him to the ground. You could see how his eyes widened. I knew he wasn’t destined to be on the ground for long, given his size. But from nowhere, a knife was in Anna’s hands, at his throat.”
“I thought the fight was without weapons,” I said.
Char paused and looked me in the eye, as if that were the point of the story.
“That was when Anna said, ‘Don’t expect me to fight fair. Expect me to win.’”
“She was booed and jeered at, until I called everyone down. I walked into the ring, and held out my hand to her. I still remember the way her eyes blazed, like green fire. ‘This is a fighter,’ I thought. ‘This is someone I need.’ At the time, I trusted no one in Raider Bluff. I thought with someone so young, she would have no thought of corruption or betrayal.
“I took her to the top of Raider Bluff, gave her food and shelter, told her she could stay in Raider Bluff as long she liked, but she had to fight for me.”
“What did she say?” I asked.
“She agreed. And as if testing that agreement, there was a plot on my life just a few days later. She killed the assassin. Then I knew I made the right call.”
“I just wanted food and a home,” Anna said. “I stayed in Raider Bluff, honing my skill, eating all I wanted. Protecting Char was easy after the two years surviving the Wasteland. I was in Raider Bluff for two months, when…”
She trailed off, but I knew what came next.
“We came,” I said. “With our crazy idea to go to Bunker One and stop the xenovirus.”
Anna nodded. “Yeah. I never meant to come along the whole way, but the Wanderer changed my mind. I knew I had a part to play in this still, for good or bad.”
“For good,” I said.
Anna didn’t answer, remaining doubtful.
“Let’s go to the council,” Char said, grabbing Anna’s chair by the handles.
“Where is it?” I asked.
“Here, actually,” Char said, pointing to one of the hangar’s corners.
A long table with chairs had been set up. There was seating for about twenty people.
“Besides everyone from the inner crew,” Char said, “there will be representatives from all the other groups: the Community, the Suns, the Raiders, the Exiles, and the Vegas Exodus.”
“Do you know what will be discussed?” Anna asked.
“Everything,” Char said. “It’s clear we’re going to go help Augustus. It’s the logistics that are up for debate.”